imagine we have solar drone faying all day on TTP search and use batteries at night a 24/7 terror on snakes.
Its a bit more than that for surveillance drones.
1. Payload
2. Weight
3. Endurance
4. Distance
Now, in payload you will have
1. surveillance equipment
2. batteries
3. communication equipment
Then you need to define endurance. How long do you want it to fly? The longer you need it to fly, the better has to be your battery tech to keep the thing charged. Also, if you need it to fly longer you will need to ensure more batteries. Which is going to make it heavier. You now need more power.
Distance
This will define how far you want this to go. And how high you want this to fly. The higher you want it to go, the more powerful you will need your surveillance equipment. The farther you want it to go then more powerful your communication system.
Now, to come up with a 24/7 surveillance mechanism you will need dedicated teams doing each of these. Not to mention, you will have drafts of wind and weather abnormalities.
This while an encouraging effort, is what is basically an assembly start. You now need the above to be put in place before you can start working on a prototype. This will require model tests and crash tests.
Better option is ask industry to fund laboratory in your version of the IITs. Let students work on this over a period of 5 to 10 years. It will give better results, than somebody hiring these boys and it not developing further students.
