Initiates Implementation of Monorail System for Food Distribution, IPB Student Snatches Second Prize for National LKTI
Food availability is always the main concern that drives agriculture students to initiate a change. As a proof that students are indeed the agents of change, three students from Faculty of Human Ecology (Fema), Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) initiated a food distribution technology which was written as an article for Scientific Paper Competition (LKTI) "Mechanomorphosa 2018" which was conducted by Mechanical Engineering Student Organization of Bangka Belitung Unviersity (UBB) (3-4/10). This competition adopted the theme "Technology and Innovation to Build Nation Civilization".
Intan Permata Sari, Ilfia Shahirah (Department of Family and Consumer Science) and Winda Oktaviona (Department of Communication and Community Development) initiated an implementation of monorail technology. The main focus of this monorail implementation is in Eastern Indonesia and Bangka Belitung itself.
"We as students from human ecology majors adopted the theme of food distribution and since the competition took place in Bangka Belitung, which consists of several islands, we tried to relate our idea with archipelago-based technologies. We designed inter-island monorail which we adopted from Dubai for food distribution for a better family welfare," said Intan Permata Sari.
According to Intan, monorail technology is very suitable implemented in Indonesian archipelago. In island such as Bangka Belitung, food distribution is lacking in speed. The real impact can be seen in vegetables that are sold at a high price in Bangka Belitung.
"Monorail technology is very needed and suitable for Indonesia island, for example Bangka Belitung. Vegetables are a rare commodity there and the distribution is sluggish, so the people there rely on seafood as their diet. In addition, the price of juice in Bangka Belitung can be three times the price in Bogor," she said.
There are many advantages that monorail has, compared to roadbase and waterbase transportation, such as easier maintenance, durability (until dozens of years), and computerized system that will minimize human error. The disadvantages of roadbase transportation, i.e. bus, include the need of replacement of wheels and other components, and waterbase transportation needs a high cost for fuel.
"Since we use literature study as a basis, we have compared several journals and have compared monorail with roadbase and waterbase transportations. It turns out that monorail has easier maintenance, durable, and has a computerized system so human error probability would be lower," said Intan.
This idea also considers the figures contributing to its implementation so that it can be executed. In addition to that, these IPB students have also done an analysis about possible disturbances, so academicians are needed to develop this monorail technology. (Ard)
