This Kerala startup is building drones that can see through the rubble
But the founders are clear-eyed about the timeline. 'This is an aerospace-grade product. It's a deep R&D effort that takes time,' says Kannan. 'Getting from TRL-4 to TRL-8 and making a deployable product will take at least four years. We're building for the long haul.'
Meanwhile, Augsenselab is also developing hyper-local weather prediction systems, which could transform early warning efforts in a state like Kerala, where most landslides are triggered by cloudbursts. 'IMD forecasts are too broad. We want to say: not just Kochi, but Kaloor will face a cloudburst at 3 pm,' says Naveen.
Their atmospheric profiling tech measures minute changes in the air's refractive index, allowing pinpoint accuracy. A pilot project is underway in Kerala, funded by K-DISC and deployed by the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA). The data is also being used in a landslide prediction model developed by IIT Roorkee.
'If we can detect a cloudburst early, we can issue warnings with hours of lead time,' says Kannan. 'We've deployed test systems in zones like Kannichira near Kottiyoor in Kannur.'
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