Madras Christian College Introduces a Smart Duck to track water quality of its Campus Lake

In Today's Times of India

Madras Christian College has introduced a smart duck to track water quality of a lake inside its sprawling 300-acre campus in Tambaram.

The IoT-enabled, remote-controlled duck will move across the lake and gather real time data on seven key parameters, including water temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and pH, among others.

The lake, one of the key water sources inside the campus, was desilted by Bisleri International Limited as part of their CSR project. They also handed over funds for developing a prototype for checking water quality.

A team from MCC-MRF Innovation Park developed the 3D-printed duck with sensors and created an app to receive and analyse data.

“We can make informed decisions on conserving the lake based on the data. It will help us to protect the ecology and wildlife inside the campus,” says Paul Wilson, principal of Madras Christian College.

The idea of deploying the smart duck was his.

He said any change in the water quality, including an increase in acidity levels, could reveal contamination and help them take proactive measures to control the damage.

“The inbuilt solar panels can power the duck. It can be operated without sunlight for two days, and if needed, it can also be manually charged,” said Kousik, founder of the startup KOLOZEN, which built the duck. The startup has now been fetching and transferring this data for the last two weeks.

Researchers say they could deploy similar ducks on other water bodies outside the campus to monitor water quality and collect data for local bodies.

“This data could tell us about what is happening to a water body during the rain, seasonal change, its environmental health, and diseases. We can also build a hydro informatics platform of a water body with this data. It has huge potential,” said professor T Pradeep, department of chemistry, IIT Madras.

The scrub jungle inside the MCC campus is home to roughly about 90 spotted deer, porcupines, toddy cats, and bats. The duck has two cameras in its eyes to help the college track movements of wild animals within the campus.