CHENNAI: Students of St Joseph’s Engineering College have modelled a device which, if placed on fishing boats, can prevent our fishermen from straying into Sri Lankan waters. The device called the 'maritime border indicator' gives out an alarm when the fishermen near the international maritime boundary between India and Sri Lanka. If the fishermen refuse to heed the alarm and reverse the boat, the device will stop the flow of petrol to the boat engine thereby preventing entry into Lankan waters. The project was designed by Nelson Naveen and Princy Perputua of the Electronics and Instrumentation department. The project has bagged the innovative student project award by the Indian National Academy of Engineers.The device consists of a GPS system antennae, a display board and a connection to the solenoid in the engine. “The GPS system will track the movement of the boat and set off the alarm when the boat is about half-a-kilometre away from the IMB,” says Princi. If the fishermen are alert, they will reverse the boat. “However, if the boat continues to move towards the boundary, the device will cut the flow of petrol to engine thereby stranding the boat mid-sea.”Nelson adds that there is an emergency button available in the device which can restart the boat but only once so that the fishermen can reverse the boat before it is too late. “If they try to venture further towards the boundary, the boat will again be stranded and will have to call for help to get back to land.” The students came up with the idea after hearing repeated stories of abduction of Tamil fishermen by Lankan Navy. "Our research helped us understand that many fishermen, contrary to popular belief, get lost in sea without a sense of where the boundary is," says Nelson who has filed for a patent for his invention.The students expect their device to cost only around `2,000 to `2,500 per unit which the fishermen should be able to afford for their own safety. “However, conducting the physical experiments of the device is the biggest challenge as we have to get clearance and approvals from the State Fisheries Department, Coast Guard and local fishing bodies,"”says Princi, who adds that requisition for permission is under process.The students are planning to take the project forward and network the device to an electronic map which can be added to the inventory of the coast guards. “If we give something like an IMA number for every device in every boat the coast guard will be able to observe the electronic map and track which boat is going where and rescue or apprehend it appropriately. It will increase the transparency in the seas,” says Nelson. “For doing all this, we require crucial permissions after which we hope this invention to be a great success.”St Joseph’s College of Engineering has bagged three out of the nine innovative student projects award for the year 2011.
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