A drone to counter rogue drones coming soon

CHENNAI: Researchers at IIT have developed an artificial intelligence-powered drone to counter rogue drones. This can offer assistance to law enforcement agencies, security services and armed forces to secure air space over critical civilian and military installations from surveillance by rogue drones. “It can track down rogue drones visually, hack into their GPS navigation system, following which the target drone is forced to change its flight path or land safely,” a release said.

An advantage of this system is that it can be controlled over the Internet and can navigate autonomously as compared to most existing drones that operate on ‘line of sight’, meaning operators must keep the drone within their sight. This system was designed by a team comprising Vasu Gupta, a final year BTech student, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Rishabh Vashistha, a project associate working in RAFT Lab in the department. The team was mentored by Ranjith Mohan, assistant professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering. Mohan said, “Our current prototype is equipped to detect and track objects visually, precisely land and fly over Internet. Our next step will be to conduct exhaustive tests on the system and ensure its reliability for catering to a wide range of demanding missions.”