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UAV to Boost Agriculture Sector by Eradicating Pests and Plant Disease

Gadja Mada University Airborne Pest and Plant Disease Eradication System
Photo Credit: Gadjah Mada University

Researchers from Indonesia’s Gadja Mada University have developed an innovative airborne pest and plant disease eradication system by utilising on autonomous drones.

According to a recent press release, the pest and plant disease eradication system utilised an edrone, which is a flight controller module for drones.

It is capable of flying autonomously.

The Problem

Farmers in Indonesia are often plagued with problems concerning pests and plant diseases, which led to a decrease in agricultural and plantation products that threatened food security in the country.

Because of the size and extensiveness of the agricultural land in Indonesia, the handling of pests and plant diseases takes time.

As such, the team from the University’s Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences as well as research teams from the Electronic Study Program, Instrumentation Department of Computer Science and Electronics FMIPA developed the innovation to address this.

The Solution

The system they developed is using a fixed-wing unmanned aircraft (UAV), which is equipped with electronic components such as brushless motors, servo motors, GPS, telemetry, batteries, and IMU6 DOF.

The UAV is equipped with a 13” propeller and has a maximum take-off weight of 4 kg. Additionally, its body and wings are made of hard foam.

Moreover, it is also equipped with a flight controller, which uses a Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) control method.

The flight controller will be used to ensure that the UAV will fly smoothly and be able to carry out its mission autonomously.

More importantly, the UAV can carry pesticides, which will make pest and plant disease eradication much easier. It will merely fly over the land that needed pesticide.

Aside from fulfilling its duties as a pest exterminator, the UAV will also be utilised for functions such as mapping of plant diseases.

A technology system was created for this purpose. It can recognise the diseases and the pests as well as identify the various types.

For this functionality, the UAV, which is equipped with a flight controller, will be connected to a ground segment that is supported by Baloon BTS.

The UAV will then carry out it monitoring and mapping function in the specified area. Results from this activity will then be processed using artificial intelligence (AI).

Three fixed-wing vehicles are used for mapping and can cover 200 hectares worth of land together.

Vast Potential of Using Technology

Monitoring vast farming lands has proven to be quite bothersome particularly if most of the farmers do so by foot. Countries have recognised that technology is fast advancing and has produced machinery that could change what was once a laborious and tedious farming process into an efficient and automated one.

OpenGov Asia has reported on the Philippines looking into drones to boost farming. The Department of Agriculture was evaluating the potential of drones in changing how seeds are planted, how fertilisers and pesticides are applied, and how crops are monitored.

They see drones as a technology that would further mechanise the farm sector and cut the cost of production.

Thailand is not far behind as the Thai government will be applying Japanese agritech to upgrade the country’s community-based tourism and tackle poverty among farmers.

According to its Deputy Prime Minister, Thailand should learn to use more advanced technology in the agriculture sector because the country has become an ageing society and is facing a shortage of young workers in the sector.

Meanwhile, the Government of New Zealand released a report that sets out their vision for how drones can be better integrated into the current transport system in order to develop a thriving, innovative and safe sector.

The economic benefits of drones include doing tasks that are time-intensive, expensive and risky.

These tasks include monitoring crops, inspecting power lines, and helping with emergency operations.

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

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CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

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SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

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HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

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IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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