From a university robotics club to establishing a deep-tech startup, Siddharth Kushwaha, Anirban Sarkar and Sarthak Gaira, alumni of Lovely Professional University (LPU), have turned their passion for drones and robotics into ASTRA Drones & Robotics Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Focused on indigenous UAV and defence technologies, the startup is incubated at TBIF, IIT Ropar. In this interview with Machine Edge Global, the founders share their entrepreneurial journey, technological challenges and vision for advancing India’s indigenous drone capabilities.
How did your experience at LPU help you start ASTRA and build expertise in drones and robotics?
Our journey with drones and robotics began during our college years at Lovely Professional University, where we were actively involved in the Renovation Tech Robotics and Aeromodelling (RTRA) Club. What started as an interest in building and flying drones gradually became a serious engineering pursuit.
Through RTRA, we worked on hands-on projects, organised technical workshops, mentored other students and participated in drone and robotics competitions at institutions across the country. These experiences taught us much more than technical skills—they taught us how to design, build, test, troubleshoot and improve a system under real constraints.
More importantly, working together as a team helped the three of us—Siddharth Kushwaha, Anirban Sarkar and Sarthak Gaira—develop complementary technical and leadership capabilities. Our college experience showed us that student innovation can have real-world potential if it is supported by the right ecosystem.
That eventually led us to take the next step: transforming our experience in drones and robotics into a technology company focused on solving real problems. This became the foundation for ASTRA Drones & Robotics Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
What did you learn from your work with the Indian Army’s EME Corps, and how did it shape ASTRA’s products?
Our exposure to the Indian Army’s Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) was an important transition from academic engineering to real-world defence technology.
During our work, including our contribution during Operation Sindoor, we gained practical exposure to the development and testing of different UAV platforms, including surveillance and specialised drone systems. The experience taught us that a defence system cannot be designed only around specifications on paper. It needs to be reliable, practical, maintainable, modular and capable of operating in demanding conditions.
We also understood the importance of rapid iteration. A prototype may work successfully in a controlled environment, but real operational requirements can reveal completely different challenges.
These lessons have directly influenced ASTRA’s product philosophy. We focus on developing field-oriented, modular and mission-specific UAV systems, rather than treating drones simply as flying platforms. Our objective is to understand the operational problem first and then engineer the appropriate solution around it.
What are the key challenges in developing indigenous Counter-UAS and other defence drone technologies?
Developing indigenous defence drone technology involves challenges across the entire technology stack. It is not simply about designing the airframe.
One major challenge is achieving the right balance between performance, reliability, weight, cost and indigenous content. Defence systems also have to function consistently in environments that can be very different from controlled testing conditions.
For Counter-UAS specifically, the challenge is even broader because a complete system may involve detection, identification, tracking, decision-making and an appropriate response mechanism. Different UAVs can have different sizes, flight characteristics, communication architectures and operating profiles.
Another challenge is developing a dependable domestic ecosystem for critical components such as flight electronics, sensors, communication systems, batteries and computing platforms. Indigenous development therefore requires continuous R&D, testing, field validation and iteration.
At ASTRA, we see this as a long-term engineering challenge. Our approach is to progressively increase indigenous capability while developing systems that are practical, modular and scalable.
How is incubation at IIT Ropar helping ASTRA in technology development and scaling its solutions?
Being selected for incubation at TBIF, IIT Ropar, has given ASTRA access to an ecosystem that is particularly valuable for a young deep-tech company.
The biggest advantage is that we can operate in an environment where research, engineering, prototyping and entrepreneurship come together. Access to technical infrastructure, mentoring, research-oriented expertise and a broader innovation network helps us move beyond the initial prototype stage and work toward more reliable products.
For a hardware and defence-focused startup, developing technology requires significant experimentation and iteration. The incubation ecosystem helps us strengthen these capabilities while also exposing us to industry, institutional and commercial opportunities.
Our goal is to use this ecosystem not only to develop individual drone platforms, but also to build ASTRA’s underlying R&D and manufacturing capabilities so that we can eventually scale our technologies for larger institutional and commercial requirements.
How can universities encourage more students to turn innovative projects into deep-tech startups?
Universities can play a crucial role in converting student innovation into real companies. In our own journey, we experienced how a student robotics club can become the starting point for something much larger.
The key is to create a pathway from idea → prototype → testing → validation → startup.
Students need access to laboratories, fabrication facilities, experienced mentors, industry connections and small amounts of early-stage funding. They should also get opportunities to test their technologies against real-world problems instead of limiting projects to academic evaluation.
Universities can further strengthen this ecosystem through dedicated incubation programmes, prototype grants, industry partnerships and easier access to technical infrastructure.
Most importantly, students should be encouraged to think beyond completing a project. If a student develops something that solves a genuine problem, the university should help them explore whether it can become a product or a company.
Our own journey—from an LPU student robotics club to working on defence-focused UAV technologies and eventually establishing ASTRA—has shown us that when technical education is combined with mentorship, practical exposure and an entrepreneurial ecosystem, student projects can evolve into deep-tech ventures with meaningful real-world applications.