PRESS RELEASE

DTU to Market its UAV (AARUSH X1)

Next Generation UAV for Urban Applications
Delhi: 13 January, 2014: AARUSH X1 is a result of industry-academia collaboration
between Lockheed Martin and Delhi Technological University. The student innovators
of DTU have designed and developed this next generation UAV for Urban Applications
with the mentoring support from Lockheed Martin, a major U.S. aviation company. The
student team has designed, fabricated and tested the UAS indigenously within a short time
period of 22 months. Impressed by the extraordinary performance of the team, Lockheed
Martin has signed a MoU with DTU to manufacture and market the industrial derivative of
AARUSH X1, in collaboration with an Indian manufacturer. Prof. P.B. Sharma, Vice
Chancellor, DTU and Prof. N.S. Raghava, Faculty Advisor mentored the team UAS DTU.
The student team currently comprises of 29 inter-disciplinary students from diverse
engineering courses. The team is headed by Lakshay Kumar Chauhan, final year student
of B.Tech. Automotive Engineering at DTU. Students from the MBA program are part of the
Business Development team of the project. Following an industrial approach to design of
the UAS, the team is structured into different technical departments: Airframe Design,
Autopilot Systems, Electrical and Embedded Systems and Machine Vision. The progress
of the project is monitored by Lockheed Martin by conducting review meetings every four
months.
The UAS has been designed according to the constraints imposed by urban environments,
making the system invaluable for ISR in Indian cities like Delhi and Mumbai. The system
can be modified to adapt to specific mission-dependent requirements and would perform
equally well in other environments.
Design and development of the Next Generation Unmanned Aircraft System by
DTU Team truly reflect their capabilities of interdisciplinary engineering and team
excellence. AARUSH-X1 is the finest example of what can be achieved through an
effective industry-academia partnership in a tech university says Prof. P.B. Sharma,
Vice Chancellor, DTU. DTU has successfully germinated the culture of research and
innovation from UG level onwards and is focussing on seamless integration of science and
engineering to create engineers and technologists of tomorrow. The focus at DTU is on
industry relevance for its R&D and global outreach for its human resource development.
The Design Review (D.R.) of AARUSH X1, was held in February 2011. Delegates from
Defence Research and Development Organisation (D.R.D.O.) were officially briefed about
the project status and the design of the UAS. Lt.Gen V.J. Sundaram (Advisor, NDRF), was
among the attendees, who appreciated the design and congratulated the students on their
achievement.The fabrication of this UAS was complete by November 2011, and the team
conducted its first successful test flight on January 20 th, 2012.
Delhi Technological University - Unmanned Aircraft System (DTU-UAS) AARUSH X1,
was unveiled on November 2nd , 2012 by Padma Shri Dr. V.K. Saraswat, Scientific
Advisor to Raksha Mantri and Director General, DRDO at a function at India Habitat
Centre, New Delhi. Mr. John Sheehan, Senior System Manager, Lockheed Martin Inc.,
USA and Dr. Peter Drewes, Business Innovation Manager of Lockheed Martin USA, Mr.
Roger Rose, Chief Executive Officer, Lockheed Martin India Pvt. Ltd. also attended the

function.
Requirements of Indian UAS applications have been analysed rigorously by the team and
AARUSH X1 has been tailored for these needs. An extensive market analysis has been
conducted to study the applications of the UAS and derive the preliminary Statement of
Objectives. The team is now working on finding an Indian industry partner for
commercialisation of AARUSH X1.
The DTU UAV is capable of carrying a payload of 8-10 kg and is able to attain a flying
speed up to 120 kmph. It has great potential and number of civilian applications. The
applications of the vehicle are Civil Law Enforcement, Geomatics, Metrological Operations,
Pipeline Surveillance, Mining Surveillance, Disaster Management, Coast and Border patrol
and News and Reporting agencies. Recently the DTU-UAV was placed overall 3rd after
Cornell University and California State University, Northridge amongst 35 international
teams at the 10th Annual SUAS competition organised by AUVSI 2012 in Maryland in June
2012. The team has been awarded a trophy and a cash prize of $5100 did extremely well
in all the mission, journal paper and oral presentation. The UAV team has achieved a fully
autonomous take-off, autonomous waypoint navigation and search area with autonomous
imagery as well. DTU-UAS defeated some of the biggies of the competition like North
Carolina State University, Mississippi, University of Arizona, Kansas State etc. which had
always been in the top five teams. For more information log onto www.uasdtu.com.