CHENNAI (PTI): Students of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras have developed drones equipped with artificial intelligence and computer vision to help in rescuing people trapped in disaster-hit areas.

A team from Centre for Innovation of the premier institution has developed the drone 'Eye in the Sky' to develop an end-to-end solution for identifying accurate and critical information on people trapped in disaster hit places and communicate them with the relief task force, a release said here on Wednesday.

The 'Eye in the Sky' initiative was unique and the analytical modules were based on latest available technology with the team creating its own databases, it said.

According to IIT-M, Department of Aerospace Engineering, faculty advisor to the team, P R Shankar, the 'Eye in the sky' programme would be a powerful tool for saving lives and providing succour during disaster relief and humanitarian aid operations.

The team plans to collaborate with hardware companies that can provide scalable drone technology to conduct the required spot surveillance of disaster struck areas, it said.

It won the finals of Indian Innovation Growth Programme, University Challenge, held at IIT Bombay recently and was also among the Top 18 Innovative Startups from all over the nation.

The team would receive Rs 10 lakh worth equity-less funding.