Drones

14th June 2023,Melbourne: Eve Air Mobility and United Airlines announced plans to bring Urban Air Mobility (UAM) to San Francisco by launching electric commuter flights throughout the Bay Area. The announcement is an important first step as both companies will be working with local and state officials, infrastructure, energy and technology providers to ensure the appropriate infrastructure is in place to introduce electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft flights. The companies are also working together to identify origin and destination areas and the future route network for Urban Air Mobility (UAM). “Our shared goal is to provide residents and visitors to the San Francisco Bay area with efficient and cost-competitive transportation in one of the most densely populated urban areas in the U.S.,” said Andre Stein, co-CEO of Eve Air Mobility. “The Bay Area is perfect for eVTOL flights given its size, traffic, focus on sustainability, innovation and commitment to add other options for mobility.” “Urban Air Mobility has the potential to revolutionize how United customers work, live, and travel,” said Michael Leskinen, President of United Airlines VenturesSM. “Eve’s proposed route is a critical first step towards making this all-electric and quiet commute a reality for Bay Area residents.” In 2022, United announced a $15 million investment in Eve Air Mobility and a conditional purchase agreement for 200 eVTOLs plus 200 options, part of its strategy to invest in cutting-edge technologies as the airline stakes out is position as a leader in investing in aviation sustainability and innovation technologies. United’s investment in Eve was driven in part by confidence in the potential growth opportunities in the UAM market and Eve’s unique relationship with Embraer, a trusted aircraft manufacturer with a proven track record of building and certifying aircraft over the company’s 53-year history. A key piece of the relationship includes access to Embraer’s global service centers, parts warehouses and field service technicians, paving the way for a reliable operation. Upon entry into service, United could have its entire eVTOL fleet serviced by Eve’s service and support network. Eve’s eVTOL will offer United’s customers a quick, economical and lower-carbon way to get to its hub airports and commute in dense urban environments, as compared with conventional air taxis and other forms of traditional public transportation. Eve’s eVTOL is 100% electric and has a range of 60 miles (100 kilometers) allowing it to complete a variety of urban air mobility missions in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its human-centered design better ensures the comfort of passengers, the pilot and the community by minimizing noise. The aircraft features a lift + cruise configuration with dedicated rotors for vertical flight and fixed wings to fly on cruise, with no components required to change position during flight. It will be piloted at launch but evolving towards uncrewed operations in the future. In addition to a new, efficient transportation option, Eve noted that eVTOL flights in the Bay Area are expected to have a positive economic impact on the community including new employment opportunities. Positions ranging from pilots and aircraft service technicians to training and technical services are among the numerous roles that will be needed as eVTOL flights are introduced and expand. The development of the necessary infrastructure to support eVTOL operations is also expected to contribute value and employment opportunities to the community. Eve’s eVTOL is scheduled to enter service in 2026.

22nd May 2023; Chennai India: In a step towards boosting the manufacturing of indigenous drones in India, Garuda Aerospace and Naini Aerospace engineering limited (NAeL), a wholly owned subsidiary of HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) under the administrative control of the Ministry of Defence has signed a joint development partnership. The joint partnership will enable Garuda to manufacture Advanced Precision Drones on Indian Soil for various applications. The drones will be able to carry a payload of around 25 kg. Speaking on the development, Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Founder and CEO, Garuda Aerospace said, “Our Hon’ble Prime Minister’s Vision of achieving the milestone of 1 lakh Made in India drones by 2024 is well on track. Our partnership with Naini Aerospace engineering limited (NAeL) (a wholly owned subsidiary of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) is a natural next step for us. Our Drone Yatra has also been a grand success and we have pre-booked over 7000 drones at Rs. 4.5 lakhs each. Partnerships with Government PSUs are critical given the knowledge and experience they possess to scale up production. We will continue to stay focused, and partner with industry leaders that will help us achieve our PM’s vision.” Furthermore, Garuda Aerospace recently partnered with BEML at Aero India for drone manufacturing at their Mysore facility and initiated a massive indigenization campaign. The company has also collaborated with 120 local suppliers with the objective of reducing reliance on foreign imports of drone parts, components, and UAV subsystems. Speaking on the partnership, R.R. Thakur, Chief Executive Officer, Naini Aerospace engineering limited (NAeL) added, “We are very excited to be working along with Garuda Aerospace on the rapidly evolving drone sector. Our experience with the production of Helicopter structures was launched on 11th July 2018 in a newly constructed Aero-structure hangar equipped with State of Art facilities. The first batch of helicopter structures duly cleared by the Director General of Aeronautical Quality Assurance (DGAQA) was delivered to the Helicopter Division of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited on 22nd November 2018. NAeL has now reached the level of full-fledged operationalization with proven capabilities in the field of production of Aero-structures and Aircraft loom manufacturing. Currently, key managerial positions are occupied by experienced professionals deputed from HAL to ensure compliance of operations to the Aerospace Standards so we are confident to bring in knowledge and experience to jointly develop drones along with Garuda Aerospace”. Naini Aerospace engineering Limited (NAeL) was incorporated in December 2016 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). Naini Aerospace has a vision of sustainable manufacturing operations in the Aerospace and Aviation Sector and is situated in the Naini industrial area of Prayagraj developed by UP State Industrial Development Corporation.

Chennai, May 23, 2023: The ePlane Company,developer of Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircrafts, has received Design Organisation Approval (DOA) from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on 22nd May, 2023. The DOA is a crucial first step in the aircraft certification process, and it paves the way for ePlane to begin commercial production of its e200 eVTOL aircraft.The signing was done by Vikram Dutt, Director General, DGCA and IITM Director, Prof V Kamakoti. Also present were, Indranil Chakraborthy, Deputy Director General of DGCA, Meenu Kapil, Director – Aircraft Engineering and Jai Simha, Director, DGCA Chennai. The DGCA team also visited the National Centre for Combustion Research and Development (NCCRD) at the IIT Madras Campus to gain insights into ePlane’s ongoing work and progress. Subsequently, they toured the ePlane Manufacturing Facility followed by the Director General’s address and a small celebration to mark the occasion at the IITM Discovery Campus in Thaiyur. “We are delighted to receive the DOA certificate from the DGCA,” said Prof. Satyanarayanan Chakravarthy, Founder and CEO, The ePlane Company. “This is a major milestone for our company, it is a crucial first step in the aircraft certification process and paves another stone on the path towards commercialisation of our e200 eVTOL aircraft. It gives us immense pleasure to announce that ePlane is the first startup in India to be approved as a Design Organisation and one of the very few private entities for complete aircraft design.” “The certification brings us a step closer towards our mission to ensure safe passenger flights in India and the world. We are grateful for the support of DGCA and IIT Madras in helping us to achieve this milestone.” The DOA serves as a crucial initial step for The ePlane Company, signifying its capabilities to meet the stringent standards set by the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation, allowing the company’s flying electric taxis to take to the skies. With the DOA Certificate in hand, ePlane is poised to continue its groundbreaking work in developing safe, efficient, and environmentally friendly aircraft for the future. Vikram Dev Dutt, Director General, DGCA said, “We are thrilled to witness the rapid growth and vast potential of the UAV and eVTOL ecosystem in India. ePlane has demonstrated remarkable commitment to meeting stringent aircraft certification norms, reflecting their exceptional calibre and innovative approach. I extend my heartfelt congratulations to the entire ePlane team on achieving this significant milestone, and I am confident in the future success of ePlane and its remarkable e200 aircraft.” Prof Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras said, “I am delighted to be a part of this historic moment and I commend the nurturing ecosystem at IIT Madras, which supports both educational initiatives and startup incubation.”

New Delhi, 24th December 2022: The aviation regulator, DGCA grants Type Certification and RTPO approvals to India based drone manufacturer, Garuda Aerospace for their indigenously designed Kisan Drones. This is for the first time, DGCA has issued such certifications to any drone company in India. The Type certification was introduced by the government of India in August 2021 under Drone Rules. The Made in India Kisan drones are particularly developed for agricultural purposes such as reducing crop loss, crop health monitoring, yield measurement, and crop loss mitigation with the latest manufacturing capacities, and strong technology backgrounds. Having been awarded Type Certificate for the GA-AG model, Garuda Kisan Drone is now eligible for Rs.10 lakh unsecured loans from Agri Infrastructure Fund at a 5% interest and 50-100% subsidy from the Government of India. Priced at Rs.4.50 lakhs, Garuda Kisan Drone is advanced automated Agri Drone which has DGCA-approved Type Certification in the under 25kg small category. ICAR, KVKs, FMTTI, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer welfare, and several other Government Agriculture bodies will now have an option of procuring high-tech Made in India Drones manufactured by Garuda Aerospace. This will lead to creating job opportunities for the youth in the near future and a vision of training 1 lakh drone pilots in the next 2 years. Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Founder and CEO, Garuda Aerospace, said, “The elusive double certification by DGCA for Type and RPTO certification is a testament to our indigenous Made in India Drone manufacturing capacities.”

AW Feature-July-August 2022 By Ganesh Govindarajan There are significant economic and environmental imperatives to keep an enterprise’s assets and facilities operation worthy. Drones possess unmatched abilities to perch-and-stare, capture video, and undertake laser scanning. These capabilities impart drones the qualities that make them the instruments of choice for many, if not all, routine and hazardous operations required to be undertaken during inspection, maintenance and the tracking of performance of an enterprise’s assets and facilities. TECHNOLOGY EVOLUTION Drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), as they are variously known, were first used for commercial applications in the 1980s in Japan for spraying crop pesticides. The technology used on drones then was primitive. However, since then, advancements in drone technologies and supportive regulations, together with increased investments, have accelerated the development of infinitely more capable drones. The increase in drone capabilities has led to newer applications and business operating models in agriculture, infrastructure, security, delivery, transportation, entertainment, etc. The estimates published by Berkshire Hathaway in the Business Wire magazine predict the size of the global drone market to reach US$ 41.3 Billion by 2026 at a CAGR of 9.4%. Asset performance management software has also evolved rapidly to enable enterprises to ‘track’ their assets and maximize their returns on them. Firms can now track their assets by monitoring their condition, receiving alerts for predictive maintenance, and receiving advance failure warnings through embedded AI/ML. Asset performance management software enables the life cycle extension of the firm’s assets. “Efficient Asset Performance Management (APM) is increasingly viewed as a competitive differentiator. Earlier, the evolution of APM systems was incremental. The introduction of IoT, AI, ML, and drones has revolutionized APM.” The new technologies and the more powerful asset performance management software enable the efficient exchange of information between sensors, cameras, drones, and personnel. The enhanced communication between the various components increases the efficiency of asset performance management, enabling organizations to detect asset degradation and failures ahead of time and thus take actions to prevent them from occurring. The lightweight material of the drones is advantageous for ease of control and high-altitude flights. The drone’s control system (the ‘brain’) interfaces with sensors, navigation equipment, cameras, and the GPS. You may also tether drones. Tethered drones prevent the possibility of signal jamming and enable longer flight times since it is powered through the tether rather than through an onboard battery. AI and ML technologies enable APM systems to process data collected via sensors and the images/videos collected via cameras to extract actionable information. The APM system presents the processed data in a form that enables managers to make critical decisions based on the condition of the assets in real time and optimize their maintenance, thus enhancing their reliability, availability and performance. APPLICATIONS Asset inspection with automated drones is performed extensively in asset performance management (APM). Drones can easily reach difficult-to-access locations, enabling personnel to undertake inspections remotely, quickly, and safely. Suppose the drone identifies any maintenance or repair issue after the inspection. In that case, the maintenance/repair personnel can reach the location armed with all the necessary tools, having already performed the fault diagnosis. The flexibility and ease of operations that drones provide increasingly make them an integral part of asset performance management.With the increased attention on climate change, renewable energy sources such as solar farms see exponential growth globally. Solar farms are large and usually located in remote, rural areas. Using traditional methods of inspection for solar farms is inefficient. “Drones can quickly cover large areas of the solar farms to detect debris on the panels that reduce their efficiency. In addition, they can beam visual images for defect identification. Drones can also beam thermal images for the detection of faulty, overheating panels.” Drones are extremely handy for inspecting large real estate such as tall buildings, bridges, power lines, etc. Defects in such structures can have catastrophic consequences and necessitate regular inspection for early warning of possible defects. Traditional inspection methods would require temporary shutting down of the installation. The inspection would also require ladders, ropes, scaffolding, or other specialized and expensive machinery. Drones, however, can easily be deployed for the visual inspection of the difficult-to-access portions of these structures. Maintenance personnel can remain on the ground, the structure can remain operational, and they can obtain all the data required for making a maintenance/repair decision safely and quickly. Also, uninterrupted operations aid continued production and increased revenue. Manufacturing setups such as cement factories and chemical plants have tall chimneys, power generating plants, long conveyor belts/pipelines, and running machinery that makes inspection and maintenance a hazardous task. Drones make the inspection of these structures/installations efficient, and together with asset performance management software, provide maintenance personnel with the information to decide on the maintenance/repair action. From oil platforms and power stations to large buildings, smart drones can be seamlessly integrated into asset performance management, ushering in a whole new level of efficiency and safety to managing large installations. With drones, businesses can eliminate concerns related to time, expense, and safety of manual inspections. Drones enable accurate, real-time inspection of data, cost-saving, and maximization of equipment availability, thus creating a paradigm shift from passive to proactive management of assets. Most importantly, through integration with asset performance management software, drones will provide businesses with insights for informed, strategic decision-making for asset performance management and enable them to raise their return on their assets. (The writer is Associate Vice President – Solution Advisory, Digital Enterprise Platform, Ramco Systems)

10th May 2022, New Delhi: To promote a collaborative ecosystem aimed at fostering innovation and adoption of drones for public services, an experience studio on drones was launched by Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia at NITI Aayog. NITI Aayog Vice Chairperson Suman Bery and CEO Amitabh Kant were also present in the inaugural event. The Minister said, ‘We have the potential to make India a global drone hub by 2030. It is imperative for us to boost the usage of drones in different industrial- and defence-related sectors to leverage the benefits of this technology. We are actively working towards making drone services easily accessible. India will soon witness a higher number of industries embracing drone innovation. This will eventually lead to a revolution that will touch the life of every citizen, thereby realizing the PM’s goal of an Aatmabirhar Bharat.’ He also added, ‘With the active participation of the stakeholders of the drone industry and the Govt, the drone industry is set on a path of exponential growth. The govt will enable the continuity of this accelerated drone adoption by easing drone regulations and through drone literacy via programmes such as Drone Shakti and Kisan Drones. I would like to praise NITI Aayog for hosting such an exciting month-long drone event, enabling knowledge-sharing and exchange of ideas and fuelling innovation and growth in the drone ecosystem. Moreover, the cutting-edge experience studio at NITI Aayog is a symbol of technology excellence, which I am sure, will inspire curious minds to resolve real-world problems.’ NITI Aayog Vice Chairperson Suman Bery said, ‘Drones are expected to be significant creators of employment and economic growth due to their reach, versatility, and ease of use, especially in India’s remote and inaccessible areas. The NITI experience studio launched today shall help promote various applications of drone technology to public and private stakeholders as well as help them fast-track adoption of drone technology within their organisations and aid in building a robust drone industry in India.’ NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said, ‘Through the experience studio, start-ups and enterprises will be able to showcase their innovations and next-gen technology-enabled solutions. It will allow various government departments to experience these technologies first-hand and think about how they can be contextually used on the ground in public services. Additionally, the experience studio will also act as an anchor for initiating proof-of-concepts and pilots aimed at solving issues that persists in service deliveries. Smaller focused cohorts will be created through the experience studio, which will eventually help in mainstreaming these solutions once they are field-ready.’ The Union Minister also announced the launch of the following challenges, which will be held by NITI Aayog in collaboration with the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA): (a) ‘Drones for Social Impact Competition’: For the start-up community to showcase their capabilities to solve critical problem statements in various use cases. (b) ‘Robotics Workshop and Competition’: For students of Atal Tinkering Labs to foster the spirit of innovation and problem-solving. The Minister assured that MoCA will extend all the support required for these competitions as well as for organizing other events planned during the month to help develop the ecosystem. The launch was followed by an interaction with key stakeholders from the industry. During the interactive session, several recommendations were made towards promoting the drone sector. Some of the areas that were discussed were promoting manufacturing and Drones-as-a-Service, providing impetus to innovation, government as an adopter and the next big steps for the sector. In September 2021, NITI Aayog in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Intel, established a Cloud Innovation Centre to help showcase the potential of frontier technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR), Blockchain, Robotics etc. Such a studio would help in accelerating application of frontier technologies in public sector use cases. To effectively leverage the initiative, NITI Aayog has designed a ‘Monthly Innovation Chronicle’ programme that will focus on a particular thematic area for showcasing innovation, with the potential of being technology-led and necessitating government-industry collaboration for larger social impact. Key tenets of this programme are communication, collaboration and competition to ecosystem partners such as industry and innovators (enterprises and startups), academia and research, government and allied institutions, Atal Innovation Mission network (especially Atal Tinkering Labs), state and sub-state innovation councils/units, NITI Aayog’s connected external partners, not-for-profit, donor and multi-lateral agencies, and industry agencies, bodies and funding organizations.