Jamia Students Develop Indigenous Firefighter Drones to Tackle Fires
New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): Students from Jamia Millia Islamia are developing an indigenous firefighter drone that operates autonomously. This drone will be capable of creating its heat map and extinguishing fires by flying directly to the affected area. The project aims to eventually deploy these drones in refineries and industrial zones. The students claim that this will be the first drone designed to use chemicals, rather than water, for firefighting. The drone is being developed by third-year B.Tech students from the university's Mechanical Engineering department. According to student Afaf Siddiqui, the drone will function entirely on its own after receiving a start command. Once activated, it will automatically navigate to the fire site and extinguish the flames. The drone incorporates swarm technology, allowing multiple drones to work together without human input. Each drone will operate independently based on the fire's intensity. Barometer sensors onboard the drone will measure the fire's height, and the drone will create a heat map to assess the severity of the fire.
The drone's status will be monitored via a computer. It is equipped with four BLDC motors and a flight controller in its central system. Currently, the drone is being designed to address fires in industrial and refinery settings.
In a unique feature, the drone will use chemicals instead of water to put out the fire. Student Vikas explained that the drone will be able to carry up to five to six kilograms of fire-extinguishing chemicals at a time. The team has been working on the drone for the past six months, and it is now about 60% complete, with an expenditure of approximately ₹1.5 lakh so far. The project is led by Professor SM Muzakkir of the Mechanical Engineering Department, with a team that includes Aman Hasan Farooqui, Mohammad Sahil Khan, and Vivek Kumar Das. In February, the drone won first place in the business model category at the Innovation, Design, and Entrepreneurship Bootcamp Competition at IIT Jammu, where it competed against 40 teams from across the country.
