Type Certification is necessary for regulatory compliance as per Drone Rules 2021. It is also essential to comply with international ISO/IEC17065 standards and also for taking part in the government procurement process, said the Quality Council of India (QCI), the government body which handles the Certification Scheme for Unmanned Aircraft System (CSUAS).

Asteria Aerospace became the first to receive certification in the Micro class of drones for its A200 model which weighs 2 kg and can fly up to 8,202.5 feet, the Digital Sky website showed on 6 October.

The DGCA categorises drones based on their weight. Drones with an all-up weight of 250 g to 2 kg fall under the micro category of drones. Medium class of drones that weigh more than 25 kg and up to 150 kg.

Bengaluru-based General Aeronautics received certification in the Medium class of drones for its model Krishak, which weighs 49 kg and can reach up to 9,843.0 feet in height.

Similarly, Dhaksha Unmanned Systems, too, received certification in the medium class, for its model DH-AG-H1, weighing 47.60 kg and with a maximum attainable height of 49.22 feet.

In a statement, Asteria Aerospace Limited said that Asteria’s A200 drone had been developed for surveying and mapping applications in GIS, agriculture, construction, mining, and other industries.

The A200 has a survey-grade GPS and a high-resolution imaging camera that can map land parcels. It can be also used in agriculture, such as for monitoring crop growth and so on.

List of Type and Non-Type Certifies UAVs

Type Certified

Manufacturer/ Importer              UAS class             UAS Model name

IOTECHWORLD AVIGATION         SMALL  AGRIBOT

CBAI technologies           SMALL  Model V

ASTERIA AEROSPACE LIMITED    MICRO  A200

DHAKSHA UNMANNED SYSTEMS              MEDIUM             DH-AG-H1

GENERAL AERONAUTICS              MEDIUM             Krishak

Non-Type Certified

Manufacturer/ Importer              UAS class             UAS Model name

3DR        SMALL  S110A

4DRC     MICRO  MARK300

Aarav Unmanned Systems          SMALL  AUS T5OOi

Aarav Unmanned Systems          SMALL  Insight 1.0

Aarav Unmanned Systems          MICRO  Sparrow-RTK

Aarav Unmanned Systems          SMALL  Insight 2.0

Aarav Unmanned Systems          SMALL  Insight 2.1

ACCEL UAV PVT LTD        SMALL  ACE1

ACSL      SMALL  Pf2

Aero Drone Technologies             MICRO  A610

Aero Drone Technologies             SMALL  A410

AEROAEON AVIONICS    SMALL  DX

Aerosys Aviation India   MICRO  VEDANSH

Aeroworks          SMALL  YAK 54

AFI Technology MICRO  AGRI DRONE

Aibotix GmbH    SMALL  AIBOTIX X6 V2

AIRSELFIE LIMITED           MICRO  AIRSELFIE2 As02

Non-Type Certified

Manufacturer/ Importer              UAS class             UAS Model name

Kitemaps AMS Pvt Ltd   SMALL  RW042021H005

Prime UAV          SMALL  Prime Ag10

PASHAAN TECHNOLOGIES           SMALL  X-UAV TALON

Kitemaps AMS Pvt. Ltd  SMALL  RW062021H006

Kitemaps AMS Pvt. Ltd  SMALL  RW052021M003

Skye Air Mobility              SMALL  Skye Ship onee

Skye Air Mobility              SMALL  Skye Ship 1.0

Ayaan Autonomous Systems      NANO   SPYD-NANO

ABC        SMALL  kv

AIRSERVE INITIATIVES LLP            SMALL  AST-001

AIRSERVE INITIATIVES LLP            SMALL  AS100S

AIRSERVE INITIATIVES LLP            SMALL  AS101S

Powervision Robot Inc   SMALL  Power Egg

AIRSERVE INITIATIVES LLP            SMALL  AS102S

AIRSERVE INITIATIVES LLP            SMALL  AS103S

AIRSERVE INITIATIVES LLP            SMALL  AS104S

AIRSERVE INITIATIVES LLP            SMALL  AS105S

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Drone Airspace Map was published on September 24 last year, opening up nearly 90 per cent of Indian airspace as a green zone for drones flying up to 400 feet, said Singh.

“Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for drones was also notified on September 30 last year as well as UAS Traffic Management (UTM) Policy Framework was published on October 24 last year,” said the Minister.

A monetary grant programme for the purchase of agricultural drones was announced by the Union Agriculture Ministry on January 22 this year, and all application forms under Drone Rules, 2021 were also made online on the Digital Sky Platform on January 26.

Singh said that the drone certification scheme was notified on January 26 this year and the mission “Drone Shakti” was also announced for supporting drone startups and promoting Drone-as-a-Service (DrAAS) as part of the Union Budget on February 1.

Besides, the drone import policy was notified on February 9, banning the import of foreign drones and freeing up the import of drone components.

He further mentioned that Drone (Amendment) Rules, 2022 were notified on February 11, abolishing the requirement of a drone pilot licence. Now a remote pilot certificate is issued by a Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) authorised Remote Pilot Training Organisations (RPTO) which is adequate for the remote pilot to operate drones.

Drones Rules, 2021 notified on August 25 last year, provide the necessary regulatory framework for the civilian or commercial use of drones.

These rules cover various aspects like type certification, registration and operation of drones, airspace restrictions, research, development and testing of drones, training and licensing, offences and penalties.

“An airspace map of the country segregating the entire airspace into red, yellow and green zones is available on the digital sky platform. The operation of drones in red and yellow zones is subject to the approval of the Central Government and the concerned Air Traffic Control (ATC) authority respectively. No approval is required for the operation of drones in green zones,” the Ministry said.

He said drones are required to have the necessary type certification issued by the DGCA, and that no type certification is however required in case of nano drones (up to 250 gram all-up weight) and model drones made for research and recreation purposes.

The Minister said the owner and operators of drones are required to furnish the necessary personal details including their Indian passport number for issuance of any registration or licence.

“Authorisation of RPTO will be done by DGCA within specified time limits,” said Singh.

As of July 20, there were 27 RPTOs authorised by DGCA. Of these, three RPTOs are located in Gujarat– Blue Ray Aviation Pvt. Ltd., Kaushalya- The Skill University and Sanskardham Drone Academy.

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Conditions have been laid down in case of such exemption for aerial surveillance, aerial photography and public announcements related to Covid-19. Exemption is limited to battery-operated rotary-wing RPAs. Use of any other type of RPA, including but not limited to, fixed-wing RPA and autonomous RPA etc. is strictly prohibited.

Details of every RPA flight will be uploaded on Director General Civil Aviation (DGCA) Digital Sky Platform within seven days of undertaking the flight. Any incident or accident related to any RPA operation shall be immediately reported to Ministry of Civial Aviation (MoCA) and DGCA through the Digital Sky Platform.

The RPA will have a Unique Identification Number (UIN) and/or Drone Acknowledgment Number (DAN) issued by DGCA; not exceed a total all-up weight of 25 kg; equipped with an automatic return-to-home feature in case of any loss of the command-and-control link; restricted to a height of 200 feet Above Ground Limit (AGL); operated within visual line of sight (VLOS) at all times; operated while maintaining safe distance from people, buildings, vehicles and property at all times; not pick, drop, spray or discharge any substance; restricted to a period between local sunrise and local sunset.

Safety and security distances have also been laid down – not within a distance of 5 km from the perimeter of airports at Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad; not within a distance of 3 km from the perimeter of other civil, private or defence airports; not within permanent or temporary Prohibited, Restricted and Danger Areas including Temporary Reserved Airspace (TRA), and Temporarily Segregated Areas (TSA), as notified in the Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP); not within 25km from international border which includes Line of Control (LoC), Line of Actual Control (LAC) and Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL); beyond 500 m (horizontal) into sea from coast line provided the location of ground station is on fixed platform over land; not within 3 km from perimeter of military installations/ facilities/ where military activities/ exercises are being carried out unless clearance is obtained from the local military installation/facility; not within 5 km radius from Vijay Chowk in Delhi. This is subject to additional conditions/ restrictions imposed by local law enforcement agencies/ authorities;  not within 3 km radius from State Secretariat Complex in State Capitals; and not within 2 km from perimeter of strategic locations/vital installations notified by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

 ‘Pandemic Drone’ to Detect Coronavirus

A ‘pandemic drone’ to remotely monitor and detect people with infectious respiratory conditions is being developed by the University of South Australia (UniSA) in partnership with a Canadian company.

The drone will be fitted with a specialised sensor and computer vision system that can monitor temperature, heart and respiratory rates, as well as detect people sneezing and coughing in crowds, offices, airports, cruise ships, aged care homes and other places where groups of people may work or congregate.

The UniSA team led by Defence Chair of Sensor Systems  Professor Javaan Chahl, who holds a joint appointment DST, will work with Draganfly Inc, a North American drone technology company, to immediately start integrating commercial, medical and government customers.

Professor Chahl, working alongside Dr Ali Al-Naji and Asanka Perera, achieved global recognition in 2017 when they demonstrated image-processing algorithms that could extract a human’s heart rate from drone video.

Since then they have demonstrated that heart rate  and breathing rate can be measured with high accuracy within 5-10 metres of people, using drones and at distances of up to 50 metres with fixed cameras. They have also developed algorithms that can interpret human actions such as sneezing and coughing.

He says the technology could be a viable screening tool for the Covid-19 pandemic.

MSMEs Can Get UAV Projects

MSMEs in drone manufacturing have found the going difficult and with the pandemic melt down of the manufacturing in India, may require impetus more than ever to remain commercially viable.

While the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has been trying to indigenize these, the private sector UAV industry has been growing. Unfortunately the evolution of technology has been restricted due to ambiguity in implementation of Drone Regulations promulgated by Airport Authority of India (AAI).

In a letter to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) has requested for a directive to be issued to the DRDO, Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs) and the Services to prepare a list of projects that can shared with the private sector companies and the MSMEs.

DRDO’s long range multi-mission drone, Rustom-2 has been under development since 2011, even after realizing multiple airframes and Design Validation Flights (DVF) by 2017 itself, there have been delays to meet the User’s requirements.

In the mini UAVs category, Netra is a Quadcopter developed by DRDO with Private industry Partnership and could be supplied to Police and Para military services, even Indian Army exploited these drones but technological advancement pushed for upgradation of these mini UAVS.

Due to restrictions in explosive ordnance handling by commercial agencies, the design and development of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) for attack role have been limited in India. India’s first weaponized drone was undertaken by National Security Guards (NSG) in 2018. A private MSME completed the successful development and subsequent manufacture trials of ‘Kamikaze’ explosive laden mini-Quadcopter drones. However, due to complicated procurement procedures has not been inducted yet.

Overall, the armed forces are still dependent on import of UAVs for operational missions, and is spending dollars for maintenance like spares, annual maintenance contracts (AMC) signed with the original equipment manufacturers (OEM), etc, as India has not been able to manufacture any indigenous UAVs.

IAF Interested in Swarm Drones Launched From Aircraft

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been researching several types of swarm drone technology that could be used on the battlefield. According to Pentagon acquisition head Ellen Lord, one particular programme has impressed the Indian Air Force (IAF) due to which US and India have discussed collaborating on such efforts to build a relatively low-cost unmanned aircraft that can be launched from a “mother ship” transport aircraft like C-130J which IAF already has in its fleet and then be recovered by the same mother ship after their mission is complete.

The IAF also wants to include other “mother ship” transport aircraft like its C-17 fleet and primarily talks were held last year about collaboration between US Air Force Research Laboratory and DRDO. Further talks will likely be held later in 2020 to work on the technicality of the proposed joint venture.

According to DARPA’s concept, a jet-powered drone can be launched from the C-130 wing pylons and recovered by using a docking cable and a crane-like recovery arm from the cargo door. DARPA is looking at the drones that can be used as a potential line-of-sight communications link in contested environments where radios could be jammed, as well as use its sensor platforms for surveillance and targeting.

Each C-130J will be able to launch 4 such Jet powered SWARM drones which can be tasked to perform specific individual tasks and interact with each other using autonomous mode and all can be recovered within 20 minutes.

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