This Indian Drone is “Built Like a Bird, Tested Like a Tank”: IdeaForge SWITCH

2022-10-11

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At last months Commercial UAV Expo, manufacturer IdeaForge introduced to the US market an Indian drone: one that’s been tried and tested across some of the most forbidding terrain in the world, and built to NDAA-compliance standards. DRONELIFE spoke with IdeaForge’s GM of Marketing Kruthi Aramanamada about the SWITCH long-range, mapping and surveying UAV.

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The IdeaForge SWITCH UAV is a super-light fixed wing, offering a 2 hour flight endurance guarantee. The drone has a swappable payload including a day payload with 25X zoom capabilities and a thermal imaging night payload. SWITCH UAV also offers important security features. IdeaForge doesn’t store any data on the cloud, and there is no data stored on the drone: “the data goes straight from the drone to the pilot,” says Kruthi. With IdeaForge’s BlueFire Live™ solution, pilots can grant remote users access to control the payload – making the SWITCH UAV ideal for an application with central command and control monitoring several aircraft at once.

While it may surprise some customers that an Indian drone is built to NDAA-compliance standards, Kruthi says it makes sense- India has many of the same requirements. With a sensitive shared border with China along the Himalayas, India also discourages the use of Chinese components in drone platforms used by military agencies.

Indian drone IdeaForge

Built Like a Bird, Tested Like a Tank

IdeaForge has a history of developing top class aircraft in India. It’s 3 founders met at IIT – the Indian engineering school that has produced CEOs of some of the most influential companies in the world, including Twitter, Alphabet (Google) and IBM. From the award-winning drone and autopilot that the team developed as students, the team released their first commercial aircraft in 2009. Now, IdeaForge provides drones to the Indian army, paramilitary groups, public safety, and commercial enterprise. “Every 6 minutes an IdeaForge drone takes off in India,” says Kruthi. “That’s just in the commercial market – the applications we know about.”

With that kind of volume, IdeaForge drones have certainly been field tested, but Kruthi says that’s just the beginning. The company says SWITCH UAV is “Built Like a Bird, Tested Like a Tank” due to the intense testing performed by their military and public safety customers. “The Indian army is known for rigorous testing,” she says. “In India, we have landscapes ranging from glaciers to deserts and swamps, and that gives us a home advantage in having had our platforms externally tested in all kinds of environments.”

“In addition, these aircraft have successfully competed globally. The Indian army has evaluated the SWITCH UAV against drones from Israel, US, Russia, and more – but SWITCH can do more than other drones in its weight class.”

SWITCH is the perfect fit for a large geography, like the US – and it works in a vast variety of temperatures and terrains,” says Kruthi. “That makes it very relevant to the US market.” For surveying, mapping, border security or linear asset inspection like pipelines, SWITCH UAV’s long flight endurance could be utilized in states from Florida to Alaska.

Read more about the Indian drone industry:

The Survey of India: Garuda Aerospace Maps 7000 Villages by Drone in 1 Year
ANRA Drone Tracking Solutions Demonstrated in India: Monitoring Small Drone Operations
Determination to Be a Global Drone Hub Clear in Indias First Government Approved Drone Announcement

Miriam McNabb

Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, a professional drone services marketplace, and a fascinated observer of the emerging drone industry and the regulatory environment for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles focused on the commercial drone space and is an international speaker and recognized figure in the industry. Miriam has a degree from the University of Chicago and over 20 years of experience in high tech sales and marketing for new technologies.
For drone industry consulting or writing, Email Miriam.

TWITTER:@spaldingbarker

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在上个月的商业无人机博览会上，制造商IdeaForge向美国市场推出了一款印度无人机:这款无人机已经在世界上一些最恶劣的地形上进行了试验和测试，并符合ndaa标准。DRONELIFE与IdeaForge的营销总经理Kruthi Aramanamada谈到了SWITCH远程、测绘和测量无人机。IdeaForge SWITCH无人机是一种超轻的固定翼，提供2小时的飞行续航保证。无人机有一个可切换有效载荷，包括一个具有25倍放大能力的白天有效载荷和一个热成像夜间有效载荷。SWITCH无人机还提供重要的安全功能。IdeaForge没有在云端存储任何数据，无人机上也没有存储任何数据:“数据直接从无人机传输到飞行员手中，”Kruthi说。通过IdeaForge的BlueFire Live™解决方案，飞行员可以授权远程用户控制有效载荷，这使得SWITCH无人机非常适合同时监控多架飞机的中央指挥和控制应用。虽然印度无人机符合ndaa标准可能会让一些客户感到惊讶，但Kruthi说这是有道理的，因为印度也有很多相同的要求。由于两国在喜马拉雅地区有敏感的共同边界，印度也不鼓励在军事机构使用的无人机平台上使用中国零部件。ideaforge在印度有研发顶级飞机的历史。它的三位创始人在印度理工学院见过面，这所印度工程学院培养出了一些世界上最具影响力的公司的首席执行官，包括Twitter、Alphabet和IBM。该团队从学生时期开发的获奖无人机和自动驾驶仪开始，在2009年发布了他们的第一架商用飞机。现在，IdeaForge为印度军队、准军事组织、公共安全和商业企业提供无人机。Kruthi说:“在印度，每6分钟就有一架IdeaForge无人机起飞。”“这只是在商业市场——我们所知道的应用。”以这样的规模，IdeaForge无人机肯定已经进行了现场测试，但Kruthi说这只是开始。该公司表示，SWITCH无人机“造得像鸟，测试得像坦克”，因为他们的军事和公共安全客户进行了严格的测试。“印度军队以严格的测试著称，”她说。“在印度，我们有从冰川到沙漠和沼泽的地貌，这使我们的平台在各种环境下进行了外部测试，这是我们的主场优势。”“此外，这些飞机已经成功地在全球竞争。印度军队已经对SWITCH无人机进行了评估，以对抗来自以色列、美国、俄罗斯等国的无人机，但SWITCH比同重量级别的其他无人机更强大。Kruthi说:“SWITCH非常适合像美国这样的大地域，而且它可以在各种各样的温度和地形下工作。”“这使得它与美国市场非常相关。”对于测量、测绘、边境安全或管道等线性资产检查，SWITCH无人机的长飞行续航能力可用于从佛罗里达到阿拉斯加的各州。阅读更多关于印度无人机行业的信息:推特:@ spaldingbarker在这里订阅DroneLife。

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