I am CEO of Drona Aviation, startup of nano-drone innovations AMA!

Why are there so many new accounts in this thread?

https://iama.groovehq.com/knowledge_base/topics/who-can-do-an-ask-me-anything

AMAs should NOT be about:

Crowd Funding - AMA submitters that include crowd funding campaign links must be eligible for an AMA without the campaign for it to be allowed. Additionally, the focus of the AMA must not be the campaign, and the campaign must be fully funded. If the campaign is has not reached it's goal, it is deemed an advertisement, and will be removed. The final decision on eligibility rests with the moderators. IAmA is not your advertising platform.

and the campaign must be fully funded

So, the AMA is not for the campaign. However, the campaign only lets people get a context of what I build and our expertise. Which is why my answers are generally focused on the questions and most of them unrelated to the campaign. If there is a violation, I apologise and kindly suggest whatever needs to be done.

Duh! They were lurkers until they saw Mr.IIT over here and their chaddis started to became wet, so they made a new account to ask questions about the drones coz they're from "KnOwLedGe sHaRinG plAtFoRm".

Droṇācharya

Yup :)

Ever made love to a man?

Gay sex just got decriminalized in India, so it's possible.

Yup. All we need to do is be #opentoexperiment :P

Nope. Never felt like wanting to do it.

What if it was brad pitt

Brad Pitt from 'Fight Club' time... maybe...

Can we talk about Rampart?

What's a Rampart?

So you make nanomachines, son? Do your suppliers ever keep you waiting, huh? Do you have any machines with Metal Gears? Are your products as easy as being played like a damn fiddle? Do you remember the basics of CQC?

Nano-machines? - yup, as per definitions of most aviation authorities across the world
My suppliers? Yup - there is always a lead time to the delivery that I would love to cut down
Metal gears - hmmm.. well... not really
Are my products easy - You bet! Anybody can start his / her drone journey very quickly

Good on you for playing along. I hope you find great success

:)

WOLBACHIA

I don't know what that means but it's a very catchy word

So you're raising $30k but haven't actually done an injection mould for the frame? Given that usually moulds run into the tens of thousands, how is that going to work out?

Well... injection moulds can be super costly for really large parts. For the nano drone sized frames, we expect the mould to cost ~$4k as per the last quote from the vendor. And we have worked with 3D printed frames till date sinceit hepled us test out with users and iterate designs.

Are you going to fuck it up?

Pretty sure we won't. Whenever we start losing our direction, the drone community smacks us back on to the right path.

This implies you've failed to appeal to your target market before, and leads me to believe that if your company becomes large enough to ignore them, you will again.

I am not sure I understood this. But we've attempted some things in the past and our community of customers and developers told us right away whether it worked or not. We were lucky to have been supported by the customers a couple of years ago when the investors were unsure. Don't think we can afford to ignore them ever.

What?

Typo corrected

How big or small is a “nano” drone?

Any drone lighter than 250 grams in classified as nano-drone

That implies that a drone would be 10⁹ times as much, or 250,000 metric tons.

That seems like a lot somehow.

All jokes apart, here is the formal categorisation of drones by weight:

0-250gm - Nano drones
0.25-2 kg - micro drones
2 - 25 kg - Small
25 - 150 kg - Medium
>150 kg - Large

Is GlobalHawk considered large, or is that another category?

GlobalHawk should technically come under Large drones

Megatron.

Megadron

LOL!!

The MQ-9A has a max takeoff weight of 4760kg, so if we use that as our baseline “1 drone”...

These things are 1/19,040th of that weight, so these are somewhere between a milli-drone and a micro-drone. A true nano-drone would be .0048g or about half the weight of a feather.

I agree - a true "nano"-drone would be the size of an insect egg (or maybe lighter than that)

To be honest, I was imaging nano-drones would be like these:

https://www.wired.com/story/this-insect-sized-flying-robot-is-powered-by-lasers/

TBH, we were also looking at using the word "micro-drone" for Pluto. But then agencies across the world gave a formal categorisation of nano-drone for up to <250 gm which is where we fall.

How scared are you of swarms of nanodrones with small amounts of explosives being used for nefarious purposes?

To be honest, there are a ton of low hanging fruits of good uses for nano-drones (and drones in general) before they start being used for violent purposes. To give a context, more % of cars have had accidents than % of drones being attempted for mischief.

You mean the battery? It only takes one extra wire to turn any drone into that.

I feel like plastic explosives can convert higher densities of energy more quickly.

Good point. In such a scenario however, I think it might be easier to control the supply of explosives than trying to control the drones ?

What can/should governments do to prevent the invasion of privacy that increased drones in public and private airspace can cause?

That is something both governments and the drone companies are trying to figure out in the medium term. Drones are relatively new (when you compare with say, cars or planes or anything else). Both the drone companies and the governments across the world are trying to work with each other in regulating the air space. And they are doing it iteratively, which I believe is the right way to go around it. They should (and I believe will) keep updating it every couple of years with the experience.

Do you think Bobby Brown and Janet Jackson had coitus?

I have been trying to call Janet with the same question. She doesn't take my call.

What's your opinion on the new drone policy announced recently by the Indian government?

I think it is a very good first step. They have taken inspiration from many of the other established regulatory framework from around the world which is a good fast way to catch up.

Another good part is that they have kept it paperless. There are still a few kinks in the policy. I hope that they will keep revising it every year for the next three years from their learnings of previous years and keep evolving not just with Indian but also global context in mind.

How do you think drones should be kept from interfering with larger aircraft?

The first step is to keep the airport and surrounding areas a clear no drone area - which is what most countries are adopting. Going further,
a) Regulations on clear flight ceilings definitely help
b) Away from the airports, planes generally fly at >10 km above the ground. Most drones don't touch that height (however) some of them are building communication which can last that long.

You can send me your email id in inbox :)

Are you currently at the InterDrone conference in Las Vegas?

No

How much smaller are your nano drones compared to micro drones?

Weightwise, our nano drones weight ~75 grams. An average micro drone weighs around 800 gm - 1300 gm.

Sizewise, our nano drones are slightly larger than palm sized and micro drones would be ~5 times the dimensions.

Again, depends on which micro-drone are you comparing it with.

Are you doing this in India or the US? Is the Indian market ready for suh a product?

We started out in Indian market with our first product Pluto 1.0. We have reached more than 30,000 students across India with this. We are taking this to the next level with PlutoX and reaching out to the global market.

Congratulations! I am very happy that you managed to make it in India and will now play on the global field.

I’m no expert, but the usual problem for high-tech innovation in India seems to be a market that cannot afford the prices. Glad you made it through.

That is true. Our Indiegogo campaign us the first step in taking the platform global.

What is the use of your drones?

My drones are used for
1. learning drone concepts
2. prototyping drone ideas
3. Beginning your drone journey - (flying / experimenting)

Aren't drones already pretty modular? One can learn to build application based drones from multitudes of forums/youtube channels and customize endlessly. Why would one want to limit their building components to your kit?

Right. Software modularity (if I can use that term) is possible on the drones though performance might be affected. However, addition of hardware is cumbersome. You need to figure out which ports to connect your H/W to. We are bringing in Unibus (something like the USB for drone), where you can add in any new third party hardware to the drone easily. And we are opening the designs of this board for people. So, the components they can add are NOT limited to my kit.

A bunch of things you don't get in the PlutoX kit but people have built: https://hackaday.io/search?term=plutox

What is the difference between a drone, micro- and nano- drone?

Drone is the universal set of all unmanned (typically aerial) vehicles.

Micro drones are drone between 250 gm - 2 kg in weight.
Nano drones are drones lighter than 250 gm in weight.

so the drone community has no concept of metric units then?

what would a kilo or mega drone be classified as?

Nope. As of now, metric units standards have not been set up.

Michael Crichton called, and wants the plot of prey back.

Oh, this is an AMA. What will you do when your drones start self-replicating?

Damn! It'd be so cool to see that happen!!

Obviously never read the book.

I haven't :(
But in my imagination, it seems awesome

When will the machines rise up?

I am not sure. But I sure hope to live to see that day.

Oh shit you’re a super villian aren’t you

Still in a nascent stage. One major tragedy required to convert me into a full fledged super villain.

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We are bringing a swarm kit - this comes with the UWB based localization system that can allow you to build coordinated swarm of drone in your garage. Did I answer your question?

Do you have any products in the US market that I can buy through eBay?

PlutoX is the first one we are coming out to US with. www.flyplutox.com

None though ebay yet

He's doing a kickstarter so the probably answer is no.

True that

Have you ever considered your company and title sounds like it would fit in with a cyborg dystonia dystopia movie?

You're going good work. I'm just saying, don't bring about the Terminators.

dystonia: Involuntary muscle contractions that cause repetitive or twisting movements.

Man, duck autocorrect.

Ever heard of edit?

I edited my first comment while still keeping my mistake. And the second comment was a humorous joke poking fun at myself not paying attention to autocorrect.

Maybe I'll cancel that trip to open mic night...

LOL!

Haha... the company name "Drona" actually refers to the Indian mythological teacher Dronacharya who was among the best archery teachers in the world. It stuck well because of its proximity to the drone word.

​

But I promise you, I won't bring in terminators and definitely won't send them back in time.

What advantage to the consumer is there to what you're doing vs just buying parts from any vendor?

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Generally, the advantage comes from economics. Example: You produce a board, chip, body, etc... that's much cheaper than people can get already.

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What I see so far is that you're looking at getting an injection mold for a body... there's tons of bodies already done by others, why waste that money on that?

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What do you offer that's any better than just putting together a kit?

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Why can't someone just order these chips, motors, cards, batteries, props, etc... from any vendor and get the same thing?

​

What value are you actually adding to anything?

Interesting and valid point there. Just organizing my thoughts here:
1. Selling hardware is the monetization part of the business. However the core value offering is in making innovations simpler.

1. We do this by following things:
   a. More robust and crash resistant frames
   b. Extremely simple programming platform with APIs
   c. A camera that not only lets you get photos / videos but also allow image processing on top
   d. Hardware modularity to easily integrate newer hardware on top
   e. Learning Content for beginners and experts
   

We had to build this because we couldn't find something like this when we were developing drone ideas for competitions.

Best part is - this has allowed a bunch of people to come up innovations of their own and showcase to the world:
https://hackaday.io/search?term=plutox
We would have loved to get the parts from the open market and focus on these bits. We couldn't and that's where the Pluto ecosystem came from.

IndieGogo causes many prospective backers, myself included, to be wary.

Are you connected in any way with Robert Morrison / Morrison Innovations?

No, we aren't connected to Robert Morrison / Morrison Innovations.

You being wary is justified with some failures on Indiegogo in the past. Which is why we had to make sure we had the tech ready and tested by drone innovators before we decide to launch on a platform like Indiegogo.

For a good read, you might check this thread out about shenanigans on IndieGogo and why people have soured on that platform in particular. Good luck with your project.

True. I have read about some other similar cases. There is a good reason for there to be scepticism about crowdfunding campaigns, especially in drone space. Unfortunately, they end up hurting people who want to genuinely do crowd sourced innovation.

On the good side, I have seen at least two business build and scale successfully and build a community of happy customers. We are chasing the same goal and just hoping that people haven't lost all hope around innovators on Indiegogo / Kickstarter.

how far away are completely solar-powered mini-drones?

Solar powered mini drones are still some time away. Because the efficiency of solar cells hasn't reached a place where it can power the drones. Multi-rotors consume a very high amount of power. That is why the solar powered large aircraft was a fixed wing.

I might expect a hydrogen fuel cell powered drone to come in before a fully solar powered drone.

are there any interesting methods for drones to consume less power (e.g. wind sails etc...)?

Sure, stick a helium balloon on it.

are there any balloons with photovoltaic surface to power drones?

That might actually be doable. Blimps are among the lowest power consuming drones. They only need power to control their position and not to stay afloat. And by the gift of their designs, they have a large area that could potentially be harnessed for solar power. Not sure if people have done it. but I think it is possible.

You can go with really large fixed wing drones that consume relatively less power and has large surface to generate enough solar power (Think Solar Impulse - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Impulse).

Is it frustrating to know that most nano-drone technology is classified?

Well, it is not. We are open sourcing almost everything (designs, firmware, SDK, learning content etc.) that we are creating. We hope you build some cool drone apps sitting in your garages and showcase to the world.

Are nano-drone safe for international travel?

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Yes - generally they are ok. A year or two ago, you'd probably face issues at Customs while entering a country but they are better aware of the effects and also aware of the regulations around it. My personal experience - if you're upfront about it, they let it in.

Do you believe that you could help India get cleaner with your drones ?

1. Yes - mapping can give us clear data on areas that require cleaning. Efforts can be focused.
2. There are other simpler ways too that can help maintain that cleanliness that may not require drones.

What programming languages do you use for the drones?

We use C++ for programming the drones. Embedded C for firmware level programming. To work with Cygnus SDK, you;d require C++

We use embedded C

Hi Apurva, is your team worried about the drone being misused (for example invading privacy) given that Pluto is small enough ? Also, are there any steps being taken to address such issues ? Is live streaming and/or video recording through a camera supported yet ?

Good question. Let me answer part wise.
Is your team worried about the drone being misused (for example invading privacy) given that Pluto is small enough?
Mostly no. Because globally we have seen drones being used for a lot more good than being used for mischief. To give a perspective, you have more % of cars resulting in accidents than you have drones attempted to be used for mischievous purpose.

Also, are there any steps being taken to address such issues ?
Yes - both the authorities and drone companies are continuously working on evolving good practices to avoid misuses of drones and it will keep evolving for a while since both groups are trying to work together.

Is live streaming and/or video recording through a camera supported yet ?
Yes - PlutoX which we have launched on www.flyplutox.com provides both live streaming as well as photo / video recording.

What's your plan for U.S. and Chinese markets ? Any plans to set up base within the US?

Yes - Through the Indiegogo campaign, we not only look to build support for the campaign but also reach out to potential partners. We are in talks with one from SF. I have my fingers crossed.

As of China, I have zero idea / plan. Happy to hear / learn about Chinese market.

Can I "test" one?

Which country are you in? I'll try to see if there's someone in your country who we have sent out for tests.

Usa, Maryland

Can you connect with me separately and I will see if I can speak to some alpha developers in US who can share the ones I have sent to them - or have you visit them in case they are in a nearby city.

I spoke to my team and we might be able to help you out. Just ping me with your details.

What does “fostering nano drone innovations” even mean? Is that a fancy way of saying “manufacture small drones”?

Mmmm... good point - well, it is not fostering nano-drone innovations but fostering drone innovations (my mistake in the intro up there). The idea is to build a repository of hardware, designs, use cases, learning content, codes and let the community access them by open sourcing so that they can easily start building their ideas and showcasing to the world.

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PlutoX comes with hardware modularity and easy software integration, which help you as a tinkerer do develop over PlutoX and help you turn your drone ideas into innovations. It also has a camera that can not only take photos and videos but also do image processing on top of the drone. People have done some cool stuff . Check it out here:
https://hackaday.io/search?term=plutox

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Yes - the kit comes up with 10 projects that you can build with the drone kit. Both for the super beginners as well as the experts.

What's your 5 year plan? Considering there's no real legal scalability in India.

So, the Indian government came up with the regulations (just a week ago) to open up the Indian skies to the drones and their applications. That opens up a big possibilities for all drone companies in India.

At the same time, we are building drones for the global drone community. And there is enough market globally for tinkerers and innovators even with the present regulatory framework.

Dear Apurva, After the announcement of making flying drones legal in India, we can see a surge of foreign companies vying for collaboration in the market space. Do you see it as a threat/competition or an opportunity for the Indian Drone Industry ?

Foreign collaborations & investments can bring in a lot of opportunity for building an ecosystem for drone innovations and applications. This would also mean a lot of new jobs for more people in India.