How drones can be game changers in combating Covid-19 crisis

Belonging to a small town in Telangana, a few years ago when IIT graduate Prem Kumar Vislawath contacted the local authorities to address the alarming incidents of mosquito menace, he was advised by them to find a solution. This is what led to the establishing of Marut Drones, India’s first drone technology to eradicate mosquito and water hyacinth on lakes. The drones were engineered to tackle the breeding of mosquitoes to reduce the risk of vector-borne diseases like dengue and malaria. Today, the startup has engineered its drones to address the struggles faced by the government to ensure preventive measures amidst the Covid-19 crisis.

The company’s products include Marut Medico (last-mile medical deliveries with the help of GPS); Marut Gro (for afforestation, the drones are engineered to sow seed balls into the ground); Marut ZAP (India’s first AI-based drone technology for mosquito eradication, water hyacinth, and prediction of mosquito-borne diseases); Marut Agri (spraying fertilizers and pesticides over the agricultural lands). Adding to this is Marut Covid19 – drones that will complement disease control measures undertaken by the government and make the fight against Covid-19 effective, efficient, fast and with less externalities.

Vislawath states that as remotely piloted devices, drones can be the potential game changers in the fight against Covid-19, due to – zero human contact; no-risk to human lives; being quicker, safer and more efficient; covering larger areas in lesser time; and of course being a cost-effective solution.

● Disinfectant Spraying Drone for sanitisation: These drones have the capacity to carry up to 10 litres of disinfectant. Operated manually, they can cover about 20 kilometers and spray 200 litres a day. “They can spray faster and more efficiently with zero human contact. Successfully disinfected 1900 kms with 9800 litres of chemical spanning across 8 districts from Telangana,” adds Vislawath.

● Movement Tracking Drone: For real-time surveillance, crowd control and public health warnings. Fitted with a camera and speaker, the drones can not only be used to monitor lockdown measures but also to spread awareness among the masses with public health warnings. Drones can act as eyes and arms for the police, and diligently keep an eye from the sky.

● Thermal Analysis Drone: These drones can be used to identify potential vectors of the virus amongst a crowd. “They are retrofitted with thermal cameras to detect high body temperatures in people from a distance. This eliminates the risk of contact between the personnel conducting the temperature checks and a potentially infected person. The mere identification of a potential carrier at an early stage can help save numerous lives,” mentions Vislawath.

● Drone delivery of critical medical supplies: The drones are equipped with a weather-proof box that can carry the essential goods and medical supplies like blood, diagnostic samples, long-tail medicines and vaccines safely to the destination. Vislawath reminds that in the current times of a global epidemic, these medical delivery drones can prove to be a life-saving aid by delivering sanitisers, masks, and Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to hospitals and quarantine zones.

“As of now, we have worked in the districts of Sangareddy, Kamareddy, Warangal, Karimnagar, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Naraynpet and several border districts of the state of Telangana,” says Vislawath, adding that they are currently helping the government to tackle the Covid-19 crisis by spraying disinfectants to sanitise public places and patrolling areas to ensure lockdown measures.

In Karimnagar, the district administration had marked Mukarampura as a Red Zone. To improve the effective monitoring of the residents’ movements and enforce the lockdown, the Karimnagar Commissionerate of Police used Marut’s Movement Tracking Drones to surveil the Red Zone that spanned across three municipal divisions.

Vislawath informs that Marut’s Disinfectant Drones were deployed by the Karimnagar Municipal Corporation for disinfecting public places like District Collectorate, Municipal Corporation, district hospital, bus station, auto stand, markets, Police Commissionerate and Rythu bazars.

“In the recent trial for our Medical Delivery Drones conducted in collaboration with the Emerging Technologies wing of Telangana government, Apollo Hospitals and World Economic Forum to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the drones could cover a distance of 12 km in 8 minutes, which is 80 times faster than traditional delivery methods,” states Vislawath, pointing out that amidst the socio-economic disruptions caused by this pandemic, the common cause of finding a solution to Covid-19 has brought together individuals, institutions, communities, governments and society at large.

“With a sense of optimism, we firmly believe that technology and ingenuity can help the global population to fight and defeat this viral attack. So, we are all geared up to combat this crisis in a way that we know the best- through drones,” asserts Vislawath.

In these unprecedented times, for the founders of the startup, the foremost priority is to raise enough funds to make sure that the team is taken care of, while they continue their fight against the novel coronavirus.

“As far as our future plans are concerned, we would like you to know that it’s just the beginning. We really hope that we are able to make the world a better place by providing comprehensive solutions such as scalable reforestation, last-mile medical deliveries, sustainable agriculture, and eradication of vector-borne diseases with Marut’s GRO, MEDICO, AGRI & ZAP, respectively,” says Vislawath, adding that since the drone industry is at its nascent stage in India, the talent acquisition gets quite challenging. In order to conquer this, they have partnered with the Telangana government to start a training academy where they can train and provide individuals with the necessary skills and opportunities, to be a part of this emerging field of technology.

‘Takeoff Telangana’ is an MOU between Marut Drones and Asia Pacific Flight Training Academy with the ITE & C Department, Telangana to create a UAV Training Ecosystem. All the courses offered will have unique and patented curriculums. This took place on March 14th, 2020.

The startup has received many accolades. Prem Kumar Vislawath got the title of “Pride of Telangana” last year for Marut’s success and the founders of Marut Drones – Vislawath along with Suraj Peddi and Sai Kumar Chinthala made their way to the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia 2020.

“We were selected to be a part of Facebook and T-Hub “India Innovation Accelerator Program- AI for Social Good’ and also were part of T-Hub’s Lab32 incubation program. We were also privileged to receive the “Emerging Technology Award for Drones and AI” at the 6th Nasscom Technology Conference, 2019,” says Vislawath. He however rues that despite creating a massive impact on the ecosystem and receiving accolades for their path-breaking innovation- a lot of challenges have also been coming their way. For instance, lack of government access and bureaucratic hurdles and delays is one of the longstanding issues the startup has had to face.