Tribune News Service
Ropar, May 31
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Ropar has developed a first of its kind IoT device, AmbiTag, to record real-time ambient temperature during the transportation of perishable products. It would secure transportation of vaccines, perishable items, blood and body organs.
Developed by researchers at the IIT-Ropar Technology Innovation Hub – Agriculture and Water Technology Development Hub (AWaDH) and its Startup ScratchNest founded by four students of the institute, the device would be made available at production cost for Covid vaccine.
Amit Bhatti, one of the founders and directors of ScratchNest, said AmbiTag was waterproof and monitored ambient temperature during the transportation of vaccines, medicines, blood samples, food and dairy products, meat products, and animal semen. So far, such devices were being imported from other countries.
Dr Suman Kumar, coordinator of the IoT Systems Domain at AWaDH, said that AmbiTag is a USB-shaped device that continuously records the temperature of its immediate surroundings from -40 to +80 degrees in any time zone for a full 90 days on a single charge. “Most of the similar devices available in the international market record data only for a duration of 30- 60 days. AmbiTag has a range of inbuilt features to customise logging intervals, time zone and alarms,” he added.
It generates an alert when the temperature goes beyond a pre-set limit. The AmbiTag temperature data log also advises the user whether the transported item is usable or the cold chain has been compromised during the transportation. This information is critical particularly for vaccines, organs and blood transportation.
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