Technorama December 2013 PDF

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TECHNORAMA
Volume 63, December 2013
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are the logical successors to modern aircraft
and advancements in automated technology. The current generation of UAV's
is focused on wartime capabilities and reconnaissance, leaving an existing
market untapped by UAV technology: the commercial field. There are
hundreds of applications for UAV technology in the civilian market, from
emergency response applications and media outlets to communication
technicians and horticulturalists. The vehicle can even act as a path guider in
normal case and as a fire extinguisher in emergency. The innovations in the
fields of unmanned vehicles, thereby working towards a practical and
obtainable solution to save lives and mitigate the risk of property damage.
The Indian Armed Forces have been operating UAVs for over a decade. The Indian Army was the first to
acquire UAVs, in late 1990s from Israel, and the Indian Air Force and Navy followed. At the outset,
DRDO was tasked to produce a catapult launched UAV which was developed by its Aeronautical
Developmental Establishment, Bangalore and improved to meet user requirements. Vehicle Research and
Development Establishment of DRDO has worked smaller versions of UAVs. Further down the scale is
the MAV family comprising, Mini Air Vehicle and Nano Air Vehicles. These cover Fixed Wing, Rotary
Wing and Flapping Wing MAVs.
The National Design and Development Forum (NDRF) an Autonomous Forum of The Institution of
Engineers (India), contributed significantly for the development of MAVs in India by involving many
organizations since 2001. NDRF has promoted and facilitated design, research and development of MAVs
by taken up a number of collaborative projects under National Program for Micro Air Vehicles
(NP-MICAV) supported by AR&DB (DRDO) and DST.
The Institution of Engineers (India) always endeavors to disseminate the latest technological
developments taking place in various engineering disciplines through the publication of its flag-sheep
theme based magazine Technorama for engineering professionals and practitioners. This issue has
been dedicated on the theme Networked Intelligent Unmanned Systems. Scientists, engineers and
researchers having expertise in this field contributed their thoughts on various aspects embracing the main
theme.
Prof (Dr) N R Bandyopadhyay

On behalf of the
Board of Consulting Editors
TECHNORAMA
Volume 63
December 2013
TECHNORAMA
is a publication of
The Institution of Engineers (India)
Synapses and
Cyborgs for Hazards
President
Mr S S Rathore, FIE
President-Elect
Mr Ashok Kumar Basa, FIE
11
Computational and
Experimental Facilities
for Design of Micro Air Vehicle
Autonomous Ocean Observation
Systems (AOS) - A Review
Tilt-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
20
23
28
Networking Intelligent
31
Micro Unmanned
Systems-small Satellites
Networked Autonomous
Space, Aerial, Ground,
Water Surface and Underwater
Systems: An Assessment of
Technology Readiness Levels
Assay of the Micro Air Vehicles
(MICAVs) Initiative at NDRF
Editor
Maj Gen (Retd) R K Sanan, VSM, FIE
Special Contributors
Mr S Chakraverty, MIE; Mr K Sen, MIE;
Dr S Ghosh, MIE; Mr T Chakraborty,
Ms A Dutta, Mr T K Roy,
Mr A Basu and Ms H Roy
as a body accepts no responsibility
for statements made by individuals.
Reprints of any portion of the
publication may be made provided
that reference thereto be quoted
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16
Multifunctional Autonomous
Agrobots for Agricultural
Mechanisation
Board of Consulting Editors

Prof (Dr) Samiran Choudhuri, FIE
Prof (Dr) N R Bandyopadhyay, FIE
Lt Gen (Dr) V J Sundaram, PVSM,
AVSM, VSM (Retd) FIE
T ECHNORAMA
Synapses and Cyborgs for Hazards

Lt Gen (Dr) V J Sundaram, PVSM, AVSM, VSM (Retd)
Advisor (Micro and Nano Systems),
National Design and Research Forum, The Institution of Engineers (India), Bangalore
INTRODUCTION
Hazards are encountered in daily life due
to dangerous substances like explosives,
toxic gases, pathogens and nuclear
radiation or disasters like floods, fires,
explosions etc. Satellites, aircraft and
helicopters are routinely called in to help.
Satellites give a good overall picture but
are restricted to fixed windows. Aircraft
and helicopters need space and facilities
to take off and land. To help district
authorities and rescue groups on an as
required basis urgently in smaller zones,
within 5 km 10 km of a control centre,
flight vehicles which could be hand or
bungee launched are ideal. The
Aeronautics Research & Development
Board (AR&DB) and Department of
Science and Technology (DST) of India
supported development of Mini Air
Vehicle (MAV) and Micro Air Vehicle
(MICAV) technologies to meet this
requirement. The projects covered fixed

wing, rotary wing and flapping wing air
vehicles. Other projects handled
unmanned ground and underwater
vehicles. Payloads identified were
cameras and radio transmitters for
sending pictures of the hazard locations
to the base stations and rescue groups.
Other sensors to monitor toxic
substances could also be carried by the
MAVs and MICAVs. A summary of
MAV/MICAV activities in India is
indicated in Figure 1.
Academia, National Laboratories,
Industries and Societies like the
Aeronautical Society of India and The
National Design & Research Forum
(NDRF) of The Institution of Engineers
(India) are enthusiastic participants. An
International Competition for MICAVs
was sponsored by DRDO, CSIR as well
as the US Army, Navy and Air Force. It
was held in 2008 at Agra and focused on

technologies for location of hostages. It
was followed by a Seminar where many
users, both from India and abroad gave
suggestions on the requirements.
MAJOR CHALLENGES
Major challenges which require R&D
solutions on priority are:
1. Vision based control, navigation
and guidance for exploration of
enclosed spaces, caves and tunnels.
2. Systems to locate persons trapped
under landslides and collapsed
buildings.
3. Explosives and other hazardous
material buried underground or
hidden.
These call for miniaturization and
capability to enter and maneuver in
extremely restricted space. The
appropriate integration of micro, nano,
bio, info and cogno technologies as
shown in Figure 2 would be essential to
achieve this aim. Some of these, such as,
Brain-like Computing, Brain Computer
Interface (BCI), Biological Networks
and Sensors as well as Cyborgs are
discussed in succeeding paras.
SYNAPSE
Figure 1: MAV/MICAV Activities in India
System of Neuromorphic Adaptive

Plastic Scalable Electronics
(SYNAPSE) is based on brain-like
computing and has been developed by
IBM with DARPA. It uses nano scale
electronic synaptic components
modeled on brain synapses. According
to Dhamendra S Moda, the Principal
Investigator and Senior Manager of
IBM Research, this new model was
inspired by the human brain, both
functionally as well as low power
consumption. All parts of this electronic
57
T ECHNORAMA
of University of Minnesota used both

functional MRI and EEG to map where
the brain neurons are activated when one
imagines movements. His group used
the knowledge of what kinds of signals
are generated by a particular motion
imagined. This was used by Le Fleur K
et al [2] to design the flight control system
of a Quadcopter and fly it in real time
using an EEG cap. Same technique will
be used by immobilized or speechless
people to control objects like
wheelchairs as well as their limbs with
their thoughts.
[3]
Figure 2: Integration of Micro, Nano, Bio, Info and Cogno Technologies
system will work simultaneously like the

brain for perception, action and
cognition. Neural like programming
with advanced sensors will analyse
visual information almost instantly for
acceptable faces and danger with power
consumption of less than 20 W. IBM will
create a FORTRAN for cognitive
computing chips. It will use phase
change materials which can carry out
simultaneously, information processing
and storage, resembling biosystems. The
building blocks will be Corelets
network of neurons. The brain-like
core called Synaptic Processor will be a
system with 10 billion neurons and
100 billion synapses. This would
usher a new paradigm in computing and
play a major role in vision based
systems.
BIOLOGICAL NETWORKS
[1]
K Warwick et al
studied the
computational capacity and learning
behaviour of dissociated, cultured,
neuronal networks using cortical tissue
(from rat brains) with a 8X8 Multi
Electrode Array (MEA). The cultures
remained active for 3 months. They used
MATLAB for simulation. Physically, a
closed loop system was created between
the cultured, neuronal network and a
mobile robotic platform. Actual
experiments performed to avoid a wall,
appeared to achieve about 50% success

compared with simulation. The studies
gave insights to develop a better model.
Similar feasibility studies to understand
the operation of biological networks
have been initiated with Prof Sikdar and
Prof Amruthur Bharadwaj at the Indian
Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.
BRAIN MACHINE / COMPUTER
INTERFACE
A Brain Machine Interface Project was
initiated by NDRF and funded by
DRDO to IISc and National Brain
Research Centre (NBRC), Manesar. The
mathematical model and algorithm were
developed by Prof G Rangarajan of IISc
while the animal trials on a monkey
(called Major) were conducted by Dr
Neeraj Jain of NBRC when Dr
Vijayalakshmi Ravindranath was the
Director of NBRC. The operation and
programming of the haptic arm used in
the experiments was the responsibility
of Prof Ashitava Ghosal of IISc. The
project was presented in the Workshop
on Advances in Robotics held at IIT
Delhi in July 2012 under the auspices of
the Robotics Society of India and
Robotics Group of IIT Delhi.
Electroencephalography (EEG) records
the electrical activity of the brain. The
amplitude is in microvolts. Prof Bin He
Sergi Bermudez i Badia et al , applied

the principles of a fly-locust based
neuronal control system to an unmanned
aerial vehicle for course stabilization,
altitude control and collision avoidance.
Dr Miguel Nicolesis of Duke University,
USA, plans to have a paralyzed teenager
clad in a robotic body suit to literally
kick off the ball ceremonially at the
soccer World Cup in Brazil in 2014.
Electromyography (EMG) detects the
electrical potentials generated by
muscle cells in skeletal muscles. The
potentials can range upto 20/30
millivolts depending on the muscle with
a frequency of 7-20 Hz.. This includes
eye muscles and gluteal muscles. EMG
signals have been targeted for flight
control systems (instead of signals from
joysticks) in conjunction with goggle
based displays.
Dr Sanjiv Sambandham of the
Department of Instrumentation, IISc
and Dr Mahesh Jayachandra, a
neurophysiologist with the
bioengineering group of NDRF, will use
EMG signals for a thought based control
project for eventual application to
control a MICAV.
BIOLOGICAL SENSORS
Dogs have been used to track people,
locate explosives and even detect
cancer. Bees and wasps have been tried
to locate explosives but found to get
distracted by other sources of nectar.
Rats, it is claimed, have more functional
genes in their olfactory systems than any
other mammal. They also have their
noses closer to the ground compared to
T ECHNORAMA
dogs, This is an advantage as the highest

vapor pressure from explosives and
lowest wind speed are close to the
ground.
Bart Weetgens of Belgium trained
African Pouch Rats to detect mines. The
training was done with TNT. A training
centre has been established and the rats
are accredited periodically. Nearly 2,400
mines have been detected on
Mozambique by these rats, now called
HERO Rats. Trials are being carried out
in Angola, Cambodia and Thailand. Dr
Bhalla of the National Centre tor
Biological Sciences (NCBS) at
Bangalore, has also worked on a project
to utilize rats and this work should be
pursued further in India.
system of enzymes to detect nitric oxide

which is an indicator for the presence of
many explosives (Figure 4).
CYBORGS
Cybernetics is the science of
communication and control concerned
with automatic control systems, such as,
brain-nervous systems or mechanicalelectrical-communication systems. A
cyborg is a being with both cybernetic
and organic parts. Manfred Clines and
Nathan Kline used it in an article on

human-machine systems in outer space.
The term cyborg can be applied to
organisms which are modified to
perform at higher levels than
unmodified counterparts,. It is almost
always considered as increasing human
or animal capabilities as in the case of
Captain Spock in Star Trek.
The capabilities of biological creatures
like rodents, insects and even humans
The human olfactory system using

bioreceptors (Figure 3) is also a marvel,
whether it detects dosais or a leaking gas
stove. Compared to chemical sensors,
they are more specific in detection but
their life is limited being based on
proteins and enzymes.
Prasanthi of NDRF has developed a
Figure 4: System of Enzymes to Detect Nitric Oxide
can be enhanced with technologies like

SYNAPSE or Brain Computer Interface
leading to cyborgs capable of vision
based control/guidance or location of
buried explosives and persons trapped
under rubble.
Professor Kevin Warwick of the
University of Reading implanted a
silicon chip transponder in his own
forearm as part of Project Cyborg 1 to
study wireless transmission of brain
signals. In 2002, in Project Cyborg 2, he
put in a similar chip in his wife, Irene, to
study whether the brain can adapt and
process signals from one person to
another.
[4]
Giacomo et al have made Cyborg

Tissue with Carbon Nano Tubes (CNT)
and plant/fungal cells by artificial tissue
engineering. Dried cells acted as a
matrix for a Multiple Wall CNT
network. Applications for temperature
sensors and electromagnetic shielding
have been suggested.
INSECT CYBORGS
Figure 3 Human Olfactory System
Matt Keenon's team at Aerovironment
T ECHNORAMA
developed a 16.5 cm Hummingbird to
meet DARPA's requirement for a Nano
Air Vehicle (NAV) to be used as scouts in
combat and hunt for survivors in
disasters and fugitives in caves and
tunnels. Remote controlled and
weighing less than 19 gm, it can fly for
about 11 minutes with a maximum speed
of 17 km/hr. The DelFly Micro (10 cm)
can fly for about 3-4 min. DC
Enterprises in India have flown a 20cm
flapper for 10 min and are now
developing a 12.5 cm version. The
specific sensing capabilities of all these
NAVs could be enhanced with biological
sensors but the flight duration is limited
by their lithium-ion batteries. Fuel cells,
microwave power transmission and
even radio isotopes like NI-23 have been
suggested as power sources to increase
flight duration.
Insect Cyborgs will solve the flight
duration problem since insects like
moths and beetles can fly longer
naturally. The challenge is to control
them and enhance their sensing
capabilities by carrying micro/nano
cameras or olfactory sensors with
transmitters. No external power is
required for flight but micro-energy
sources will still be required for the
micro/nano electronics.
Remote neuronal flight control of insects
has been achieved with implanted bio
interfaces to electrically stimulate
nervous and muscular systems of live
insects. Cornell University implanted
circuit boards successfully into tobacco
hookworms in early pupal stage. They
passed through the chrysalis stage and
matured into moths which could be
controlled through electronics. Most
favourable and least favourable times for
insertion were also determined.
Hybrid Insect-MEMS (HI-MEMS)
program was conceived at DARPA by
Prof Amit Lal, Professor of Electrical
Engineering from Cornell. The
program's aims were to demonstrate,
1. Reliable bio-electromechanical
interfaces to insects.
2. Locomotion control using MEMS
platforms.
3. Technologies to scavenge power

from insects.
below.
It involved MIT (Mass), University of

Michigan (Ann Arbor) and Boyce
Thompson Institute for Plant Research
in Ithaca, NY. It also drew on the work
of entomologists as well as electrical
and mechanical engineers at University
of California (Berkeley), University of
Arizona and Washington University, St
Louis. Some of the results are indicated
below:
PCB + Miscellaneous
components
687
Micro battery (8,5mAh) &

Avionics
350
Antenna
74
Microcontroller
130
Adhesive
90
1. Boyce Thompson Institute inserted

Silicon-neural interface for gas
sensors into insects at the pupal
stage.
2. Prof Anantha Chandrakasan (MIT)
and his student Denis Daly designed
the low power UWB radio
connected to a 4 electrode
neurostimulator for nervous tissue
in the moth. A hearing aid battery
provided the power.
3. Prof Khalil Najafi and Erkan
Aktakka of University of Michigan
worked on harvesting energy from
the wing movements of a beetle
using a spiral piezoelectric
generator to prolong battery life.
4. Thermoelectric generators using the
body heat produced as well as
magnetic generators have also been
suggested.
The final milestone Fly the insect
cyborg to within 5 m of a target at 100 m.
The control of flight locomotion
trajectories could be by
1. GPS coordinates,
2. Using RF, optical or ultrasonics
based remote control.
RF System for Insect Neural Flight
Control was developed by Sato, Berry,
Maharbiz et al[5,6] belonging to the
Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science Departments of the University
of California, Berkeley and University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor. It was used for
the radio control of aecynorhina beetle
cyborg. These beetles range up to 8 cm,
in size and 10 gm in weight. The weight
distribution of the RF receiver is given
Item
Wt (mg)
Total
1331
Flight initiation, cessation and turning in

flight were demonstrated.
These details have been given to
emphasize that insect cyborgs are a
reality and not just flights of
imagination. In India, work has been
initiated by NDRF to utilize indigenous,
hardy beetles which could home on to
persons trapped under rubble. It will
involve collaboration of the NDRF
consortium with the Institute of Wood
Science and Technology (Bangalore),
University of Agricultural Sciences
(Raichur), the MEMS group in STARC
(Semiconductor Technology and
Applied Research Center) Bangalore
and MMIC group in SITAR (Society for
Integrated circuit Technology and
Applied Research, Hyderabad) as well
as Department of Life Sciences, DRDO.
The support of entomologists will be
essential. A Bangalore Borg is indicated
in Figure 5 and a conceptual cyborg in
Figure 6.
RODENT CYBORGS
Research on rodent cyborgs was done by
John Chapin at SUNY, New York to
utilize the excellent olfactory capability
of rats. He used an electrode assembly to
pick up their brain signals. A back pack,
with the requisite electronics to control
Figure 5 Bangalore Borg
T ECHNORAMA
India by the Department of

Biotechnology (DBT) as well as DST.
Studies have been carried out at IIT
Bombay, Jawaharlal Nehru Center for
Advanced Scientific Research
(JNCASR), IISc, Dayalbagh University
(Agra) and Dharwad University. Typical
responses in the visible light region are
shown in Figures 7 and 8.
bR has been produced by Dr Suri at
Institute of Microbial Technology
(IMTECH), Chandigarh. However its
applications have not been pursued at
all!. May be we should rethink about this
area to undertake further research for its
application in Optogenetics for cyborgs.
CONCLUSION
Figure 6 Conceptual Cyborg
the rat's movements remotely, was

strapped to the rat by a harness.
[7]
Emily Anthes has made an excellent

and witty review of cyborgs in
Frankenstein's Cat.
OPTOGENETICS
Optogenetics was used by Boyden of
MIT in 2011 to control movements of
mice by wireless using flashes of light.
Optogenetics makes use of opsins.
Opsins are light sensitive molecules
which convert sunlight into energy.
Rhodopsin in the human eye is
responsible for our vision.
Bacteriorhodopsin (bR) is made by

bacteria. Virus modified with opsin
genes has been injected into the brain of
a mouse which then produces its own
opsins to act as light sensitive channels
in the membrane. The mouse then be
controlled through a non-invasive
helmet with an array of LEDs and radio
[8]
antenna. Lief Fenno et al
have
discussed the development and
[9]
applications of Optogenetics. Wentz
has described a device for such optical
neural control.
The study of bR has been supported in
Spectral response of photocurrent from indigenous

bacteriorhodopsin flim
Figure 7 Response of bR in Visible Region
The challenges of vision based control,

navigation and guidance, location of
buried explosives as well as humans
buried in landslides and collapsed
buildings can be met more effectively by
the synergistic utilization of cognitive
chips with SYNAPSE, brain computer
interfaces and insect/rodent cyborgs.
Work in these areas is going on in
scattered pockets in India. It is strongly
recommended that a coordinated
program involving government
authorities, DRDO, DST, DBT, CSIR,
Academia, Industry and professional
societies should be undertaken to
develop and produce products for the
handling of hazards and disasters.
Spectral response : bR on conducting polymer

effect of bias
Figure 8 Shift of Spectral Peaks by Bias
T ECHNORAMA
REFERENCES
1. Warwick K, Xydas D, Nasuto S J,
Becerra V M, Hammod M W, Downes J
H, Marshall S and Whatley B J.
Controlling a Mobile Robot with a
Biological Brain. Defence Science
Journal, 2010, p 5-10.
2. Le Fleur K, Cassidy K, Doud A, Shades
K, Rosin E and Bin He. Quadcopter
Control in Three-dimensional Space
using a Non-invasive Motor Imagerybased Brain-computer Interface. J.
Neural Eng, 2013, vol 10, p 1-15.
3. Sergi Bermudez i Badia, Pyk P and Paul
Verschure F M J. A Fly-locust based
Neuronal Control System Applied to an
U n m a n n e d A e r i a l Ve h i c l e : t h e
Invertebrate Neuronal Principles for
Course Stabilization, Altitude Control
10
and Collision Avoidance. The

International Journal of Robotics
Research, 2007, vol 26, p 759-772.
4. Raffaele Di Giacomo, Maresca B,
Angelillo M, Porta A, Leone A,
Carapella G and Nietzert H C. Cyborgs
Structured with Carbon Nanotubes and
Plant or Fungal Cells: Artificial Tissue
Engineering for Mechanical and
Electronic Uses. Materials Research
Society Proceedings, Spring meeting,
2013, SS 04-04.
5. Sato H, Berry C W and Maharbiz M M.
Control of 10 gm Insects by Implanted
Neural Stimulators. Proc. Solid State
Sens., Actuators and Microsyst.
Workshop, Hilton Head, 2008, p 90-91.
6. Tsang W M, Aldworth Z, Stone, A,
Permar A, Levine R, Hildebrand J G,
Daniel T, Akinwande A I and Voldman J.

Insect Flight Control by Neural
Stimulation of Pupae-implanted
Flexible Multisite Electrodes. Proc
uTAS 2008, 1922-1924.
7. Emily Anthes. Frankenstein's Cat.
Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, New York, 2013.
8. Fanno L, Yizhar O and Deisseroth K.
The Development and Application of
Optogenetics. The Annual Review of
Neuroscience, 2011, vol 34, p 389-412.
9. Wentz C T, Bernstein J G, Monohan P,
Guerra A, Rodrguez A and Boyden E S.
A Wirelessly Powered and Controlled
Device for Optical Neural Control of
Freely Behaving Animals. Journal of
Neural Eng., Vio 8, No. 4, 2011: 046021.
T ECHNORAMA
Computational and Experimental Facilities for

Design of Micro Air Vehicle
G Ramesh
Sajeer Ahmed
CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore
NALTech Private Limited, Bangalore
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
Development of Micro Air Vehicle

(MAV) has attracted the attention of
many researchers from the consideration
of wider applications from both civil and
strategic sectors. The various
developments in this technology come
from research work in universities with
limited budgetary support as well as
through intensive government funded
research with private industrial
participation with large financial outlay.
Though the development of this small
(micro) aircraft cannot be compared to
the regular civilian or fighter aircraft in
terms of scale of operations; the
technological challenges in both these
cases are of comparable order. While
most of the areas related to the large
aircraft developments have been
addressed by researchers over several
decades and extensive data is available
the MAV technologies are evolving and
the data available is sparse. This calls for
specialized facilities specific to the
Micro Air Vehicles that are typically of
dimensions less than 500 mm.
In recent years there have been major

research and developmental efforts
toward designing micro aircraft (of size
less than about 500mm) that has full
autonomous operation for a limited
duration and range for military and civil
missions. These vehicles are of interest
since electronic surveillance and
detection sensor equipment can now be
miniaturized, so that, the entire payload
mass falls into a smaller fraction of the
vehicle. MAV's of such small
dimensions have many advantages
including rapid deployment, real time
data acquisition capabilities, low radar
cross section, low noise and low
production cost. The primary missions
of interest include surveillance,
detection, communications and the
placement of unattended sensors.
Surveillance missions include day and
night video and infrared images of
battlefields as well as urban areas. Such
information is considered very useful in
giving the number and location of
opposing forces, hostage rescue, counter
drug operations and sensing of
biological agents, chemical compounds
and nuclear materials. Mini and micro
air vehicles have been increasingly
findings its relevance due to the rapid
development in the sensors, embedded
electronics and communication system.
As a part of systematically advancing the

design and development of MAVs,
various facilities have been established
in the last few years at CSIR-National
Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL)
and some of the facilities are in the
process of being set up. This article
provides some description of the special
computational tools and the rapid
prototyping system set up as part of
design center and the special purpose
wind tunnel for the aerodynamic
characterization, its features and
description along with a few preliminary
tests that are being undertaken.
Depending on the type of lifting surface

used to carry its weight, micro air
vehicles are classified into three types
namely, fixed wing, flapping wing and
rotary wing. Each one is having its own
advantage. Fixed wing can be used for
longer range and endurance whereas
flapping MAVs are used for internal
navigation in building while the rotary
MAVs can be deployed for a short range
operations but provide high quality

images due to its hovering capability.
The small size, low weight, low flight
velocity under high atmospheric wind
gusts are the challenges from the
aerodynamic point of view[1]. Fixed
wing MAVs always have flying wing
configuration to maximize the lift
generating surface thus the absence of
conventional tail restricts the stability
margin. Limitation in the size and
operation at low speeds results in flight
at low Reynolds number where nonlinear effects are seen in the
aerodynamic parameters such as lift,
drag and pitching moment. One of the
critical parameters that define the
performance of the vehicle is the
endurance.
The vehicle has to be designed to have
longer endurance which depends on
number of parameters as given below.
To have longer endurance, the power
consumption by the vehicle should be
lower. The power required (P) for a level
is given by the relation[2]:
P= [(w/)*(w/s)0.5 * (2/
)0.5 *( CD/CL)1.5]
where w is the vehicle weight kg, S, is
the wing area m2, CD and CL are the lift
and drag coefficients,
(kg/m3) the air
density and is the propeller efficiency.
The above relationship shows that there
is a strong coupling between the
airframe efficiency, structural weight
and strength, propulsive power and
efficiency. These parameters can be
determined through analytical,
computational and experimental tools.
Stability and controllability of the
vehicle in both static and dynamic
condition is important and its
characterization is required for the
designed configuration for a safety
11
7
T ECHNORAMA
flight in the atmosphere. With the
aerodynamic parameters thus generated,
it is necessary to have simulation studies
done prior to flight tests. Further, for the
autonomous flight, it is necessary to
have auto pilot hardware design and
navigation, guidance and control
algorithm. In order to deploy the
optimized design configuration, a
prototype to be built and flight tested.
This requires a rapid prototype facility to
enable faster fabrication and after the
flight trails if required to build any
modified configuration quickly.
Thus, the development of these vehicles
poses several challenges due to their
small size, light weight, their flight
under relatively high atmospheric gusty
winds etc. Systematic research needs to
be undertaken in several areas in order to
meet the various design challenges to
develop highly mission capable MAV
that has high efficiency airframe,
optimized power and propulsion system,
high fidelity controls and robust
airframes. In order to arrive at highly
optimized design, various ground test
facilities[3,4] are required to carry out
systematic studies in the above areas.
In order to meet these challenges and to
improve the design towards a reliable
and robust system, a few facilities are
established at CSIR-NAL viz. (i) Design
center with rapid prototyping; (ii)
Special purpose wind tunnel with closed
and open test section including the active
gust generation mechanism; (iii)
Advanced flow investigation tools for
fixed, flapping, flexible and rotary wing
MAVs test in the wind tunnel and
powered model tests; (vi) Simulation
facility both hardware in loop (HILS)
and software in loop (SILS) with three
axis motion simulator (TAMS); (v)
Advanced fabrication; (vi) Mobile
ground controls including launcher,
telemetry tracking and dynamic path
planning.
This article describes the design center
that uses various numerical
computational, computer aided design
tools and the rapid prototyping machine
and MAV Aerodynamic Research
Tunnel (MART) a special purpose low
12
speed wind tunnel for aerodynamic

characterization of MAVs.
DESIGN CENTER
Software Tools in Design
This center is setup to provide design
support to the development of fixed and
flapping wing MAVs. Various software
tools that are used here include CAD
modeling, digital mock up, analytical
and numerical computational tools
under open general licenses as well as
advanced grid generation and CFD
commercial packages that provide full
RANS solver for low Reynolds number
flows, propulsive flows and time step
analysis and fluid structure interactions.
The center is equipped with
workstations to enable the above design
activities.
CAD Modeling SolidWorks, 3D
mechanical CAD (computer aided
design) program is a parasolid-based
solid modeler, and utilizes a parametric
feature-based approach to create models
and assemblies. The complete geometry
including the components placements
are carried out in SolidWorks that
provide the moment of inertia,
kinematic simulation, assembly
modeling, 2D engineering drawing. The
inertial properties and the longitudinal
and lateral dynamics of MAVs are
estimated from finite element methods.
CFD Analysis The flow around the
MAV airframe may involve separation,
transition or laminar bubble which is
influenced by propeller wake. The
design of airframes is currently hindered
by the lack of thorough understanding of
flow physics of such small aircrafts
flying at low speeds. Fluent for MAV
airframe design help in speeding up the
design cycle[5]. CFD analysis can be
carried out at various Reynolds number
for (a) airfoil, (b) wing model and (c)
complete MAV model. The propeller
dominated flow creates unsteady flow
over the wing for which unsteady fluent
solver with appropriate turbulence
model and moving mesh method may be
used.
Xfoil software is used in this center for
preliminary estimates of airfoil
performance due to its ease and
versatility. The code is a two
dimensional boundary element program

that consists of a second order panel
method which works on the principle
that flow can be expressed using
superposition of small vortex flows.
Xfoil utilizes a viscid/inviscid
interaction technique and is able to
account the presence of boundary layer
using a boundary layer code.
XFLR5 is an analysis tool for airfoils,
wings and planes operating at low
Reynolds numbers. It includes: Xfoil's
direct and inverse analysis capabilities
&Wing design and analysis capabilities
based on the Lifting Line Theory, on the
Vortex Lattice Method and on 3D Panel
Method. AVL is a program for the
aerodynamic and flight-dynamic
analysis of rigid aircraft of arbitrary
configuration. It employs an extended
vortex lattice model for the lifting
surfaces, together with a slender-body
model for fuselages and nacelles.
General nonlinear flight states can be
specified. The flight dynamic analysis
combines a full linearization of the
aerodynamic model about any flight
state, together with specified mass
properties.
AC calculator This software enables to
compute the neutral point of the chosen
configuration and determine the static
margin.
Structural Analysis Linear static
analysis that provides stresses and
deformations, modal analysis that
determines vibration characteristics and
advanced transient nonlinear
phenomena involving dynamic effects
and complex behaviors are analyzed
using ANSYS mechanical software. The
structural aspects and layup scheme of
the wing is optimized using this tool.
Rapid Prototyping
After arriving at the preliminary design
of the configuration from the design
center, quick fabrication of the model of
micro air vehicle configuration is
necessary to reduce the time gap
between the designs to flight. The model
can be used for carrying out wind tunnel
tests to validate the design or to make a
master to fabricate a flight test model for
undertaking flight trials. Manufacturing
of the model using conventional
T ECHNORAMA
0.330 mm, 0.254 mm, 0.178 mm, and

0.127 mm can be opted for deposition.
A typical micro air vehicle fabricated
using rapid prototyping machine is
shown in the Figure 1.
WIND TUNNEL IN MAV
DEVELOPMENT
Importance of Special Purpose Wind
Tunnel
Figure 1 Fixed Wing MAV - CAD Model

and RPT from Design Center
techniques like NC machines or

fabrication using fiber reinforced
plastics (FRP) will take considerable
time. Using the rapid prototype
technique[6], model can be made quickly
in a day or two. Model can be made as a
single component or in multiple
components.
Recently, laboratory has acquired a rapid
prototyping machine Fortus 360mc
which is based on fusion deposition
modeling (FDM). In the rapid
prototyping process, the 3D CAD data of
the model is sliced into thin cross
sectional planes by a computer. The cross
sections are sent from the computer to the
rapid prototyping machine that builds the
part layer by layer. The first layer
geometry is defined by the shape of the
first cross sectional plane generated by
the computer. It is bonded to a starting
base and additional layers are bonded on
the top of the first shaped according to
their respective cross sectional planes.
This process is repeated until the
prototype is complete.
The machine has a standard build
envelope of 355 x 254 x 254 mm and
using FDM (Fused Deposition
Modelling) technology and can produce
parts in production-grade thermoplastics
with high tolerance. Materials used for
fabrication are: ABS-M30 (Acrylonitrile
Butadiene Stryrene), PC
(Polycarbonate), or combination of PC
and ABS. Layers of different thicknesses
A wind tunnel with advanced

capabilities will aid the research efforts
to understand various complex
phenomena, such as, (i) aerodynamic
characteristics of MAV under low
Reynolds number flow regimes and
highly 3D flows due to low aspect ratio
wings; (ii) high interaction of propeller
slip stream over the large part of the
flying wing; (iii) Fluid structure
interaction due to the thin light weight
flexible airframes; (iv) the effect of
lower atmospheric turbulence and high
gusty winds on the MAV flight etc.
Computer simulations currently
available are inadequate to address
complete design of MAV due to the
above mentioned factors.
MAV Aerodynamic Research Tunnel
(MART)
To get the aerodynamic characteristics
of MAVs at low Reynolds number, a

special purpose test facility was built
and commissioned recently. This facility
enables the tests to be carried out on a
fixed wing in a closed test section of size
0.8m x 1.2m x 2.5m where the velocity
can be varied from 3 to 45 m/s and an
open test section of length 1.5m where
the free stream velocity can be set from
2 to 15 m/s. This test section permits
tests on flapping wing type of micro air
vehicle where the interference from the
open jet is minimal. A Betz chamber
around the open test section permits a
constant pressure and also enables to
carry out free flight trails. The maximum
variation of velocity in the lateral and
vertical plane is less than 0.2% of the
center line velocity and the turbulence
intensity remain within 0.1% up to the
free stream velocity of 15 m/s. The
schematic of the wind tunnel in the
closed and open test section
configurations is shown in Figure 2.
The facility is equipped with special
type of balances to measure the low
aerodynamic loads whose measurement
is challenging. The internal sing balance
(typically of 10 N ranges in the normal
and axial directions) measures all the
forces and moments. These are
converted in real time to the
1. Bell mouth entry; 2. Honeycomb section with honeycomb; 3. Settling chambers with screens;
4. Contraction cone; 5. Test section; 6. Gust generating duct; 7. Transition; 8. Diffuser; 9. Fan duct with
fan assembly; 10. Coupling assembly; 11. Motor; 12. Motor stand; 13. Open jet catcher section;
14. Betz chamber
Figure 2: Schematic of the Micro Air vehicle Research Facility in Closed and Open
Test Section Configuration
13
T ECHNORAMA
aerodynamic forces and moments
coefficients using dynamic pressure and
reference data for wing area and
reference length. A state-of-art data
acquisition and processing system based
on lab view software and national
instrument I/O cards is being developed
for its integration with the tunnel control
system. The facility has got a special
model support system under
development which enables the model to
pitch from -15 to 45 degree and yaw
from -10 to +10 degree. The facility is
being equipped with advance flow
diagnostic systems like the LDV, PIV
and DIC to measure dynamic velocity
field and associated deformation of
flexible wing. To study the effect of high
intensity turbulence and gust on the
aerodynamic characteristics of the micro
air vehicle , a gust actuating mechanism
has been developed and located
downstream of the test section. Tunnel
operation and all the data acquisition and
controls are based on PC based NI
h a r d w a r e a n d u s e s Vi r t u a l
Instrumentation concept. The 3D model
position system controls the angle of
attack of model and the acquired signals
are processed in real time with on line
plots of all the parameters.
Preliminary Experiments on Fixed
and Flapping Wings MAVs
Figure 3(a) shows a 150 mm fixed wing
micro-beacon MAV with end plates
mounted on the sting force balance
inside the closed test section. The test
model has a reflex airfoil having aspect
ratio of 1.17 and surface area of 0.019
m2. The preliminary objective of the
experiment was to determine the
aerodynamic performance of the test
model. The experiments were performed
at velocity range between 10 to 20 m/s
and the angle of attack of the model was
varied from 00 to 200. Figure 3(b) shows
the variation of coefficient of lift CL at
different angles of attack for test model
with varying freestream velocity. It can
be seen clearly that at a freestream
velocity of 20 m/s, which is close its
cruise velocity there is an improvement
in the lift coefficient.
Figure 4(a) shows 300 mm span flapping
wing test model mounted on six
14
(a)
Figure 3 Micro-beacon 150 mm Model
component high resolution ATI Nano 17

balance in the open jet test section. Lift
and thrust force generated by the test
model during flapping is measured in
wind-off and wind-on conditions. The
geometry of the flapper is semi elliptic.
Force data is measured for different
frequency ranges from 4 to 12 Hz.
Typical thrust data obtained for both
wind off and wind on condition as a
function of frequency is shown in
Figure 4(b). The wind on data is
obtained for freestream velocity of
3m/s.
Active Gust Generation
MAVs are generally operated at low
altitudes, which is a very dynamic
environment with highly varying wind
Collector
U8
300 mm flapper
Balance
Support
System
(a)
(b)
conditions. When compared to manned

aircraft at higher altitudes this is a highly
unsteady environment for MAVs. Yet
aerodynamic research of MAVs is often
based on assumptions of steady
aerodynamics. In addition to low
Reynolds number and small scale
turbulence issues large scale unsteady
turbulent gusts is also an important
aspect of wind tunnel simulation as the
light weight low flight velocity MAVs
often encounters such flow during flight.
Passive techniques generally involve
grids, flaps or airfoils that are forced to
oscillate. These devices are useful for
generating stationary velocity
fluctuations but have been used in non
stationary large scale gusts.
By pass duct using set of vanes at the end
of test section allows wind and gust to
change the test section velocity almost
instantaneously. This type of unsteady
flow simulation is extremely important
and open up new world of testing
opportunities for research in unsteady
aerodynamic that are highly relevant to
fixed and flapping MAV development.
It has been shown through calibration
trials it is possible to achieve gust
velocities of the order of 40 percent of
mean velocities (Figure 5).
Propeller System Test Facility
(b)
Figure 4 Flapping Wing Test Model
Power effect or propeller wash effect

modifies the wings over all
aerodynamics. In the tractor
configuration a strong prop wash flow
directly impacts most of the wing area as
the propeller diameter is of comparable
T ECHNORAMA
dimension to that of the wing span. To

enhance aerodynamic and flight
performance of MAV the design must
carefully consider aerodynamic
propulsion interaction. The test of
propulsion system at high angle of attack
forms specific challenge to the
experimentalists. As the thick wake and
plumes impact the tunnel wall; thus
propulsion tests are done in the open jet
configuration.
The propulsion system forms the main
subsystem for a Micro Air Vehicle and it
constitutes 50% to 60% of all up weight.
Any effort in increasing the efficiency of
propeller will reduce the energy
consumption of the battery, thus increase
the endurance. The performance of the
selected propulsion system is evaluated
with the help of static and dynamic test.
The static and dynamic test conducted on
the selected motor propulsion
combination to evaluate the performance
parameters such as thrust and RPM at the
different free stream velocity.
Figure 6 shows the static thrust
measurement cell set up using the
Medusa Power Pro analyzer[7]. The
thrust is measured using the strain gauge
load cell which is connected to power pro
analyzer. Dynamic tests were performed
by keeping the propeller system mounted
in low speed wind tunnel and the
performance of the selected motor
propeller system is evaluated for
different velocities the vehicle is
subjected in the flight. Various
parameters of motor and propeller such
as current consumption at particular
throttle, RPM and thrust was measured
to obtain the optimum value of throttle at
which the designed MAV will fly to give
maximum endurance. Figure 6 also
(a)
(b)
Figure 5: Active Gust Generation using Bypass Vanes and Typical Velocity
Variation in Test Section for Cyclic Input
shows a typical variation of thrust and

endurance with the speed at the
particular throttle settings.
Delhi under National Program for

development of Micro Air Vehicles
(NPMICAV).
CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES
MAVs have been developed by several

active research groups all over the globe.
But for most of the groups development
of highly mission capable, reliable,
robust systems still remain elusive.
Though these groups continue the
development through iterative efforts
and flight trials lack of reliable data from
ground simulation and validation test
facilities pose a serious limitation. The
published data in literature is limited and
many of the real issues are not discussed
by well known groups for strategic
reasons. Hence it is essential to establish
good test facilities to systematically
proceed for mission capable robust
designs. Towards this some of the
facilities established for MAV research
are presented here. Efficient use of these
facilities and capability build up will go a
long way in the development of highly
mission capable MAV system in future.
1. Gary A. 'Fundamental Physics of Micro

A i r Ve h i c l e s - C h a l l e n g e s a n d
Opportunities. Mechanical Sciences
Division, U S Army Research Office',
2005.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Facilities described in the paper are built
with the support from DRDO, New
RPM sensor
Motor and
Propeller
Load
Cell
Figure 6 Test Setup of Propeller System and Typical Performance Curve for the Selected Propulsion System
2. Spoerry T and Wong K C. 'Design and

Development of A Micro Air Vehicle
(? AV) Concept: Project
Bidule'.
School of Aerospace, Mechanical and
Mechatronic Engineering, University of
Sydney, Australia, 2006.
3. Babinsky H, Cattafesta L and Abate G.
Design Considerations for a Micro Air
Vehicle Aerodynamic Characterization
Facility at the University of Florida
Research and Engineering Education
Facility'. AIAA paper 2006-3309.
4. Thipyopas C. 'Importance of Wind
Tunnel in Design Process of Micro Air
Vehicle'. The Second International
Conference on Mechanical Engineering,
October 19-21, 2011, Krabi.
5. Brion V, Aki M and Sharayev.
Numerical Simulations of Low
Reynolds Number Flows Around Micro
Air Vehicle and Comparison Against
Wind Tunnel Data'. AIAA 24th Applied
Aerodynamics Conference, San
Francisco, USA, AIAA paper 20063864.
6. Lotfi K. G. Rapid Prototyping,
Department of Mechanical
Engineering. The American University
in Cairo, Egypt, 2002.
7. Shashank Mishra, Vikram N S,
G.Ramesh and Sajeer Ahmed. Design
and Autonomous Flight Testing of Fixed
Wing Micro Air Vehicle. Internal
Publication: PD-MAV/2013/1001,
2013.
15
T ECHNORAMA

Systems (AOS) - A Review
Jagadeesh Kadiyam, D. Gowthaman,
Prasad Punna, R Venkatesan and M A Atmanand

National Institute of Ocean Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Chennai
INTRODUCTION
From the past the ocean interior has been
mainly observed using instruments
lowered from research ships. Typical
ship cruises lasted a month or two thus
making the detailed monitoring of
Ocean's limited. This problem of undersampling along with the relatively high
cost of these observation platforms has
made the scientific community to think
of technologies which could provide
longer observation times at lower cost
through the spatial and temporal density
with in the ocean[1, 2]. In the later stages,
moorings were suspended from the
floating buoys mounted with sensors and
instruments to make continuous
measurements of many ocean properties.
Buoys are one of the most common
systems for obtaining data and cost
e ff e c t i v e m e a n s f o r o b t a i n i n g
meteorological and oceanographic data.
They measure and transmit data
automatically in real time through
different systems. The observations from
buoys have led to significant advances in
modeling and understanding global
weather and climate systems on every
space and time scale[3]. Data of the
meteorological and oceanographic
parameters from a moored buoy system
form an Eulerian approach where a
particular region forms the source of
interest whereas the Lagrangian
approach of data collection uses moving
platforms through the breadth and depths
of ocean as its source of interest.
National Institute of Ocean Technology
(NIOT) under Ministry of Earth Sciences
is involved in the collection of
meteorological and oceanographic
parameters in real time using moored
buoys in Indian seas. This data buoy
16
system comprises floating buoy with

accessories and suite of sensors for
meteorological parameters to collect the
data. This data serves as a platform for
salinity, currents, surface radiation,
atmospheric pressure, wind speed and
direction and rainfall sensors. As a part
of development strategy for new
observation tools envisaged in 12th Five
Year Plan to have long term ocean
observations with minimum energy
consumption, an autonomous system
which could mimic a fish having
features to measure the subsea
parameters with required sensor
platforms is planned as they are highly
efficient at propulsion and highly
maneuverable and do not disturb their
environment needlessly. Also an
autonomous glider is a part of this
development.
REVIEW
The present article reviews the work on
Systems programmed in different forms
of maturing technologies, such as,
Remotely Operated Underwater
Veh i c l e s ( R O V s ) , A u t o n o m o u s
U n d e r w a t e r Ve h i c l e s ( A U V s ) ,
Autonomous Underwater Gliders
(AUGs) and Bio-mimetic vehicles and
their major impact made in exploring the
underwater resources, ocean sampling
and underwater structures inspection.
The origin of programmed underwater
vehicle could be probably linked to the
Whitehead Automobile Fish torpedo.
Robert Whitehead is credited with
designing, building and demonstrating
the first conceivable untethered
underwater vehicle which was a selfpropelled torpedo in Austria in 1866.
The vehicle was driven by compressed
air and carried an explosive charge. If

one ignores the fact that it carried an
explosive charge, it might be considered
the first AUV [4]. However, the first
Remotely Operated Unmanned Vehicle
with tether called ROV was developed in
1953 by a French scientist Dimitri
Rebikoff named Poodle [5]. By
definition, Remotely Operated
underwater Vehicle (ROV) is a remote
control underwater robot driven by an
individual on the surface. This robot is
tethered by a series of wires that send
signals between the operator and the
ROV. The United States Navy is credited
with advancing the technology to an
operational state in its quest to develop
robots to recover underwater ordnance
lost during at-sea tests and funded most
of the early ROV technology
development in the 1960s into what was
then named a "Cable-Controlled
Underwater Recovery Vehicle"
(CURV) [6]. The next step in advancing
the technology was performed by
commercial firms that saw the future in
ROV of offshore oil operations, deep sea
mining and offshore oil and gas industry.
But as far as ocean observations are
considered, the operational strategy and
the amount of ship time for the operation
are limited and in the order of days.
Apart from this, the amount of energy
required to propel the ROV is mostly
consumed by the tethering system and
the amount of observation range is also
limited due to these factors.
Thus, another solution in the form of
untethered vehicle with low power
consumption and higher horizontal
range was looked upon, which is
popularly known as AUV. AUV is a selfpropelled unmanned submersible
vehicle with its own onboard
T ECHNORAMA
intelligence system to make decisions is

dependent on stored energy of the
battery to execute its mission. They
generally execute their motion by drift,
cruise, or glide through the ocean [7].
The history of AUVs research can be
dated back to early 1960's where the first
successful development could be
attributed to Dimitri Rebikoff's SEA
SPOOK. Later, Stan Murphy, Bob
Francois and later Terry Ewart of the
Applied Physics Laboratory of the
University of Washington began
development of what may have been
first true AUV in the late 1950's. Their
work led to the development and
operation of The Self Propelled
Underwater Research Vehicle(s)
(SPURV). They were soon followed by
others such as SKAT at the Shirshov
Institute of Oceanology (Russia); OSRV (Japan); EAVE West, RUMIC, UFSS
(U.S. Navy); EAVE EAST (University
of New Hampshire, U.S.); and
EPAULARD (France) [8]. During the
1990s AUVs testbeds turn into
operational systems. In Indian scenario,
a significant step in developing a
prototype small AUV called Maya was
achieved at the National Institute of
Oceanography (NIO), Goa, India in May
2006 [9]. Another AUV named AUV-150
was developed by Central Mechanical
Research Institute (CMERI), Durgapur,
India and sponsored by Ministry of Earth
Sciences was tested for sea trials in
2011 [10] (Figure 1). Today, hundreds of
AUVs have been developed worldwide
by many countries to accomplish a set of
tasks according to defined goals and user
emerged different types of mission tasks.
An AUV's endurance depends upon
speed, mission requirements, payload,
and battery type and is quantified in both
time and distance. Of the surveyed
AUVs, 46% operate less than 12 hours,
19% between 12-24 hours, and 17%
greater than 24 hours [11]. As most of the
AUVs have propellers, more than half of
the battery power is consumed by
propellers, as a result, reducing the
endurance of operation.
Hence, In order to enhance the range
capabilities of an AUV meant for long
missions, few autonomous systems were
developed at the expense of very limited
MAYA AUV (Courtesy NIO, Goa)
AUV 150 (Courtesy CMERI, Durgapur)
Figure 1: AUVs Developed in India
transit speeds which are termed as

Gliders. Gliders are AUVs designed to
glide through the ocean by changing
their buoyancy. They use wings to
convert the vertical velocity into
forward motion. They follow a sawtooth
path, with a maximum angle of slope of
about 30, which is steeper than the
slope of oceanographic distributions [12].
The initial impulsion for the
development of Gliders is from the
profiling floats that were deployed for
measuring subsurface currents. The
profiling floats to measure subsurface
ocean currents were developed
simultaneously and independently in the
mid-1950s by Henry Stommel in the
USA and by John Swallow in the UK.
On the same principle, Russ Davis from
Scripps Institution of Oceanography in
California and Doug Webb of Webb
Research Corporation developed the
Autonomous Lagrangian Circulation
Explorer (ALACE). ALACEs carried
temperature/salinity sensors. These
floats are used extensively to investigate
features of the deep ocean circulation
and revealed for the first time the
mesoscale currents that are now known
to populate the open ocean [13]. At
present the most extensively used
profiling float is Argo float. Argo is an
international collaboration that collects
high-quality temperature and salinity
profiles from the upper 2000m of the
ice-free global ocean and currents from
intermediate depths. The origins of Argo
can be found in the 1990-1997 World
Ocean Circulation Experiment
(WOCE). WOCE is a part of the World
Climate Research Programme (WCRP)
and set out to collect an unprecedented
set of observations. The standard Argo

mission is a park and profile mission
where the float descends to a target
depth of 1000m to drift and then
descends again to 2000m to start the
temperature and salinity profile [14].
However, as the floats drift with the
ocean currents, the location of the
measurements are impracticable to
control where as Gliders resolved this
problem to certain extent as they have
better control over the region of interest
to be sampled. Thus, the idea of
neutrally-buoyant floats called
Slocums; named after Joshua Slocum,
the Yankee skipper who first went
around the world singlehanded in a
small sailing vessel written in the
Oceanography [ 1 5 ] . Today, many
developments are going all around the
world on Glider technology and there
are three famous models already
operational viz. Slocum from Webb
Research Corporation, Spray from
Scripps Institution of Oceanography and
the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution and Seaglider by Applied
Physics Laboratory of the University of
Washington as shown in Figure 2. The
gliders have endurances of months
because of their low speed and low
power electronics where high power
consumption is absent, the energy
required to cycle trim states is far less
than for regular AUVs thus operating in
transoceanic ranges creating large
amount of data sampling with the suite
of sensors as a payload.
Considering all the criterion for best
possible ocean exploration, today other
interesting research activities have made
7
17
T ECHNORAMA
Spray
Slocum Glider
Seaglider
(Courtesy of Webb Research Corporation, Bluefin robotics and Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington)
Figure 2: Underwater Gliders
their presence felt in the development of

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles. One
among them is the robotic imitation of
fish for good endurance with highly
efficient propulsion. The history of biomimetics has seen a wide popularity,
such as, MIT's RoboTuna, Robo Pike and
Kato Lab's Blackbass Robot,
developments by National Maritime
Research Institute, Japan and The Harbin
Engineering University's octopusimitating robot etc. All these efforts have
focused on flapping of fish tail and body
and this biomimetic approach demands a
careful observation of the whole
biological system to identify the
principles and attributes of the
system [16]. Many studies suggest that
fish can sense drag induced vortices
during propulsion and minimize their
effect. The motion of a rigid body inside
water induces drag due to flow
separation and creation of a Karman
vortex street in the wake, fish senses the
position of those vortices and use their
tail to change vortex trajectories (vortex
control). In this way, they produce a
thrust-creating reverse Karman vortex
street [17]. Thus, the identification,
modeling and emulation of the
biomechanics and fluid mechanics of
underwater propulsion and control in
swimming organisms would help
develop high endurance and efficient
Propulsion Systems.
CAPACITY BUILDING
The capability of the development of
these autonomous systems for ocean
18
observation would require the expertise

of the personal. NIOT has been striving
to inculcate product oriented research
and development strategy in the
oncoming generation of engineers for
ocean observation using autonomous
systems. One of the major and
successful attempts is the SAVe (Student
Autonomous underwater Vehicle)
competition whose motto is to
encourage students pursuing
engineering degree to visualize and
design an autonomous underwater
vehicle and kindle their innovative
thinking in the unexplored area of ocean
environment and observation. During
the last two years (2011 and 2012), this
competition received overwhelming
response from students. Till now, this
competition has reached in around more
than 15,000 students and got a number of
registrations, out of which 244 teams
registered and 166 teams applied and 13
teams demonstrated their models. NIOT
supported the winning teams with their
expertise and sponsored for the
international competition held annually
in USA.
SUMMARY
Autonomous observation technology
has evolved over many years and long
endurance of the vehicles has been a
source of attention from the beginning.
The development of the underwater
systems with good endurance has been
challenge and still remains to be the
same. So far, all the autonomous systems
have used onboard batteries for power
supply. Today many strategies have been
adopted to improve endurance which

includes development of a low-drag
after body, minimizing appendages, and
the development of control strategies
that minimize induced drag, highly
energy efficient propellers design, solar
power harnessing in solar powered
vehicles, improvement of control
system electronics for low power
consumption, thermal gradient for the
buoyancy change in Gliders,
development of new source of batteries
with minimum weight, highly efficient
hydrodynamic characteristics and biomimicking of highly efficient fish
propulsion.
As of now, an attempt has been made by
NIOT to focus on long term ocean
observations by autonomous systems
having features primarily to conserve
power drain to the maximum extent
possible by using new technologies like
Gliders. The next step-up for the
evolutionary ladder is the hybrid
systems wherein the endurance of the
Glider and the speeds of the
conventionally propelled underwater
vehicles would be considered and
tradeoff between them for long
endurances and high speed would be set.
Apart from this, other new attempts
include development of autonomous
systems mimicking the fish swimming
mechanisms, which require an
exploration of ideas from nature and are
modified to suit the requirements of
underwater ocean observations. These
developments require a good amount of
mathematical modeling along with
T ECHNORAMA
motion control methods to control the

vehicles during the motion. The
selection of mechanical structure,
sensors and navigation technique are
important factors in the design of these
vehicles. Firstly the structure is to be
made diversified with good amount of
hydrodynamic behaviour and
autonomous navigation for control with
good optimization involved. In
summary, it remains a challenge to
realize fully autonomous underwater
systems with versatility in its operations,
where this project aims to make a break
through.
Centre, Retrieved from

<http://www.jcommops.org/dbcp
/platforms/types.html>
4.
5.
2.
3.
Davis, RE, Eriksen CE, Jones CP.

Autonomous Buoyancy-driven
Underwater Vehicle Gliders.
Technology and Applications of
Autonomous Underwater
Vehicles. (Griffiths G, Ed.), 2003,
p 37-62.
Ageev, M D, Blidberg, D R. Solar
Powered Autonomous
Underwater Vehicles. 2002.
Data Buoy Types, JCOMM in Situ
Observing Platform Support
12.
http://www.oceaneering.com/
oceanmedia/rov/rovtutorial/inde
x.html
Study by Bjerknes Center for

Climate Research,
Retrieved
from http://folk.uib.no/
ngfso/Equipments/Gliders/definit
ion.htm
13.
W. John Gould. A Brief History of

Float Developments WOCE
IPO, Retrieved from http://
www.noc.soton.ac.uk/JRD/HYD
RO/argo/history.php
14.
h t t p : / / w w w. a r g o . u c s d . e d u /
Origins_of_Argo.html
15.
Stommel H. The Slocum

Mission. Oceanography, 1989,
vol 2, pp 22-25.
16.
Biomimetics and Marine

Technology, Frank E. Fish, West
Chester University, Donna M.
Kocak, HARRIS CapRock
Communications, Marine
Technology Society Journal,
July/August 2011, Vol 45, No. 4.
17.
Dimitrios Tzeranis, Evangelos

P a p a d o p o u l o s a n d G e o rg e
Triantafyllou. On the Design of
an Autonomous Robot Fish.
h t t p : / / w w w. r o v. o r g / r o v _
history.cfm
7.
Robert L. Wernli, AUV's The

Maturity of the Technology,
Space and Naval Warfare
Systems Center, D7405.
REFERENCES
1.
Christopher von Alt.

Autonomous Underwater
Ve h i c l e s , A u t o n o m o u s
Underwater Lagrangian
Platforms and Sensors Workshop,
Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution. March 24-26, 2003.
h t t p : / / w w w. o ff s h o r e mag.com/articles/print/volume62/issue-1/news/in-selectapplications-auvs-work-fastercheaper-than-tetheredvehicles.html.
6.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Authors thank Ministry of Earth
Sciences for their support to this
programme.
11.
8.
Marine Field Project 2012: Wave

Glider, retrieved from
<http://my.fit.edu/~swood/WaveGlider%20Final%20Report%20
2012.pdf>
9.
Desa, E. et al. The Small Maya

AUV Initial Field Results,
International Ocean Systems.
2007; Vol 11, No. 1, p 6-8.
10.
http://auvac.org/communityinformation/communitynews/view/843
19
T ECHNORAMA
Tilt-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Kiran R Chincholi, Dr S N Omkar
Department of Aerospace Engineering,
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
ABSTRACT
The demand for information and
situational awareness both on and off the
battlefield has led to increased military
utilization of UAVs as sensor platforms
for surveillance and communications.
They are widely used in civil
applications like environmental
monitoring, border patrolling and
disaster relief. Different configurations
of UAVs are developed recently and tiltrotor is one such innovative concept
which finds a lot of applications in
military and civil domains. Though
various attempts by different universities
and organizations have been made to
achieve a robust tilt-rotor UAV, still it
remains one of the challenging tasks with
respect to design and control. This article
discusses the trends and development in
tilt-rotor UAV platform with brief
discussion on control aspects.
is the thrust area of research in many

universities.
Basically, there are two types of
configuration for tilting mechanism:
Tilt-rotor Configuration
Tilt-wing Configuration
Tilt-Rotor is the most widely used tilting

mechanism, it finds lot of advantages
over tilt-wing like simple aerodynamic
design and ease in fabrication. In tiltwing configuration, the whole wing
platform tilts with rotor attached to its
ends.
REQUIREMENTS AND
CHALLENGES FOR TILT-ROTOR
UAV
The requirements and challenges
include the following:
Independent Operation
Robust Operation
INTRODUCTION
The concept of tilt-rotor was originated

in 1980s when US Army had a
requirement wherein a system can act
both as helicopter and an aircraft to
handle different rescue missions.
Subsequently, Bell Helicopter developed
V-22 Osprey the first tilt-rotor flight
vehicle[1]. Several modifications have
been made further to the design and a
reliable tilt-rotor was developed in 2000s
by Boeing and Bell Helicopter
Corporation.
The 'Tilt-Rotor' concept integrates

helicopter and aircraft into a single
system. It has advantages of higher
endurance as that of aircraft and Vertical
Take Off and Landing (VTOL) ability
exhibited by helicopter. Due to these
reasons, development of tilt-rotor UAVs
20
Precision Landing
Robust Operation
The takeoff and landing system also
needs to be highly robust and allow for
repeatable takeoffs and landings. Failure
of this system will terminate the mission.
The design should account for
environmental perturbations like wind
gusts both on the ground and in the air. If
the vehicle experiences a strong gust on
the ground, it should either be able to
resist flipping or should be able to
function in a number of different
orientations[1]. The robustness and
versatility of a well designed takeoff and
landing mechanism may reduce the
demand on collision avoidance and
landing site selection mechanisms. The
vehicle should allow for adequate
performance even from a poor landing
site, thereby reducing the importance of
optimal landing site selection. Similarly,
in the event of a low altitude collision,
the vehicle should be able to rebound or
survive a crash, allowing the takeoff
mechanism to resume the mission.
Independent Operation
Precision Landing
The vehicle must be capable of landing

and taking off autonomously without
dedicated ground infrastructure.
Furthermore, it is desired that the vehicle
be able to operate over both urban and
rural areas encompassing diverse
terrain. As a result, the vehicle takeoff
and landing mechanism should not
require any ground infrastructure that is
unique to a particular environment (e.g.
elevated surfaces, suspended power
lines, trees, etc.)[1]. In the same manner,
the vehicle should be able to take off and
land from diverse terrain with varying
levels of surface roughness, composition
grade and other features like shrubs,
rocks etc.
When operating in urban environments

or over variable terrain, precision
landing may be important in order to
ensure that the vehicle is able to land on
the specified surface (e.g. a specific
rooftop, on top of a vehicle, or a
space between buildings). The need for
precise landing requires high resolution
sensing and control during the landing
maneuver[1].
APPLICATIONS OF TILT-ROTOR
UAV[2]
The application of tilt-rotor UAVs are
mentioned below:
Disaster relief goods
transportation.
T ECHNORAMA
Surveillance of terrorist hide-outs.
Military missions in hilly regions

and terrains which are not suitable
for aircraft landing and take-off .
Aerial photography.
The major application with respect to

tilt-rotor UAV is transportation of relief
goods to areas affected with natural
calamities. Hence, development of such
a system is essential.
CONCEPTS AND WORKING
PROTOTYPES DEVELOPED
Efforts by different organizations have
been made recently towards
development of efficient and reliable
tilt-rotor UAV. Famous concepts are
discussed below.
MIT-Solar Tilt-rotor UAV[1]
This project was undertaken by graduate
students from Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT). The project focused
on design and development of tilt-rotor
UAV for long endurance missions. The
project also focused on use of solar
power as an alternative for achieving
higher endurance. The prototype was
fabricated and tested successfully.
Figure (1) shows the CAD model of
MIT-Solar tilt-rotor UAV.
The project also focused on developing
control system for hover control and
satisfactory results were obtained. The
tilt-rotor fabricated was autonomous
with pre-defined trajectory.
Figure 2: Actual Prototype of Tilt-Rotor UAV by Agusta Westland, Italy
Project Zero by Agusta-Westland[4]

Project zero is a hybrid tilt-rotor/fan-inwing technology demonstrated aircraft
developed by Augusta Westland, Italy. It
is the world's first unmanned electric
tilt-rotor flight vehicle. It made its first
tethered flight in June 2011. According
to the company, the aircraft is allelectric with power coming from
rechargeable batteries, employs no
hydraulic, doesn't burn fossil-fuels and
generates zero emissions. One of the
most interesting feature is that when the
aircraft sits on the ground, the blades
may be pointed in the wind direction,
recharging the batteries. Figure (2)
shows the actual prototype of project
zero by Agusta Westland Working. The
rotors are embedded inside the wing
surface like a fan. During take-off, the
rotors are at zero degree mean position
Figure 1: MIT-Solar-tilt-rotor UAV
which provides the necessary vertical

take-off. During the cruise condition, the
rotors are aligned at ninety degrees from
the mean position which gives forward
thrust and hence horizontal flight.
CONTROL ASPECTS OF TILTROTOR UAV
The vehicle must be controlled over a
wide range of attitudes as it takes off,
climbs vertically, transitions to level
flight, re-enters vertical flight, and
lands. Operating through such a wide
range of attitudes with different lift
generation mechanisms results in
nonlinear dynamics that are not readily
controllable using a single linear
controller. Different control aspects of
tilt-rotor were studied by various
organizations[1].
Control approaches for such problems
typically involve the use of nonlinear
controllers such as back-stepping and
dynamic inversion or a composition of
locally valid feedback controllers that
funnel" the system dynamics
sequentially between controllers.
Nonlinear back-stepping and dynamic
inversion controllers are valid over the
region where their underlying models
accurately describe the system
dynamics and have been shown to be
capable of controlling prop hanging,
fixed wing vehicles during hovering and
through transition to and from level
flight. Since a single controller is used,
these controllers provide simple
transitions between hovering and level
flight. Furthermore, Lyapunov based
21
7
T ECHNORAMA
back-stepping controllers are
particularly well suited for the hovering
dynamics where there is a high degree of
coupling between attitude and
translational dynamics[4].
Few approaches involve the use of
Euler-Lagrange method for modeling
and Back-Stepping ProportionalDerivative (PD) Control law design has
been implemented and tested[4].
FUTURE WORK
Since the inception of the concept of tiltrotor aircrafts, lots of efforts have been
made by different organizations to
achieve a feasible prototype. However
22
there were few working prototypes but

the life-cycle of these prototypes was
very short. Future work on tilt-rotor
UAVs should focus on autonomous
system development and aerodynamic
design of rotors and wing planform for
enhanced range and endurance, so that
these can be used in defense
applications. Also, integration of solar
power with tilt-rotor configuration can
be a promising concept.
REFERENCES
1. Tilt-Rotor Configuration: Wikipedia
(www.en.wikipedia.org/tiltrotor)
2. UAV Applications : Wikipedia
(www.en.wikipedia.org/UAVapplica
tions)
3. Project Zero: Agusta Westland
(www.agustawestland.com)
4. Arindam Bhanja Chowdhury, Anil
Kulhare and Gaurav Raina. A
Generalized Control Method for Tiltrotor UAV Stabilization.
5. Josiah T. VanderMey. A Tilt-Rotor
U AV f o r L o n g E n d u r a n c e
Operations in Remote
Environments. Master's Thesis at
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, May 2011.
T ECHNORAMA
Multifunctional Autonomous Agrobots for

Agricultural Mechanisation
Dr S R Shankapal
President, M S Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies, Bangalore
Historically, agriculture was carried out

using hand held tools and as the
civilization progressed people started
using animal driven tools. In the
developed counties the mechanized
agriculture has reached to a matured state
but in the developing countries like India
is still evolving. The mechanized
agriculture uses tractor driven machinery
to improve labour productivity. The
tractor driven machinery have many
disadvantages and limited capabilities.
The agricultural scientists are
experimenting to replace tractor driven
mechanization with robotic agriculture
by introducing 'Agrobots'. This paper
provides illustrations of various agrobots
and introduces the concept of networked
agrobots. The paper clearly brings out
the virtues of robotic agriculture and
indicates how overall produce of a farm
can be improved to meet the food
requirement challenges of the world.
INTRODUCTION
The global population has passed 7
billion mark in 2011 and today around
15% of the world population is going
hungry every day[1]. The devastating
droughts like the one in the Horn of
Africa add further woes to the hungry
world. The projected growth in the
world's population to 9 billion by 2050
adds an extra challenge for food
security[1,2]. Higher the population,
higher is the demand for food, water and
land. However, the arable land is
decreasing due to diversion of farm land
from food crop production and climatic
changes. As the difference between food
demand and supply is disproportionately
increasing, it is not surprising to see
volatile spikes in food prices. To improve
food supply, agricultural productivity
has to be increased all over the world by
considering use of hybrid or high yield

varieties of seeds and saplings,
fertilizers, better irrigation practices,
pesticide and de-weeding chemicals,
increased plant density and usage of
mechanized farming methods. In
developed countries, mechanized
agriculture has reached a matured state.
Developing countries like India are also
finding the advantage of mechanized
agriculture under the circumstances of
accessibility for finance and acute
shortage of farm labour. In India,
agriculture research organizations,
universities and farm industries are
p u t t i n g t h e i r b e s t e ff o r t s f o r
development and production of
machines at affordable cost to meet the
demands of large as well as small
holding farmers.
The agriculture machinery available in
the market can be classified under the
categories of land leveling and land
preparation; seeding and planting;
weeding, inter-culture and plant
protection and harvesting machineries.
Many of these machines are for general
purpose and consume large amounts of
power, most of the times there are
considerable mismatches between the
tasks in hand and the machinery
available. The use of machines depends
on weather and soil conditions. The
machines suffer from versatility,
dexterity, precision, intelligence and
need attention of operator. Hence, there
is a demand and need for human like
machines which are intelligent, precise,
versatile, dexterous, multifunctional,
affordable and are able to deal with
individual plants and also do not create
soil compaction. The machines must
also perform many of the labour
intensive agricultural applications like
seeding, spraying, picking, plucking,

etc. Such labour intensive tasks can be
made to perform by a class of robots
known as agrobots. Agrobots are getting
deployed for farming and at present they
are best suited to well planned farms.
ROBOTS
According to Robot Institute of
America, 1979, A Robot is a
reprogrammable, multifunctional
manipulator designed to move material,
parts, tools, or specialized devices
through various programmed motions
for the performance of a variety of
tasks. The first reference to the word
robot is made in a play by Czech writer
Karel Capek in 1921. In the play, the
Czech robot is defined as a worker of
forced labour, after this play,
electromechanical automatons were
referred to as robots. In 1941, Isaac
Asimov first uses the term 'robotics' to
describe the technology of robots and he
predicted the rise of the robot industry.
Today robots can go to school and attend
conferences on our behalf; they can also
run, do push-ups, fly, perch, crawl,
swim, care for us, mimic us and
sometimes scare us with their
capabilities[3]. The robots find their
applications in automotive industry,
assembly, medical laboratories,
hospitals, nuclear reactors, spatial
exploration, underwater inspection,
customer service, arts and entertainment
and agriculture. A typical robot has a
movable physical structure, actuator
system, a sensor system, a power supply
and a computer "brain" that controls all
of these elements. Figure 1 shows the
block diagram of a sample robot[4] and
Figure 2 illustrates a typical Apple
picking Robot[5].
23
7
T ECHNORAMA
Sensors
Drivers
Memory
Input Port
Microprocessor
Robot
4 (a) Slugbot [10]

Motors
Drivers
Output Port
Figure 1: Block Diagram of a Sample Robot [4]
4 (b) Snakebot[11]
4 (c) Coconut Tree Climbing Robot[12]

Figure 2: Articulated Robot Picking up Apple[5]
3 (b) Weeding[7]
harvest produce like coconut, arecanut,

tamarind, mangoes and berries. Agribots
to pick up tomatoes/fruits/vegetables,
coffee, tea, flowers, cotton, millets and
sugarcane will be a boon in Indian
harvest and farming conditions.
AGROBOTS
Agrobots are machines programmed to
do agricultural task and farm
assignments. Agrobots are classified
into harvesting or picking, planting, deweeding, pest control, or plant
maintenance. Robots are milking cows,
shearing sheep, picking fruit, weeding,
spraying, and cultivating, they use GPS
and sensors for navigation. The concept
of 'robot farm' is also being developed to
do all the agriculture work by robots. The
challenge is designing and developing
robots to work in harmony with the
nature. The following images in Figure 3
illustrate the various agribots[6-12].
3 (c) Picking Fruits[8]
There are new evolving concepts and
3 (d) Robot Farm[9]

Figure 3 (a), (b), , (d): Agribots
3 (a) Milking Cows[6]
24
Figure 4: Evolving Agribots
robots like slugbots and snakebots as

illustrated in Figure 4. Slugbots are
developed to destroy the slugs which
make big holes on tomatoes. Snakebots
are known to be tree climbing robots.
Tree climbing robots are of great help to
In farming, tasks like picking, pruning,

deweeding, pestcide spraying are
repetitive and strenuous, getting and
retaining labour to do such tasks is a
problem. Robots are best suited for
repetitive tasks and automation is a best
solution to the problem. In indutsry, the
repetitive tasks are automated and
performed by robots successfully, as the
environment is clean, well-lit, dry and
uniform, and the components that are
manipulated are uniform, visible,
stationary and robust. In farms, the
environment is variable in terms of
weather, terrain and light, and the
components that have to be manipulated
are variable in size, shape, colour,
hidden amongst foliage, sometimes
flutter, soft and easily damaged during
handling[13].
The technology needed for successful
operation of agrobots is complex. The
agrobot should have path finding
algorithm running for navigation within
the rows of a farm, algorithm running to
T ECHNORAMA
keep track of the work to be completed. It

should visualize, identify and
differentiate things like type of plant,
fruit, flower, shape, size and also colour.
The end effector need to perform tasks
like picking, pruning, spraying,
handling fruits and flowers gently and
finally filling the bins. The robots must
also have obstacle detection and
avoidance system to recognise people,
poles, wires, stumps and rocks. The
robots must have supervisory control,
user friendly and should be affordable.
The agrobot technology though complex
has many merits. It is intelligent, is
backed with phytotechnology to achieve
biodiversity, it is small in size and
consumes less power. All these merits
avoids tilling of the complete land and
requires lower fertilizer consumption. It
provides precision farming, robotic
weeding, microspraying, robotic
Irrigation and selective harvesting
avoiding labour hassles and their
costs[14].
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES AND
AGROBOTS
Many of the technologies that are
required for successful operation of an
agrobot have been developed and
experimented by the author and his
colleagues and attempts are being made
to integrate these technologies to
develop a multi-functional agrobot. Two
designs of tracked programmable
autonomous ground vehicles which can
trace the path as per the programmed
coordinates can also be remotely
controlled using video data are shown in
Figure 5. Figure 6 shows the block
diagram of the control system used.
These vehicles negotiate the uneven path
of a farm; however, the track design can
be improved for effective traction on wet
and muddy roads. The tracked vehicle
can be controlled through a programme
or using GPS data and remotely by using
video. A vehicle avoiding obstacles
while moving was also demonstrated on
a toy car model shown in Figure 7. The
control system uses ultrasonic as well
optical flow based sensors for obstacle
avoidance.
Figure 8 shows one of the end effector
Figure 5: Tracked Vehicles
Power Supply
Distance
Sensor
ECU
Path
Program
865 MHz
Motors
865 MHz RF
Module for
Sending
Command to UGV
RF Module
Camera
2.4 GHz
Transmitter
2.4 GHz
Receiver
Workstation
and Display
Controls for Unmanned Ground Vehicle

Figure 6: Control System for Controlling Tracked Vehicle either through a Computer
Program or Remotely using Video
Camera
Video Capturing
Algorithm
Optical Flow
Algorithm
Navigation
Algorithm
Ultrasonic
Sensor
Signal
Conditioning
Unmanned
Ground
Vehicle
Figure 7 Obstacle Avoidance System Tested on a Toy Car
design and its control system which can

operate like a hand to manipulate the
shape and size. This is suited to
manipulate soft fruits and flowers.
At present, efforts are on to develop a
Image
Library
multifunctional robot which can

perform drilling, seeding, fertilizer
application and spraying with the ability
to work on uneven terrain and
completely automated.
Decision Logic
(Shape, Size)
End Effector
Image
Microcontroller
Camera
Figure 8 End Effector to Manipulate Soft Fruits and Flowers
25
T ECHNORAMA
Agrobots Functions
Simulation Computer
The geometric model of the robot in

making is shown in Figure 9. Figure 10,
shows a spray robot developed to spray
pesticides for cabbage. Attempts are
being made to successfully develop the
coconut tree climber and berry harvester,
the first prototypes of them are shown in
Figure 11 and Figure 12, respectively.
Wireless
Networks
Figure 12: Berry Harvester
NETWORKING AGROBOTS
Figure 9: Geometric Model of Multifunctional

Robots with Different End Effectors
Figure 10: A Spray Robot
Figure 11: Coconut Harvester
26
Supervisory Agrobot
Recent advancements in development

of agrobots is the inclusion of
distributed sensors and networks to
ensure same or even greater overall
produce as obtained from conventional
farming methods. These systems
involve either deployment of a number
of robots or placement of a number of
task specific sensors in any given
farmland. The sensors or robots
communicate among each other via a
monitoring base station and carry out
tasks of monitoring, surveillance and
control actions. They monitor growth of
fruits/flowers based on their colour,
shape and sizes. They also monitor the
health of the plants and their produce
and also growth of weeds. These robots
survey given farm land in order to
provide an estimate of produce and also
alerts in presence of trespassing
activities. The robots provide control
and actuation of the end effectors to
perform activities like plucking,
watering the plants, de-weeding and
many such activities to ensure good
produce.
Figure 13 shows a conceptual network
of agrobots. Figure 13(a) shows Mobile
Weeding Robot[15] and Figure 13(b)
shows the Home Garden Robot[16]. The
various functions to be performed are
simulated on a computer using
appropriate software tool and the codes
are generated for each of the follower
robot and these codes are dumped to a
supervisory agrobot. The supervisory
agrobot monitors the functions of
follower robots as per the instructions
by establishing bi-directional wireless
communication.
Follower Agrobots
Figure 13 Conceptual Network of Agrobots
Figure 13(a) Mobile Weeding Robot [15]
13(b) Home Garden Robot[16]
Many research investigations are being

carried out in European Countries like
Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and
also USA to develop good protocols for
best interaction among the robots in
terms of throughput and computation.
Protocols like CAN, OLSR are known to
work well in such applications.
Mobile Robots developed by
researchers in University of Sao Paulo
and a Distributed Home Garden Robot
developed by a group of students in an
MIT Summer Camp are the best
examples of Networking Robots. The
Mobile Robot seen in Figure 13(a) is
known for weeding while the Home
Garden Robot (Figure 13(b)) is known
to monitor shape, size, health and quality
of the produce.
T ECHNORAMA
CONCLUSIONS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
8.
Farming and agriculture provides food,

fodder, fiber, and fuel necessary for our
survival. Given the limited land, water
and labour resources, the agricultural
productivity must increase to meet the
future demands of the ever growing
human population. The demands can be
met by prioritizing mechanized
agriculture over the conventional
farming methods to improve
productivity. A step further in
mechanized agriculture is robotic
agriculture which brings in versatility,
dexterity, smartness and precision to
agriculture.
The author thankfully acknowledges the

contribution of his colleagues Mr.
Nagaraja, Mr. Nagananda, Mr. Hima
Kiran, Mr. Monish Gowda, Mr. J.
Madan, Mr. Praveen L.S., Ms. Preetham
Shankapal, Mr. Shivaraj, Mr. Manjunath
and Mr. Rajanna towards development
and testing of various technologies.
http://www.gps4us.com/news/po
st/Global-positioning-andgeographic-information-systemshelp-create-an-environmentallyfriendly-farm-20111228.aspx
9.
http://dorhoutrd.com/home/pros
pero_robot_farmer
10.
http://article.yeeyan.org/view/
48613/185219
11.
http://www.bitrebels.com/techno
logy/the-snakebot-scarier-thanany-real-snake/
The significance robotic agriculture over

tractor driven mechanized agriculture
can clearly be seen from the examples of
agrobots explained in the paper. Building
an agrobot is complex as it involves use
of sensors, microcontrollers, image
processing algorithms, communication,
software and GPS etc. Developing and
integrating such technologies and
building a reliable, robust and affordable
agrobot is a challenge, nevertheless,
once the technologies are mastered,
reliable and affordable robots are built,
such agrobots will be a boon to farming
community.
REFERENCES
1.
http://www.ifad.org/media/press/
2011/48.htm
2.
World Bank Indicators Databank,

by Topic. The World Bank.
Retrieved January 2012.
12.
http://www.outlookindia.com/art
icle.aspx?278543
13.
http://news.discovery.com/tech/
robotics/top-10-robot-talentandroid-humanoid-120110.htm
http://industry.avocado.org.au/do
cuments/ANZAGC09/Wed/MR1/
Claire%20Flemmer.pdf
14.
Simon Blackmore, et al. Robotic

AgricultureThe Future of
Agricultural Mechanization?, 5th
European Conference on
Precision Agriculture, 2005.
15.
Madsen T E, Jackobsen H L.
Mobile Robots for Weeding,
Master's Thesis Project.
Technical University of Denmark,
2001.
16.
Corell N, et al. Building a

D i s t r i b u t e d H o m e
Garden.Website: http://correll.
cs.colorado.edu/pubs/iros09.pdf
3.
4.
http://iaspirant.com/microproces
sors/(block diagram of simple
robot)
5.
http://www.thinkstockphotos.in/
image/stock-illustrationillustration-of-articulatedrobot/117192394
6.
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/35
855596/Agrobots---Robots-inAgriculture
7.
h t t p : / / w w w. r o b o t i c h a r v e s t
ing.com/
27
T ECHNORAMA
Networking Intelligent Micro Unmanned

Systems - Small Satellites
Prof R M Vasagam
Chairman, Aerospace Engineering Division Board
The space age dawned with the
successful launch of Sputnik-1 by
erstwhile USSR on October 4, 1957,
soon to be followed by USA and France,
China, Japan, India, Israel and recently
Iran, North Korea and South Korea.
Initial missions carried satellites
weighing 100's of kilograms followed by
heavier satellites weighing 1000's of
kilograms. The missions varied from
scientific observations,
communications, meteorology and
remote sensing applications. With the
advent of INTELSAT, satellite
communications spawned the entire
globe. So is the case with INMARSAT
providing communications to ships
across the oceans. Meteorological
satellites in polar orbits provide global
coverage for observing and
disseminating meteorological data. The
space systems have contributed
immensely to the domestic and
international endeavours. Space Science
missions have unraveled the mysteries of
planet earth solar system and universe
sometimes by carrying out missions in
cluster configurations.
Equally interesting developments have
become possible with missions tailored
for military observations and
communication needs. Manned space
stations starting from Salyut, Skylab and
culminating in international space
station has become the means of
exploring and exploiting the uses of
outer space.
An interesting development occurred
simultaneously with the advances in
electronics, computing and
communication technologies. Missions
like Iridium, a constellation of 66
satellites was attempted to realise a
global communication satellite system
making use of hand-held terminals.
28
Similar constellations of satellites were

built by European countries as well.
Attempts are being made to build a
constellation based disaster warning
satellite systems by few countries
including china, Nigeria etc. The
Navigation satellite constellations like
GPS, GLONASS, Beidou and The
Indian Regional Navigation satellite
systems (IRNSS) are some of the
examples of satellite constellations
aimed at global level operations. Search
and rescue operations using satellites
have demonstrated the use of networked
satellites saving valuable lives and
property.
Now with the advent of satellites
initially in 100's of kilograms range
shrinking to 10's and 1's of kilograms a
new beginning has been made for
harnessing the power of multiple
satellites working along with sensors
and systems distributed over vast
regions of land and ocean areas. While
the initial efforts were made by radio
amateurs and military establishments,
now a whole new community of
researchers and students in universities
are carrying forward the ideas to newer
and innovative missions. The store and
forward concept has been exploited to
everyone's benefit. Extensive temporal
and spatial sampling of data globally has
paved the way for, building global
models of earth's environment,
monitoring the movement of birds,
animals and maritime vessels as also
tectonic movements. Sensors distributed
over wide regions can be integrated and
data can go to central monitoring
stations through the satellites.
Information on natural and manmade
calamities can be collected and
consolidated for coordinated relief
operations.
The advent of micro satellites,

sometimes called small satellites, has
become practical owing to the free as
well as paid launches on major launches
as piggyback or co-passengers on high
capacity launch vehicles. The practice
started with Del, a launch vehicle of
NASA where excess capacity was used
to service small satellites of 1-100kg
class. Now it has come to the level of
below 1 kg with ability to perform,
scientific observation, data collection
and dissemination functions. The
nomenclature of pico, nano, micro, mini
and small satellites has been used to
designate satellites of such class.
Students and researchers of nearly 90
countries in the world have built and
launched such satellites.
The concept of networking such
satellites for benefiting the end users is a
topic of great importance. Monitoring
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, flood
damage, sea erosion and disease
breakout are some of the applications
targeted.
Rightly the Indian space programme has
started nurturing micro satellites
initiatives in academic institutions and
has provided free and paid launch
opportunities to such satellites on its
PSLV launch vehicles. Anna University
built and launched a 40 kg satellite with
a store and forward payload. SRM
University built and launched a 7 kg
satellites built by students for observing
atmospheric greenhouse gases using
Limb Sounding Technique. A consortia
of engineering colleges led by Nitte
Meenakshi College of Engineering built
and launched a 700 gm satellite
primarily for imaging and
communication experiment and the
second mission is on the anvil with the
funding support from Visversaya
T ECHNORAMA
Technological University to test out

inter-satellite communication.
A very interesting satellite Pisat is
being built by a consortia of colleges
PESIT, Bangalore, Veltech university,
Chennai. Sona College of Technology,

Salem KRS College of Engineering,
Chennai and Nehru College of
Engineering and Research Trissur under
the mentorship of NDRF/IEI and seed
funding by R&D committee of IEI. It
focussed on designing, building testing

and launching a 4.5 kg class imaging
satellite. The project is in final stages of
integration and testing. The ground
control station is getting ready for
commissioning soon. The launch is
expected on PSLV vehicle by early next
year. Figures 1 to 5 depict the PISAT
related details.
Another ambitious programme has been
undertaken by Noorul Islam University,
Thuckalay. It is a three axis stabilised
satellite with imaging payload aimed at
mapping the land vegetation and
agricultural crop. It will weigh around
12.5 kg and will be launched by PSLV.
The ground segment is getting ready for
commissioning in few months. This can
serve as a forerunner for more ambitious
missions for natural resource
monitoring and disaster management
applications. Brief information on Pisat
is given at the end.
Figure -1 PISAT
The efforts of IIT Kanpur in building and

launching 7 kg Jugnu Satellite is worth
noting. Its mission was for imaging in
Infrared band and incorporated 3-axis
stabilization and deployed solar panels.
The IIT Bombay's effort for building
7 kg Pratham satellite is in progress.
These can be harnessed eventually for
networked operations. IIT Madras has
embarked on building a small satellite
for studying high energy protons and
electrons in the Inner Van Allen belt
using plastic scintillators with
mentoring by TIFR and NASA and seed
funding from IIT Madras 1985 batch
Alumni.
India also launched a 100 kg class
Youthsat in collaboration with students
of Moscow University. Vietnam has
launched a 100 kg class as well as 1 kg
class satellites focussed on disaster
monitoring and relief operations.
Figure 2 PISAT Subsystems
India has also launched student built

satellites on payment basis from
Argentina, Canada, UK, Austria,
Denmark, Germany, Japan and South
Korea. The recent initiatives by VTU
and CANEUS for coming out with a
global networked small satellite system
for disaster monitoring and relief is
worth pursuing. Defining the sensors,
29
7
T ECHNORAMA
Figure 5 PISAT Team
Figure 3 PISAT Ground Control Station
satellites platforms, launch services,

ground systems in a participatory
manner is a challenging task. What had
been already done by Nigeria and China
in this direction should also be taken into
account. The Office of Outer Space
Affairs, UN is keen to facilitate such
global networks.
How soon and at what cost and
complexity these tasks can be
accomplished requires close look by all
countries. The IEI with its linkage to
engineering bodies in more than 100
countries through World Federation of
Engineering Organizations (WFEO) can
rightfully steer such interaction through
NDRF and other bodies of IEI.
Figure 4 PISAT Structure
30
Let us usher in the networked affordable

space systems to all countries of the
world!
T ECHNORAMA
Networked Autonomous Space, Aerial, Ground,

Water Surface and Underwater Systems:
An Assessment of Technology Readiness Levels
Dr K Ramachandra
Chief Executive Officer, NDRF Projects, National Program on Micro Air Vehicles
National Design Research Forum, The Institution of Engineers (India), Bangalore
ABSTRACT
This paper is an attempt at an assessment of the need and viability of large scale networked systems, complex in terms of the
number and type of autonomous vehicles which could be networked, in the foreseeable future. Contemporary indigenous and
mature-technologies readily available and technology gaps observed, which might limit, stall or totally hamper quick
productization of large and complex networked systems, are discussed, keeping in mind the context of Indian technologyreadiness, vis--vis the international scenario.
INTRODUCTION
Conceptually, the need for and the utility
of large networked autonomous vehicle
systems, at this point in time, warrants no
debate, considering the progress that has
already been made in individual
autonomous vehicle systems such as
aerial, ground and under-water vehicles.
Related technologies that are forecast to
be available in the near-term future also
vindicate and reinforce thoughts on this
possibility. Current attempts at
networking autonomous systems are
limited to just one or two types of
autonomous vehicles, typically quadrotors and autonomous / semiautonomous ground vehicles.
Te c h n o l o g y d e m o n s t r a t i o n s o f
Vijayakumar[1] and Raffaello[2] are
typical well-known examples pertaining
to quad-rotors. The basic objectives of
these important exercises have been to
demonstrate capability & capacity,
reliable mission oriented swarm / cooperative flying.
Very few publications and technology
demonstrations are seen from current
published literature on networking
different classes of vehicles, ranging
from underwater vehicles to space
vehicles in low earth orbits. The
fundamental questions that are raised in

this respect are: Do we need to net-work
such a large array and groups of
autonomous vehicles and even if it is
possible to do so, what is the pay-back?
What are the applications that are viable
and certainly possible with such
integrated systems? And, associated
logical questions are: What are the
critical and essential technologies
required to enable such outrageously
ambitious networking possibility?
Where are we with reference to
Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs)
and what are the challenges in
integrating these present and future
technologies into successfully
operational networked autonomous
systems? This paper tries to explore and
find answers to these technological
questions, without addressing the cost
and time factors involved.
Battle Theaters, warrant it. A variety

of such situations are illustrated in
current literature. Typical situations in
which networked systems are leveraged
as Force Multipliers are shown in
Figures 1, 2 and 3.
CANDIDATE SYSTEMS FOR

NETWORKING
Though Networked Autonomous

Systems have dual applications, the
focus of this paper is civilian
applications such as disaster
management, natural-resource micromanagement, micro weatherforecasting etc. and hence, a quick
discussion on possible candidate
vehicles which could fall into this ambit
of networked autonomous systems has
been attempted in the following
paragraphs. The concept of completely
autonomous system of systems is the
ultimate goal of this study, but the
unavoidable necessity for studying
semi-autonomous or manually
controlled systems in the initial stages of
integration is not excluded.
Networking a number of aero-space,

marine and ground vehicles is a
fundamental necessity and is indeed
reasonably well accomplished
dynamically on need basis, when
defense related Missions, involving a
limited number of specific vehicles in
Figure 4 highlights the ultimate

objective of the networked autonomous
systems and is a schematic of the
networked vehicle systems, ranging
from small low- orbit satellite systems in
the outer space to underwater systems.
In this new paradigm, the hierarchy of
7
31
T ECHNORAMA
Figure 1 Networked Mini Air Vehicles
control and command appears to start

from space and move towards
underwater vehicles, in the direction
opposite to Darwin's theory of evolution
of life from underwater to ground and
air! (Figure 5). Real-life and ultimate
networking might utilize all vehicle
systems at all altitude levels. It is
possible though that in the initial stages
net-work may be limited to only a few
vertical levels or may demand inclusion
of a large number of vehicles in the
horizontal plane or any combination of
them. A few possible and not necessarily
all, combinations of vehicles in the
networked autonomous systems are
shown in Figure 6. It is also possible that
few specific applications may demand
the services of static vehicles such as
water-surface buoys[3] and aero-stats
(Figure 7).
Low-orbit Small Satellites
Figure 2 MAV Networked Autonomous Systems
Figure 3 Aewac vehicle for Networking Aerial, Ground and Sea Vehicles
32
Major breakthrough in education,

communication, navigation, remote
sensing of natural resources and many
other societal applications has been the
satellites of different orbital modes.
Notwithstanding the existence of these
powerful satellite systems in space, the
role of small satellites in low earth orbits
is increasingly becoming significant in
the field of networking autonomous
vehicles, especially when unexpected
cloud covers, weather disturbances and
political issue based denials are
encountered. A number of dedicated and
focused and focused small satellites
capable of networking and managing a
large number of aerial, ground and
marine vehicles should be available in
the near future.
A large constellation of mini satellites as
a ring around the earth, about 400 km
above earth, focusing on a specific
region, would enable frequent high
resolution snap shots, making it possible
to track changes from traffic jams,
natural disasters, deforestation, status of
ice-caps, sand erosion etc. These images
can be beamed down to the command
and control stations, almost on real time,
can be processed and decisions taken on
deploying the networked flying or
ground or marine vehicles.
T ECHNORAMA
management, agriculture, health

monitoring, disaster management and
low intensity conflict. Figure 9 is a
typical summary of such applications
and linked with unmanned ground
vehicles can be an effective forcemultiplier, especially in disaster
management and defense operations
T h e c u r r e n t M I C AV / M I N AV
technology in the country is focused on
making these vehicles fully autonomous
and enabling them to fly in cooperative
swarm mode for a few mission mode
applications. Their capability to
dynamically communicate and network
with other stationary and flying and
floating vehicles is still in a very nascent
and almost at ground-zero level.
Figure 4 Satellite Networked Autonomous Systems
Aerostats
Though a well-known and relatively old
technology, a new entry into the vast
array of Networked Autonomous
Systems is the Aerostats. In spite of
these being static tethered and not
strictly autonomous systems, they
facilitate networking of several air,
ground and water vehicles. Mini
versions of these aerostats, shown in
Figure 10 have a big role in making these
sub-systems of the Network more
effective. Relative simplicity, mobility
and adaptability in all weather
conditions across almost all
geographical locations make them
versatile and an important element of the
Network System.
Figure 5 Evolution of Human Beings, Agriculture and Aerospace Technology
Build-up of the capability of these

satellite constellations to intercommunicate, handle communication
and navigation channels with other
networked systems at the expected
frequencies, poses unprecedented
challenges, as of today. Even more
important factor is the expected
durability of these satellites, which is
estimated to be 5 years, but considering
the drag at these low orbital altitudes, is
conservatively suspected to be not more
than 1 to 2 years.
Micro and Mini Aerial Vehicles

There are at least 3 to 4 varieties of
aircraft, , below 300 mm overall size
termed Micro Air Vehicles (MICAVs),
and those above 300 mm up to 1.5 to
2.0 m, called as MINAVs (Mini Air
Vehicles), a snapshot of which is shown
in Figure 8. These weighing a few grams
to few kilograms operate up to 100m to
1000m flight altitude on autonomous
mode beyond visual range. These
vehicles with additional payloads are
eminently suitable for reconnaissance,
natural resource sensing and
Due to their stationary disposition, they

have the capability to carry heavy
payloads, including radars and large
power back-up, ensuring much needed
high endurance and serve as effective
Range Extenders for several types of
vehicles including mini-satellites.
Ground Vehicles and Entomopters
Unmanned ground vehicles (Figure 11)
have made great strides in operating
under autonomous mode and find
applications in many disaster
management missions and surveillance
missions. These advanced technology
robots can survive extremely harsh
environments and can even take the role
of Entomopters. The present technology
enables them to climb stairs, vertical
33
T ECHNORAMA
walls and even to fly away to accomplish

their missions autonomously. Being
relatively rugged and capable of taking
heavy payloads, they can be networked
to both air vehicles and even water
surface vehicles. TRL levels of these
vehicles as sub-systems of networking
systems are fairly high.
Satellite Constellations
Amphibian Vehicles
Autonomous Mini / Micro Air Vehicles
Aerial Network
Aerostats
Satellite Constellations
Autonomous Amphibians and Entomopters
Water-Surface Vehicles (Hydro-Planes)
Aerial-Sea Network
These land-water vehicles are at the

forefront of the technology development
and are yet to be proven as reliable
products which can be leveraged for the
important functions of coastal
surveillance and disaster management.
The mini amphibians shown in
Figure 12 are two of the few versatile
and robust land-water vehicles, almost
fully autonomous and capable of
illuminating objects on land and
underwater in their path, video imaging,
and collision avoidance, tracking
designated objects and moving in slush,
sand, ice and water. They are capable of
recovering from free falls in uneven
terrains, keep movement in any
disposition including upside-down
position and wade through Burrows,
small caves, tunnels etc. Their
technology readiness levels can be
assigned as medium level, since
underwater navigation and communication is a big technological challenge.
They are therefore very important
elements as first level linkage vehicles
with UGVs, surface buoys or
underwater vehicles or mini aerostats
near any water front.
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
Boats / Hydroplanes
Surface Buoy
Water-Surface Vehicles (Hydro-Planes)
Sea Network
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
Figure 6 A Few Combinations of Networked Systems
34
Mini conventional boats and

hydroplanes indicated in Figure 13
enlarge the scope of networking wider
over lake, sea and ocean surfaces and
easily link up with land robots, aerostats
and water surface buoys. They are
powerful surveillance tools as well in
well-developed mode. These mini
vehicles which are at initial stages
technology demonstration phase have a
low technology readiness level and need
to be ruggedized to handle water
currents underwater and rough waves
and wind conditions above water
surface.
T ECHNORAMA
Figure 7 Simple Network with Static Vehicles: Buoys and Aerostats
Buoys
These static water surfaces of sea and
ocean are versatile link elements of the
total networking systems, which can
connect ground and air vehicles very
effectively, in addition to being used as
weather & disaster monitoring and
surveillance devices. Their role as
communication hubs with mini cluster of
mini underwater vehicles, both shallow
and deep water varieties, is quite
significant. A few of the well-developed

surface buoys and their deployment in
Indian shores are shown in Figure 14.
Underwater Vehicles
These are perhaps the most amazing
technology products which integrate the
technologies both from aerospace
vehicles and existing naval vehicles.
They adapt technologies of torpedoes,
but they are different from the present
Figure 8 Different Types of Micavs

and Minavs
35
T ECHNORAMA
water vehicles such as ships and

submarines since they are principally
based on mimicking underwater species
and amphibians such as fish, tortoise and
crocodiles.
They have amazing potential as
networked systems in protecting the
coastal assets. Water resource
monitoring (Figure 15) but have a long
way to go to become products with good
range and reliability. At present, there
are serious communication and
Figure 9 Typical Applications of MINAVs and MICAVs
Figure 10 Aerostats for Network System
36
Figure 11 Semi-autonomous and Autonomous

Ground Vehicles
T ECHNORAMA
Figure 14 Surface Buoys for Ocean Studies and Weather Forecasting
Figure 12 Typical Groundwater

Vehicles
Figure 13 Mini Water Surface Vehicles

and Hydroplanes
navigation problems apart from

difficulties in networking with ground
and aerial vehicles. They will be heavily
dependent on other link elements, such
as surface buoys to play their role
effectively.
These could be considered as weak links
in the expected ultimate networked
systems and their present technology
readiness levels in terms of networking
capabilities could be termed as low, in
relative terms
Figure 15 Underwater Autonomous Vehicles and their Typical Applications
THE PRELIMINARY STEPS IN

NETWORKING
The simplest version of networking
without going to the complicated multilayer system is shown in Figure 16 and
this first step has already been taken up

in the on-going networking activities
under the National Program on Micro
Air Vehicles (NP-MICAV). This is
basically aimed at extending the range of
37
T ECHNORAMA
2 km
4 km
6 km
actual demand for networking will range

from the complex mesh-network
topology to the more meaningful and
practical hybrid-network protocol
missions.
TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGES
Figure 16 The Simplest Range Extender: Aerial-Ground Network
micro air vehicles with the help of mini

air vehicles, similar to the operation of
cluster of defense aircraft, centered on
AEWACs, which act as hubs of the local
network systems. There is large
experience potential to accomplish this
easily and effectively and the
networking strategy will radiate from
this very realizable local network of mini
and micro air vehicles.
other in the network system is shown in

Figure 17. This is an outrageously
complex and ambitious objective,
considering status of the present
networking technology, particularly in
the field of communication, image
processing and relates disciplines. The
It is obvious from the foregoing

description of the vehicle systems, their
technology readiness level and the
envisaged network system, there is a
huge gap between the available
technologies and those required for a
positive and major step forward. Each
one of the seven categories of vehicles,
referred to in the review, has at least one
or two weak links, which unless
overcome, will not qualify them as
viable candidates, for easy and effective
networking of the system. Launch and
Operationalization of 20 to 24 satellites
of the constellation at low orbits, swarm
flying capability, high-speed image
processing, navigation and control of
THE ULTIMATE DREAM

The previous paragraph indicates the
simplest networking possibility of a
specific type of vehicles and has already
been demonstrated as technology
viability with just 2 or 3 micro and minivehicle combinations. The ultimate
dream however is, as earlier mentioned,
to develop the technology for a multilayer and complex combinations of
autonomous and semi-autonomous
vehicles, to meet different needs of
various civil or defense applications.
This is typically a fixed protocol system
with command flowing down from the
topmost layer that is the satellite
constellations to the bottom most layer,
which is the underwater vehicle. This is
but an academic network system, most
ideal one, not representing a real life
network requirement. This is still a
possible and necessary step in the
technology demonstration phase, one of
the several baby-steps that needs to be
taken up in the initial stages.
A flexible protocol, where each and
every vehicle communicates with each
38
(A. Mesh Network Topology)
(B. Hybrid Network Topology)
Figure 17 Cluster of Systems: Dynamic and Multi-node Protocol Network
T ECHNORAMA
multi-layered flying vehicles,

underwater imaging, communication
and navigation are few of the many
technologies that needs to be perfected
to achieve the perceived net-work
system, which has a huge application
potential, both in civil and defense
sectors .
SUMMARY
images from websites, including those of

the Defense Research and Development
Organization (DRDO), India, have been
referred to and reproduced in the text
without going into borrowing any
technical details, just to illustrate the
concepts and relate these vehicles to the
networking objectives and possibilities.
The authors and agencies associated
with these systems and technologies are
gratefully acknowledged.
The seven categories of semiautonomous and autonomous vehicles,

which can be networked into an integral
networked cluster, are at technology
readiness levels far below threshold
levels comfortable for system
integration and hence need to be elevated
to much higher levels. The task of multisystem integration itself is a mammoth
one and should be given a big head-start
by kick-starting development of systems
with much simpler network topologies
and fewer layers of vehicles, to start
with.
REFERENCES
ACKNOWLWDGEMENTS
1.
Many open source photographs and
Generation and Control for Precise

Aggressive Maneuvers with Quadrotors, GRASP Laboratory.
University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, PA, USA, January
25, 2012.
2.
D'Andrea,R, Augugliaro, F.,

Schoellig, A.P. Generation of
Collision-Free Trajectories for a
Quadro-CopterFleet: A Sequential
Convex Programming Approach.
IEEE/RSJ International
Conference on Intelligent Robots
and Systems, Vilamoura, October
2012.
3.
Dimitrios Tzeranis, Evangelos

Papadopoulos and George
Triantafyllou. On the Design of an
Autonomous Robot Fish: Proc.
11 t h I E E E M e d i t e r r a n e a n
Conference on Control and
Automation. Rhodes, June 2003.
The contribution of Mr P Bharat Varma,

Asst. Project Manager, National Design
and Research Forum, The Institution of
Engineers (India) is quite significant
without which it would have extremely
difficult to integrate the concepts into a
full-fledged review paper.
Support from The Institution of
Engineers (India) and the National
Design & Research Forum are
acknowledged.
Daniel Mellinger, Nathan Michael,
Vi j a y K u m a r. T r a j e c t o r y
39
T ECHNORAMA
Assay of the Micro Air Vehicles (MICAVs):

Initiative at NDRF
L V Muralikrishna Reddy, K Ramachandra, K Vijayakumar, P Bharat Varma,
S Durvasula, R Kanekal, R Vijay Krishna, P Bhagavatula
National Design and Research Forum, The Institution of Engineers (India), Bangalore
ABSTRACT
National Design and Research Forum
(NDRF) an Autonomous Forum of IEI,
is actively involved in promoting the
design, research, and development of
mini and micro air vehicles. To realize a
functional platform, NDRF is working
on identifying critical technologies for
development of Micro Air Vehicles and
payloads including sensors. NDRF is
working with multidisciplinary domain
experts to influence the adaptation of
these technologies for deployment and
productization. A recent initiative at
NDRF is to progress studies in the
emerging areas of Bio-Aerodynamics of
Birds and Insect Flight.
NDRF has taken up a number of
collaborative projects under the National
Program for Micro Air Vehicles (NPMICAV) with support from the
Aeronautical Research and
Development Board (AR&DB) of the
Defence Research and Development
O rg a n i z a t i o n ( D R D O ) a n d t h e
Department of Science and Technology
(DST). NDRF is at the forefront of
conceptualizing and deploying Mini Air
Vehicle (MAV) technologies to meet a
large number of specifications, missions,
and applications for national security,
disaster management, agricultural crop
management studies, crowd monitoring,
and urban surveillance, amongst others.
NDRF and its Consortium members are
now working on adapting technologies
for micro-sized vehicles including
autonomous control integrated with
navigation and guidance.
This paper highlights the significance
and status of these projects of national
importance, currently being executed by
NDRF at various work-centers. A review
40
of the current technologies,

identification of the design and
fabrication challenges and the progress
of the adaptation of technologies, to
meet the objectives of NP-MICAV is
presented. Current developments in the
areas of Flapping-wing Aerodynamics
and Sensors are chronicled in this paper.
MICAV would be chosen. In case the

mission required hovering and staring,
rotary-wing configuration MICAV
would be selected. In case the mission
requires flying inside confined spaces,
flapping-wing MICAVs would be the
ideal choice. Figure 1 shows the typical
pictorial classification of MICAVs.[1]
KEYWORDS
According to the United States Defense

Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA), MICAVs have been defined
as being 150 mm or less in the largest
linear dimension, having a range of
10 km, peak velocities over 13 m/s,
gross takeoff weight of 100 gm, a
payload capacity of 20 gm, and
operating for more than 20 minutes.
MICAVs can fly outdoors and indoors,
perform high angle of attack
manoeuvres, and hover in vertical
positions. The small dimensions and
lightweight characteristics of MICAVs
make them very portable to remote
Micro Air Vehicles, Sensors, Flappingwing Aerodynamics, Bird and Insect

Flight, Biomimetics
MICRO AIR VEHICLES
(MICAVS)
MICAVs can be classified into fixedwing, rotary-wing and flapping-wing
configurations. The choice of the
configuration for a MICAV is driven by
the mission requirements. For instance,
if the mission requires outdoor
reconnaissance at moderate to high
flying speeds, fixed-wing configuration
Figure 1 MAV Classification
T ECHNORAMA
NATIONAL PROGRAM ON
MICRO AIR VEHICLES
(NP-MICAV)
MICAVs have been identified as a thrust
area for Research and Development by
the DRDO and has been progressed by
the Special Interest Group on Micro Air
Vehicles (SIGMA) under the AR&DB.
Figure 2 Typical MICAV Missions
locations. Over the last decade, there has

been increasing interest in the
deployment of MICAVs for a variety of
civilian and military applications /
missions. Figure 2 depicts some of the
typical MICAV missions.
Bird and Insect Flight
Bird ? ight can be divided into two modes
unpowered ? ight (gliding and soaring
? ight) and powered ? ight (? apping and
hovering ? ight). Birds use steady
aerodynamic principles for their flight
during gliding and soaring phases.
Insects and smaller birds use unsteady
aerodynamic manoeuvres like
asymmetric flapping, delayed stall and
wing rotation, and wake capturing.
Unsteady structures enable MICAVs to
hover and perform other procedures that

are not possible with fixed-wing, steadyaerodynamic structures.[2]
Understanding of insect and bird flight
aerodynamics is complex as compared
to the aerodynamics analysis of fixed
and rotary-wing MICAVs. Current
research is focused on the feasibility of
using unsteady structures than on the
optimization of performance or the
establishment of generalized design
principles. A new direction in this
program, driven through industry,
research, and government agencies, is to
develop flapping-wing MICAVs.
Figure 3 represents the potential
applications of flapping-wing
MICAVs.[1,3]
Figure 3 Potential Applications of MAVs
NDRF is responsible for conceptualization, feasibility studies, and

systems engineering for developing the
(300, 150, and 75 mm) class of
MICAVs. NDRF has taken the lead role
in capacity building and developing
competencies in the collaborative mode
in the following critical technologies for
MICAVs:
l
Aerodynamics
l
Structures and Materials
l
Flight Control
l
Propulsion
l
Navigation and Guidance
l
Power Supplies
l
Launch / Recovery
l
Image Exploitation
l
Net
work Control
Communication
and
l
Sensors for MICAVs
l
Biomimetic Concepts
l
Ground Systems
NDRF is building a design and

development ecosystem with academia,
research laboratories and industry to
participate in NP-MICAV.
NP-MICAV is a 5-year National
Program with multiple work centres
located at National Aerospace
Laboratories (NAL), Indian Institute of
Technology Bombay, Indian Institute of
Technology Kanpur, Indian Institute of
Science and NDRF-Consortium [Anna
University of Technology; M S Ramaiah
School of Advanced Studies
(MSRSAS); Drone Aerospace; Deccan
Signals; DC Enterprises; Jawaharlal
Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific
Research (JNCASR); Institute of
Robotics & Intelligent Systems (IRIS);
National Centre for Biological Sciences
(NCBS); bigtec Pvt. Ltd and Foundation
for Educational Excellence (FEE)].
41
7
T ECHNORAMA
NP-MICAV related activities at NDRF

could be categorized into these focus
groups:
l
Technical
Support and Program

Management
s
Technical Support
s
Program Management for NPMICAV
l
Systems
Engineering and
Technology Development
s
System Identification Group
(SIG)
s
Sensor Development
s
Bird Aerodynamics and Insect
Flight
s
Rapid Prototyping and MAVs
Product Development, Innovation, and

Futuristic Technologies are major thrust
areas for NDRF. More than 50 per cent of
the projects being executed are focused
on product development.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT AND
PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
NDRF has taken up the complex system
of MICAVs as a design and development
challenge and is building
interdisciplinary / multidisciplinary
teams and research centers as members
of the NDRF (Consortium) for projects
under NP-MICAV. Technical support
and program management is critical for
successful deliverables of set objectives
of the each project under NP-MICAV.
Technical Support Facility (TSF)
Figure 4 TSF's Role in MICAV Activity
of defining the goals of participating

institutions, networking their technical
activities, monitoring the progress of
these projects with respect to the goals
set, taking corrective actions and give
technical and management support to
all the groups. TSF leverages the
domain expertise available with the
Institution of Engineers (India)
practicing engineers and related
expertise from the industry and
academia to carry out systems
engineering, technology evaluation,
product development and testing
activities. TSF's activities are depicted
in Figure 4.
TSF also takes the support of experts
from multiple technology disciplines to
identify futuristic technologies that
could be implemented in the NPMICAV, like development and
integration of sensors with MICAVs.
executed across the country under NPMICAV by various entities and

delivering hundreds of deliverables is a
challenging task. The entities executing
these projects in the program have
diverse backgrounds (Education,
Industry and R&D) and establishing
uniform processes to meet the common
objective of the NP-MICAV program is
of paramount importance.
Keeping these challenges in mind, a
common platform for program
management has been established.
Access controlled and secure website
has been built to overcome some of the
project management challenges.
Through this website, NDRF supports
the NP-MICAV Program Office at ADE.
The website has two layers; one is
available for public access and another
is available to the stakeholders for an
integrated view of the overall NPMICAV.
While establishing these research groups

under the NDRF (Consortium), NDRF
felt the need for shared / common
facilities that can be utilized by members
of the NDRF (Consortium) to achieve
the program goals. Technical Support
Facility (TSF) is the clearing-house for
the training, design, development,
research and support services that may
be required by members of the NDRF
(Consortium). TSF also helps in resource
management by identifying and bridging
specific domain expertise gaps, to ensure
completion of NDRF (Consortium)
projects.
Portal for NP-MICAV Program

Management
The project management and tracking

module helps the key stakeholders in
managing the project by
TSF was established with the objectives
Managing a program with 64 projects
l
Providing
42
TSF has developed the tools, techniques

and applications to support the program
management activity for all the
members of the NDRF (Consortium).
TSF has developed and is maintaining a
website to enable effective project
management for the ongoing projects
and currently supporting 30 projects
being executed at work centers.
The portal has been built for various

project management tasks, such as
project management and tracking,
meeting management, and
documentation store. Figure 5
represents the NP-MICAV Programme
Management at NDRF.
information about each
T ECHNORAMA
l
Centralized
monitoring and
Generation of MICAVs research

database.
reporting.
l
To
help with managing program

finances, a financial management
module is being developed and
integrated.
l
The
existing project management

module to help in conducting
review meetings is being enhanced.
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING AND

TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
Fig. 5 NP-MICAV Program Management
project's objectives, deliverables,

financial information, duration, etc.
l
Tracking
deliverables to ensure that

the necessary help is extended by the
Program Office to projects in order
to complete the projects on-time.
NP-MICAV program has a 3-tier

management and monitoring structure,
with roles and responsibility of each tier
defined clearly. Each tier has its
monitoring mechanisms and collective
decision-making enabled through
periodic meetings. Management of
hundreds of action items arising out of
various meetings is done through the
meeting management module of the
portal.
Knowledge management is essential for
successful program management. This is
accomplished by the Document
Management System, built into the
website, where various information
artefacts including documents, photos,
and videos are classified and stored.
These can be accessed through the
powerful search functionality.
NDRF studies the MICAV system

requirements, assesses the technology
components and the availability of
expertise within the NDRF
(Consortium), identifies the experts to
address the technology gaps, and
develops the Systems Engineering
Documents in terms of input, processes,
output, fields, programs and procedures.
Systems Identification Group (SIG)
l
Flight Instrumentation.
l
Sensory
Platforms and Telemetry

Capabilities.
l
Wind
Tunnel Facilities for

Aerodynamic Studies.
SIG is working on addressing the

following two challenges:
Aerodynamic Study and
Characterization of Flapping Wing
Fliers
Current research activities at SIG
Members' work centers include:
l
JNCASR
is working on 3D
Numerical Investigation of
unsteady aerodynamics for flapping
wing.
l
Flow
Solver for MAV is difficult

with a standard package. Instead of
rewriting the CFD analysis code,
usage of the Open FOAM which is
an Open Source Package was
considered. A project on
Development of Code for Flapping
Wing by using Open FOAM
Package is being pursued by the
SIG with support from IISc.
To improvise the flying platform

developed by the NDRF (Consortium),
NDRF has formed a SIG to implement
critical technologies for Micro Air
Vehicles. SIG brings together various
institutions to work on systems
identification. Figure 6 represents the
SIG collaborative effort at NDRF.
The MICAV activity at NDRF has
achieved a major milestone with the
flying platform developed by the NDRF
(Consortium) Member-DC Enterprises,
being proven flight-worthy. The flying
platform developed by NDRF is backed
up by the following studies:
l
NAL
is carrying out aero-elasticity

studies on flappers.
l
NCBS
l
Aeroelasticity Problems.
l
Detailed
Literature Survey and

IISc
Reporting to provide various insights

into the program is one of the key
features that would help in decisionmaking and is available for key
stakeholders.
The expected outcomes of the usage of
this portal include
l
Enable
key stakeholders to focus

more on technical challenges and
less on program / project
management.
is working in the field of

flappers. Under SIG, a project for
evaluating the inherent stability for
the flappers is in progress. Based on
MAV Model from DC Enterprises,
the experimental set-up was carried
out in the NCBS Wind Tunnel. DC
NCBS
NAL
JNCASR
DC
Enterprises
SIG
IRIS
Figure 6 SIG Collaboration at NDRF
43
7
T ECHNORAMA
Enterprises fabricated the flapping

wing MAV Model with various
wingspans. Based on the
experimental data from NCBS,
NDRF is working on CFD analysis
to calculate the lift, drag and thrust
generated by Flapping-wing model.
l
Under
the NP-MICAV program,

MAV Aerodynamics Research
Tunnel (MART) was established at
NAL. MART facilities will be used
to assess the aerodynamic
characteristics of Fixed and
F l a p p i n g W i n g M AV s b y
conducting these wind tunnel tests:
s
Full-scale Fixed/Flapping-wing
MAV Tests
s
Flow Control
s
Low Reynolds Number
s
Laminar Separation Bubble
s
Unsteady Aerodynamics
s
Vortex Dynamics
SIG proposes to work on sizing, CFD
calculations, wind tunnel testing, flight
dynamic studies, and aero-elastic
studies. It also envisages using the
MART to address challenges in the field
of unsteady aerodynamics.
Flapping-wing Aerodynamics
Flapping-wing aerodynamics has
generated a great deal of interest and
increasing research effort is on because
of its potential application in MICAVs.
Biological systems, such as, birds and
insects provide an interesting and useful
baseline for flapping-wing MAVs
because of similar characteristics like
low Reynolds Number, unsteady
aerodynamics, materials, stability,
performance, and propulsion. Insect
flight is extremely fast, manoeuvrable
and versatile. The flapping-wing
MAVs[4] can be used to integrate various
technologies as represented in Figure 7.
Figure 7 Flapping-wing MAV Technologies
achieve autonomous flight of

Flapping-wing MAVs.
l
Flapping-wing
MAVs need to be
capable of flight in a wide range of
atmospheric conditions, such as,
gusty winds.
Flapping-wing AerodynamicsMitigation Actions

l
Testing
flapping-wing model in the

30cm x 30cm wind tunnel of NCBS
for studying low Reynolds Number
flow.
l
Using
Phantom High Speed

Camera Model No v7.3 which has
the capability of capture the video at
the frame rate of 6,688 fps at 800 x
600 pixels (4:3 aspect ratio) to
simultaneously capture both the top
and side views of the model at
different velocity and different
throttle speed.
video of calibrated 3D
model in wind tunnel.
experimental setup of flappingwing MAVs at NCBS.

l
Use
DLTdv5 MATLAB code to

extract xyz coordinates of the
Model, frame by frame, from which
the 3D wing shape was obtained, as
shown in Figure 9.
Based on the xyz coordinates, CFD

analysis was carried out using
commercial software. From the results,
negative lift and higher drag were
observed. Future work is aimed at
obtaining results of higher accuracy by
considering more points on the model to
get better curve fitting, 2D camber as
well as 3D wing, which will enable more
accurate CFD analysis [5,6]. Various
pressure contours and velocity vectors
already obtained from the present study
are shown in Figure 10.
Technology Development Sensors
for MICAVs
l
Captured
l
Figure
8 represents the
MICAVs are small flying systems that

can be equipped with a variety of micro-
Development of Flapping-wing MAVs

l
Aerodynamics
of Flapping-wing
MAVs is not well understood and
studies need to be undertaken in
order to improve the knowledge on
the aerodynamic aspects, so as to
44
Figure 8 Experimental View of Flapping-wing MAVs
T ECHNORAMA
and reliable means for sensing and

diagnosis, and it has recently attracted
remarkable attention due to their
potential of bringing novel applications
to reality in many areas including
biomedical industry, defence, security,
surveillance, mining, remote sensing,
etc. As the future trend in the
development of hazardous sensing, bio
diagnosis requires mass production.
While being environmentally
sustainable, it is important that the
devices are made small for less material
consumption and from MEMS
technologies. The portability of the
MICAVs-based sensing platform
renders it versatile for in-situ detections.
Ammonia sensor development is
depicted in Figure 11.
Figure 9 Curve Fitting for the Wing Profile of MAVs
This sensor makes these MICAVs the

right option for environmental
monitoring of ammonia. NDRF
(Consortium) partners-Anna University,
Foundation for Educational Excellence
(FEE), in collaboration with Concordia
University, Canada have developed a
sensor to detect ammonia gas up to
2 ppm concentration in atmosphere. The
device is finally packaged to a
4.53.41.5 cm size with the weight of
20 gms and an operating voltage of 3V.
Field test on the MICAV integrated with
sensors will be carried out for
functionality and reliability tests.
Nitric Oxide (NO) Biosensor
Development
Recently, NDRF has focused on gassensor development using biological
entities called enzymes. The generalized
schematic of a biosensor is shown in
Figure 12.
Figure 10 Pressure Contours and Velocity Vectors of MAVs
sensors to accomplish various

monitoring or surveillance tasks. The
sensors that can be carried as payloads
include optical, Infra-red (IR), acoustic,
chemical, amongst others.
Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems
(MEMS) based Sensors
In order to make MICAVs more
intelligent and useful, they need to be
The sample analyte, in this case is the
integrated with different sensing

capabilities, such as pressure,
temperature, humidity, flow velocity,
etc. It is very important that they are
made of MEMS in order to reduce
weight and enable multi-sensing
capabilities.
The promising field of integrated
MICAVs with MEMS offers a vast
potential to realize low cost, efficient,
disposable, environmentally sustainable
Figure 11 Lab-on-Chip: Ammonia Sensor
45
7
T ECHNORAMA
in seconds. This is data representing

1.5pM or 5ppb of nitric oxide. A positive
response is one in which the ratio of the
slope of the signal to slope of
background is at least 2.
Figure 12 Biosensor Schematic
targeted gas, nitric oxide. The

bioreceptor used is an enzyme called
soluble guanylyl cyclase. Soluble
guanylyl cyclase is found ubiquitously
throughout a multicellular organism, its
main function is to bind nitric oxide and
conduct subsequent signal transduction
by converting the substrate GTP to
cGMP. Nitric oxide functions in many
spheres of a human body like the
soliciting an immune response, relaxing
muscles etc. Thus, in this biosensor,
soluble guanylyl cyclase as a sensing
element that detects and binds nitric
oxide was used. In addition to guanylyl
cyclase, there are 3 more enzymes used
in the biosensor assay: sulfate
adenylyltransferase (ATP)-sulfurylase,
luciferase and super oxide dismutase.
ATP - s u l f u r y l a s e t a k e s t h e P P i
(pyrophosphate) from the guanylyl
cyclase reaction, uses another substrate
called APS (adenosine phosphosulfate)
and produces ATP. ATP is taken up by the
luciferase reaction, along with luciferin
which gives out luminescence or light.
Super oxide dismutase keeps the oxygen
from reacting with the nitric oxide and
converting it to nitrogen dioxide. The
optical signal is proportional to the
amount of nitric oxide that originally
bound guanylyl cyclase making it a
highly sensitive detector[7]. Figure 13
represents the Nitric Oxide Biosensor
Prototype Model.
46
A typical data plot of the biosensor

response when the NO is introduced into
the multi-enzyme system is shown in
Figure 14, which represents the relation
between relative luminous unit and time
Figure 15 represents the gaseous NO

Detection as concentration of nitric
oxide in parts per billion. The graph
shows the response to increasing
amounts of nitric oxide as a ratio of
slope of signal to slope of background.
At the onset of the project, the target was
set to detect ppb levels of nitric oxide.
Chemical sensors are able to detect in
the ppb range and it is possible to build a
biosensor that does as well or better than
existing chemical sensors. Upon
experimentation with the biosensor in
liquid phase, it is found that it is able to
detect 0.0195ppb or 20ppt of nitric
oxide and in vapour phase, it is able to
detect 0.5ppb or 500ppt. In both liquid
and vapour phase, results far exceeded
the expectations set at the beginning of
the project.
Figure 13 Nitric Oxide Biosensor Prototype
Figure 14 Relative Luminous Unit Vs. Time
T ECHNORAMA
Figure 17 RPT Model
Figure 15 Gaseous NO Detection
Bird Aerodynamics and Insect Flight

In nature, insects, birds and bats have
been flying as small aerial vehicles for
millions of years. These natural MICAVs
provide inspiration and their bioaerodynamics study gives useful clues
for the design and improvements of
aeroplanes and MICAVs even in modern
times. However, there is a greater
demand for light MICAVs in urban
surveillance missions, and paramilitary
missions.
Insects and Hummingbirds remain
unmatched in their aerodynamic ability
to hover over a place in addition to other
acrobatic feats such as flying backwards
and sideways by exploiting flappingwing motion. The body of a flying insect
is streamlined as compared to birds and
fishes where it is fusiform. Insect wings
are membranous structures and
constantly flap exhibiting down and
upstrokes during flight and develop
aerodynamic forces, such as, vertical lift,
forward thrust, and induced drag due to
development of vortices at the wing tip,

in contrast to aeroplane fixed wings.
Figure 16 represents the Hummingbird
and an Insect in flight.
Flapping flexible wing of bird flight and
insect flight is structurally and
functionally different from the fixed
wing flight of an aeroplane. Flapping
wing generates lift, thrust, and induced
drag when the wings move up and down.
The bird wing has a complex structure
and function. The aerodynamics of
Hummingbird flight is more
challenging. The design of their wings is
very different from that of other types of
birds. It can fly straight, reverse,
upwards, downwards, and even upside
down. All of this is really fascinating to
those engaged in research on their
aerodynamic abilities.
Therefore, future multidisciplinary
research and close cooperation is
necessary between physicists, aerobiologists, micro-aeronautics designers,
and robotic engineers for developing
successful and useful models of

MICAVs based on bio-mimicking
principles of insects and birds. NDRF is
carrying out various studies of bird and
insect flight aerodynamics and has plans
to compile knowledge and information
for evaluating futuristic technologies in
this very important area.
Rapid Prototyping and MAVs
Rapid Prototyping (RP) enables quick
fabrication of physical models using
three-dimensional computer aided
design (CAD) data. Used in a wide range
of applications, rapid prototyping allows
designs from drawing boards to be
turned into successful end-products
directly, rapidly and efficiently. 3D
printing and Rapid Prototyping facility
reduces prototype fabrication time and
allows design engineers to develop
innovative solutions. Figure 17 shows a
prototype of a Micro Air Vehicle
developed using the Fusion Deposition
Modelling technique at NDRF.
Rapid Prototyping Facility at NDRF's
Proto Lab Centre is currently being
utilized by engineering students and
R&D Labs. The facility is being used to
realize innovative designs of Micro Air
Vehicles, engineering products,
ceramics, artifacts, visual
communication systems, etc.
CONCLUSION
NDRF is playing a major role in building
an effective ecosystem for collaborative
research with research laboratories,
academia, and the industry to develop
viable Micro Air Vehicles platforms that
can be deployed for multiple
applications.
Hummingbird
Dragon Fly in Flight
Figure 16 Hummingbird and Insect in Flight
NDRF has made considerable progress

in developing critical technologies for
realizing the objectives of this national
program. NDRF (Consortium) members
47
7
T ECHNORAMA
have set in motion new initiatives and

developed significant expertise in:
l
Micro
and Bio-mimetic
Modeling, Design, and
Development
l
Power Supplies
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Technical inputs and reference material
given by the following Consortium
members required for this Paper are
acknowledged:
l
Anna University of Technology
l
Sensor Systems
l
bigtec Pvt. Ltd
l
System Engineering
l
D.C. Enterprises
l
Brain Machine Interface
l
Deccan Signals
l
Simulation-Digital,
Real-time,
Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL)
l
Vi s i o n
Based Control,
Navigation, and Guidance.
Advancements in micro and

nanotechnologies will contribute to
improving the capabilities of future
MICAVs through enhanced flight
performance and development of
powerful payloads. NDRF is constantly
augmenting the required facilities and
strengthening the capabilities for
realizing a fully functional MICAV
platform.
NDRF is leveraging IEI's presence in
various engineering disciplines to build
a multidisciplinary approach to
developing engineering solutions to
complex technological challenges of
MICAVs.
Sreenivas, K R. Aerodynamics of
Bird and Insect Flight. Journal of
the Indian Institute of Science, Vol
91:3 JulySept. 2011
journal.library.iisc.ernet.in.
l
Drone Aerospace
l
Foundation
for Educational
Excellence (FEE)
l
Institute
of Robotics & Intelligent

Systems (IRIS)
l
Jain Group of Institutions
l
Jawaharlal
Nehru Centre for

Advanced Scientific Research
(JNCASR)
l
MS
Ramaiah School of Advanced

Studies (MSRSAS)
l
National
Centre for Biological

Sciences (NCBS)
REFERENCES
1. Google Images.
2. Shreyas, J V, Devranjan, S and
3. M A V I n t r o d u c t i o n a n d
Applications: http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Micro_air_vehicle
4. ' R o b o B e e s ' I m a g e s : h t t p : / /
robobees.seas.harvard.edu/
5. Dickinson, M H, Lehmann, F O and
Sane, S P. Wing Rotation and the
Aerodynamic Basis of lnsect
Flight. Science, Vol 284, pp
1954_1960, 1999
6. Isaac, K M, Rolwes, J and Colozza,
A. Aerodynamics of a Flapping
a n d P i t c h i n g Wi n g U s i n g
Simulations and Experiments.
A I A A J o u r n a l , Vo l 4 6 ,
p.1505_1515, 2008
7. W o l d m a n , Y Y. D i r e c t
Chemiluminescence Detection of
Nitric Oxide in Aqueous Solutions
Using the Natural Nitric Oxide
Target Soluble Guanylyl Cyclase.
Free Radical Biology & Medicine,
2009.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Our sincere thanks and gratitude to:
l
Contributors
of the papers
l
Reviewers
l
NDRF,
IEI
l
Technical
48
Department, IEI
TECHNORAMA
Book Shelf
Guidebook on Passive Fire Protection of Steel Structures
Steel has multifarious properties that make it the preferred material for construction by the
Architects and Designers. However, its use in social infrastructure and buildings has
brought an additional challenge that of fire safety. In the event of a fire, steel can lose its
strength, resulting in damage to property and in the worst case, loss of life. There are
numerous products available to designers to satisfy the fire resistance requirements of
their projects. Intumescent coatings provide one such method. This publication is divided
into three parts considering the need of Architects, Designer, Consultants, and Contractors
etc. Part I (Fire Protection, Passive Fire Proofing, Protection guidance) provides an
overview of passive fire protections on steel structures. Part II (Standards and Coating
Applications, Fire Testing for Passive Protections, Testing of Indian Steel Sections)
provides the detail performance evaluation of few Indian steel sections using intumiscent
coatings and validation of fire test data. Part III (Indian Case Studies & Steel Section
Property Tables) provides application in steel structures and steel section property tables
for ready references. The outcome shows that independently assessed thicknesses of
intumescent coatings are applicable on Indian steel sections and can be used with
confidence. Dr Jayanta K Saha, Institute for Steel Development & Growth, 52/1A, Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata
700 019, ` 1000/-.
Mechanics of Materials
The book covers the syllabi of the subjects of strength of materials, solid mechanics,
mechanics of materials etc of various engineering disciplines of the Indian
Universities/Boards. The book has also been approved and recommended for different
engineering courses in Institutions and Universities. The chapters of the book deal with
various aspects of strength of material, ie stress, torsion, stiffness of determinate as well
as indeterminate beams, different energy methods, behaviour of material under
multidimensional loading, stability consideration of column and struts and so on. Further,
the book provides a comprehensive coverage of basic concepts and the mathematical
computations carried out in simplest and shortest manner for analysis of different
problems. Dr. Kirpal Singh, Standard Publishers Distributors, 1705-B, Naisarak, Post
Box No 1066, Delhi 110 006, ` 325/-.
Unconventional Machining Processes
The book offers an in-depth study on various
unconventional machining processes. It aims to enable the students to understand the
various unconventional machining processes, their advantages and applications in
diverse areas of production and manufacturing such as tool room and die working,
aerospace, nuclear and electronic industries. Various unconventional machining
processes have been discussed in this book, namely Electrical Discharge machining
(EDM), Electro-Chemical Machining (ECM), Electro-Chemical Grinding (ECG),
Electron Beam Machining (EBM) etc, and so on. The need for these processes,
methods of classifying them, how different energy sources are deployed , operating
principles, process description and details of equipment used , recent developments
have been discussed in detail. Illustrations of actual applications from various
industries have been given for easy and effective understanding of the subject matter.
A comparison of all unconventional machining processes and their effect on surface
integrity of work materials machined have also been discussed. A large number of
genera review question and multiple-choice test items are given for evaluating the
learning of the students. M.Adithan, Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P)
Ltd,7/22,Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002, ` 750/-.
49
41
TECHNORAMA
Book Shelf
Human Factor Engineering
The book has been deliberately prepared to be used as a ready reckoner for the
students of Mechanical, Production and Industrial Engineering in the field of
Industrial Ergonomics, Human Factor Engineering, Work study and occupational
Health. The Illustrated text is supplemented with appropriate case studies. Various
chapters of the subject book covers scope and importance of human factor
engineering fatigue considerations, man machine interactions, ergonomic
assessment of work postures, biomechanics of lifting and assessment of lifting
tasks, occupational noise exposure assessment and occupational noise induced
hearing loss assessment using pure tone audiometry, the concepts definitions and
some issues on occupational toxicology and health, lighting and illumination,
workers welfare and amenity. The book also deals with the concepts definitions and
applications of time and motion study. Dr L P Singh, Dr Arvind Bhardwaj, Galgotia
Publictions Pvt Ltd. 5, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110 002, ` 275/-.
Embedded Systems Design & 8051 Micro Controller

The aim with which this text has been written is to give the readers full
understanding of Embedded System and 8051 Micro Controller with assembly
language programming. The concepts are presented in a simplified manner. The text
is well supported by programs in assembly language. This book introduces a modern
approach to embedded system design, presenting software design and hardware
design in a unified manner. A key goal of this book is to provide an overview of
embedded system design and to relate the most important topics in embedded system
design to each other. The book discussed in detail CPU architecture and registers and
addressing modes, instruction sets, different software development tools, systematic
step by step approach to cover various aspects of 8051 assembly language
programming and so on. Kavita Jindal, Galgotia Publications Pvt Ltd. 5, Ansari
Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110 002, ` 150/-.
Modern, Postmodern Architecture and Pioneer Architects

The book has made an attempt to cover the theories, expression and design
philosophies of architects with variety of important examples. The book covers
mainly modern architecture and partially post modern architecture. The chapters are
sequenced in chronological order as per life period of art movements and architects.
Further, general trends and conceptual philosophies are also explained in this book
focusing on plan forms, facade organisation, structural solutions and construction
methods. Examples cited in the book explain specific design features. Vedula V.L.N
Murthy, Standard Publishers Distributors, 1705-B Naisarak, Post Box No.1066,
Delhi 110 006, ` 350/-.
50
TECHNORAMA
Book Shelf
Digital Control System
This book intended to provide the students an introductory course in the field of
digital or discrete control with an emphasis on applications. This book covers the
fundamental principles and applications of digital control engineering with
emphasis on engineering design. The prerequisite for this course includes linear
control system and a course on ordinary differential equations, and familiarity with
Matlab computations. Further, the book covers different important aspects of digital
control system which includes signal processing, opened loop sampled data
systems, system time response characteristics etc. The book also mentioned
important aspects of digital controller design, control system specifications
compensation, phase lag and lead compensation, PID controller design, design by
root locus etc. Kavita Singh, Rashmi Vashisth, Galgotia Publications Pvt Ltd.
5, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110 002, ` 250/-.
Artificial Intelligence A Practical Approach

The book is written in simple and an easy to understand language, so that a student can
easily grasp the subject matter without further guidance. The salient features of the
subject book includes number of solved problems, practice unsolved problems, case
studies, experiments of AI in LISP and PROLOG programmes. The book also contains
conceptual short questions and answers and question papers of different universities.
Rajiv Chopra, S Chand & Company Pvt. Ltd, Ram Nagar, New Delhi 110 055, ` 210/-.
Building Materials Technology

The present book is a sincere effort to introduce
the subject matter starting with elementary
knowledge, going into greater depth and
culminating with the latest developments in the most simple and lucid manner so
that it may develop the culture of self study. The book starts with the chapter of
cement, discussing their various types and recommendation in the special
situations. Further the chapter of concrete technology has been treated nicely in full
details including step by step calculation procedure of concrete mix design based on
IS code. The other chapters of lime, aggregates, mortars, stones, timbers, plastic,
glass, paints, Isolative materials etc have been dealt with pointwise. The special
feature of the book lies in the introduction of chapter on Wealth from Waste. The
most added attraction of the book is the introduction of Innovative Building
Materials,which can reduce the burden of scarce conventional materials and also
can be cost effective and eco-friendly. Thus a lucid and comprehensive coverage of
properties and uses of materials commonly used in building construction described
in the book very systematically and point wise to the best advantage to the students.
Dr U. K. Shrivastava, Galgotia Publications Pvt Ltd. 5, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110 002, ` 320/-.
51
41
TECHNORAMA
Book Shelf
Nuclear Reactor Engineering (Principles and Concepts)
There is utmost need to expose the students to the total gamut of activities of the
Nuclear Power Plant from mining to waste disposal, besides bringing out the
benefits and biological effects of radiation. The book covers the whole syllabus for
nuclear engineering in the Indian Universities and depicts a complete picture of
India's Nuclear Programme. The book starts with the need or motivation for Nuclear
Energy and goes on to give basic concepts of reactor physics necessary to understand
the operation of nuclear reactors. The unique feature of the book includes emphasis
on understanding the concepts, citation of various facts of nuclear fuel cycle right
from mining to waste disposal, heat transfer and fluid flow processes in different
types of reactors besides aspect of nuclear safety. Dr. G.Vaidyanathan, S Chand &
Company Pvt. Ltd., Ram Nagar, New Delhi 110 055, ` 225/-.
A Textbook of Organisational Behaviour With Text and Cases

In the rapidly changing environment, business as well as non-business organisations
are finding it difficult to survive and grow. Improvements in performance at
individual, group and organisational levels are essential for success of every
organisation. The present book is a modest attempt to explain human behaviour at
these three levels. The book is designed as a concise and easy-to-understand
textbook for the students of management, commerce and other relevant courses. The
text is characterised by several pedagogical and other features, which include
chapter outline to indicate the topics covered in each chapter, tables and diagrams for
illustration, examples from Indian organisations, test questions for self-assessment
etc. Dr C. B. Gupta, S Chand & Company Pvt. Ltd., Ram Nagar, New Delhi
110 055, ` 195/-.
Heterocyclic Chemistry
The book is designed as comprehensive textbook for a complete course in the
chemistry of heterocyclic compounds for graduate and postgraduate students.
Several chapters and sections of the book have been thoroughly revised. Recent
research work and trends in the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds have been
taken into consideration while undertaking the revision of the book. Special feature
of this edition is the inclusion of techniques like New Synthetic Reagents and Phase
Transfer Catalysis. Important reactions with detailed mechanisms have received a
close scrutiny of the author. This exercise will assist to unravel and understand the
intricacies of complex syntheses. The book has been written in friendly language.
New problems from the recent literature have been added. The bibliography has also
been updated. Raj K Bansal, New Age International (P) Ltd Publishers,7/30A,
Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002, ` 399/-.
52
TECHNORAMA
Book Shelf
Non-Conventional Energy Sources and Utilisation (Energy Engineering)
This book focuses on exhaustive and systematic coverage of various topics in
nonconventional, renewable and conventional energy sources and systems. The
subject matter has been prepared in lucid, direct and easily understandable style with
simple diagrams and worked out examples, wherever necessary. The book includes
different important considerations of energy engineering, principles of solar
radiation, solar energy storage and applications, wind and bioenergy, ocean energy,
hydrogen energy and so on. The book also mentioned different aspects of nuclear
engineering, nuclear reactors etc. R K Rajput, S. Chand & Company Pvt. Ltd, Ram
Nagar, New Delhi 110 055, ` 300/-.
Power System Switchgear and Protection

With the advent of extra high voltage levels and quantum of power to be generated,
transmitted and distributed to various category of energy users, this compact and
student- friendly book deals with different important aspects of protective schemes
for electrical apparatus and power system, relay terminology, essential qualities of
protection, power system and neutral earthing, insulation, co-ordination etc. The
book also explains different characteristics of electromagnetic relays, directional
and non-directional distance, static, differential and frequency relays, different
aspects of transformers, generators, motion protection, circuit breakers resistant
switching etc. Dr. N Veerappan, Dr S.R. Krishnamurthy, S Chand & Company Pvt.
Ltd., Ram Nagar, New Delhi -110 055, ` 250/-.
E-commerce and Mobile Commerce Technologies

E-commerce describes the manner, in which transactions take place over the
network. The book covers numerous important topics of e-commerce including
drivers of e-commerce, nature, scope advantages and disadvantages. The book
also intends to cover the security issue involved in e-commerce transactions,
different payment systems, SSL and SET standards and issues of integration of
payment gateway.The concepts of different e-commerce models, current trends
and role of XML in electronic data interchange have also been described. The
book includes recent topics namely traces, cloud computing, adhere, webhost
bandwidth, DNS information, VPS etc. Thus the book aims to provide a
practical exposure to students and professionals, who intend to work in
e-commerce environment or wish to develop e-commerce applications.
Dr U. S. Pandey, Saurabh Shukla, S Chand & Company Pvt. Ltd., Ram Nagar,
New Delhi -110 055, ` 295/-.
53
41
TECHNORAMA
Book Shelf
Soft Computing (Neural Networks, Fuzzy Logic and Genetic Algorithms)
The compact and student friendly book deals with three principal sections, namely
Neural Networks, Fuzzy Logic and Genetic Algorithms. The book lucidly explains
different aspect of Artificial Intelligence, Neural Networks and its applications,
Fuzzy sets and Fuzzy Logic, Fuzzy Logic controllers etc. The book also explain
Genetic Algorithms, Genetic and Evolutionary Programming, Neuro Fuzzy
systems, Hybrid systems etc. Some other important topics of the book includes
Simulated Annealing, Knowledge based systems, Reasoning and uncertainty,
Bayesian Network etc. Sushil Kumar Singh, Galgotia Publications Pvt Ltd. 5, Ansari
Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002, ` 210/-.
Computer Fundamentals -- Architecture

and Organisation
The book provides an exhaustive and up to date exposition of CPUs, peripherals,
computer architecture and microprocessors etc. The book includes recent
developments in memory, ie SSD, SATA Express, ESATA, SAS etc. Different
updated soft work versions get included in the book, namely, Visual BASIC+, C++,
Java, OOP, SPL, Linux, MS Office. The book includes detailed aspects of Array
Processors, Pipe lining, Vector processor, UMA, SMP and NUMA Systems, clusters,
distributed memory type multiprocessor system, Flinn's computer classifications
and so on. B Ram, Sanjay Kumar. New Age International (P) Ltd Publishers,
7/30A,Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002, ` 299/-.
Landscape Design Theory and Practice

The main purpose of landscaping is to create a healthy environment and give the
occupants a healthy breath, good appearance and natural beauty. Two main
components of the environment have to be considered the man made
component like the construction of roads, bridges, buildings etc and the natural
environment like space, water, trees, rocks etc. The book covers the syllabus on
Landscape Design for both degree and diploma courses. The book covers
principle aspects of landscape design which includes the fundamental basics of
landscape design, its history, technical parameters and design considerations of
site planning, different aspects of topographic and soil analysis etc. The book
also highlights design aspects of planting and gardening, landscape
construction, landscape design codes, terminology etc. Some model questions
are also added at the end of each chapter. M Pratap Rao, Standard Publishers
Distributers, 1705-B,Nai Sarak, Post Box No: 1066, Delhi 110 006, ` 200/-.
54
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Who does IEI serve

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Volume 63, December 2013

Prof (Dr) N R Bandyopadhyay

Tilt-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Board of Consulting Editors

Volume 63, December 2013

Synapses and Cyborgs for Hazards

requirement. The projects covered fixed

was held in 2008 at Agra and focused on

Figure 1: MAV/MICAV Activities in India

System of Neuromorphic Adaptive

Volume 63, December 2013

of University of Minnesota used both

Figure 2: Integration of Micro, Nano, Bio, Info and Cogno Technologies

system will work simultaneously like the

appeared to achieve about 50% success

Sergi Bermudez i Badia et al , applied

Volume 63, December 2013

dogs, This is an advantage as the highest

system of enzymes to detect nitric oxide

Nathan Kline used it in an article on

The human olfactory system using

Figure 4: System of Enzymes to Detect Nitric Oxide

can be enhanced with technologies like

Giacomo et al have made Cyborg

Matt Keenon's team at Aerovironment

Volume 63, December 2013

3. Technologies to scavenge power

It involved MIT (Mass), University of

Micro battery (8,5mAh) &

1. Boyce Thompson Institute inserted

Flight initiation, cessation and turning in

Figure 5 Bangalore Borg

Volume 63, December 2013

India by the Department of

the rat's movements remotely, was

Emily Anthes has made an excellent

Bacteriorhodopsin (bR) is made by

Spectral response of photocurrent from indigenous

The challenges of vision based control,

Spectral response : bR on conducting polymer

Volume 63, December 2013

and Collision Avoidance. The

Daniel T, Akinwande A I and Voldman J.

Volume 63, December 2013

Computational and Experimental Facilities for

CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore

NALTech Private Limited, Bangalore

Development of Micro Air Vehicle

In recent years there have been major

As a part of systematically advancing the

Depending on the type of lifting surface

operations but provide high quality

Volume 63, December 2013

speed wind tunnel for aerodynamic

dimensional boundary element program

Volume 63, December 2013

0.330 mm, 0.254 mm, 0.178 mm, and

Figure 1 Fixed Wing MAV - CAD Model

techniques like NC machines or