A team of young Rwandans have developed a UAS which they say can be used for different purposes and applications including; agriculture, energy, mining and media sectors.
Rutayisire Eric, Founder of CHARIS Unmanned Aerial Solutions Company registered with the Rwanda development Board says he graduated from the U.S.University of Minnesota as an Electrical Engineer and decided to return to Rwanda where he wants to play a key role in providing solutions to local challenges.
“I have always been fascinated by drones and have since been interested in building my own drones,” Rutayisire says showing his first drone that took him over four months to build.
He adds that this drone is designed to fly at an altitude of 400ft, “We don’t fly this drone above this height,” Rutayisire explains.
Inspiration
“After my studies in US. I met with my mentor; that influenced me into drone technology.
I like technology stuff because i worked on different projects.
I always had the interest of drones not only designing them but also building them. This is where the inspiration came from.
When I returned to Rwanda, I looked for many applications this drone could be used for. I thought this could help Rwanda develop in many ways.
Many African inventors have designed and built Missiles, helicopters, cars and also HIV and cancer drugs but they never go past this stage. How sure are you that this
Drone will go into full production?
We are a company with a vision and mission. This differentiates us from other people that are just inventing small stuff that usually don’t get realised.
We are already working with some people in the movie industry, understanding their needs and delivering the highest quality service in the movie industry.
For the movie industry we are providing exclusive aerial views that are very expensive to achieve with a helicopter.
The drone can be navigated through and to complex destinations to provide exclusive aerial views yet at affordable prices.
How much did this drone cost you?
In building this specific drone, we have invested more than U$3,000. Am not willing to just let all this money go.
I want to make sure that this drone is put to work. It will have to become productive. We want to build more drones and ensure that our company grows while making profits.
Is this a complete drone? It looks naked with all wires exposed.
This is the first drone. We built it to test the reaction of the market. However its functionalities are complete and we have so far conducted several operations at events including shooting concerts and movies in Kigali and other aerial photography services.
Our business model is not to sell it but to rent it. Some people have seen it on internet and say it’s a toy, they must be careful because they require specialised skills to navigate. We have a trained technician to navigate our drone.
If government wants to use it for specific applications we can provide it and trained their operator but our model is to rent it not selling it.
Isn’t this duplication of technology? How authentic is your innovation?
There are many things that we are working on that will be hard to find on other markets. We already know the Rwandan market and there are things we are making that make us unique in design.
UN says massive surveillance is a major problem. And people associate drones with spying on general public without their consent. How trustable are your drones?
Before flying this drone, we seek permission from National Police especially when we are shooting a movie.
This is in essence to avoid any commotion that might result from people seeing strange airborne objects.
The regulation here is that we don’t fly above 400ft so that we don’t interfere with air traffic and we aren’t allowed to fly near airports.
Do you think its necessary to seek permission from Police to fly just a drone?
If you are going to fly in an area where there are many people, this could create a buzz and bring traffic to a halt because people are gazing and this could cause accidents.
Objectives
In this company we specialise in designing and building and customising the drone for specific application.
Our vision is being able to help the agric, mining, energy, journalism and to develop these sectors to a higher level. We are specialist in this domain.
In agriculture where you might need to scout crops on large plantations, the Drone does a very accurate assessment because it can fly over the plantation and detect diseases and other insect attacks on crops.
Hiring this drone would cost clients between Rwf100,000 to Rwf400,000 .
What assurances should the government have in entrusting a young man like you with this kind of technology which could in other instances be a threat to national security?
We want to work as a technology company and in regards to drones there are various types. Ours is purely a commercial drone and we don’t have capacity to develop a military drone.
But negative elements could hire your drone to fly over highly populated neighbourhoods and gather video information that could be used for negative purposes.
This means that whether commercial, your drone could pose a security threat. Thus how will you convince the national security that your project is purely peaceful?
We are trying to be a private company and the data obtained through using our drones by our clients is up to them.
For example IGIHE could hire this drone in their news reporting while National Police could use it to collect their data depending on what they want to use it for.
Our intention is to help different sectors in the country to develop higher in data gathering to the benefit of their objectives.
Are you getting any sponsorship from govt?
No. But we are requesting government to help us put in place regulatory framework for such technology and make it easy for our team to work.
We need government support by helping us raise awareness and how our technology can be adopted by various institutions.
Are you having a private sponsor?
Yes. But i would rather not mention.
Segore Terry the CHARIS Technical Director and also a graduate from Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) is in charge of technical support especially in maintenance of the drone.
“Our challenges would include bad weather especially heavy winds and this could affect its proper navigation,” he says adding that though we import most of the parts, we wouldn’t see ourselves as an assembly company.
Most of the design work is done by us and there are several calculations involved and most of this is done here in Rwanda.
Is your drone certified by Rwanda bureau of standards?
We are working with a university in the United States and are already taking courses that will require our international certification and recognition.
Rwanda Development Board (RDB) already knows about our project and we have a locally registered company.
Kamali Paul the Marketing Director CHARIS Company says “Our product is the first of its kind in Rwanda and we have been in service for the past one month. We already have clients that have ordered for the drone customised for their applications”.
Source: IGHIE