College students bring out unmanned aerial vehicle Say it could be modified to track movement of endangered wildlife species Azhar Qadri Tribune News Service Srinagar, June 3 Three college students have built a rudimentary and indigenous prototype of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), becoming the first Kashmiris to do so. They said the vehicle could be modified to monitor the movement and lifestyle of the region’s endangered wildlife species. Shuaib Shafi Koul (21) and Shahnawaz Shafi Koul (18) of downtown’s Khayam locality and Basit Riyaz Zargar (18) of the Buchpora locality today demonstrated a successful take- off of the quadcopter UAV named SBS-659 at a parking lot on Residency Road here. The SBS-659, which weighs 830 gm and has been built at a cost of Rs 18,000, may not be a breakthrough in the aviation industry but is a major accomplishment from youths of the militancy-hit region. “We used our pocket money and saved bus fare by going to college on bicycles to meet the expenses of making the UAV,” said Shuaib Shafi Koul. The three youths, who are students of Kashmir Government Polytechnic College, were assisted by three other classmates in the making of the project. “The frame and the propellers of the SBS-659 have not been imported. They have been made by us. The propellers rotate at 12,000 rpm and we have used the Bernauli’s principle to make it. We used cricket balls to make a landing gear to keep it light. It can be controlled up to a distance of 1 km,” Shuaib said. He said it took the team one month to build the machine. “The SBS-659 can be modified as per the need and requirement. We can fit a camera on it to track the lifestyle of endangered wildlife species of the region such as the Hangul,” Shuaib said. Shuaib said they did not use flight-control board, auto-pilot mechanism, sensors and stabilisers in their flying machine. “These are necessary for a UAV but we have managed to make the SBS-659 operational without them,” Shuaib claimed.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 13:35:18 +0000