IIT Kharagpur develops robot for crop disease detection

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Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur have developed a smart tracked robot designed for detecting crop diseases and pesticide application. This semi-automatic tracked mobile manipulator was developed by students in the Mechanical Engineering Department.

The system is intended to address challenges in identifying plant diseases and ensuring safe pesticide application. Prof. Dilip Kumar Pratihar, leading the research, suggested a tracked mobile manipulator as an effective solution for varied agricultural terrains.

Pratihar stated, “This system features a serial manipulator, resembling a human hand, mounted on a tracked vehicle — designed specifically for field navigation and precision tasks.” Drone-based agricultural robots often struggle with image quality due to flight-induced draught, leading to noisy data.

According to researchers, “This tracked mobile manipulator could be used to serve numerous purposes in the agricultural field, such as plant health monitoring, plant disease identification, pesticide spraying, fruit or vegetable harvesting, etc.” The system was presented at the 2021 IEEE 18th India Council International Conference (INDICON) organized by IIT Guwahati.

The ground-based manipulator employs camera-based image analysis for disease detection, followed by automatic pesticide spraying. Funded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the system aims to minimize health risks from manual spraying and enhance food quality and agricultural productivity.

By reducing crop loss due to diseases, the system supports improved yield and cost efficiency, contributing to the nation’s GDP, according to the Institute.

Source: Suryaa

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Source: The Plantations International Agroforestry Group of Companies