At Innopolis University, students presented a prototype of a "smart tank" for agro-drones, which allows real-time monitoring of fertilizer consumption. The development, commissioned by the company "Transport of the Future Samara", is aimed at optimizing the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles in agriculture.
The system, developed by third-year students of the IT university, is equipped with a float sensor that transmits data on the liquid level in the drone's tank to its controller. This allows the drone to adjust the flight mission, for example, return to base for refueling when the fertilizer level is low. The prototype has been successfully tested in laboratory conditions. The team's immediate plans include refining the system to account for flight dynamics and testing on commercial drones. In the future, the "smart tank" will be integrated into "smart agriculture" systems for mass production.
Alexander Maloletov, Director of the Institute of Robotics and Computer Vision at Innopolis University, noted that the students created a working unit that meets the requirements of the industrial partner. The team continues to improve the system to increase the accuracy of measurements when the drone is moving at an angle or accelerating.
We consider the creation of a working prototype adapted to the real requirements of the company to be the key result: the students did not just conduct theoretical research, but created a unit that will be used in existing aircraft. Now the team is finalizing the system so that it takes into account the flight dynamics of the drone and more accurately determines the real level of liquid in the tank, despite movement at an angle or with acceleration.
The development was carried out within the framework of the federal project "Personnel for UAVs", which is operated by "University 2035". The project brings together 76 youth engineering teams from 16 regions of Russia, solving problems for the unmanned aerial vehicle systems market.
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