Indigenisation Key To National Security: ZUPPA
What are the most critical components that need to be indigenised and why?
A Drone is like any aircraft that comes together by the integration of multiple subsystems like the airframe , power system , communication system etc it is the autopilot a small piece of embedded electronics that replaces the human pilot and making unmanned flight possible. Hence while all components are essential for a drone from an operational perspective the most important component is the autopilot an advanced computer that is empowered to take decisions and act like a human would to control the aircraft. Unlike personal or mobile computing where humans are decision makers based on inputs from the device in the case of the autopilot decision making happens on board the aircraft thanks to the use of advanced AI and ML algorithms.
Since the autopilot is the motherboard of the drone what are the autopilots currently used in Indian manufactured drones and from which country are they being imported?
Autopilot Options Globally broadly fall under two types from a technological Perspective-Open source and Proprietary.
Open Source: The origin of development of all these autopilots can largely be traced to Ardupilot and its later version Pixhawk which were crowd sourced efforts involving hundreds and thousands of developers contributing to some part of the products development from design to coding including key functionalities. An added Encryption layer is the only possibility for enhancing security on drones using these autopilots but that does not remove the known vulnerabilities of an open-source system. However, Vulnerability to hacking of these as compared to proprietary autopilots is definitely higher.
Proprietary Autopilots like Micropilot, Embition, UAV Navigation, ZUPPA, DJI and a handful of others globally have been developed by Individual developers based on their proprietary computing architectures and operating systems. Hence the protocols and algorithms operating within them are known only to these individual developers and their teams hence offer end users very high levels of customisation and security key requirements as the use cases of drones evolves going forward eg triple redundancy and consistency of performance for logistics or high level of security and hacking proofing for swarms and loitering munitions or data integrity for surveillance and mapping and digitisation of land records. Another important aspect is the technological ease of comprehensive testing as a complete eco system of all associated algorithms, bug identification and version control. These aspects are a must when the use case involves low risk and reliability as a basic tenet of performance. Proprietary Autopilots are turning out to be the go-to subsystems for drone manufacturers as the sophistication of end user applications evolve going forward. Majority of the Indian drone assemblers use open source pixhawk and its Chinese Clones. Which by their very nature are security compromised!
Does the Ajeet mini drone manufactured by your company use your proprietary autopilot?
Ajeet mini has been possible only because we are using our proprietary Autopilot. The fact that no other manufacturer in India has been able to manufacture a sub 2 kg class micro drone like Ajeet capable of competing against world class brands like DJI both on performance and price is testimony to the advantages of using a proprietary autopilot like Ajeet. The fact that Ajeet Mini has been proven across geographies from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Jaisalmer to Tawang can be directly attributed to the use of our proprietary Autopilot.
What is the company's revenue and are you looking at raising any funds?
The company is targeting a revenue in excess of Rs 100 crores in the current financial primarily driven by fulfilment of its mission to replace use of DJI drones by security agencies across India and then move on to providing Indian consumers with a a totally indigenous option of a camera drone. ZUPPA is currently in the midst of a funding round of Rs 150 crore spread over the next 12-18 months.
What is Ajeet Mini's goal and vision?
Ajeet Mini is gaining traction quite rapidly as a replacement of DJI within India, It has practically equalled DJI’s performance from the aerial platform perspective and current work is on to upgrade payloads and range from the use cases perspective and we shall be launching multiple versions of Ajeet Mini going forward. We also envision significant export potential for Ajeet to security agencies of friendly countries across the world that are looking to replace Chinese DJI drones currently being used by them. Over the next couple of years, we envision Ajeet emerging as a worthy competitor to the likes DJI, SkyDio, Parrot at a Global level.
