PLI of Rs. 120 crore is provided for Indian manufacturers of drone and drone components

The Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for drones and drone components has been notified on Sept. 30, 2021 to push the production of drones.

The details of this scheme are as follows:

i. An incentive of INR 120 crore (approximately $16 million) has been provided for Indian manufacturers of drone and drone components on the basis of their value addition in India. The value addition by a manufacturer will be calculated as the annual sales revenue from drones and drone components (net of GST) minus the purchase cost (net of GST) of drone and drone components. The incentive shall be provided over three financial years commencing from 2021-22.

ii. The PLI that can be claimed by a manufacturer is 20% of the value addition by such manufacturer. The PLI rate is constant at 20% for all three years.

iii. Minimum value addition is specified as 40% of net sales

iv. Eligibility norm for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and startups is specified as INR 2 crore (approximately $ 266,000) of annual sales revenue for drone manufacturers and INR 50 lakhs (approximately $67,000) of annual sales revenue for drone component manufacturers.

v. PLI for a beneficiary is capped at 25% of the total annual outlay to allow widening of the number of beneficiaries.

vi. In case a manufacturer fails to meet the threshold for the eligible value addition for a particular financial year, the manufacturer will be allowed to claim the lost incentive in the subsequent year if the manufacturer makes up the shortfall in the subsequent year. The liberalized Drones Rules, 2021 notified on 25 August 2021 provide the regulatory framework for owning and operation of drones. These rules cover various aspects like type certification, registration and operation of drones, airspace restrictions, research, development and testing of drones, training and licensing, offences and penalties etc. https://pib.gov.in

ModalAI releases new seeker micro-development drone

ModalAI have recently released two new products that help developers create smaller, smarter and safer robots and drones quickly and easily – the VOXL CAM perception engine and the Seeker micro-development drone. The VOXL CAM is an all-in-one compute and perception engine that makes it easier to develop smaller, smarter and safer drones, robots and Internet of Things devices with GPS-denied navigation, depth mapping, unmanned aircraft systems flight control and cellular connectivity. www.modalai.com

Autonomous drones with evidence management

Axon in partnership with Fotokite have announced the autonomous Fotokite Sigma UAS complete with wireless live streaming and evidence management is now commercially. Through Axon’s real-time operations platform, Axon Respond, ground operators will have access to real-time streaming video to support effective decision making and improved outcomes. The Fotokite Sigma can launch, fly, and land with the push of a button—no setup time, calibration, or active piloting required. www.axon.com

senseFly named to Blue sUAS 2.0 list

AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc., has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, senseFly, has been named to the Blue sUAS 2.0 list, published by the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU).

The Blue sUAS 2.0 project follows the successful partnership between the U.S. Army and DIU on the Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) program for small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS), which started in 2019. The project, now referred to as ‘1.0,’ followed the SRR program in August 2020 and made minor modifications to five final SRR candidate air vehicles and built integrated commercially-based ground control stations to create a standalone commercial/ enterprise configuration available to the Department of Defense (DoD), as well as other US government entities.

The 2.0 project was subsequently created to increase the diversity, capability and affordability of UAS on DIU’s “Blue UAS Cleared List,” bringing a greater variety of UAS with a wide range of modalities, capabilities and price points. www.sensefly.com

Mavic 2 drone to autonomously take off

Firefighters and police drone teams have been using the V-Line tethered system for the Mavic 2 drone in a variety of situations on land. Volarious has now launched a new product called the V-Line boat mode. A drone can take off, follow, and land on small vessels autonomously while providing a real-time elevated view of high resolution thermal & RGB images and video streams at the comfort of the cabin. www.volarious.com

XAG launches Agricultural Drone

XAG has geared up to launch its V40 and P40 Agricultural Drone globally. Both are fully autonomous drones that can conduct mapping, spraying, and broadcast on farm. The V40 is the first tilting twinrotor unmanned flying platform of its kind in agriculture to find the right balance between precision, performance, and efficiency. The P40 is more compact, flexible, and easy to transport. www.xa.com

Walmart and DroneUp drone delivery operations

DroneUp, LLC and Walmart have announced the first multi-site commercial drone delivery operations. The three locations, which will be located at Walmart stores in Northwest Arkansas, will operate from 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., seven days per week, to deliver items to eligible Walmart customers by air in as little as 30 minutes.

Enjoying the benefits of drone delivery is as easy as:

• Verify: Customer enters their address to verify eligibility.

• Shop: Customer selects from thousands of items for delivery.

• Secure: Operators pack the order and secure the box to the drone using a patented delivery release mechanism.

• Deliver: The flight engineer manages a controlled and guided delivery, placing the order gently at the customer’s home. https://corporate.walmart.com

New drone and advanced AI-powered analytics

Percepto launched its upgraded 2022 Autonomous Inspection & Monitoring (AIM) platform and its new Air Mobile drone. Recently listed in TIME magazine’s 100 Best Inventions of 2021, it offers the only end-to-end solution powered by AI to collate and streamline all visual data for accurate actionable insights.

Percepto’s AI change detection framework offers unified visual data and critical business insights for each of the sectorspecific solutions. AIM 2022 can be integrated with autonomous drones and robots as well as other visual data collectors, now including DJI drones, and fixed cameras. Reports and insights are automatically generated based on the combined visual data. Disseminated to relevant stakeholders on any mobile device, issues and faults are geotagged and displayed on a map, enabling effective action before escalating into more serious problems. www.percepto.co

Tata Steel shortlists AUS to provide drone-based solutions

AUS (Aarav Unmanned Systems has been awarded multiple long-term contracts from various business verticals of Tata Steel to provide advanced drone-based enterprise solutions. AUS’s drones are expected to help Tata Steel operate their mines more effectively and enhance productivity, besides ensuring higher regulatory fulfillment and safety. Its drone solution is helping the Projects team of Tata Steel to map the progress of the upcoming Kalinganagar Expansion Plant in Odisha. In another contract from the Tata Steel Corporate Audit team, AUS has signed a Two-year rate contract to carry out drone-based physical verification of bulk inventory at all the 23 locations across multiple Tata Steel entities. For the Natural Resources Division of Tata Steel, AUS will carry out monthly drone surveys of the mining leases of Tata Steel Ltd. and deliver advanced Mine Analysis. Tata Steel Ltd. also signed a contract with AUS to procure three survey-grade Drones for serving internal survey requirements and RnD applications. https://aus.co.in

Drone delivery in Yeongwol with 3D UAM/UTM system

CLROBUR‘s DROW, an AI-integrated automatic flight ground control platform (GCP) that uses urban air traffic management (UATM) technology, has opened a new chapter in the field of logistics by delivering a product using an autonomous drone.

During a presentation on the establishment of “drone cities,” which was held recently in Yeongwol, CLROBUR showcased DROW to the audience. By delivering a box of seasoned fried chicken from a drone hub in Saekyung University to a hub located in front of a drone test site in Yeongwol, the company successfully demonstrated a beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flight by an autonomous drone. The company was also able to complete its urban traffic management (UTM) technology, which is necessary to enable autonomous flights with the technological convergence of drone manufacturers, 3D map providers, and telecom companies. http://clrobur.com