A Robotic Coconut tree Climber Amaran Designed by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham

The students of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham has developed a robot prototype to help farmers pluck coconuts, named Amaran. A team led by University's Laboratory Director Rajesh Kannan Megalingam along with M.Tech students of Robotic department developed the robot. First version we developed is the wired climber with one DOF arm for cutting coconuts. The second version is wireless smart phone based control with 3 DOF arm for cutting coconuts. This version has a camera attached to the climber which can send the live video of the coconuts at the top of the tree, which helps the user in positioning the cutter precisely to cut the coconuts. A patent has been filed for this innovation and is expected approval any time this year.