Drones for Societal Transformation
Published on : Saturday 14-12-2019
Drones offer cost effective automation solutions with great efficiency and improved productivity, says V P Sampath.
A drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle without a human pilot on board, which is remotely controlled. There are many types of drones available in different payload capacities including those used in combat and covert operations, which are usually of larger sizes and have extensive range. But drones have many civil and commercial applications and are used aerial photography during natural disasters and for providing emergency medicines. A drone helps in data acquisition and delivers goods such as food and medical supplies. It observes species as well as monitors and protects wildlife. It is useful in journalism and helps collect information about pollution and inadequate delivery of healthcare.
Chennai’s drone house
Inov Robotics is a Chennai-based company, which caters to industries and offers an extraordinary portfolio of robotic products including drones, with many different capabilities and technologies for various applications. The company has delivered 4 agricultural drones including a 20 litre sprayer drone with localisation capabilities and also a POS system robot which is a desktop robotic arm integrated with Point of Sale (POS) system to automate payment using ATM cards. This automatic POS system is India’s first of its kind robotic system. It is also involved in providing many other automation solutions to clients all over the globe. It caters to cost effective automation solutions with great efficiency and has improved productivity of their clients using their innovative robotic solutions. Inov Robotics has recently launched INOVBOT, an Arduino based STEM Educational Robotic Kit, available on Amazon.
Inov’s agriculture sprayer drone
The Sprayer Drones are designed for precision variable rate application of liquid pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides, bringing new levels of efficiency and manageability to the agricultural sector. The technology allows coverage of 3,000-4,000m² area in just 10 minutes, which is 30 to 40 times faster than manual spraying operations.
The Sprayer Drones make it easy to target places that are hard to reach or too dangerous. The pilot will not be in contact with pesticides be it the trees, fields or yards. This no longer puts anyone in harm’s way to apply the products.
Agri-monitoring drone
Agricultural drones fitted with multispectral imaging camera sensors can be used to monitor and manage crops, soil, fertilizers and irrigation more effectively. This will benefit both farmer and the environment by controlling the use of sprays, fertilizers, and eliminating wastage of water which will result in better yield of crops cost effectively.
The powerful propulsion system enables the drone to carry liquid payloads, including pesticide and fertilizer. The intelligent spraying system helps us to adjust its spray according to the flying speed so that even spray is always applied. This way, the amount of pesticide or fertilizer is efficiently controlled and regulated.
Completely autonomous
This type of drone provides a variety of operation modes, such as point-to-point operation, semi- automatic operation and manual operation. In the point-to-point mode, the aircraft can automatically spray pesticides within established route which is suitable for large regular areas. In the semi-automatic operation mode, the flight operator will be able to control the drone and the aircraft automatically sprays pesticides. This mode is suitable for operation in irregular surface areas. In the manual mode, the user can carry out regular flight and manual spraying of pesticides, which is suitable for more complex areas.
Features
Dose monitor – When the dosage is lower than the warning value, the LED indicator will flash. It will shut off the pump and record this point as the continued spraying point.
Intelligent memory – The Sprayer Drone automatically records its current position and remembers its past coordinates as it makes its way across the field. In case the operation is interrupted, for example due to depleted battery or empty tank, the flight can easily be resumed from the last point in its memory after changing the battery or refilling the tank.
Terrain flow – By integrating a microwave radar together with the drone intelligent flight control system, the aircraft is able to scan the below terrain in real-time, and adjust to keep a constant, centimetre level accuracy, height above crops. Spray density is maintained even as the terrain rises and drops, so that the optimal amount of liquid is applied at all times.
As one of the emerging technologies, drones are gaining widespread popularity. While the widely anticipated pizza delivery may not happen anytime soon due to regulatory hurdles and absence of standards, Amazon has announced it is prepared for drone delivery. The technology is there, the regulatory framework may also be in place soon.
V P Sampath works as a consultant that develops hardware/software co-design tools. Among his publications are technical articles and papers on FPGA and Embedded systems and methods as well as textbooks. He is an active Senior Member of IEEE and Member of Institution of Engineers. He is a mentor for the semiconductor industries. He is a patron for Semiconductor Federation of India.