Committed to enhancing the quality of the agricultural sector, the Center of Excellence (CoE) at Universitas Dian Nuswantoro hosted an agricultural Drone training program, Dji Agras. The program was participated by students of the Computer Science Faculty at Udinus. The program took place in an agricultural area in Demak Regency, on Monday, November 14th, 2022.
This drone training in Demak served as an initial step for this program to be hosted in various cities in Indonesia. The drone training program lasted for three days, with two days prior being an explanation session. The program then continued with a practice at an onion field of Dempet, Demak.
There was a total of fifteen participants being present at the program, including instructors and students. The learning materials of this Drone training program was highlighted by the DJI Agras Drone Team (Halo Robotic), which consisted of Ramadhatama Arif Wibawa and Ilham Priyono.
Prof. Ir. Zainal Arifin Hasibuan, MLS, Ph.D., the head researcher and the Head of the Center of Excellence (CoE) at Udinus, explained that this agricultural drone training program highlighted several things concerning how drones on a technical level, particularly the agricultura drone of DJI Agras. Furthermore, it also discussed the regulation of flying drone for the agricultural sector in Indonesia.
In addition, an agricultural drone drones can also spray water, fertilizer, and pesticide, and it can also spread plant seeds. Prof. Zainal further hoped for the participants to learn the mechanism of a drone , particularly for agricultural sectors.
“Through this program, they can learn the regulations of a drone, general knowledge concerning a drone, the procedures of flying a drone, drones’ activation and firmware update droneand how to fly and use an agricultural drone . This program is crucial for Indonesia to move toward the era of modern agriculture,” he emphasized.
Several faculty members were also present at the Drone training program, including Taruna Budiono, S.I.Kom., M.I.Kom., Muhammad Syaifur Rohman, M.Cs., Lalang Erawan, M.Kom., Edi Sugiarto, M.Kom., Dr. Farikh Alzami, Filmada Ocky Saputra, M.Eng., and Hasan Amida, S.Kom.
Filmada Ocky Saputra M.Eng, a researcher and a faculty member from the Informatics Department at Udinus, revealed an agricultural drone drones could potentially shorten the maintenance time of various plants.
“Usually, a hectare of onion field takes four hours to maintain. However, our drones can shorten this time to be as short as fifteen minutes, with two flights,” he concluded. (Humas Udinus/Alex. Foto: Humas Udinus)
