IIT Guwahati Develops Sanitization Drones With Cameras

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is skyrocketing in India. The government of the country is trying their best to control the spread of the virus, from sanitizing the streets to encouraging people to practice social distancing. And now, taking part in the fight against the pandemic, IIT Guwahati engineers have built a drone to simplify the sanitization process. Their solution has been presented to several state governments.

The student is from a startup called Racerfly. Compared to regular drones, the drones from Racerfly are more special. The drones are equipped with an automated sprayer so that they can quickly sanitize large spaces. The team has already contacted Uttarakhand and Assam governments, offering to join the COVID-19 fight.

The team claims that the sprayer system only needs 15 minutes to complete a task, which normally takes a day and a half. Civil engineering student Anant Mittal says that these drones only need one operator. The operator can sit at a spot while flying and monitoring the drone. This eliminates the need for too many workers spraying disinfectants manually. The drones also have cameras for video recording.

The areas and roads need sanitization can be selected on Google Maps. After that, the drone will perform its task in a range of 3km. In one flight, it can cover over 1.2 hectares. And in a day, it can cover over 60 hectares.

For every minute, the drone can spray from two to four liters of disinfectant. On a single charge, its tank can be filled twice. And most importantly, it doesn’t need a lot of workers, following the guidelines of WHO for social distancing.

A single drone can do the work of 20 workers, which is helpful for the current situation. Once they receive the approval from the governments, they can build 15 drones in just 15 to 20 days. And by the end of this month, 50 more will be completed.

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