Mandya: Introducing advanced technology in agriculture will surely enable farmers to get higher yield. The most difficult tasks in the farming process are sowing, cropping, irrigation and cutting. The purpose of automation is to eradicate the human clerical effort and to provide accuracy in the operations. 

Students of Department of Industrial & Production Engineering, P.E.S College of Engineering, Mandya, have designed and fabricated an agricultural robot — Agribot — for seed sowing and sprinkling of fertilisers and water. 

Automation in agriculture is still in the developing stage due to lack of technical knowledge, advanced technology and machinery. Hence using new technology in farming activity may provide greater support to farmers in seed sowing, fertilising and also sprinkling of water. 

The Agribot comprises a sowing and water/fertiliser sprinkling system. Sprinkling of water is mainly based on weather conditions (temperature, humidity and rainfall). The Agribot starts to work once it receives the signal from an android app (Blynk), using a Wi-Fi module. 

The robot’s speed and directions can be controlled through blynk. The user has a facility to get weather details on the app. If the humidity is more, the sprinkler automatically sprinkles more water. Likewise, when rain is detected, the sprinkler is automatically turned off. 

Seed sowing distance can also be controlled through the app with necessary changes in the code. There are separate buttons for navigation — right, left, front and back. If any obstacles are found in the way, the vehicle’s motion is interrupted and an alert message is displayed on the screen. The entire operation of the vehicle is carried out using rechargeable batteries.

The Agribot has been designed by K.A. Krupa, K.P. Gowtham Gowda, D.R. Chidambar and H.C. Pramoda. They have been guided by Dr. B.S. Shivakumara of Department of Industrial & Production Engineering, P.E.S College of Engineering. 

The overall cost of this prototype is Rs. 10,000. This can be used for crops like ragi, paddy, tomato, beans, cucumber, peas, groundnut etc. In general, 15 labourers cover over around 2 to 2.5 acres per day which costs over Rs. 6,000 (considering an average pay of Rs. 400 per day). The proposed single prototype covers around 1.25 acres to 1.50 acres per day.

If this is to be manufactured into a real-time vehicle, then various parts and designs need to be replaced accordingly so as to fit the larger agricultural requirements. Thus the cost might be approximately Rs. 45,000 to Rs. 50,000.

This can be further improved by providing a ploughing tool to plough the land which is followed by seed sowing and sprinkling. Also solar panels can be used for energy supply through batteries, the students said.  

This provides a complete package for farmers along with energy and water conservation and is a one-time investment and can be used constantly. This apart, if one person in a village buys this, then he can rent it to others which is an economical way for other farmers too, they added.