COVID-19: IIT alumini develops special drone to spray disinfectants in Telangana

Fighting Coronavirus from a distance: drones developed by IIT alumni helps Telengana spray disinfectants

Drones developed by an alumnus of IIT Guwahati that sprays disinfectants in public places has to some extent helped Telangana government fight the Coronavirus from a distance like it did in China and South Korea.

The customised drones developed by Maruti Drontech Private Limited, a start-up founded by the IITG alumni was used by Karimnagar Municipal Corporation to spray disinfectants in Mukarampur area in Telangana, where 10 Indonesians and one local resident had tested COVID-19 positive recently. Disinfectants were also sprayed at District Collectorate, Municipal Corporation, District Hospital, bus station, auto-stand, markets, police commissionerate and Rythu Bazars, a statement issued by IIT-Guwahati said on Thursday.

Stating that drones helped China and Korea to fight Coronavirus outbreak, it said in a given time, drones disinfect 50 times more area than traditional methods and can keep human operators out of harm. Thus, they prove to be efficient, avoids any cross infections and stops the spread of a pandemic.

"When countries across the world are resorting to mass lockdown to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, drones have emerged very helpful and become an alternative and plausible lifeline for stranded population advised social distancing. Drones could be the best solution to spray disinfectants and reduce infections, monitor people's movement for crowd control, emergency delivery of medicines to those quarantined and elders. The contactless, fast-paced operations will strengthen anti-COVID-19 efforts of the government," co-founder and CEO of Maruti Dronetech Private Limited, Prem Kumar Vislawath, said.

He said Marut drones also developed public monitoring and warning drones, which are fitted with a camera and speaker. "These can be used by personnel to monitor places especially with high disease prevalence for crowd gathering and give appropriate instructions, using fitted loudspeakers, to people. As this is much faster than regular patrolling operations, it can be very efficient not only for patrolling but also to spread the message. These drones can be used in places where people are still seen moving around streets and government personnel are having a hard time implementing a strict lockdown."

He said drones can also be used to check the body temperature of suspected COVID-19 positive persons and thereby avoid the threat posed to doctors and medical staff during screening for Coronavirus infection. "Drones can be used to deliver medicines and other critical supplies to reduce unnecessary human contact. During a recent trial, it was observed that a drone covered a distance of 12 km in eight minutes, which is 80-times faster than traditional delivery," Vislawath said.