KOCHI: The dearth of trained climbers has been a serious issue faced by coconut farmers in the state. According to the Coconut Development Board (CDB) database, of the nearly 32,925 climbers trained over 12 years, only 673 are active. Soon, however, such worries could be a thing of the past, thanks to the state’s first artificial intelligence-powered coconut harvester.
Developed by four youths from Kozhikode, Coco-bot has already caught the eye of some major players like Marico Ltd, which produces the popular Parachute brand coconut oil.
Coco-bot is different from other coconut-climbing robots in the market in that it is compact, lightweight, and has AI trained on datasets. And, the fact that the idea took shape in the bathroom only adds to its allure!
“The journey started from my bathroom,” says Ashin P Krishna, founder and CEO of Altersage Innovations Pvt Ltd. “It happened in 2020 while I was taking a bath, all the while reminiscing about my inability to make it to the Indian Science Congress (ISC).” Then a Plus-Two student, he had developed an air-conditioner, which he submitted to ISC. “However, the theme that year was innovation in agriculture,” recounts Ashin.
But the same air-conditioner made it to the semi-finals of an international contest held in China. “As a reward, we received the chassis of a robotic tank. Fast forward to 2020, and I was in the bathroom thinking about it looking out of the ventilation. I thought, if only I had made an innovative project for the agriculture sector. It was then that I noticed the coconut tree right outside my bathroom. And, that was the light-bulb moment for me. I decided to make a futuristic robot that can climb coconut trees and harvest the nuts,” says the 23-year-old.
Ashin assembled his team and did research and development for a year. “We built one from scratch and brought out a prototype in 2021,” he adds. In 2023, the team presented its idea to the Kerala Startup Mission and received funds. The same year, the idea was further developed at the 36-hour Hackathon Vaiga organised by the state government. And we won the first prize,” Ashin says.
Following their success at the hackathon, the robot got noticed by Nabard. “Riyas Muhammad and Rakesh V, district development managers of Nabard, contacted us and provided us with funds. The others who played a big role in the journey weer Prof E Sasindran, chairman, and K Sadanathan, vice chairman of Vadakara Coconut Farmers Producer Company,” adds Ashin. In 2025, the first titration of the prototype was held.
Coco-bot has many advantages over the competition. “AI enables it to identify mature nuts and harvest them. Right now, Coco-bot is semi-automatic. But our final product will be fully automatic. Coco-bot can be handled by a single person instead of the more than three required for other types,” he says, adding that these are the features that attracted the attention of consumers. The robot weighs 10 kg and can adapt to the various shapes of individual coconut tree trunks.
“The locking mechanism takes only five seconds to activate,” adds Ashin. The startup received funds from Kerala Agriculture University’s Raftaar agri-business incubator and has been invited by Maker Village in Kalamassery, Kochi. The startup was first incubated at IIM Kozhikode.