Kurnool Drone City takes off with IIT Hyderabad partnership
HYDERABAD: TiHAN-IIT Hyderabad and the Andhra Pradesh Drones Corporation (APDC) have signed an MoU to support the proposed Drone City in Kurnool, as reported by DC.
The two organisations will also work to strengthen Andhra Pradesh’s wider drone ecosystem.
The agreement was signed on Saturday in the presence of Union Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu and IIT Hyderabad director Prof. B. S. Murty.
Research, testing and skilling
Under the MoU, TiHAN will serve as APDC’s technical and knowledge partner. It will provide research, technical and strategic inputs for Drone City’s planning and development.
The partnership will cover drone research and development, unmanned aerial vehicle platforms, sensors and payloads.
It will also focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning, autonomous systems and communication technologies.
In addition, the two organisations will work on unmanned aircraft system traffic management.
IIT Hyderabad said the partnership will also support skilling, innovation and capacity-building programmes.
Joint projects and training
The organisations will work together on policies, standards and operational best practices.
They will also take up joint research projects, proof-of-concept initiatives and pilot programmes. Innovation challenges will form another part of the collaboration.
In addition, the partnership will support training modules, certification programmes and workshops.
These programmes will target government officials, industry representatives, startups and students.
Prof. Murty said a strong drone ecosystem needs collaboration between the government, academia, industry and the innovation community.
He said the partnership will combine Andhra Pradesh’s Drone City plans with IIT Hyderabad’s expertise in research, technology development and testing.
APDC was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in Vijayawada. It promotes and deploys drone technologies for governance, logistics, agriculture and public services.
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh is implementing its Drone Policy 4.0 (2024-29). Under the policy, APDC is working on drone delivery networks in Amaravati.
The agency is also working on the proposed Drone City in Kurnool.
