IIT-Guwahati students develop drones to sanitize large areas; claim '1 drone = 20 workers'

As the entire nation grapples with the Novel Coronavirus and citizen contributing en masse to fighting the deadly pandemic, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati (IIT-G) students have come up with an innovative technique to contain the virus.

A group of students from IIT-G have developed a drone with an automated sprayer to sanitise large areas like roads and parks to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The group also claims the sprayer can accomplish one-and-a-half day's worth of manual work in less than 15 minutes.

The students have approached Assam and Uttarakhand governments in a bid to join the fight against Coronavirus which has threatened the national well being. Anand Mittal, a civil engineering student from IIT-G, claims the drones to be crash-proof and says they just require just one person to operate. This is done using a mobile application and the drones can also record videos of the work they do.

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One drone equivalent to 20 workers

"The drone will help in sanitizing large areas by just one person spraying and monitoring using a mobile app, hence eliminating the need for more cleaners who use manual spraying disinfectant. This will help in following social distancing guidelines issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to fight COVID-19. The drone is crash-proof as it has been equipped to adjust itself to terrain height and avoid obstacles," Mittal said.

"The roads and areas can be selected on Google maps and the drone can be automated to perform the task within a signal range of 3 km. A drone can cover more than 1.2 hectares in one flight and more than 60 hectares in a day," he added.

"A single drone can replace around 20 workers, which can be really helpful in the current situation. Once we get a go-ahead, we can make 15 drones within 15-20 days and next 50 by the end of this month," Mittal said.

The students are confident that the new innovation can help to curb the spread of the virus drastically which is the need of the hour. The nation has so far witnessed a swell in the number of COVID-19 positive cases. As on March 31, the number of COVID-19 positive cases in India stands at 1,397, of which 35 have succumbed to the virus while 1,238 cases are still active and 123 cases have been recovered and discharged according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. 

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(With PTI Inputs)