An unmanned aerial vehicle developed by the students of the Thapar University, Patiala, has won a cash prize of Rs 3 lakh in a contest organised by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at Kolar near Bangalore.

A team of five students from the Electronics and Communication Engineering department of the institute beat 270 institutions from across the country and received the prize for successfully building a deployable low-cost outdoor surveillance system with remote access to sensor imagery.

The UAV competition was conceptualised as a platform for engineering students from all over India to showcase their engineering skills.

Participants were required to conceive, design and develop a prototype of a low-cost airbone system housing a sensor for carrying out outdoor surveillance.

The challenge was to make the unmanned aircraft fly at a height of 30 to 50 feet above the ground and cover a distance of 100 metres, and to relay information to a ground visual monitoring system for at least two minutes, said a team member Ashish Tanwar.

The model designed by the Thapar University team flew for 25 minutes at a height of 50 to 80 metres with continuous transmission to the ground station.

The Medium Altitude Low Endurance UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) is equipped with real time computer vision, data communication link, and Ground Station for Automated Image. This remotely controlled aircraft is best suited for missions that are dangerous to pilot and aircraft or those requiring longer durations than are possible.

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