Tata Steel and Bengaluru-based drone startup Aarav Unmanned
Systems (AUS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop and
offer end-to-end integrated drone solutions with a focus on efficiency, safety,
and productivity of open cast mining operations.
Tata Steel will also work jointly with AUS to provide
drone-based solutions, including mine analytics and geotechnical mapping to
Tata Steel group companies across various stocks and mining locations in India.
This is the second time a Tata Group company and AUS have
partnered. Previously, Tata Steel partnered with AUS in November 2021, to help
its project team to map the progress of the upcoming Kalinganagar Expansion
Plant in Odisha. Back then, AUS had carried out drone surveys of the mining leases
of Tata Steel and delivered mines analysis.
Founded in 2013 by Vipul Singh and Suhas Banshiwala, AUS is
building commercial-grade drones and provides drone-based solutions for
enterprise applications in mining, infrastructure, urban planning, irrigation,
energy and agriculture. Its end-to-end solutions include a drone, an operator
and a cloud platform for data analysis.
AUS was the first drone startup to be granted the certification under the small
category as all previous certifications were for drones under the micro
category. The startup claims to have been profitable since 2019 and was also
amongst the three drone companies that were shortlisted to map India’s 600K+
villages by the government. It has so far mapped over 5 Mn acres, 15K villages
and 35 cities in India and covered 250+ mines and 350+ stockyards for mining,
metal, and power companies.