'Air shoes' used in rice farming won first prize at AiViet Innovation 2024

The Airboots project, an agricultural farming robot by Shoes Agtech Company, won first prize at the AiViet Innovation 2024 competition, along with a prize worth 500 million VND.

Airboots representative received first prize at AiViet Innovation 2024 competition - Photo: HONG PHUC

After four months of launching, the final round of AiViet Innovation Award 2024 took place on the afternoon of February 17 in Ho Chi Minh City, with live presentations from seven typical projects. The final result, the first prize belonged to Airboots.

Associate Professor Vu Ngoc Anh, one of the young lecturers who was awarded the title of associate professor in 2019 at the age of 37, leads the team implementing this project.

He has over 20 years of experience in research and design of automatic equipment.

Eight years ago, as an aeronautical engineering lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Mr. Anh and some members created unmanned aerial vehicles for agriculture.

However, this device has some limitations such as low payload, short flight time, easy to encounter problems and high operating costs.

By 2022, Associate Professor Vu Ngoc Anh and his colleagues at the school had researched and applied the principle of traction to manufacture Airboots.

This machine is capable of sowing seeds, spraying pesticides and fertilizing rice plants, helping to control the amount of pesticides appropriately and solving the problem of labor shortage in rural areas.

Associate Professor Vu Ngoc Anh said that whether applied to transplanted or sown fields, the machine works effectively.

Previously, drone manufacturing took only a year to complete and could be fully automated.

But with Airboots, operating effectively in muddy and watery environments is a big challenge.

"Our team is still continuing to research to upgrade the control system from semi-automatic to fully automatic," Associate Professor Anh said, explaining that "Airboots" means "air shoes".

Over the past two years, the team has been designing and testing the prototype in real-world settings, through eight prototypes.

Airboots travel across rice fields thanks to a system of small floats that act like slides.

The system can be improved and operated fully automatically by GPS. Many people were concerned that the chute might break the rice plants, but in reality this problem did not occur.

According to the Airboots representative's estimate, compared to drones and other agricultural equipment, this device has several advantages such as operating costs of only 1/3 of drones, price is half cheaper, payload is three times higher and can operate continuously on the field for an hour without needing permission to fly like a drone.

Last year, the team conducted market research in the Mekong Delta and received two orders, although the product has not been officially commercialized.

Airboots' business model is B2B, focusing on supplying fertilizer, pesticide, drone service companies and agricultural cooperatives.

The project's revenue comes from three main sources: machine sales, rentals and licensing.

In addition to signing cooperation agreements with a number of partners such as Loc Troi Group, Airboots has raised capital from a unit in Singapore as well as been selected to participate in the six-week Incubation Program sponsored by the US Government .

According to the project representative, from the end of March 2025, the commercial version of Airboots will be launched to meet the first two orders for the cooperative in Can Tho .

In the 2025-2029 period, the team will develop additional small and large versions, serving the domestic and international markets with all three features.

After 2027, the device will be optimized for use in a variety of crops other than rice, such as vegetables, flowers, potatoes, beans and corn.

Dr. Nguyen Thanh Nam, one of the founders of FPT and chairman of AiViet Venture, said that this year's competition received 107 applications, many of which came from professors and doctors from universities and research institutes.

He assessed this as a positive signal, showing that the entrepreneurial spirit is not only limited to students but also requires intellectual contributions from lecturers and researchers.

"We do not only focus on research and development, but also need to innovate and commercialize quickly. The biggest challenge is how to put scientific research into practice and generate revenue. To overcome the middle-income trap, Vietnam needs to rely on science and technology, there is no other way," said Dr. Nguyen Thanh Nam.

Read more Back to Topics

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/doi-giay-khong-khi-dung-trong-canh-tac-lua-dat-giai-nhat-aiviet-innovation-2024-20250217200944123.htm