UNAIR NEWS – UNAIR Nursing student, Alifah Nur Afni Oktavia, won Best Innovation Agriculture Technology in the category of Precision Agriculture Technology. The competition was held by PT Pupuk Indonesia. She and her friends from the Electrical Engineering Department of Institut Teknologi Sepuluh November, Ditya Garda Nugraha, Tiara Asa Sadida, and M. Irdan initiated the SawITS.Bot innovation.
To UNAIR NEWS, Alifah stated that the SawITS.Bot can be a modern innovation in the field of agriculture and plantation.
“We had a brainstorm to make a change in the conventional agriculture and plantation. Through SawITS.Bot, we hope to achieve technological transformation to support the Smart Farming 4.0 and the SDGs,” she said.
Machine Learning-based Robot
Their agriculture innovation was based on a machine-learning robot that can optimize the productivity and fertilization of land in palm oil plantations.
“The agricultural and plantation systems in Indonesia are still carried out conventionally, which requires a lot of time and effort. Yet, there is a demand to produce crops with good quality and high productivity,” she said.
After observing the challenges, Alifah and her team designed SawITS.Bot. She hoped that the robot would engage young people in the development of agriculture and plantations.
“The lack of knowledge and experience in the field of agricultural technology has resulted in young people being reluctant to get involved in it. Therefore, we utilize advanced technology to attract their interest in contributing to advancing Indonesia’s food security,” she said.
The features
Alifah named some features of the SawITS.Bot, which includes spraying fertilizer according to the dosage, rapid disease detection in plants, and pesticide spraying.
“We developed the SawITS.Bot with machine learning technology to manage its operation on plants. This robot can accurately spray fertilizer and pesticides,” she said.
In addition to streamlining the care of agricultural and plantation crops, this device can detect pests causing crop failure. “This robot also features a plant disease control caused by pest. With this tool, early intervention and care can be promptly executed,” she concluded.
Author: Iratri Puspita
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
