Space Vehicle Designed for Agricultural Use

Young Team Designs Space Vehicle for Agricultural Use A 50-member young team that produces Mars exploration vehicles has redesigned the vehicle for use in agricultural activities. The young engineers designed the "Sparkle" vehicle entirely on their own, and it performs both soil analysis and can work as efficiently as a farmer. TEKNOFEST Aeronautics, Space and Technology Festival held 11 teams from Yıldız Technical University (YTÜ) winning a combined total of 16 awards in competitions. YTÜ Yıldız Rover Team, which redesigned their space vehicle for agricultural use, won first place in the TEKNOFEST Agricultural Unmanned Ground Vehicle Competition and the Special Presentation Award. [caption id="attachment_145288" align="aligncenter"] YTÜ Yıldız Rover Team[/caption] YTÜ Yıldız Rover Team Captain Gökberk Korkmaz said the 50-member team did their best and achieved good results. Sharing information about the vehicle, Gökberk Korkmaz stated that it operates autonomously and is capable of performing any basic-level task that a person could do in agriculture.

Designed for use across all areas of agriculture

Gökberk Korkmaz noted that the vehicle carries its own science laboratory onboard and continued as follows: "It autonomously uses a bucket to collect soil from the ground and transfers it to the science laboratory. In that laboratory, it performs analysis on the soil. It synthesizes what organic and inorganic compounds are contained within the soil. It then reports this synthesis to the operator at the control center. Beyond that, using a spectrometer we also developed, it can identify minerals and organic compounds in the soil. It can eliminate harmful plants in the soil. Additionally, it is an autonomous vehicle that can be used for all kinds of agricultural tasks such as planting seeds in the soil or harvesting. In other words, the vehicle was designed to do whatever we want it to do."

Another team that won awards at TEKNOFEST is YTÜ AESK, which took first place in the competition it participated in with 100 percent electric and 50 percent electric - 50 percent hydrogen vehicles.

Muhammed Esat Işık, a second-year Electrical Engineering student at YTÜ and Chair of the university's Alternative Energy Club, provided information about their designed vehicle: "Due to both global warming and the depletion of energy sources, interest in electric vehicles has increased significantly in recent years. We have been participating in electric vehicle competitions since 2011, even before this interest surge. Our vehicle can travel up to 200 kilometers on a two-hour charge. That means we can travel hundreds of kilometers with just 2-3 lira in costs. At the same time, hydrogen technology is currently developing. Fuel cell technology. Hydrogen is both a more naturally available element and more affordable. Its energy density is also very high. In our 50 percent hydrogen vehicle, we convert hydrogen energy into electrical energy for use," he explained. [caption id="attachment_145287" align="aligncenter"] YTÜ AESK[/caption] YTÜ Rector Prof. Dr. Tamer Yılmaz, congratulating the young engineers on their success and particularly thanking the YTÜ Yıldız Technopark Prototype Workshop for providing equipment to the projects, made the following remarks on the subject: "Since its founding, YTÜ has had the distinction of being the university that sends the most participants to TEKNOFEST and wins the most awards. There we found the opportunity to walk with our heads held high among you and your projects. As a Rector, I thank you for giving me the honor to experience this pride. Among you there are very good teams, doing very good work. You are doing engineering work, producing manufacturing, technology and innovation. You see here teams that design and manufacture everything from start to finish in their own circuits and all the designs and manufacturing of their vehicles here, of course benefiting from YTÜ's accumulated knowledge, laboratories and technology. I also thank our Technopark, which is within Turkey's finest university, our technology transfer office and prototype workshop. Thanks to these, our young people can enter the workshops and produce their prototypes and vehicles day and night without sleep."