Crop Hero: An Intelligent Tool for Monitoring the Agricultural Environment by IPB University Students

The needs of the agricultural world for technology as a support in facilitating farmers cannot be denied.  Especially in the application of precision agriculture that aims to minimize input and maximize output.  Various ideas of the latest technology have been conceived and in some developed countries have been applied.

This prompted three IPB University students namely Hari Agung Pratama (Department of Mechanical and Biosystem Engineering), Dewi Anawati (Department of Food Science and Technology), Sutan Muhamad Sadam Awal (Department of Mechanical Engineering and Biosystems) to create an agricultural environment monitoring tool based on the Internet of Things  .  This tool can display its parameters via mobile apps and websites in real-time.  The tool is named Crop Hero.

“Crop Hero is composed of two models namely indoor and outdoor.  These tools in the future will also continue to develop into several integrated products.  The added value possessed by Crop Hero is to increase yields, reduce the risk of crop failure, reduce production costs, make more money and increase land productivity, “explained Hari Agung, as the team representative.

Hari Agung recounts the beginning of making this tool, which was inspired by one of the seniors during a field practice when he discovered a problem related to the difficulty of measuring parameters in all the greenhouses in the Amazing Farm Company.  Now, the innovations that have been generated by Hari and his colleagues are used by Amazing Farm Company and Bisi International.

“At the moment our equipment brand is still under management, so that later if someone will buy, then the equipment and the system will be purchased.  The price of this tool in general is eight million rupiah.  Prices can go up depending on the many sensors needed.  The working system of the tool is in the form of a sensor package that is taken periodically, then because it uses a microcontroller connected to the internet, the data is sent to the cloud, after that it can only be displayed via a mobile app and website, “Hari added.

Through the Crop Hero tool, Hari and his colleagues won 1st place in an AgroMaritime 4.0 Startup / Innovation Competition held in Jakarta, early November.

“Thank God, I’m happy to have the opportunity to get first place.  We hope to collaborate with the campus and the government, especially the local Agriculture Office, so that they can implement the tool en masse, “he concluded.  (SMH / Zul)

Keywords: Tools, Crop Hero, Achievements, Sensors, IPB University