00:00Sir, first of all I would like to know about you and your company.
00:10I am Vivek Pandey. I am the CEO of this company Maraal Aerospace Pvt. Ltd.
00:16We are incubated in IIT Kanpur. Our R&D facility is also in IIT Kanpur.
00:21This is a fixed wing drone. IIT Kanpur has a runway. So we are utilizing that facility for our testing.
00:28Sir, what is this and what do you do?
00:33Ma'am, basically if you see, drones have a limited flight time of 2 hours maximum.
00:42Very few drone companies can offer you a flight with 2 hours of endurance.
00:46We are addressing that. Here, using the solar power technology, what we are trying to do, we are achieving 12 hours of endurance.
00:53So our drone can fly for 12 hours and has a range of 150 km.
00:58This is a one-way range. So here we are achieving 150 km one-way range at 5 km altitude.
01:09It can carry a 5 kg payload. Total weight of the aircraft is 26 kg which includes 5 kg of payload.
01:18Payload will be satellite communication payload plus your camera, UIR camera.
01:23It can have also radio relays for different purposes.
01:27Your prime application is intelligence, surveillance and recognizance.
01:30Like our border and marine borders, these land borders are very big and vast.
01:34So there is something which can continuously monitor your intruders or whatever, any movement you want to capture.
01:42Secondly, we are in disaster management.
01:44Like HPCL, under their startup initiative, they have incubated us and they are funding us also.
01:51For them, we will do pipeline inspection. Their pipelines are very big.
01:55So if someone is sabotaging there or not, we can fly, we can check whether their pipeline is secure or not.
02:01So ISR is done, disaster management is done, pipeline inspection is done, precision agriculture.
02:08Basically, since we can fly for longer duration, so we can collect lot of data and help the farmers in making the agriculture more precise, yield oriented.
02:18So we can do precision agriculture also.
02:20Forest fire detection is one area where we can, if you see currently in US something that fire spread vastly.
02:28Our Uttarakhand also faces that problem.
02:30So this is something which can detect fire and easily transmit it back.
02:33Early detection will happen and you can take a remedial action at that point of time.
02:37Okay, so majorly in which sector it is used? Is it used in agriculture?
02:40It is used in defense.
02:42It is used in oil and energy sector.
02:44It is very good for forests.
02:46And also in agriculture.
02:48Okay, and this is fully solar?
02:50It is solar.
02:51Ma'am, in this, its battery is charged.
02:53Basically, it can fly in night also.
02:55Normally, it has endurance of 4 hours.
02:58Once it flies, what happens that it is powered by the solar.
03:02The battery keeps on getting charged by the solar cell.
03:05That's how you get increased endurance.
03:07The solar cells which we have used are of 24% efficiency.
03:11If we use satellite solar cells, we can even achieve around 20 to 24 hours of endurance.
03:17Sir, are there any other startups in India which are working on this type of technology and industries?
03:23We are the only one solar UAV startup in India which is working in this field.
03:28People are working in HAPS, High Altitude Pseudo Satellite.
03:32But in this sector, we are the only company which works.
03:35Perfect.
03:36And what are the big projects that you are working on?
03:42Ma'am, it has been only 1.5 years of our company.
03:45Okay.
03:46So, this is our first product.
03:47Right now, we have done flight trial testing for it.
03:51This is our market ready product which we will start testing in May 1st week.
03:55You have named it Maraal.
03:57Yes, we have named it Teja Swan.
03:59Okay.
04:00Can you please explain about it?
04:03Ma'am, this is our first prototype to prove that we can fly.
04:09This is a fully carbon fiber body.
04:12It has a 12 meter long wingspan.
04:14Its length is 4 meters.
04:16And as I said, it will fly for 12 hours at 5 kilometers.
04:19You can go up to 150 kilometers in one way.
04:21There is no range problem.
04:22If I change the data link, I can go up to 200 kilometers in one way.
04:27And what do you think about the scope in the future?
04:30And how is your company planning for the future?
04:34Ma'am, this is the first product.
04:36This is a unique product.
04:38Because this will help a lot strategically for the Indian defense sector.
04:43You can see that border surveillance has been done.
04:48For example, in the sea, you have to perform search and rescue operations many times.
04:52So, this will be a low cost solution.
04:55You can perform search and rescue operations.
05:00So, there is a lot of demand for this in the future.
05:03For example, there is a lot of demand from the civil sector.
05:05For example, HPCL is giving us the job of pipeline inspection.
05:08Similarly, ONG and IOCL are interested in this.
05:11And on the defense side, Army, Navy, Air Force, all three.
05:14They are waiting for us to start giving trials at no cost and no commitment.
05:20Maybe by June.
05:21We will have our internal validation in May.
05:23From June onwards, we will be offering this to our customers.
05:25Perfect.
05:26And apart from this, we are also working on a high altitude pseudo-satellite program.
05:30It will also be in the solar array.
05:32But it will be in the stratosphere for 90 days.
05:35Basically, it will hover at an altitude of 18 to 30 kilometers for 90 days.
05:39Okay. Amazing.
05:41It's a very good idea, sir.
05:43And congratulations.
05:44Thank you, ma'am.
05:45All the very best.
05:53NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Comments