Students at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madrashave developed a “smart agricopter” to eliminate manual spraying ofpesticides in agricultural fields and help identify crop health by using aimaging camera.
The innovation will allowing spraying pesticides ten timesfaster and with 100 per cent precision at the same cost as manual spraying.
Students at the Centre For Innovation, IIT Madras,identified manual pesticide spraying as an extremely hazardous activity as itendangered farmers’ and labourers’ health and resulted in a massive overuse oftoxic chemicals.
The team of three then set out to design a technologicalsolution that would eliminate the need for farmers to come in contact withpesticides as well as intelligently identify which crops on the farm requirepesticides and which did not.
“The advanced multispectral imaging camera allows thehexacopter drone to make smart maps of farmland based on crop health and itscompletely autonomous pesticide refilling system ensures entire spraying iscompletely autonomous.
“Agriculture is the backbone of our country and thereis a desperate need to upgrade our backbone. We are automating a multi-billiondollar manual pesticide spraying industry using cutting edge dronetechnology,” said Rishabh Verma, an aerospace engineering student.
The three have also filed a patent for the agricopter whosecost is estimated to be around Rs 5.1 lakh.
“What really sets agricopter apart from existingproducts is the multispectral imaging camera which provides smart analysis ofcrop health and ensures that the entire spraying process is completelyautonomous and that the farmer is never exposed to the pesticide.
“The current version of Project Smart Agricopter is ahexacopter drone with the capacity to carry 15 liters of pesticide. Agricopteraims to spray pesticides 10 times faster and with 100 per cent precision at thesame cost as manual spraying,” said Kavi Kailash, another aerospaceengineering student.
The team has also got a Rs 10 lakh worth equity-less fundingafter their product won the Indian Innovation Growth Programme (IIGP 2.0)University Challenge held at IIT Bombay last month.
“Our current challenge is to complete the constructionof their alpha prototype and work towards testing the efficiency of theirproduct on farms across the nation,” said Akash Anand, an engineeringdesign student.