The recent India-Pakistan armed skirmish has sensitised everyone to the fact that drones are at the forefront of today’s wars. India started work on drone technology decades ago but fell behind in the race, presumably because its priorities were elsewhere — missiles and space — where it has been successful. But in drones, the country is still playing catch-up.
Thanks, perhaps, to a 60-year-old kilometre-long airstrip and a ‘flight lab’ on its premises, IIT-Kanpur has turned out to be a major centre of development in drone technology. It has spawned a number of start-ups that are already supplying to India’s armed forces.
Prof Manindra Agrawal, Director, IIT-Kanpur, a celebrated technologist who was awarded the Padma Shri when he was just 37, envisions making the institution a “national drone technology hub”. In a conversation with Quantum, Prof Agrawal described how India is “rapidly catching up” with the rest of the world in drone technology and how IIT-Kanpur is positioning itself to drive this pivot.
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India seems to have let other countries like Turkiye, Iran and even Pakistan take a lead in drone technology. Where does India stand today?
If you asked this question 2-3 years ago, I would have said we are way behind the world in the drone space. But today, things are changing rapidly. In small-weight (40-50 kg) classes of drones, I would say we are doing very well. But we are lagging in large-weight drones — 500 kg, 1,000 kg and 2,000 kg. We are yet to have drones of that size, which can carry missiles and travel long distances. But there are initiatives in this direction and, hopefully, we’ll see the results in the next few years.
What will it take to get there?
It takes a lot of effort. You need to design the drone with proper aerodynamics. You also need (to give it) stealth properties — because it is not a very fast-moving object. It could be a sitting duck for a shooter.
Then, we need good engines. You want it to be lightweight. The material you use is not the same as (for) an airplane. A drone is useful only if it can carry significant payload but the higher the payload the more power and thrust it needs to fly. So, we need to reduce the rest of the weight as much as possible. You need specialised engines, made of aluminium or composite alloys, which can produce enough thrust.
Do we have them?
We don’t... We don’t have engines for large or even medium drones. Here, of course, I am talking about gasoline engines, not battery-powered drones.
It’s a completely new domain for us (India). We have the ability to make engines for two-wheelers, four-wheelers ... and rockets, but in between we don’t — so that is a domain we must address.
How long do you think we will take to get there?
I believe there is good progress in this direction. I’d say, in a couple of years, we should be producing engines.
Are there other challenges?
Apart from engines, the other challenge is with ‘communication systems’. We may put together the systems but at their heart are the chips, which are imported. We may produce a circuit board putting them together, but we don’t have full control over the supply chain for that.
We have to design our own chips... We can then get them manufactured by TSMC or others. I know that some work is on in this area but I am not too familiar with that. And the third challenge is with cameras.
Don’t we make sophisticated cameras for satellites?
Yes. Making cameras for large drones with expensive equipment is one thing. But if you are looking at a swarm of drones, each with its own camera with good resolution — we have to be able to make good cameras at low cost.
What is IIT-Kanpur doing with respect to drones?
IIT-Kanpur started pretty early, when ‘drones’ were not the in-thing. Interestingly, it happened because an alumnus, Prabhu Goel, gave us significant funding ($1 million) about 20 years ago. Around 2012 — I was the dean of alumni — I spoke to him and we decided to use the money for a technology that India needs but doesn’t have. We decided on ‘drones’.
So, we funded three projects to develop drones of three kinds — fixed, rotary and flapping wings. The ‘flapping wing’ didn’t pan out, but that’s okay; in the other two, we now have a lot of strength. Two major startups have emerged — EndureAir in rotary and VU Dynamics in fixed wing. Both have attracted funds, and I believe they have started supplying to the armed forces.
One uniqueness with IIT-Kanpur is that we have our own airstrip, with a ‘flight lab’. We also have our own wind tunnel (both are helpful in testing drones). We have also developed full-scale prototyping facilities for drones, with 3D printing. We can make a prototype, fly it and do all tests in-house. Saderla (Prof Subrahmanyam Saderla, founder of VU Dynamics) has developed a very good flight simulator for drones.
Anyone who wishes to test their products can use these facilities. My ambition is to make IIT-Kanpur a national drone technology hub.
A couple of months ago, we had a stakeholder meeting attended by people from the armed forces, Ministry of Defence, Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defence Studies... Everybody agreed this is the right place for setting up such a hub. We are presenting a report to the government to request for funding — for bigger prototyping facilities, more testing facilities.