Students of the University of Mostar launched a technological project that will change the way in which agricultural areas are protected. It is an autonomous drone, which independently monitors crops, and the goal is to offer a practical and innovative solution to farmers’ problems.
Behind the name SkyGuard stands a team of fifteen young people – students of informatics, law, computer science and other fields. In recent months, they have been developing a protection system for agricultural areas. Their collaboration surpasses the faculty framework and becomes a true example of interdisciplinary innovation.
“This was entirely a student initiative, initiated by individuals, and a project that brought together a number of students from different faculties to work together, to get to know each other, to socialize, to exchange different experiences and to gain new knowledge,” explains Daniel Vasić, assistant professor of FPMOZ, University of Mostar.
It takes a lot of dedication, says developer Vinko Jakeljić: “Society will get a good product, for us it will be a product that we will sell. At the same time, it has brought us knowledge and experience and a lot of friends.”
This is not just an innovative drone, it is a whole system that includes autonomous operation and the infrastructure that supports it. The ultimate goal is to make it easier for farmers to ultimately obtain the most effective crop protection. The drone checks all systems before each flight, and during the mission it constantly monitors the environment, from ground to air. It analyzes all data in real time and reacts to a real threat, such as detecting early crop diseases.
“Currently, SkyGuard is called a scientific research project. Our goal is to create an autonomous drone that can function independently for several days to protect agricultural crops. We are building an accompanying base station with it that will enable all this, so that the drone is truly fully autonomous. Once we manage to complete the complete drone and base station, our plans are to develop this research project into a start-up,” says Vedran Marić, team leader.
In order to know whether the drone is successful, it needs to be tested on larger farms, for which they are still waiting for a response from BHANSA.
“The drone and the base station are equipped with various sensors. There are temperature, humidity, vibration sensors… Everything we can imagine. The drone is equipped with cameras that allow us to record in different conditions, even at night,” adds Blaž Perić, project manager.
Through the web application, which is key in this project, users activate the drone through a special activation code. They select an area, set flight intervals and monitor important statistics. Farmers simply operate the drone, securing their crops and responding quickly to threats, all in a few simple steps. It sounds easy now, but a lot of effort went into it. It is worth it because it is an innovation that will bring visible changes. Everything under BH brand, Federalna writes.
