New Delhi: IIT-Roorkee has opened a state-of-the-art Centre for Drone Research on its campus, a press statement said.

The initiative has secured a seed funding of Rs 1.38 crore from its alumni and was inaugurated at a virtual ceremony in the presence of NITI Aayog member and former Director General, DRDO VK Saraswat.

The objective of the initiative is to foster cutting-edge research and innovation in the drone segment, the statement added.

The centre is envisaged to evolve as a unique facility at the national level wherein state-of-the-art and frontier research would be conducted on several aspects of drone technology, including drone development, drone applications and anti-drone technology, it said.