Dehradun:Uttarakhand's Drone Application and Research Centre (DARC) has developed a first-of-its-kind Ground Control Station (GCS) named 'Navnetra' which aims to be "a one-stop centre" for deploying drones and processing data collected during any disaster or emergency situation.
This system works like a drone ambulance, especially in disaster-prone areas where the communication connectivity has been completely wiped out. The mobile ground control vehicle can reach such areas and send live visuals to any place. Also, this control station has a power backup, which allows drone operations for a longer period.
Apart from this, the GCS is equipped with data processing, a live monitoring unit and image processing computers which are going to prove very beneficial for disaster assessment and relief work. Director of Information Technology Development Agency (ITDA) and additional director-general of police, Amit Sinha, said, "As we are a disaster-prone state, we plan to install a similar GCS system in every district of the state, so at the time of disaster it can help."
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"Drones are the future, for now, we are just scratching it, a lot has to be done, the only thing is that we began a bit early, so, for now, we had trained a workforce of thousand to eleven hundred drone operators and soon we will be having our 'Remote Pilot Training Organisation (RPTO). Basically, we are sensitizing people and attracting drone manufacturers to Uttarakhand," he said.
