Serhiy
Babak, a scientist and a vice president of economics and future development
department at the Kyiv-based University of Emerging Technologies, has many
passions. Making drones is one of them.
Babak,
36, who was raised in a household of scientists, says that his interest in
drones emerged by chance. After Japan’s 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, Babak
wondered why human beings were still needed to tackle the aftermath of a
nuclear disaster.
“Why should people go and die there if
you can use drones?” Babak asks. That’s how he and his team at the Science and
Technology Center at Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences came up with the
Crane drone aimed at monitoring radiation levels.
They made
their first drone at the end of 2012. “Production was extremely expensive,”
Babak says. A significant share of the cost was spent on testing.
The Crane
drone has barometric height sensors; and it can capture images and make
HD-videos. There is a small block inside the drone that constantly measures the
level of radiation, and all the information is saved on a MicroSD card.
The
state-owned 410 Factory for Civilian Aviation commissioned one of Babak’s
drones for the Сhornobyl nuclear power plant. It cost
around Hr 250,000 ($10,662) for his developers to make one, which is
inexpensive for such sophisticated technology. Babak tested the drones himself.
He says three prototypes crashed in the process.
Serhiy Babak, whose team at the Science and Technology Center at Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences came up with the Crane drone, said at least three prototypes crashed in the process.
When the
project was completed, many government bodies, including the defense ministry
and border guards, praised the Crane drone. But then “they started building
their own ones,” Babak says.
According
to Ukraine’s state-owned agency Ukrinform, there are at least 10 other types of
drones made in Ukraine now. Some of them are designed specifically for army
use. On April 4, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko said that tests of the
first Ukrainian drones had already begun and they would likely increase the
battle ability of the army.
He says
there are many Ukrainian companies that create drones for the front lines now.
One of those is Kyiv-based robotics lab at the Step IT Academy. At least 30 of
their drones, paid for by volunteers, are actively used at the war front now,
according to company data.
Babak,
however, is sure that it would be better to use American-made drones for the
army, because they are difficult to shoot down. In March, the U.S. approved
sending hand-launched Raven surveillance mini-drones to Ukraine – a model that
was used by Babak’s team as a prototype. Each of these costs around $35,000,
according to army-technology.com, a specialized website.
Even
though Babak’s team could conceivably design drones for army needs, he doesn’t
have such plans. Babak explains: “Military and civilian drones are totally
different. For example, ours are equipped with GPS, and it is very easy to
black out that signal.”
He says
that though politicians and battalion leaders reached out to him, he refused to
sell his drones for military purposes. “I don’t want other lives to depend on
our drones,” he says. “It’s a great responsibility.”
Babak
says that his Crane project was a success nevertheless, even though no more
radiation monitoring drones are planned for production at the moment.
Even
though interest in Babak’s drone is currently
low in Ukraine, other countries are developing similar technologies. In 2014, a
British team of scientists at University of Bristol came up with the Advanced
Airborne Radiation Monitoring system that consists of a hexacopter mounted with
a camera that allows users to assess the intensity of potential radiation
leaks.
Babak
says he will use his prototype to research other types of drones for civilian
use. He has plans to program his drones to find leaks in electrical power
lines. The team plans to start scanning thermal power plants with the help of
drones equipped with infrared cameras. In fact, drones can do anything the energy companies don’t want to send
people to do.
Babak’s has had a lot of
support from his family in his line of work. After
graduating from the Kyiv National Economic University, Babak attended Napier
University in Edinburgh in 1999.
“One year of my education in Britain cost
$20,000,” he says. “My parents gave everything they had and I had no pocket
money with me then. But I was extremely motivated.”
After
spending time abroad, Babak says, he has a sense of how to make Ukraine’s
educational system and sciences more competitive. For a time, he organized
business conferences and headed the investment and international departments of
the International Chamber of Commerce. But finally he dropped these activities
to return to the academic environment and to design drones.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected]
