Amid news that terrorists may be planning to use paragliders to attack Mumbai, some of the city’s ingenuous students have perfected a way to beat them at their own game.
In 2008, a flying surveillance machine invented by students of Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) made headlines after their project was picked as one of the best 10 projects at a national level competition organised by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). They were awarded Rs50,000 to improvise on their invention, as the machine, named Humminger by the students, failed to take off.
However, DRDO officials loved their design and concept. The students worked on it for two years and the updated version, Humminger 2.0, is now ready to take off in their annual tech fest ‘Technovaganza’ which will be held in the first week of February.
Pravin Nair, a final-year student from the mechanical engineering department, and a member of the VJTI’s Society of Robotics and Automation (SRA), who has been working on the project, said, “The body of the machine was very heavy. It flew for a while but came down. However, they were impressed with our work and we were selected among 219 entries. We were given Rs50,000 cash prize for winning the competition and also for making improvements in the machine.”
The heavy metal body has been replaced with carbon fibre. “Humminger also has a camera installed on it, which will be help in surveying areas. The on-board systems have been reduced to a bare minimum. The body is now light-weight. The earlier version was controlled by a remote. The new version has a magnetometer installed for flight direction,” said Siddharth Tiwari, another SRA member. Humminger can now be used for outdoor surveillance of sensitive and inaccessible areas. It can also be used for exploratory military survey of military territory.
The director of VJTI, KG Narayankhedkar said, “Humminger was picked up by DRDO. It gave our students a boost to better their performance. The students will be ready with the enhanced version of Humminger soon.” Technovaganza will see several other exhibits on display which is of use to a common man.
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