(from left) Muhammad Alfiyan Zulfa and Danial Farros Maulana demonstrate the application user interface and PONINTEN system design

The management of seawater pond cultivation is conventionally considered to still hinder the productivity of the farmers. This problem is based on two students of Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) to create innovations in the form of monitoring and controlling seawater ponds automatically.

They are Danial Farros Maulana and Muhammad Alfiyan Zulfa, who are students of Informatics Engineering Department and Civil Engineering Department class of 2020. Both were members of the Doa Umi team that came up with the idea of PONINTEN (Pond Treatment and Monitoring System) as a monitoring system and control of sea pond water parameters.

Danial Farros Maulana who is familiarly called Danial explained the potential of cultivation in Indonesia is still not well managed, especially pond cultivation. Decision-making processes such as stabilization of circulation and aeration processes rely on farmer intuition. The inaccuracy of the process will result in the death of fish which further leads to crop failure.

Based on the results of field studies conducted by both, continued Danial, the farmers tend to be overwhelmed controlling their ponds. “Moreover, some of them have more than five intensive ponds that require control at all times,” he said.

Both presented this idea consisting of two devices. Namely, nodes that serve to monitor the parameters of sea pond water and applications as remote controllers. The way it works is quite simple. The tool will detect the level of parameters that have been specified. Then will stabilize the water if the parameters change.

PONINTEN system design that serves as sensor and stabilization

The tool will send parameter change notifications to the user’s phone through an application with Long Range (LoRa) technology. Which is a remote wireless communication protocol for large areas with low power.

Furthermore, Danial explained that PONINTEN relies on several parameters to create optimal pond conditions. These parameters are temperature, water surface height, and salinity or salt content in water. The accuracy of that system to pond water for each parameter is excellent, with an average error percentage rate below one percent. This accuracy is obtained from the results of trials in mini pools.

Danial claims their idea is superior to other pond censoring ideas because it can restore parameter changes so that the pond water quality is maintained. Another advantage is cost savings of up to 37.5 percent. “With the specifications of the tools in the pond in the form of one aerator and one pump,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Alfiyan Zulfa, familiarly called Alfiyan, asserted that their research focus is still limited to optimal pond conditions for shrimp vaname commodity. Two students from Gresik also plan to develop research to reach other commodities. “The example is mujaer commodity. We are examining the optimal pH how much, as well as other parameters,” he said.

Notification display and user interface of PONINTEN application, ITS student team design

Talking about obstacles, Danial said that they had experienced technical difficulties while in the final stage. However, it did not have a bad-impact, so they managed to win the Best Internet of Things (IoT) Design award in the Ganesha IoTech 2021 competition organized by Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) in February. “Fortunately, Alfiyan was able to replace me during the presentation,” he continued.

These two students from Gresik hope that their ideas can be commercialized and implemented in the community. Besides, Alfiyan also said that business plan competitions like this provide very useful insights, such as business science delivered directly by experts. Therefore, both of them advised other ITS students to be able to participate in the business plan competition. (pan / ITS PUBLIC RELATIONS)

Reporter: ion7