IPB University Student Invents Ashpotter, Shrimp Pond Waste Cleaner

Aquaculture has become one of the alternatives to increase fisheries production in Indonesia. Through aquaculture, the exploitation of fish resources by capture can be reduced. In addition, aquaculture can also be one of the way to reduce the potential damage to coral reefs ecosystem due to fishing gears that are not environmentally friendly.

But there are few problems found within the process of aquaculture. Some of the problems found in the process of aquaculture are the handling of waste that has accumulated at the bottom of living media of fish. To overcome the waste, farmers usually use conventional methods.

The conventional way is often called as siphon. Siphon is a technique used for desludging the aquaculture basic wastes. Generally siphon activity is carried out by using a hose as a media to dispose fisheries wastes to the disposal center.

Based on that problem, three of IPB University students from the Department of Marine Science and Technology, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences, IPB University succeeded in creating Ashpotter which is a waste cleaning device located at the bottom of shrimp pond. This cleaning device is designed based on the Internet of Things (IoT) technology.

The three IPB University students are Sefto, Maychel Errianshay, and Fisky Firdanyta. From the result of the innovation, Sefto and his friends won the 1st place in the 2019 Indonesian Maritime Week Scientific Writing Contest held at Hasanuddin University, Makassar some time ago.

“Previously, we have won several competitions like this. The difference is this time Ashpotter has been equipped with IoT system,” said Sefto. This device is able to work faster and more effectively than the siphon technique. The use of IoT in Ashpotter making it able to clean the waste at the bottom of fish pond within two to three minutes in one pond cleaning.

“The sewage pipe used is eight inches in size. Bigger than the usual, so the cleaning can be done faster than siphon tool,” explained Sefto

This device consists of a pyramid and a barrel connected with a pulley. The pulley will move up and down, while the barrel is equipped with automatic water pump. The barrel will be filled and drained automatically. When the barrel is drained, the pyramid will descend and take the waste into the sewer.

This device is equipped with technology that can be controlled directly with IoT system. This device is also equipped with micro-controller and microcomputer  connected to wifi that could regulate the time for cleaning the waste at the bottom of the shrimp pond through website.

“Now is the era of industry 4.0, so the IoT concept needs to be applied in shrimp farming to simplify and speed up the work,” he concluded. (Dinul/RA) (IAAS/ED)

Keywords: Cultivation, IoT, IPB University, ITK, competition, siphon, shrimp, IPB students