A group of IIT(ISM) postgraduate students led by two faculty members working under the aegis of Centre of Excellence in Renewable Energy (CERE) of the premier institute have developed a fully solar-powered irrigation pump to carry out smart watering of land through automatic sprinklers.

The system designed and installed near generator house-2 on the institute campus has been developed at a cost of Rs 5 lakh under the Frontier Areas in Science and Technology (FAST) project of the ministry of HRD.

The system enabled with 1 horse power capacity motor is free of battery, thus helping to do away with the problem of the battery theft. Mukul K. Das, the associate professor of department of electronics engineering of IIT(ISM), who is also the head of the solar power motor pump project, said: “Since the system is devoid of battery, it helps in addressing the problem of toxicity associated with lead acid battery.”

“The best thing about the system is it is enabled with Internet of Things (IOT) technology, a system of inter-related computing devises, mechanical and digital machines, which can transfer data without requiring human-to-machine interactions, as it is capable of controlling the operations such as switching on and off the pump remotely through mobile phone application or Internet,” said Das.

“The sprinklers attached with the motor pump are also being operated remotely through app and Internet based on the sensed information on water level, soil moisture level and temperature,” Das said, adding that the system is being used to irrigate 1,500sqft area on the institute campus where cauliflower is being grown.