IIT Kharagpur researchers develop robot to identify, treat plant disease

IIT Kharagpur researchers develop a robotic system to protect the plants and increase their yield.

A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has designed a robotic system to help in protecting the plants and increase their yield. The robotic system is capable of identifying the pest attacks on the plants and will spray pesticides if required. An innovation to accelerate digitisation in the farm sector, the robotic system is capable of identifying the plant diseases through camera-captured image analysis. The robot then sprays the appropriate pesticide, as per the demand of the situation.

DK Pratihar, professor, department of mechanical engineering, IIT Kharagpur, the lead researcher of the project said, “Our device can detect the plant diseases using camera and its image analysis model the uncertainty associated with the human vision system and consequently remove it. This will help the farmers to detect the disease(s) correctly. Further use of such a device instead of manual operation of spraying pesticide will protect the farmers from related probable health hazards.”

“The serial manipulator will have sufficient dexterous workspace making it capable of spraying the pesticides from the top, bottom and various sides of the plant, which may be difficult to achieve utilizing the widely used drones,” added Alok Kanti Deb, professor, department of electrical engineering. 

The robotic system consists of a tracked vehicle suitable for negotiating rough terrain, a serial manipulator mounted on the tracked vehicle capable of holding the camera, the pesticide spraying nozzle, a pesticide spraying module, and the camera-based vision module. The robotic system is battery-driven one and once it is fully charged, it will be able to perform its duty in the field for about two hours. The robot will be operated remotely using buttons placed on a control panel.

“We will soon resume the final assembly of the robotic system and field testing as we are recovering from the present COVID-situation. We have further plans in the future to make this robot autonomous and intelligent,” Pratihar further added. “If we are looking at a comprehensive development towards Atmanirbhar Bharat, the strategic importance of such technology development is profound. Most importantly such technologies need to be taken from the lab to the land,” said V K Tewari, director, IIT Kharagpur.

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