Meet Arjun Menon: A 17 Year Young Who Patented An Underwater Drone
Article Edited and Compiled by Shantanu K. Bansal
A 17 year old boy from Mumbai has designed and patented one of its kind of underwater drone for the Indian Navy. It is the very first time that a boy of this age has successfully not only designed but also patented a weapon platform having major relevance to modern warfare.
The boy name is Arjun Menon from the state of Mumbai. Arjun is now known for his unique contribution to India’s defence and security sector at a very tender age of 17. He has conceptualised, designed and patented an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) called as Unmanned Reconnaissance and Attack Vehicle (URAV).
The URAV is designed for searching, locating and destroying underwater enemy vehicle, craft and other such targets under the realm of modern Undersea Warfare (USW). The URAV has been equipped with a varied array of sensors for reconnaissance such as the infrared visual sensors, different types of radars, magnetic resonance imaging and the latest LIDAR technology. The LIDAR technology stands for Light Detection and Ranging which uses laser, scanner, and a GPS receiver to obtain exceptionally precise three-dimensional information about an area.
Apart from reconnaissance role, The URAV has been designed to be a Lethal Autonomous Weapon (LAW) with destructive capabilities. It is equipped with self-propelled torpedoes as well as buoy- held underwater mines. The concept design says that it has the capacity to load two torpedoes, hence providing a complete military package.
It shall use different sensors like the sonar, thermal imaging, laser guidance and Magnetic Anomaly Detection (MAD) system to detect and destroy enemy vessels.
The concept design states that the vehicle is also equipped with a special rotor propulsion system for better speed and manoeuvring undersea with self-ascend/ descend control.
The dream project of a 17 year old boy called “URAV” has been designed by using advanced designing software such as Autodesk Revit, Autodesk 3DS Max and Autodesk Inventor. As per Arjun, the project work has been gone through advanced algorithms and physics simulations to ensure the viability of the vehicle.
Arjun can be reached on instagram @arjunmenon213 and also on twitter @realarjunmenon.
Disclaimer: All inputs in this article are provided by Arjun himself; this article not necessarily reflects the views of IADN.
