New Delhi: In a pioneering deep technology collaboration between India and Japan, Bengaluru-based aerospace and defence company NewSpace Research & Technologies Pvt Ltd (NRT) has tied up with Japan’s Autonomy HD led by robotics scientist Kenzo Nonami on Autopilots and Control Systems – to create the Autonomous Swarm Systems for Intelligent and Swift Turnaround (ASSIST) initiative for disaster management.

Winner of Indian Air Force’s Mehar Baba Swarm Drone Competition in 2021 for Best Swarm Architecture, NRT’s swarm drones have been inducted by the Indian Army.

According to defence industry sources, NRT’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with proprietary intelligent swarm technology enables optimal first response by identifying survivors, assessing damage, large-scale data collection, mapping, restoration of connectivity and monitoring. Early and effective first response efforts in disaster management are essential for saving lives and property.

Designed for varied endurance requirements, NRT’s heterogeneous swarms can distribute tasks amongst themselves based on requirement for over multiple hours. The company conducted the first swarm demonstration in Japan on August 1 at the Kinugawa riverbed at Oyama in Tochigi Prefecture. These swarm drones are the civil version of those developed for military purposes. The company demonstrated ASSIST missions and capabilities to government officials, senior members from the drone industry, and disaster management experts from Japan.

The missions focused on rapid detecting, rescue operations, precise data collection, efficient logistics, and medical aid transportation. The first 36 hours are the most critical for saving human lives and decades of research on disaster management clearly shows that saving time in each phase of a disaster has a 10X reduction in time for the next phase, sources said.

Kenzo Nonami said, “The demonstration by NRT was a historic event, and we are very proud of collaborating with NRT, which has built world-class swarming technologies. We will work with NRT now for developing technologies for applications in Japan.”

“We are excited to work with Nonami sensei and the team from Autonomy HD to develop new technologies and applications of our collaborative autonomy stack,”  added Julius Amrit, chief operating officer of NRT.