NIT-backed startup makes drone to clean high-rise structures

Trichy: A startup supported by NIT Trichy has produced an industrial grade drone for undertaking maintenance work of the academic and tall administrative buildings on the campus.

Zerowings Aerospace, a drone manufacturing company founded by NIT-T alumni R Akilan and V Sree Aravinth, designed the drone with a capacity to lift a payload of 25 kg.The battery-powered drone, a hexacopter with six arms and rotors weighing 16.5 kg, can cover even 100 metre-tall buildings. A portion of the skyscrapers can be reached from the terrace. The project is supported by Research and Innovation Hub (R&I hub) and Centre for Entrepreneurship Development and Incubation (CEDI) in NIT-Trichy.As maintenance of high-rise towers and facades involving workers on scaffoldings and safety ropes has high risks, the drone eliminates challenges and expedites the cleaning process. “It can clean a high-rise tower in 8 hours, which would take multiple days for manual cleaning. Backup batteries will keep the drone running. We are approaching airports for maintenance using drones,” Akilan, the startup founder, said.

Connected to a tap or tank, the drone uses a deionizer to remove minerals from the water to prevent rusting. Using pressurized water, it flushes a low quantity of water at high speed to remove dirt. NIT conducted a trial run at Orion building to evaluate the drone’s performance. “High-rises are mushrooming across cities. As such technology is a requirement, we will provide a seed funding of Rs25 lakhs to the startup,” K Susil Kumar, CEO, CEDI, NIT Trichy said.