Kota boy build AI AgRobot for farming, earns global acclaim

Kota boy build AI AgRobot for farming, earns global acclaim

An 18-year-old computer science student of Kota’s Government College, who hails from an agricultural family, developed an Artificial Intelligence AgRobot to carry out multiple tasks like cutting, irrigation, loading, soil tracking, detect pests and health to help and reduce the peasants’ labour in the field.

With 15 national and international awards under his belt for his innovation, Aryan Singh earned lot of accolades for his invention. The AI robot he built runs on solar energy with the help of a Piezo-electric panel installed in it that uses pressure to produce electricity.

Aryan Singh, who spent four years on building the robot’s prototype, won the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar under Science and Technology category in 2022. Among the nine boys and ten girls from 18 states and Union Territories, he was the lone boy from Rajasthan to win the awards. He received the award from President Droupadi Murmu for this research in New Delhi late last month on January 22.

“During Corona pandemic in 2022 while studying in class X, I conceived an idea to develop a multi-task device, and later developed a four-wheeler AI AgRobot with the funds provided by the SR Public School of Kota. Building the prototype cost the school about Rs 50,000. The school teachers incubated me and provided me with a place to work with lab facility and support,” Aryan said while speaking to The Statesman.

He further said, “For this, I studied computer science, coding/decoding, prototype model formation with a size of 2.5 feet on four wheels. We had a field trial at EEKI Foods near Kota on the hydro-farming field. I have applied for the Indian patent through Niti Ayog’s Atal Innovation Mission. It is in process for final approval.”

After getting a response from the market, Aryan recently made an MVP (Minimum Valuable Product) of six-wheeler module for a better application and functioning. “If it is acceptable to the buyers, a bigger AI AgRobot can be built with my technology and innovation. Its cost would be less than Rs. 50,000 if manufactured in large numbers,” he anticipated.

The prototype of AgRobot came from iStart, a flagship initiative of the Rajasthan government for startups. The robot uses Artificial Intelligence which is trained on different farming data and it can also be controlled remotely. For instance, if a farmer from a different city wants to use the robot with his crops in Kota, he can simply log in to the application that has been developed by this young innovator.

In its letter of appreciation, Atal Innovation Mission Director Dr Chintan Vaishnav said Aryan Singh has performed exceptionally well at his Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL). Aryan made it to the top 100 participants and 498 most consistent and active participants during the Tinkerpreneur Bootcamp. He has developed a great invention of AgRobot during his exposure at ATL which aims at automating the daily activities performed by farmers.