Developed with the idea of surveillance and inducted by the paramilitary forces nearly a year ago, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been used for the first time in a disaster rescue operation in Uttarakhand and the experiment seems to be a success.
An officer of the National Disaster Response Force said they have deployed three such machines for reconnaissance in the flood-ravaged State and this has enabled them to locate and rescue more victims.
“Not only has it helped us to locate hundreds of trapped victims but with these machines we scan even those areas where the possibility of their presence is little and thus ensure that none of them is left behind. We can also arrange for food or water once we receive the images sent by the UAVs,” said a National Disaster Response Force officer.
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Three UAVs have been deployed in Badrinath and Kedarnath where the force is grappling with nature’s fury.
Weighing between 1.5 and 2 kg each, these indigenously developed machines called Netras can go to isolated and inaccessible areas from where they send real-time images captured by a high-resolution camera.
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The images are sent to laptops which work as the monitoring device and all signals are sent through a local wireless network, said the officer.
Like the overhead blades of a helicopter carry it upwards, the four propellers in the UAVs also rotate to move it vertically while the horizontal movements are controlled with a remote control.
The remote control also helps the user to tilt the camera and zoom its lens at a particular point if needed.
The communication range between the remote and the machine is 1.5 km along the line of sight.
Netra had also made an appearance in the Bollywood film 3 Idiots .