Start-up demonstrates facade cleaning drone at NIT-T

R. Akilan and V. Sree Aravinth, co-founders of startup Zerowings Aerospace and alumni of National Institute of Technology – Tiruchi (NIT-T), demonstrated a facade-washing drone at their alma mater this week that could potentially reduce the time, risk, and human labour involved in keeping high-rise buildings sparkling clean.

The start-up, backed by NIT-T’s Research and Innovation Hub and Centre for Entrepreneurship Development and Incubation (CEDI), was launched last year. It has produced unmanned aerial systems for defence and enterprise applications.

The facade-washing drone demonstration was carried out on the elevation of the Orion lecture hall on June 11.

The machine is a hexacopter-based drone equipped with six high-performance motors, each capable of generating up to 15 kg of thrust.

With the water hose attached, the platform is capable of carrying out cleaning operations at heights of up to 100 metres.

In the NIT-T demonstration, the drone, with a payload capacity of 25 kg, first sprayed a soapy solution on the area to be cleaned and then returned with a high pressure spray of de-ionised water to hose it down.

“Since we use de-ionised water, the facade will not have any water marks that have to usually be separately wiped by hand. Drone washers can help clean high-rise buildings of over 10-13 floors in approximately eight hours, without the need to install scaffolding or ropes. In contrast, a manual cleaning operation would run into 10 days at least, with a safety risk for human labourers,” Mr. Akilan told The Hindu on Saturday.

De-ionised water is chemically stripped of mineral ions and is considered to be safe for industrial purposes. “Usually de-ionised water is available in bulk quantities in big cities. However, for small locations, we bring our own de-ioniser machine to the site,” said Mr. Akilan.

Zerowings has delivered systems to the Indian Army, completed sea trials with the Indian Coast Guard, and secured Letters of Intent from the Parachute Regiment Special Forces and Border Security Force of the Indian Army. “Our mission is to build completely indigenous, autonomous drones designed, manufactured, and flown in India. The NIT-T demonstration was special to us, because we attended classes at Orion hall as students,” said Mr. Akilan.

CEDI will provide seed funding of ₹25 lakh for the project.