CHENNAI: The city police, who are looking to establish a specialised drone unit, are all set to procure nine drones at a cost of 3.6 crore. They have started the trial run of the drones in order to pick the best suitable vendor.
A total of nine drones -- six quick-response drones, two long range surveillance drones and one lifeguard drone -- would be purchased for the unit at 3 crore, and 60 lakh would be spent on the office. A team of police officers onitored the flying of the drones at Elliot’s beach.
On Thursday, the trial was conducted for lifeguard drone which is high powered and capable of heavy lifting with 15 minutes of continuous flight time, one km flying range with a gross weight of 12 kg.
The unit will have two components -- the drone and a well-furnished container office having an elevated platform with drone take-off and landing pad and glass walls on all sides, automatic roof, landscaping systems, etc. The control unit will be a temporary structure made by fabricating shipping containers.
"We are in the process of finalizing the vendor. They will be chosen after two or three trials. Already, an anti-drowning unit is keeping a close watch on Elliots beach to prevent drowning incidents," said joint commissioner, South, K S Narenthiran Nayar.
The quick-response special payload drone will be multi-rotor capable of interchangeable payloads, and will have a HD camera with thermal/night vision. It will be capable of live streaming video, and will also have a 100-gram loudspeaker for public announcements. The 2.5kg drone has a 2km continuous flying range and 30 minutes of continuous flight time.
The long-range surveillance drone is a hybrid drone (quadcopter and wing plane) to make vertical takeoff and landing. It will have 100 minutes of continuous flight time, 30km of continuous flying range with a gross weight of 5 kg.
