Visakhapatnam: Prof P Bharani Chandra of GITAM Deemed to be University has developed an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to monitor shrimp ponds and detect diseases early. The system tracks key water parameters such as pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and temperature across multiple pond locations. Data is transmitted to farmers in offline mode via radio frequency, with instant alerts when any parameter crosses threshold limits. The collected data is transmitted to farmers in offline mode using radio-frequency communication. In addition, the vehicle is programmed to generate immediate alerts whenever any parameter exceeds the predefined threshold levels. In conventional shrimp farming practices, farmers manually collect water samples once every few days or weeks and send them to laboratories for analysis. Obtaining laboratory reports may take several more days, by which time the spread of disease or deterioration in water quality may already have intensified, resulting in significant crop losses. Although fixed underwater sensors have previously been developed elsewhere in the country, their monitoring capability is limited to the specific locations where they are installed and may therefore not accurately represent the overall pond conditions. Speaking to TOI, Prof P Bharani Chandra, who is also serving as director of the Centre for Autonomous Systems at GITAM, said that the newly developed autonomous vehicle overcomes this limitation by navigating throughout the pond and collecting spatially distributed real-time data. âThis mobility enables comprehensive monitoring of the entire aquaculture environment, improves the accuracy of disease detection, and allows farmers to take timely preventive measures. For example, contamination in shrimp ponds may often be confined to a specific area, while water samples collected manually from another location may fail to detect the problem. As contamination in aquaculture ponds generally spreads gradually, early detection can help farmers take timely remedial and culture-management measures to minimise losses,â said Prof