Rita Patle | Agricultural Engineering | Research Excellence Award

Dr. Rita Patle | Agricultural Engineering | Research Excellence Award

ICAR – Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering | India

Dr. Rita Patle is an agricultural engineer specializing in Farm Machinery and Power Engineering with advanced expertise in precision agriculture and automation. She earned her B.Tech in Agricultural Engineering and M.Tech in Farm Machinery & Power, followed by a Ph.D. focusing on the design of an autonomous site-specific variable rate fertilizer applicator. Over her career she has served as Assistant Professor, Senior Research Fellow, and Research Associate at leading agricultural-engineering institutes, and contributed to both teaching and R&D. Her research interests center on precision farming, sensor-based variable-rate fertilizer application, farm mechanization, and integration of AI and embedded systems for smart agriculture. She is recognized for her innovative contributions — she holds a design patent for an autonomous variable-rate fertilizer applicator, and has registered the software program controlling it. Her work has earned national-level awards and best-paper recognitions. Through peer-reviewed journal articles, technical bulletins and conference publications, she has helped advance sustainable mechanization in Indian agriculture. Her commitment to bridging academic research, practical engineering solutions and agricultural productivity underscores her goal to address real-world farming challenges and support agricultural growth for the nation.

Profile: Orcid

Featured Publications

Patle, R., Kavitha, R., Surendrakumar, A., Sahni, R. K., Suthakar, B., Kannan, B., & Maragatham, S. (2025). Development of a sensor-based embedded system for on-the-go variable-rate fertilizer applicator in maize crop. Results in Engineering, 28, 107852. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2025.107852

Patle, R., Kavitha, R., Surendrakumar, A., Balaji, K., Maragatham, S., & Suthakar, B. (2023). Estimation of sensor-based site-specific variable rate fertilizer application for maize (Zea mays L.) crop. Journal of Applied and Natural Science, 15(3), 1109–1118. https://doi.org/10.31018/jans.v15i3.4724

Patle, R. (2024). Variable rate fertilizer applicator (Software registration No. SW-18483/2024).

Patle, R. (2023). Autonomous variable rate fertilizer applicator (Patent filed at The Patent Office, India).

Ms. Ritu Ranjan | Engineering | Best Research Award

Ms. Ritu Ranjan | Engineering | Best Research Award

IIT ISM DHANBAD | India

Ms Ritu Ranjan is a dedicated electrical engineering researcher whose academic journey spans advanced degrees from premier Indian institutions, culminating in a PhD in control systems and sensor interfacing at IIT(ISM) Dhanbad. Her work centers on control techniques for bipedal robotic systems, specifically modeling and robust controller design, and extends into efficient analog and direct-digital interfacing schemes for magneto-resistance-based angle sensors. With several journal articles including contributions to Integration: the VLSI Journal, Measurement and Optical and Quantum Electronics, and multiple IEEE-indexed conference publications, she has developed expertise in sensor linearization, systematic error quantification, and optical biosensor modeling. Her research interest spans control theory, sensor hardware design, direct-digital interfacing, and FDTD-based photonic modeling. Though early in her career, she has begun accumulating citations and publications; her current h-index is modest, reflecting her growing scholarly impact. Awards and recognitions include funding and acceptance of her thesis work and top conference presentations. She brings strong experience in MATLAB, LTSpice, LaTeX, LabVIEW, embedded C, and hardware prototyping using Arduino/ESP32. Motivated by innovation in robotics and sensor systems, she seeks to contribute reliably to impactful research and engineering. Ritu’s trajectory indicates a promising future in sensor-control integration and robotic instrumentation.

Profiles: Scopus | Google Scholar | Orcid

Featured Publication

Shekhar, A., Ranjan, R., & Mandal, S. (2024). Model of double optical ring resonator configuration as a biosensor using FDTD numerical method. Optical and Quantum Electronics, 57(1), 35.

Ranjan, R., & Meena, G. D. (2022). PID and backstepping controller on a 2-link biped robot. In 2022 2nd International Conference on Emerging Frontiers in Electrical and Electronic Technologies (ICEFEET) (pp. xx–xx). IEEE.

Ranjan, R., & Meena, G. D. (2022). Trajectory tracking of 3-link biped leg robot using PD controller and robust variable structure controller. In 2022 IEEE 19th India Council International Conference (INDICON) (pp. 1–6). IEEE.

Ranjan, R., & Mandal, S. (2025). Quantification methodologies of three systematic errors of sinusoidal encoders employing two magnitude-to-time-to-digital converter in static and dynamic conditions. Measurement, 253, 117361. Elsevier.

Ranjan, R., Shekhar, A., & Mandal, S. (2025). Development of a tunneling magneto-resistance sensor based orientation detection system for robotic manipulator. In 2025 6th International Conference on Recent Advances in Information Technology (RAIT) (pp. xx–xx). IEEE.