CropSCOUT

Agricultural robot for small farms

CropSCOUT is an autonomous robot for greenhouses and small vegetable farms that monitors and sprays crops on its own. The sprayer applies pesticide and fertiliser only where they're needed, in rows and plots too small for tractors. A camera and sensors watch for disease and send plant health reports to the farmer's phone.

The problem

Greenhouse and orchard farmers still spray by hand: too much chemical on the crop, and the farmer and consumers at risk.

Hand spraying wastes chemicals
The farmer and the people who eat the crop are at risk
15 of 39 surveyed farmers struggle to hire seasonal workers
20 said a spraying robot would make their work easier

The solution

An autonomous robot on tracks sprays pesticide and fertiliser in exact doses, only on the plants that need it.

Tracks - Built for greenhouse rows and wet soil
Precise spraying - Nozzles switch on one at a time
Disease watch - A camera and sensors
Reports - Plant health sent to the farmer's phone

Founders

Asadbek Ro'ziyev

Founder at CropSCOUT

An engineer with 7+ years of hands-on experience in robotics. Winner of more than 20 national and international competitions, with a total of $10,000 in prize money. For these achievements, in 2020 and 2021 he was granted a personal meeting with the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan to present his startup ideas.

Technical expertise

Microcontrollers: built robotic systems on ESP32, Arduino, Teensy, PIC18F and STM32

Electronics: PCB design, circuit design, SMT soldering
Mechanics: 3D modelling and mechanical part design in SolidWorks
Programming: robot control systems in C/C++, Python and MicroPython
Projects: autonomous rover, robotic manipulator, drone and mobile robots

As founder and Chief Robotics Engineer of BESTARORG, he led a team of 7 engineers. Worked on robotics, electronics and control systems at EcoRobotics Lab and INNO Technopark.

International and national achievements

International Robotics Competition 2019 - 1st place in Uzbekistan, 8th place in the world ranking
International Startup Weekend (Techstars) 2021 - 3rd place with the "Eyemed" project and a $2,400 cash prize
Robot-uz 2020 and 2021 national competitions - 3rd-place winner a total of 3 times
Two-time winner of the active students' contest of the nationwide "One Million Uzbek Coders" programme, $1,000 prize

Leadership and fundraising experience

Over two years in the US he founded two large student organisations and raised a total of $50,000 for them:

Uzbek Students' Association - Vice President, $35,000
Dedicated drone club (Drone Devils) - founder, $15,000

As a senator in the ASU Student Government, he took part for two years in allocating and managing a $400,000 budget.

Education

Arizona State University (ASU), USA - "El-yurt umidi" Foundation scholarship recipient

ASU is ranked the #1 university in the US for innovation. Researcher at the EcoRobotics laboratory at ASU - a lab whose focus directly matches CropSCOUT's direction.

In 2022 he was admitted to four prestigious international universities on scholarships covering 80% to 100% of tuition, and chose ASU among them.

Why this team

In the founder's own words: "We spent part of our youth in the fields and were busy building robots." In other words, the team knows the agricultural problem from the inside and has the engineering base to solve it. As a generation that has studied and is studying engineering abroad, they aim to bring that knowledge back to Uzbekistan in practical form.

Xudoyberdi Sultonov

COO / Chief Operating Officer at CropSCOUT

Asror Uralov

Chief Mechanical Engineer at CropSCOUT

Abbosjon Abdullaev

Chief Industrial & Software Engineer at CropSCOUT