The unstoppable space-time-ship of mind can take off from the brain’s runaway at any time and dive into the abyss or shoot off to the highest echelons of anything––from micro to macro––including the earth, oceans, skies, and infinite depths of the universe. That is the extreme spectrum of our imagination, with an unlimited wavelength of possibilities, encompassing everything.
That is how, since time immemorial, scientifically curious minds have demonstrated to the world that nothing is impossible and that this ‘nothing’ can be transformed into everything at the point of the big bang, conceiving our own saga of universal creation, expansion, and the coming of that cosmic consciousness alive into us. Without any beginning or an end, we – the bundle of this eternal energy gets transformed into everything around us.
Furthermore, with our ingenious creativity, we can transform our immediate surroundings and beings and things we put our sights upon. In short, the point here is of complete concentration; of a mind focused forever on its ultimate aim––the forward momentum of human advancements into the most secure, safe, and protected future.
With this goal, ‘Dhaksha Unmanned Systems (DUMS) started its journey in 2002 in the field of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). Dhaksha’s CEO, Ramanathan N reveals, “The name Dhaksha was given by none other than the Great Dr Abdul Kalam.”
The High Flying Machines
DUMS cater to the rise in increasing demand for the next generation cutting-edge Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) technology applications to meet the demands of mankind in solving socio-economic problems.
According to Ramanathan, their mission is to provide a complete range of End to End UAS technology solutions with their domain expertise. And to build a world-class technology company on the main opportunities of UAS/UAV technology Smart Drones (SD) to meet the future demands of homeland security and civil commercial market segments in Agriculture, Forestry, Transportation, Mining and Energy, Remote sensing, Tourism, Hazardous Material Handling and Smart City applications, etc. “We are doing this by
- R&D for Continuous Product Development (CPD).
- Product Life Cycle Management (PLM).
- Manufacturing and Integration.
- Testing and Quality Assurance.
- Training and Certification.
- Knowledge Management.
- Business Development and Pre-Sales.
- Turnkey UAS Solutions.”
He informs that to manage the current competitive engineering ‘Time to market Demand,’ DHAKSHA shall develop strategic alliances with technology partners in the field of cutting-edge technology viz, Vertical Take-Off Landing (VTOL), Electric powered planes, Hybrid vehicles, SWARM UAV etc.,
He furthers that the team Dhaksha was incubated from Anna University (MIT Campus) and the company was formed as a private limited in the year 2019.
Longest Endurance Birds in Aerospace
“Our awards and accolades include ‘Longest Endurance Birds (>6 hrs. flight), DARPA USA in 2012 Award and Runners in Australian Medical challenge 2018. Our USP is the range of products which makes us one of the most prominent drone companies with the support of our exclusive MOU partner ‘Centre for Aerospace,’ MIT campus, Anna University, Chennai,” he shares.
Telling more about DUMS’ offering and aspects that make it stand out in the cutthroat competition, Ramanathan says their focus on diversified Technology in drones for longer endurance gives them an advantage over the rivals. “Further, our Specialized training and service support gives the benefits to customers for having the best return on their investment,” he shares.
Conveying his own story, Ramanathan says that his journey into this Industry started in 2019 when he met Professor Senthil Kumar – Director CASR at MIT Anna university campus, Chennai along with his friend Rajaraman. “I was thrilled about this futuristic technology which has applications in every area and that made me become an Investor my passion towards this pushed me to accept CEO responsibilities. Today, with all our team’s support we have made ‘Team Dhaksha’ a brand name in the Drone Industry,” he informs.
Mission: Tech Advancements
Being an experienced leader, he shares his opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies like AI and ML is impacting the modern drone industry space and how DUMS is adapting to the change. He says AI and ML will be the Key for any Tech product and company to move on. The drone is no different. “With these tools, we can keep improvising a lot of specialized applications removing human interference at sensitive borders, Lifesaving missions in Civil life and so on. We have been constantly training and also focusing on acquiring knowledge from the industry for enhancement in our products,” he reveals.
Revealing more about their products and their applications, Ramanathan says their products are
DH-VTHT- is a hybrid UAV system. It is hybrid because of its capability to Take-off, Land hover like a Multirotor and toward motion like a fixed-wing aircraft using a petrol engine. The systems are advantageous as it does not require a longer runway for Take-off landing. The payload damage is highly reduced due to the VTOL capacity. The structural integrity and light weight of the aircraft are ensured by the use of a carbon fibre composite honeycomb design.
DH-MICRO QUAD – It is a Type of Multirotor Having a full HD daylight camera and a night vision payload of High Resolution. Encrypted digital links for secure communication. Capable of flying in semi-autonomous and full-autonomous modes. Makes it a Unique System. An empty weight of less than 2kg and a payload of up to 400 grams can be added with a 30 minutes endurance.
DH-HELI- The gasoline-powered Heli UAV is capable of flying over four hours. The capability is due to the presence of an inbuilt 2000 W generator which sustains the UAV. This UAV can be used for crowd management, surveillance and disaster management purposes.
DH-MAPPER- is a fixed-wing aircraft exclusively designed for UAV mapping applications. The design is robust for carrying a camera payload and can cruise at high altitudes covering a large area. The aircraft has a parachute landing mechanism to ensure a safe landing.
DH – Q4 – is a Multi rotor quad copter with endurance of 45 minutes or more and a range of Five Km.
DH -AG H1 – is a quad copter (Hybrid IC engine based) for Agriculture spray application with 12L payload.
DH – Agrigator – E10 – is a hexa copter battery operated Agriculture spray drone with 10L payload.
According to Ramanathan, all these products can be used for a wide range of applications including,
Agriculture– is the backbone of the Indian economy because 75% of India’s population depends on agriculture. Recently Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is deployed in the agriculture sector for improving productivity the Technology based solution will give more profit margin, Larger area coverage quickly, reducing time and cost, Accurate results and helps to better decision-making. “We provide smart Agri-drones for precision agriculture and integrated farming with multiple applications like Multi-Spectral Imaging and Data Analytics; Aerial Mapping, Land Use Pattern/Land Cover (LULC) Data; Crop Insurance Analysis; Irrigation Plan; Health Monitoring of Crops; Pest Control and Yield Improvement; Problem Identification; Agriculture Census; Ortho-Mosaic; Digital Surface Model (DSM); Digital Elevation Model (DEM); pH; Dissolved Oxygen (DO); Electrical conductivity (EC); Temperature; Groundwater recharge/Drainage Interlinking; etc.,” he states.
Energy and Power– “Here, our Drone Applications include, Oil and Gas pipeline leakage detection; Chimney health monitoring; and Power grid damage and hotspot identification.”
Transportation and Material Handling– The Drone applications are Logistics support; CBRN- Chemical Biological Radiation and Nuclear material handling; Air Ambulance – critical emergency medical Blood bank and organ transportation support (Heart, eye, liver etc.) due to the increasing traffic on the road transport; and Fire fighting
Urban Planning– City Survey and Planning; Virtual Reality Model creation; City Asset Management and Cleanliness monitoring for pollution control; and Property Taxation calculation are some of the DUMS’ Drone Applications in this sector.
Mining– Drone Applications include Survey and Area violation study; Quantity estimation of Minerals extraction; Damage assessment due to flood and natural disasters; and Surveillance and Reconnaissance.
Tourism– Drone Applications- Videos and movies with or without Virtual reality outputs as marking tools; Analytics embedded video clips for maintenance and Cleanliness of tourist places; and Virtual reality modelling of Tourist locations for Tourist attractions.
Forestry– Drone Applications- Virtual Tours; Forest area surveillance for wildlife conservation (Rhino Poaching); Forest fire detection; and Human Illegal activities monitoring.
Remote Sensing– Drone Applications- GIS (Geographical Information System); Remote data acquisition in hazardous environments to human life (or) inaccessible to direct examination (e.g. forest fires, toxic spills etc.).
Homeland Security– Drone Applications- Border Management; Traffic Monitoring; Fire Fighting and Disaster Management; Search and Rescue; Police Operations and Investigations; Maritime Security; and Greenhouse Emission Monitoring.
The Future Heavens of Drones
When probed considering the current industry scenario, what kind of challenges they face and how he drives DUMS to overcome them, Ramanathan says that the challenges are many in sourcing some specialized products which need to be imported, “And we are focusing on putting our best effort to localize some thru Technology transfer and pushing ourselves hard to minimize imports as low as possible.”
When asked what would be his advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the drone industry niche, he laughs out, “Ha! Ha! No advice only suggestions. Please focus and dedicate yourself and things will fall into place. Never take shortcuts for quick results as this will not give desired results long term.”
On envisioning scaling DUMS’s operations and offerings in the future, he concludes, “As every organization growth is market driven we want to scale up based on a current projection from 600 drones a year to 50000 drones over the next three years.”
DUMS Hall of Fame:
- Best “Drone Architecture Award” in the IAF Mehar Baba Swarm competition from the Indian Airforce in 2021.
- Second place in the Australian Medical challenge in 2018 by ‘Team Dhaksha’
- First Company in India to get “TYPE CERTIFICATION” for IC Engine-based Agriculture Spray Drone.
- First company to integrate 32 VLC LIDAR for mine survey.
