UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

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dinesha
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by dinesha »

The Defence Research Development Organisation of India (DRDO) and the Defence Research and Technology Office, Singapore, have together developed an unmanned ground vehicle
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/chennai/ ... ehicle-030
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Juggi G »

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Post by Neshant »

Joint venture in UAVs meaning we just import the stuff and assemble it with screw drivers or are we actually doing any design work from the ground up ?
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Arya Sumantra »

^^^ Many Indian companies started with collaboration and have reached some level of independence by now. Tata motors was Tata Mercedes. Even Hyundai motors started in collaboration with GM/Ford afaik. See where they are today. Even dragon started like that and improvised and moved on.

Whether you start off with 'screwdrivers' is not important, BUT what matters is whether you remain a 'screwdriver' company perpetually or move-up.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Pratik_S »

Image
What is that orange stuff ? Is is part of some rocket assisted take-off gear ? Also can Nishant take-off conventionally ?
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by shukla »

When an Air Force UAV was almost shot down at CWG opening!
It was a major security scare on the day of the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony when an IAF’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle came below the prescribed height -possibly to give its controllers a peep of the spectacle. Sources privy to the CWG security arrangements said on Friday that an Indian Air Force’s UAV had descended below 6,000 feet on the evening of October three.

The aircraft hovered over the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to monitor threats of terror outfit Lashker-e-Taiba using para-gliders to disrupt the spectacular ceremony. The anti-aircraft guns, available with the Army, had been mounted atop at various high-rise buildings around the venue to meet any such threats. It was a trying time for security personnel when the UAV came down and the guns were quickly activated as other agencies followed the standard operating procedures (SOP) to establish the identity of the flying object, the sources said.

However, the IAF stepped in immediately and informed that the UAV belonged to them and all pro-active action was put to immediate halt, they added. Asked whether there was a technical failure in the UAV, a senior official said possibly the men manning it at the control room wanted to have a glimpse of the opening ceremony. The vehicle besides maintaining a vigil also beamed images of the spectacle live.
Shocking.. Could have been a disaster.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Craig Alpert »

^^or it was just testing the operational preparedness of other agencies in real time, besides getting a litteral Bird's eye view of the live ceremony ;)
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by binayaranjan »

Today around 5:00pm I saw a beautiful bird practicing dive in the sky above the HAL Airport, Bengaluru.
I am quite sure It was Rustom-1.
Anyone can give details with photos / videos???
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by chackojoseph »

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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Pratik_S »

^^^ Great news indeed. Also din't Rustom Crashed on its first flight a couple of month ago ?
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by chackojoseph »

shukla wrote:When an Air Force UAV was almost shot down at CWG opening!

-----

Shocking.. Could have been a disaster.
UAV did not descend below Prescribed Height Limits on Oct 3 during Common Wealth Games : Govt

Govt denied it. it says IAF would have activated the SAMs or AA.
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Post by Craig Alpert »

Rustom Maiden flight successful at TAAL airstrip in Hosur; DRDO says all parameters met during 30-minute flight
Image
Today, 11 months after a failed attempt, DRDO says the Rustom-1 had its successful maiden flight at TAAL private airstrip at Hosur. The 21-second flight last year (November 15, 2009) had to be aborted. Here's a gist of Saturday's developments, which has been described as a 'dream flight.'
Duration: 30 minutes.
Parameters: Autonomous Taxi, take-off and landing. All flight parameters met.
Time: 4.30 pm to 5.30 pm.
Road Ahead: Rustom-H MALE UAV, UCAC
Flown by (Ground control): Col Thappa
DRDO Team at Hosur: Around 60.
The biggies at the event: Dr Prahlada (DRDO CCR&D (Aero & SI), Elangovan (CCR&D), Project Director G. Sreenivasa Murthy, Programme Director G. Natarajan, ADE Director PSK
Project partners: ADE (Unmmaned missions); DEAL Dehradun (Datalink systems & RF communication to A/c; Zephyr (Pvt firm for airframe).
Project cost: Rs 1,000 crore-plus
History: Rustom is a medium altitude long endurance (MALE) UAV derived fro NAL's Light Canard Research Aircraft (LCRA).
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by rakall »

Craig Alpert wrote:Rustom Maiden flight successful at TAAL airstrip in Hosur; DRDO says all parameters met during 30-minute flight
Image
Today, 11 months after a failed attempt, DRDO says the Rustom-1 had its successful maiden flight at TAAL private airstrip at Hosur. The 21-second flight last year (November 15, 2009) had to be aborted. Here's a gist of Saturday's developments, which has been described as a 'dream flight.'
Duration: 30 minutes.
Parameters: Autonomous Taxi, take-off and landing. All flight parameters met.
Time: 4.30 pm to 5.30 pm.
Road Ahead: Rustom-H MALE UAV, UCAC
Flown by (Ground control): Col Thappa
DRDO Team at Hosur: Around 60.
The biggies at the event: Dr Prahlada (DRDO CCR&D (Aero & SI), Elangovan (CCR&D), Project Director G. Sreenivasa Murthy, Programme Director G. Natarajan, ADE Director PSK
Project partners: ADE (Unmmaned missions); DEAL Dehradun (Datalink systems & RF communication to A/c; Zephyr (Pvt firm for airframe).
Project cost: Rs 1,000 crore-plus
History: Rustom is a medium altitude long endurance (MALE) UAV derived fro NAL's Light Canard Research Aircraft (LCRA).


This is the Pilot-less version of LCRA which will be used a TD for Rustom-H. The actual Rustom will be significantly different - as we know from the Mockup from AI09 (equipped with a coupla hardpoints too).. The TD is used to test all the different sub-systems and payloads that will go into the Rustom-H
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by shukla »

chackojoseph wrote:
shukla wrote:When an Air Force UAV was almost shot down at CWG opening!

-----

Shocking.. Could have been a disaster.
UAV did not descend below Prescribed Height Limits on Oct 3 during Common Wealth Games : Govt

Govt denied it. it says IAF would have activated the SAMs or AA.
Not sure who to believe.. :roll: no smoke without fire they say....

Added later..

IAF joins issue with MHA on UAV scare during Games
MHA said that the UAV, deployed as part of the security cover thrown around the JLN Stadium, had dropped beyond the permissible level of 6,000 feet on the day of the opening ceremony of the Games
IAF termed the version as "factually incorrect".
The spokesperson strongly took issue with a suggestion that the personnel manning the UAV may have brought it down to take a peek at the spectacular opening ceremony.

"It may be mentioned that the Delhi Integrated Air Defence Control was manned jointly by IAF and other security agencies. To suggest that the personnel manning may have wanted to have a glimpse of the opening ceremony is far fetched".
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by shukla »

IAF press relase
Reports of UAV Descent below Prescribed Height Limits on Oct 3 Incorrect
The report that has appeared in some sections of the media on October 16, stating that an IAF UAV descended below 6,000 feet on the evening of October 3, during the opening ceremony of CWG, is factually incorrect.

It is clarified that at no stage did any IAF UAV maintaining vigil in the vicinity of the CWG venue, descend below the stipulated height band of 6,000 feet during the entire period of air defence exercise of the just concluded CWG. The IAF strongly denies the report.

It may be mentioned that the Delhi Integrated Air Defence Control (DIADC) was manned jointly by IAF and other security agencies including aerial monitoring of activities. To suggest that the personnel manning may have wanted to have a glimpse of the opening ceremony is too farfetched.

It is also clarified that the responsibility of activating all elements of air defence including that of anti-aircraft guns and missiles was with the IAF. None of them were ordered to be activated at any stage.
I hope this draws an end to this 'uncalled for' controversy in an otherwise spotless security issues record for the games!
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by chackojoseph »

nukavarapu wrote:CJ -- IIRC there were 3 variants of Rustom. The Canard variant Rustom which is more or less the precursor, the Rustom - H which was showcased as a mock-up in last Aeroindia. And I guess there is a third variant which I don't remember exactly. Was this the Rustom basic or the Rustom - H? I also remember ADE saying that all variants have their own uses and have a specific role. So all three variants would be productionized once the POC is done?
Nukavarapu,

This is a concept validation. It is for landing and take off demos and some flight characteristics. This is no variant. Just like LCA TD's were proof of concepts. I don't know why they call it rustom at all. Its an old Carnard Config experiental aircraft. last time (a decade back or more), when it flew (NAL), it was manned. Now they are trying it manned. That's the difference.

After this they can make any design they want. Rustom_H and UCAV are two concepts they have frozen upon.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Bihanga »

Craig Alpert wrote:Rustom Maiden flight successful at TAAL airstrip in Hosur; DRDO says all parameters met during 30-minute flight
Image
Today, 11 months after a failed attempt, DRDO says the Rustom-1 had its successful maiden flight at TAAL private airstrip at Hosur. The 21-second flight last year (November 15, 2009) had to be aborted. Here's a gist of Saturday's developments, which has been described as a 'dream flight.'
Duration: 30 minutes.
Parameters: Autonomous Taxi, take-off and landing. All flight parameters met.
Time: 4.30 pm to 5.30 pm.
Road Ahead: Rustom-H MALE UAV, UCAC
Flown by (Ground control): Col Thappa
DRDO Team at Hosur: Around 60.
The biggies at the event: Dr Prahlada (DRDO CCR&D (Aero & SI), Elangovan (CCR&D), Project Director G. Sreenivasa Murthy, Programme Director G. Natarajan, ADE Director PSK
Project partners: ADE (Unmmaned missions); DEAL Dehradun (Datalink systems & RF communication to A/c; Zephyr (Pvt firm for airframe).
Project cost: Rs 1,000 crore-plus
History: Rustom is a medium altitude long endurance (MALE) UAV derived fro NAL's Light Canard Research Aircraft (LCRA).

Good going and very nice news after so many days of lull. In the end curtains very taken out about all the speculation pertaining to Rustom UAV. By the way what does Rustom Mean?
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Post by jamwal »

IIRC, Rustom is name of some director or senior scientist involved with the project in it's earliest stages
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Post by chackojoseph »

Flown by (Ground control): Col Thappa
Have they revealed a name of an army controller of Israeli UAV's?
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by chackojoseph »

Cross posted from images forum

Image

Click for larger Picture of Rustom
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by vic »

This if off course Rustom 1. Thereafter as per the tender, there were supposed to be 2 more Types of Rustoms. One Rustom-H powered by pistons weighing around 1800kg MTOW. Its Prototype was supposed to be completed by July 2010 and another (option) was for Rustom-turoprop powered UAV in the category of Eitan/Reaper
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Post by Pratik_S »

Take of Video
A bit scary take off and landing(slowing down).
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Craig Alpert »

WOW.. A dog, a Bird, Cross Winds, and a Rookie Pilot and yet it managed to take off and land Safe and Sound.. God Speed to Rustom I/H
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by svinayak »



This chinese show talks about Rustum as if it is their product. Can somebody decipher
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Victor »

Acharya wrote: This chinese show talks about Rustum as if it is their product. Can somebody decipher
They mention "Indu" several times so they are talking about our product.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by naren »

Acharya wrote:

This chinese show talks about Rustum as if it is their product. Can somebody decipher
Google translation of the transcript

Babelfish translation

from Google version:
Moderator: talk about the world every day, every day about all, Hello everybody I am a Luo Xu, welcome to our program.

Recently, India's unmanned aircraft developed by Rustom rise to No. 1 concern, concerned because the plane crashed at the time of the test. In the end is how, including what kind of story today, and you analyze your interpretation of the two experts, first of all welcome to military experts, the National Defense University Professor Zhang Zhaozhong, please Zhang, should be said that the crash of unmanned aircraft do not particularly large, but also There were no casualties, why quickly became one click higher than the international press it?

Zhang Zhaozhong: we are more surprised to India Huanneng come up with this stuff, UAV is a new revolution in military affairs is a very important product because it is information technology, network construction is the one, we did not expect India, because he information construction is relatively backward point, he can come up with this advanced stuff, we want to see how he soar, the results did not rush down to remove, so the news of world attention.

Moderator: We welcome another guest was the Public Security University Professor Wang Dawei, Professor Wang how do you look for this event?

Da-Wei Wang: I think this thing through a poem, sink like a stone iron disappeared, since the former will be considered the wear and tear. India sink like a stone fell off the plane, and saw that it was a small thing, in fact, behind it reflects the helplessness of the Indian army, is also hidden behind a lot of stories.
Moderator: Although the UAV crash occurred because the UAV, so there were no casualties, how do you think?

Zhang Zhaozhong: I study in India or more weapons, the British sold him the original 26 aircraft, and now throw in the left 11, which is in November fell, in October before the plane fell, the aircraft carrier also left the cross out of his own missiles, the result can not find the launch is over, and often it will be some weapons and equipment such incidents, I do have that little piece you did not find it interesting to you, shape looks a bit like UAV Global Hawk, it is certainly cottage version of the Global Hawk. And wings very long, so afraid of him broken nail in the middle of things right for a few pillars supporting the place. Crimping get under the two sandbags, afraid to front the wind turned.

Moderator: Let Chinese unmanned aircraft development how?

Zhang Zhaozhong: China UAV, strictly speaking, to explore the fifties and sixties began to explore the real development since the eighties, and now look like three or four years, we have a big UAVs, there are small, a super-endurance, and dozens of hours, there are a few short hours. A reconnaissance use, is also useful to do drone's. UAV in the world, China should be ranked after the United States and Israel. {equal equal onlee, says the blady paki :rotfl: }

Moderator: It should be said to outshine others in the Asian region should be regarded as a.

Zhang Zhaozhong: much stronger than India. :roll: :lol:
Moderator: The neighboring India as China, may very well see the development of China's unmanned aerial vehicles, is not hope to catch up, catch up with this trend.

Wang Dawei: The Indian economy has developed rapidly this decade, pocket money, he bought from the Soviet Union a lot of good aircraft, but compare it with China Jian Shi{J-10}, and a little shame. He can not produce such a plane, so there is a shock my heart Ye Hao, a helpless 也好.

Zhang Zhaozhong: In the military, the Chinese What the weapons and equipment, he doing, this means nothing. Because he's GDP is not high in India, less military spending, military spending has remained more than thirty billion U.S. dollars, we have over sixty billion U.S. dollars. We engage in what he is doing, including unmanned aerial vehicles as well, this fact does not mean full bloom, what Dounong, and now the others have it all, he has a satellite, a rocket, intercontinental ballistic missiles, a submarine, a conventional submarines, there are aircraft carriers, destroyers, and now has started the build forty thousand tons of aircraft carriers, are now engaged in UAVs, he has been the dream of a great nation. He is a good idea, always wanted to do something independent, but the results are not very good.
Now, the real gem.
Moderator: UAV really quite powerful

Wang Dawei: two thousand years ago our country actually have a UAV :eek: :rotfl: , the earliest records say that he had made Lubanga had a UAV, called the wood birds, he finished three days after the flight did not fall in At that time seems to be a miracle.
from Babelfish
Zhang Zhaozhong: Ordinary circumstances this kind of unmanned aerial vehicle, the missile, the torpedo, has a destructive mechanism finally likely, all ruins oneself, meets a cruel death, should have this kind of equipment. If does not have this kind of equipment, is seized by the enemy is very later troublesome, the first contour is very easy by the village in a mountainous area. Likely a moment ago Indian that basically village in a mountainous area Global Hawk. {I think he means that India somehow captured a crashed GlobalHawk and cloned it as Rustom - gives good insight into Chinese thinking} Inside another airplane he has some things is very top-secret, for example its radar system, its radar system, if uncovers, knew that your radar frequency is how many, in the future will lock your this frequency to carry on the interception.
They feel threatened - thats a good sign that India is doing it right 8)
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Post by svinayak »

Thank you 8)
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Post by Indranil »

Craig Alpert wrote:WOW.. A dog, a Bird, Cross Winds, and a Rookie Pilot and yet it managed to take off and land Safe and Sound.. God Speed to Rustom I/H
Wonder, how you came to the "Rookie Pilot" conclusion!
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by neerajb »

naren wrote:They feel threatened - thats a good sign that India is doing it right 8)
Exactly my thoughts. Also it shows their technological inferiority complex when that guy says China ranks after US and israel in UAVs. All the rhetoric aside, China still has got lots of catch up to do.

Cheers....
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Post by vic »

I thought that conventional landing and take off - wheeled Nishant should be already flying????????????????
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Post by Singha »

the program has been delayed because the 1st prototype hit some coconut trees and crashed last year. and a UAV is not just a flying platform - a range of things from laptop terminals , downlink trailers , flying station trailers need to be cloned from the searcher / heron kit and tested out.

we could tie up with Sukhoi-Saturn for a ghawk type thing - sukhoi had shown some models earlier and saturn could provide the turbofan engine needed for such a big airframe.

check the Zond2 - its bigger than Eitan whose wingspan is 26m vs 35m here
http://www.sukhoi.org/eng/planes/projects/bpla/char/

a range of 12,000km indicates atleast a 36hr endurance. a 1.5t payload implies SLAR, EO, GMTI any form of payloads...

with sukhoi-saturn the two biggest hurdles - reliable airframe & FCS + engine is taken care of in one shot, leaving us to work on ground stations and payloads using domestic , russian and israeli kits. the Rus themselves are seeking israeli help on uav = most likely on the sensor payload part.
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Post by JTull »

As per Hindu link, it is supposed to have service ceiling of 25,000ft. Looking at the picture, it doesn't seem to be a big aircraft. I'm not sure if those wings will eb able to sustain lift (and control) at that altitude. Could it be this is just a smaller prototype to test basic technology like flight controls, uplink/downlink comm interfaces, etc. Maybe a bigger MALE Rustom (version 2) maybe in the works. It certainly would make sense, esp. if India hasn't previously built autonomous take-off/landing aircraft.
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Post by Philip »

"One small step for India...." Long overdue,much delayed.We've been seeing for over a decade now models of Nishant at air shows.We had a great opportunity to leapfrog over many developed countries with UAVs,but ere absolutely lethargic.I know of an Indian private sector co. which has even a mini-helo UAV developed and some other interesting engine applications! We are still using imporrted Israeli systems for the bulk of armed forces ops.The GOI must open up these new technolgies/products to the private sector who will find solutions far faster than the DRDO.
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Post by Neela »

JTull wrote:As per Hindu link, it is supposed to have service ceiling of 25,000ft. Looking at the picture, it doesn't seem to be a big aircraft. I'm not sure if those wings will eb able to sustain lift (and control) at that altitude. Could it be this is just a smaller prototype to test basic technology like flight controls, uplink/downlink comm interfaces, etc. Maybe a bigger MALE Rustom (version 2) maybe in the works. It certainly would make sense, esp. if India hasn't previously built autonomous take-off/landing aircraft.
LIvefist says that this Rustom-1 is more of a TD for the bigger Rustom-H which was seen in AeroIndia-09.

This can do 75kg. So I guess this is primarily for surveillance.
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Post by Craig Alpert »

indranilroy wrote:Wonder, how you came to the "Rookie Pilot" conclusion!
Watch the video carefully after Rustom Lands. If you can't make much from that video then take my conclusion based on "Takes one to know one" :D

Added Later: I hope you don't take the word "rookie" based on some school kid behind the controls, certainly not what I'm referring to.. Rookie here is reffering to someone who is still learning the art of perfection (case in point getting the jist of using ground C2 in getting this baby up in the air and back down safe and sound) controls @ the joystick would be a work in progress
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Post by Indranil »

^^^ Craig, I have been flying and building aeromodels from years now. And I have seen and helped many a big scale aeromodels flown.

All I can tell you from my limited experience is that the pilot is actually very far from a rookie even by your definition.

I do not know exactly what pilot-assistance the TD was banking on, but whatever it may be, I see no over correction, which would have been the sign of a rookie.

In aeromodel flying, one is not on-board the craft and often times one doesn't align perfectly with the runway. A rookie tries to correct it immediately. But a seasoned pilot doesn't jeopardize the flight that way, he is supremely comfortable with landing slightly oblique. He could have corrected the flight path immediately after it crossed the white center line (it's a joy stick afterall). He didn't do that. He corrects the path after the craft has slowed down completely and the engine is dead. That is a sign of a pro.

And if you are speaking of the take off, if you see carefully the plane keeps drifting to the left side of the runway (possibly due to crosswinds), the pilot had no way but to correct it. He corrects it in time and to the extent required. So all I have to say is that, it might not have looked smooth, but the handling is how it should have been and shows confidence on part of the pilot.

@Vic: Is there a wheeled Nishant project. Kindly educate this Abdul.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Craig Alpert »

I can agree to disagree on both counts... My statement came from the disagreed part, because it also depends on SOP and protocols built into the sys as acceptable to the end user. The prototypes that I have dealt with flashes bright red warning lights on the OP screen when the LOS of UAV aren't aligned with those parallel to those on the ground seeking either autonomous correction or asking C2 to quit playing around with the joysticks. If I’m entitled to an opinion, then I'm still skeptical on the "sign of a Pro" as I see that as being cocky & overconfident. It almost went off the runway straight into the dirt right before the joystick controller (if not autonomous) moved in. Had this been an op scenario debris from the rough airfield could have possibly damaged the UAV in for a quick refueling for another sortie, which would certainly hamper its mission turnaround time. However, I guess I’m being overly optimistic, as this was clearly a demonstration and in no way an OP scenario. But this is just to give you an idea of what I had based my comment on. You are correct about the crosswinds on take off; hence I said that was amazing piece of work because if this UAV is intended for its use in NE and NW regions where cross winds and altitude are a daily norm, one can say that this would be a great demonstration and confidence in Rustom I/H.
Indranil
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Indranil »

^^^ I see your point ... No more disagreements :)
Craig Alpert
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Craig Alpert »

Tirupati temple may get UAV surveillance

Noticeable takeaways from the article
BANGALORE: The country's richest shrine at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh may get unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) surveillance as part of security enhancement plans for the temple which is visited by thousands of devotees daily, a temple official said Tuesday.

A two kg, battery-operated surveillance UAV, designed and developed by a Bangalore-based firm, was test-flown during the Navaratri Brahmotsavam (held for nine days Oct 8-16 during the Navaratri) at the hill shrine, MK Singh, chief vigilance officer of the temple, said.

The aerial surveillance was conducted for 45 minutes and results are satisfactory, he said over phone from Tirupati.

"A year ago, the TTD (Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanam) management decided to beef up security of the temple by monitoring the areas around it. This is part of the plan," Singh said.

The UAV flown during the festival was only a technological demonstration.

"The results are positive," Singh added.
The UAV can monitor the movement of people in and around the shrine and help nab 'anti-social elements', Singh said.

The security beef-up plan follows frequent reports quoting intelligence agencies that the temple, frequented by leading personalities from politics, industry, business and film world, could be on the radar of militant outfits.

The UAV can capture visuals within a radius of nine km. "We have three entry points to the temple and the UAV will assist us in regulating the flow of devotees," Singh said.

After the successful experimentation with helium balloon during the Brahmotsavam in September this year, the TTD considered the proposal of using the highly sophisticated UAV for further strengthening its security, he said.
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