Lucknow, Feb. 28 -- A team of three young innovators is drawing attention in Uttar Pradesh's aquaculture sector with an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered autonomous boat designed to protect fish ponds from bird attacks. The system was showcased at the two-day AquaEx Lucknow 2026 exhibition held at Indira Gandhi Pratishthan. The startup, Pond Patrol, founded by Rajat Khandelwal, claims its mobile, AI-driven solution can significantly reduce bird-related crop losses. The system is currently being implemented on a 10-acre fish farm in Bahraich district as part of a pilot project. "Fish farmers often lose 30 to 50% of their crop to bird attacks if there is no proper monitoring. Manual guarding reduces losses, but it demands 8 to 12 hours of daily labour," said Rajat Khandelwal, founder of the Gurugram-based startup. "We wanted to build something autonomous, cost-effective and scalable that works 24x7 without fatigue," he added. Mounted on a floating platform, the boat patrols the pond surface autonomously. It uses AI to instantly detect predatory birds and trigger deterrent responses. Farahn, co-partner and the lead on the AI component of the project, said the system has been trained to identify bird movement patterns over water bodies. The robotics architecture of the boat has been developed by Md Mustafa Abdullha....