New Delhi: In what could be of immense value to the armed forces and security agencies, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras researchers have developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered drone to hack into rogue drones. The drone system would prove to be invaluable to law enforcement agencies, security services and armed forces as it will allow them to secure air space over critical civilian and military installations from surveillance by rogue drones.

The AI drone by IIT Madras can track down rogue drones visually, hack into their GPS navigation system, following which the target drone is forced to change its flight path or land safely.

A major advantage of this artificial intelligence-operated drone system is that it can be controlled over the Internet and can navigate autonomously as compared to most existing drones that operate on ‘line of sight’ meaning the operator must keep the drone within their sight.

Using the Internet to control the drones also allows for deploying a swarm of drones that can intelligently detect and track people, drones, vehicles and other objects.

This new drone system was designed by a team comprising Vasu Gupta, a final year B Tech student, Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIT Madras, and Rishabh Vashistha, a Project Associate working in RAFT Lab, Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIT Madras.