Odisha: NIT-Rourkela Alumni Secure Patent For UAV; Know Their Drone, Possible Applications

Rourkela: Two alumni of NIT-Rourkela have secured a patent for their invention, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), a step that opens up the possibility of its use in defence and civil sectors.

The UAV, an advanced Ornithopter design that mimics the complex flapping motion of a bird, has been invented by Debendra Pradhan and Biswajit Swain, both aged 27. According to them, the advanced design promises wide applications in both defence, where it can be used for espionage and surveillance, and civil — for aerial surveillance, guarding farms and airfields, data collection and forecasting — sectors.

Pradhan and Swain had filed the patent application in October 2016 when they were studying at NIT-R. The Central government’s patent office granted them patent for 20 years on May 13 this year, according to a TNIE report.

Pradhan was quoted in the TNIE report as saying that a flapping-wing Ornithopter or UAV is an emerging area. Its agility, body structure, lightweight, optimised energy consumption and acrobatic features promise to overcome the problems of the existing fixed and rotary type UAVs.

According to Swain, the Ornithopter design has been gaining popularity over the years.