Do you remember Rancho from 3 idiots? You are surely going to forget him when you read Rohit Dey’s story. Meet Rohit Dey, who is currently pursuing BSc. in (Computer science, Mathematics and Electronics) from Christ University, Bangalore. This 19 year old boy has been working on UAV ( Unmanned Ariel Vehicle), for last 7 years from now. He has received 7 national awards and 3 international awards by NASA.
In talks with Rohit:
1) How did you manage to build a multi copter while designing a normal helicopter itself is a tedious job ?
Well, it’s not a hard job. When you have the will to achieve something which you love, nothing can stop you from achieving it. As APJ Abdul Kalam sir says, “Dream is not which you get in sleep, dream is that which doesn’t let you to sleep”. My dream of designing a new UAV ( Unmanned Ariel Vehicle) never let me sleep.
2) How was your experience in ISEF where you presented a quadrotor ?
I emerged as a winner in the Intel International Engineering and Science Fair ( ISEF). I had developed a quadrotor (also known as quadrotor helicopter which is lifted and propelled by 4 rotors. This was done from the scratch using scrap materials from the refrigerator.
3) Your objective behind designing quadcopter is very noble. Tell us about it.
There are many people who design quadcopters. But I believe in designing application oriented UAV’s. I have thought of developing a UAV which delivers newspapers and many other applications that would prove helpful to the mankind with societal values along with cost effectiveness.
4) What was your first source of inspiration which made you come this way?
Since my childhood I was very fascinated by aircraft and birds. I wondered about how the birds could fly and this made me develop interest towards aerodynamics, which ultimately led me to develop and design new aircraft and multicopters.
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5) How do you improvise on your designs each time ?
The first try in most of the cases will not be as efficient as we expect the final product to be. Failure leads to development of better things. My first prototype was not as efficient as the prototype on which I am working now. It totally depends on how I understand the problem, analyze it and find solutions for it. It is a continuous process. I work daily to make the UAV more efficient to go in hand with the state of the art technology.
6) Well, your idea of quadcopter came in much before than in the movie ‘3 idiots.’ How did that huge idea strike such a young mind ?
Well, it started with some crazy ideas. Everyone thinks about designing helicopters. As we all know helicopters have one big propeller at the top to lift it and another one at the bottom to stabilize the motion. I thought of doing something different. I tried to work on four propeller design. It was a huge disaster in my first attempt. I never gave up and came up with a successful design with my 3rd prototype.
