The drone is equipped with cameras which can live-stream the happenings in the disaster-affected region. Sharing of the GPS coordinates along with the image of the detected people to be rescued, to the army or relief task forces

Chennai: Students of IIT Madras have added yet another feather to their cap by developing a drone which can help in disaster management and locate people in disaster-hit regions.

The drone is equipped with cameras which can live-stream the happenings in the disaster-affected region. The video is analysed by deep-learning skills and movement of stranded people is detected by consciousness detection, which gives information on their conditions and if they are in need of immediate help. The GPS system in the drone then sends real-time location to the ground station for rescue operations along with the images.

The current rescue operations involve manual searching of the affected region by the personnel, which is highly time-consuming. The disasters often hamper the communication system in the entire area which makes rescue even harder. The use of these drones not only provides access to areas which are difficult to search manually but also makes the operation quicker, which is the most important factor in the success of any rescue operation.

Developed by a team of five IIT-M students from different departments in their first and second years of college, a prototype of the 3D printed drone is currently being developed and will soon be up for hardware testing after which it can be scaled up for use.

Ayush Maniar, one of the team members, who is currently representing the team at the AI for Earth Summit held at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, the US, says, "The lack of time and resources required to scan all locations after any disaster are limitations faced by rescue teams, deployed by the armed forces or the local authorities. We are trying to tackle these issues with the help of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision. We also demonstrated the technology in the Indian Army Technology Seminar conducted in January this year and are currently working with the NDRF to bring this product to a level where it can be deployed in real-life scenarios".

The team had earlier won the first position in Microsoft's Academia Accelerator programme held at Bangalore in February this year.