Thala’s Daksha team flies away with gold and silver in drone olympics

Team Daksha, backed by actor Ajith, has added an illustrious feather in its cap. It recently bagged the first position at the unique Drone Olympics, a first-of-its-kind competition organised at the  Yelahanka Air Force station in Bengaluru, the venue of the biennial Aero India show. The team won in three categories and won one gold and two silver medals. It also won Rs 6 lakh cash prize.

Team ‘Daksha’ of Centre for Aerospace Research, MIT Campus, Anna University,  dominated the competition from the beginning and won the first place in the ‘surveillance hybrid design’ category. Daksha’s drone weighed 20 kg. Another drone -- Surveillance fixed VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) with multirotor in the 4 kg category, got Daksha the silver medal. Likewise, in the Flying Formation challenge, the fifth category of the competition, the team won another silver medal.

The drones were tested in various categories — surveillance, which involved fixed vertical take-off and landing and was judged on flight times and ability to detect human-sized targets. 

Universities, colleges and several companies across the country participated in the competition, which was held in five categories. According to the organisers, more than 120 applications were received out of which 57 suitable applicants were invited to participate. The 17 shortlisted teams mainly comprising hi-tech start-ups, research institutes, students and individuals demonstrated their skills and innovation in the final event in five different categories. 

In October 2018, Daksha won the second position at UAV Challenge held at Dalby, Australia. Recently, the same team developed the country’s first drone taxi, which was successfully tested on campus.