Bangalore: Robots steal the farm show

A project on the application of robotics in agriculture, developed by MS Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies, was one of the main attractions at the Krishi Mela this year.

Three robots—Agri Spray, Coconut Harvester and Colour Identification—with different applications were developed by the institute. The robots can help overcome the dearth of labourers and make certain agricultural practices time and cost effective, claim its creators.

The Agri Spray robot is operated by a remote control, and sprays pesticides on crops, thereby eliminating the need for farmers to expose themselves to harmful chemicals. The robot works on heavy duty batteries and comprises a nozzle, a liner actuating motor for height adaptability and all terrain wheels for versatility.

“I am from a farming background. As I have done engineering in electronics, I worked on this idea with the other faculty members. It took us one month to finish the project and it was worth the time,” said Nagananda, a faculty member at MS Ramaiah School Of Advanced Studies.

The Coconut Harvester is also a remote-controlled robot that climbs coconut trees and plucks coconuts all in the click of a button. The robot has two units–a climber and a robotic arm, which comes with an inbuilt cutter. The robot is cost efficient as it is a one time investment and significantly reduces safety risks, remarked its creators.

The third robot is programmed to identify the colour of fruits and pluck only the ones that are ripened. It works on the colour sensor principle, and at the moment is programmed to pluck only red fruits. “The model requires further modification to perform in a better manner. Since this model is not completely remote controlled, it requires some manual work by the farmers. We will be working on the advanced performance of this model and demonstrate it in Krishi Mela next year probably,” said another faculty member from the college.

The team from MS Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies is planning to create a multifunctional agri-robot next.

“We have a memorandum of understanding with the Agricultural Department. Krishi Mela is a platform for us to showcase our models and make people aware of it. Agri Spray Robot was created to prove that the multifunctional agri-robot will perform more than one function,” said Lokesh, an assistant professor from the college.