On February 7, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)’s Young Scientist Laboratory program (DYSL) was tasked with creating a new class of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of flying in areas of high altitude with a payload capacity of 50kg to carry out logistic operations in the Himalayan frontier–as announced in the AAV seminar 2022.
Young Scientist Laboratory program is an initiative formed with a group of five research establishments: All personnel including the scientists and the directors are below the age of 35. Located in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai, the core focus areas of DYSL include artificial intelligence, cognitive technologies, asymmetric technologies, smart materials, and quantum technologies.
In a recent proposal seeking development partners, DYSL outlined the requirement for an octocopter with a carbon composite air-frame having a gross weight (inclusive of payload) of 80kg. The octocopter is required to airlift a payload of 50 kg at mean sea level and about 20kg at extremely high altitudes of 15,000 feet. The drone should be able to operate in cold temperatures up to negative 20 degrees Celsius.
Operating a drone in a harsh environment is an uphill task. The lower air density in high altitude areas makes it difficult to control a drone. Freezing temperatures tend to drain the batteries so the drone has a shorter flight time. A research paper by Irina K Romanova on drones used in mountain ranges reveals the two biggest challenges faced while flying a drone in mountain ranges:
DYSL (CT) lab was set up for providing cutting edge technology to DRDO in the cognitive field. The lab works in the area of design and development of Cognitive Radio and Cognitive Radar Systems, realising through deep neural networks and reinforcement learning algorithms.
Below, we list the significant tech developments from India over the past decade:
The system improves the accuracy of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers by sending reference signals. The end goal is to develop a navigation system that can be utilised for all stages of flight over Indian airspace and the surrounding areas.
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