A 14-year-old Class X student of Gujarat grabbed the eyeballs at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit on Thursday after he signed a Rs 5 crore-worth memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government, bagging the deal for production of a drone designed by him.
Harshwardhan Zala signed the deal with the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat, to facilitate production of the drones that help detect and defuse land mines on war fields, says a Times of India report.
Zala said that he started work on the prototype on the prototype of the landmine-detecting drone in 2016 and created a business plan too.
“The inspiration struck when I was watching television and learned that a large number of soldiers succumb to injuries sustained due to landmine blasts while defusing them manually,” Zala was quoted by Times of India as saying.
According to the report, the 14-year-old boy spent about Rs 5 lakh in making the three prototypes of the drone. While his parents spent Rs 2 lakh for the first two prototypes, the state government granted Rs 3 lakh for the third.
Wired to locate and destroy, Zala said “the drone has been equipped with infrared, RGB sensor and thermal meter along with a 21-megapixel camera with a mechanical shutter that can take high resolution pictures as well”.
The drone is designed to send out waves that cover eight sq mt area while flying two feet above the surface. Moreover, it also carries a bomb weighing 50 gm that can be used to destroy the landmine.
The class X student has already registered for a patent and has set up his own company ‘Aerobotics’. He said that he has several other plans that he wants to execute once the patent for this drone is registered.
