KOCHI: Despite the government’s all-out efforts, little headway has been made to curb carbon emissions in the agriculture sector. As per the reports, farm activities contribute 33% to global emissions.
But this can be greatly reduced, said Prince Mamman, the founder of Freeman Robots. A mechatronics engineer, Mamman has developed a robot named Thrive to automate daily farming operations. The electric-powered robot, which runs on an autonomous driving system, tackles two problems in one stroke - carbon emission and lack of labour.
That’s not all. Augmented with the latest in technology and a wide set of functionalities, Thrive is capable of a variety of operations on the farm, including ploughing, soil bedding, and weed removal.
“It is also able to remove weeds in a mechanical way. This will help eliminate the use of harmful chemicals and needless burning,” he said
Thrive is able to differentiate crops from weeds via artificial intelligence. A camera mounted on the front of the robot feeds in images which are then analysed in real-time. Both inter-row and intra-row weed removal functions are achieved.
“I’m hopeful that Thrive could reduce the hardship of farmers,” Mamman said. Thrive costs Rs 1 lakh.
Thrive was an idea pitched at Maker Village, Kochi for the pre-incubation programme.