No professional courses yet, he took to Internet to learn about drones

Karle began reading on drones on the Internet and learnt how to assemble them. (Representional Image)

By SAKSHAM DANGI

WHILE WATCHING a Hindi film in 2009 as an engineering student, Rohit Sameer Karle, first saw a drone with a camera mounted on it. For the next eight months, Karle began reading on drones on the Internet and learnt how to assemble them.

“Currently, there are no professional courses for drone-making in India. I had to learn by watching videos on the Internet,” 25-year old Karle says. To learn the process, he also took up an internship with a prominent drone-making firm and learnt aspects like drone automation programming, where a drone is used to perform certain activities without any human interaction, he says.

Since then, Karle has made drones for several purposes, including aerial photography and geo-mapping, where drones are used to capture geographical data and 3-D mapping for surveys. Even during wedding, drones have lately been used to carry nearly 80kgs of weight and during Ganesh Chaturthi to drop flowers.

Karle learnt how to pilot drones using controls. “To pilot a drone, one needs to know about the range a drone can cover, its battery life and telemetry data pertaining to it, including the amount of data a drone can carry and the height and the distance at which a drone can fly,” says Karle.

The making of a basic drone can cost anywhere from Rs 5,000 to Rs 18,000 and any drone having advance features and capabilities can cost about Rs 10 lakh or even Rs 20 lakh, he says.
Beginners learning how to fly drones usually assemble basic drones, which are also used for drone-racing in gaming zones.

Karle says among the most basic requirements to make a drone are motors, electronic speed controllers, flight controllers, GPS systems, a frame which is mostly readymade, radio transmitter receivers, propellers and lithium polymer batteries.

Karle says that drone-flyers require permission from the police before flying in any location. Karle says his clientele includes production houses, event organisers and others who require aerial photography for promotion purposes.
Karle has participated in promotional videos for a jetty inauguration in Konkan and even used drones to capture aerial shots for films and television commercials. Karle says one of the constraints in this field is the non-availability of professional courses. “Most people who wish to make drones rely on the internet. Even local markets here do not have components needed to make drones. Importing components is costly due to the duty payment on electronic equipment,” Karle said, adding that buying a drone in India is also expensive as it is not mass manufactured.