An IoT-enabled system that helps farmers irrigate their fields with precision and an invisible bus bay system to ease parking in overcrowded areas, developed by city-based entrepreneurs, were two of the 20 innovations that won the first ‘Infy Maker Awards, India’.
The awards were announced on Monday by Infosys. Subhajit Biswas, Nithin Raju D and Nitesh Kumar, co-founders of Fermedicius, a start-up, developed the ‘smart irrigation system’ as a solution to the age-old and unscientific irrigation practices.
“The usual practice is to completely fill the field with water as if an overfilled farm correlates with good yield. This is, however, contrary to the belief. There is also no automation. Farmers have to switch on and off power sources for their tube wells manually,” said Nitesh.
The system devised by Fermedicius uses images of the soil profile along with ultrasound sensors to measure the correct depth of water and combines it with algorithms so that the system understands whether more or less water is required for irrigation. This system is connected to the mobile phone of the farmer. The team spent time researching at farms in Mandya and have already developed a small scalable mini prototype.
Chetan Prasad, a lifelong inventor, who developed the bus bay system said: “This system ensures that buses park at the designated bus stops. A critical problem faced by commuters is that they cannot alight or get into a bus with convenience. Other road users find it a problem when buses park in the middle of the road.”
The system has two components - a concrete pole embedded with a microprocessor and a unit mounted on the bus. “When the bus approaches, the two units connect with each other and the bus has to stop at a designated spot,” he said.
The 20 winning ideas will be awarded Rs 5 lakh each, a trophy and a certificate. The winners were chosen across different categories such as health, energy, education, social change solutions, to name a few. The awards, which were initially launched in the US by the Infosys Foundation USA in 2015, acknowledge individuals with interesting solutions to real-world issues.
Published 26 September 2016, 20:53 IST