A 17-Year-Old Teen Builds AgRobot At His School’s Atal Tinkering Lab (Image: ETV Bharat)
Aryan Singh teenager from Kota, Rajasthan build an all-purpose robot, AgRobot, to help farmers assess soil and crop health, water needs and detect pests. The 17-year-old boy built the AgRobot at his school’s Atal Tinkering Lab, a central government initiative to help students to develop innovative skills.
Aryan received Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar under the science and technology category from the President of India, Droupadi Murmu. Aryan is one of the 19 young children from 18 States and Union Territories to won this award. So far, Aryan’s innovation has received national and international recognition by 15 felicitations.
Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar-2024 conferred upon 19 children by President of India
Awardees of this year include one child each in the categories of Bravery, Science & Technology and Innovation, four in the category of Social Service, five in the category of Sports, and… pic.twitter.com/ZrThz493wm
— PIB India (@PIB_India) January 23, 2024
Aryan spent four years to build the robot and sent his proposal to NITI Ayog’s Atal Innovation Mission and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Biral, an MP from Rajasthan, he told to PTI. He further said, “I belong to a farming family, grew up watching my grandparents and parents working in the field. While studying in class 10 at SR Public School, I conceived the idea of developing a multi-task device and later developed a prototype that can reduce farmers” labour in the field,”. “The AgRobot is able to perform multiple tasks like cutting, irrigation, loading, soil-tracking etc,” Aryan said.
The boy and his mentor at school are hopeful that AgRobot will be launched within a year. Aryan informed that AgRobot is equipped with cameras to assess the state of the crop. Additionally, a dropper on top aids the farmer by dispersing seeds and providing irrigation in the field. In order to assist farmers in evaluating the condition of their soil the robot is also outfitted with soil moisture sensors. It also helps in detecting pests on the crops. The robot makes use of artificial intelligence that has been educated on various farming datasets. Additionally, the robot can be controlled remotely.
AgRobot is run by renewable energy from Sun and if the solar energy gets exhausted it will recharge again using a piezoelectric panel installed on it to produce pressure. The robot does not require any external source of energy.
Notably, Transforming India (NITI Aayog) is the government of India”s principal policy “Think Tank,” and Atal Tinkering Labs is a countrywide program under that umbrella. The program”s main goal is to create an environment in India that supports innovation.
