bioBOT: Technological Enhancement of the Equipment for Autonomous Parasitized Eggs Releasing for Precision Biological Control through Remotely Piloted Aircraft

• Grant number: 24/04665-1
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: November 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Electrical Engineering - Industrial Electronics, Electronic Systems and Controls
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Garcia Nicodemos
• Grantee: Fernando Garcia Nicodemos
• Company: NCB Sistemas Embarcados Ltda
• CNAE: Fabricação de aparelhos e equipamentos de medida, teste e controle ; Comércio atacadista de máquinas e equipamentos para uso comercial; partes e peças ; Serviços de engenharia
• City: São José dos Campos
• Associated research grant: 19/13501-4 - BioBOT: development of the equipment for autonomous parasitized eggs releasing for precision biological control through remotely piloted aircrafts, AP.PIPE
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/07774-9 - Development of the on-board system for the autonomous release of parasitized loose eggs bioBOT for Remotely Piloted Aircraft, BP.TT

Abstract

The manual distribution of small pieces of paper filled with parasitized eggs is the most common method used today for biological pest control. These pieces are released in predefined intervals in order to guarantee that the desired area will be covered. This method has held its success into the fields, however this proceeding is limited when covering wide areas. Low efficiency and precision are key characteristics, besides the fact of being time consuming and demands a high number of contributors. In previous developments, PIPE Phase 1 and Phase 2 we proved the technical feasibility and continued the development of the bioBOT equipment. We have efficiently replaced the manual procedures adopted by precision operations with drones. We have also developed a software platform consisting of the bioHUB cloud management system for optimized and integrated mission planning and bioMAPS, a mobile application for the execution of planned missions and routes autonomously and with data digitization. Our solution meets the full-compliance operations and meets the requirements of real Agriculture 4.0. In this context, the main improvements of this PIPE Invest project are: the implementation of a new microservices architecture based based on Google Cloud to scale and optimize worldwide access and user experiences, development of worldwide billing and payment through credit cards, development of 3D routes including drone sensor data, implementation of the new bioBOT hardware and software functionalities and improvements to incorporate data connectivity (e.g.: 5G technologies). These improvements will accredit the company for the effective use of artificial intelligence and a pioneering leap towards Agriculture 5.0, with immediate application to NCB's customers in Brazil and abroad. (AU)