KOCHI: In a boost to student-led innovation, students of Federal Institute of Science and Technology (FISAT) have developed an AI-powered smart harvesting machine and a Mars rover aimed at tackling challenges in agriculture and space exploration.
The ‘Smart Harvesting Machine’, named AgroBot, is an AI-powered automated farming system designed to address labour shortage in agriculture. The machine can autonomously navigate farm paths, identify ripe vegetables and harvest crops without damaging them.
“AgroBot is specifically designed to support farmers amid increasing manpower shortages. Harvesting is labour-intensive and time-consuming, and this offers a future-ready, energy-efficient solution. It can also identify pests during harvesting and carry out basic pest-control measures,” said Dr Sreevidhya P Menon, mentor of the project.
She added that one of AgroBot’s primary goals is to provide an affordable solution for small and medium-scale farmers. “Industrial farming robots already exist, but they are expensive and largely suited for large-scale farming. This is designed to be cost-effective,” she said.
“We received requests to develop a system that could assist harvesting, especially as small and medium-scale farmers were increasingly facing labour shortages. With the guidance of our mentor, we developed the project to minimise human intervention while maximising efficiency,” said A B Navanika, a second-year Electronics and Instrumentation student at FISAT.
AgroBot won second place at AgriHack 2026, organised by IBM in association with Jain University, becoming the only team from Kerala to reach the finals.
Meanwhile, the FISAT Rover Team developed a Mars rover named ‘DAWN’ for the International Rover Competition organised by Space Promotion and Research Organization for Students (SPROS) at Manipal Institute of Technology. “There are several predefined challenges in Mars exploration, and the rover is designed to address them. Unlike conventional rovers, this is a GPS-independent terrain-adaptive rover integrated with AI-powered decision-making capabilities,” said Dr Sreevidhya P Menon.
Developed over four months at an estimated cost of Rs 7.5 lakh, the rover was built for simulated Martian exploration and life-detection missions. It demonstrated capabilities including soil and rock sample analysis, terrain navigation, payload delivery and maintenance operations on simulated space instruments.
“The main aim of the rover is to identify signs of life. It analyses organic materials such as rocks, water and air to determine whether life is possible,” said Navanika.
Beyond accolades, such grassroots innovations could lay the foundation for larger technological breakthroughs directed towards solving real-world challenges.
This story has been written by Shilpa Manoj.