Description:Field of Invention
The present invention is in the field of agriculture and information technology, particularly emphasizing the leasing and intelligent management of agricultural equipment. It uses a combination of software-based systems and hardware-level IoT integration to achieve the purposes of real-time monitoring, usage tracking, and predictive maintenance of farm machinery.
Grounded on specifics, the current invention represents the establishment of an innovative web-based platform for the direct interaction between the equipment owners and the farmers. It supplies immediate updates, lease tracking, maintenance alerts, and guarantees safe operations through digital verification and digital payment systems.
The innovation has brought benefits in the area of smart farming, rural agribusiness, digital India initiatives, and sustainable agricultural development. The invention opens a new way through GPS-based operations, which include precision agriculture, fuel monitoring, and machine diagnostics.
AgroLease provides resource availability to smallholder farmers without creating an ownership burden, through which smallholder farmers can get hold of very costly resources. At the same time, it ensures that the machine is used in the best possible way, prolongs the lifetime of the product, and, with that, the return on investment for the machine's owner is guaranteed.
Objectives of invention
The primary aim is to come up with a smart, release of IoT-integrated equipment rental specific for the farmers Basically, we look at a platform that will make the sharing process of the equipment much more easier, as it will have real-time availability and usage tracking of the agricultural equipment. IoT technology is something that will indeed help increase the use of equipment and will also help in fewer repairs hence the machineries can be used when needed and the time that the work has to stop will be minimal since the equipment will be running smoothly. The security and identification of the parties involved should be the most urgent need that is why the platform will always promote secure transactions and identity verification, ensuring that both the farmers and the service providers are safe. Also, the project would like to revolutionize small farmers by giving them the opportunity to rent modern machinery at low cost that can hardly be acquired otherwise. As for scalability, the platform is going to be developed and designed in such a way that it is able to grow and even make changes as well which allow it to be adapted to the agritech operations need in a different region hence improving the agricultural practice through the use of modern technology in the end.
Background of the Invention
The main problem facing agricultural areas in developing countries, especially in rural India, is the very high cost of farm machinery ownership and the subsequent maintenance charges. Small and marginal farmers cannot afford such modern equipment as tractors, harvesters, and precision tools. Therefore, the farmers' quest for new farming methods remains unexploited.
Traditional methods of equipment leasing are typical of an unregulated and purely social character. A farmer through his friend or a neighbor most likely will be introduced to the lessor without any other information. Uncertain rentals, lack of choice, and getting the only available machine are some of the issues that the farmers encounter there. Equally, the equipment owners may have a problem on the rental job, misuse of their equipment, improper maintenance, and they are limited on the market they can access.
The lack of a unified, transparent, and efficient way of equipment rental in the agricultural sector is a vacuum that is yet to be filled. At the same time, new technologies like GPS, IoT, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing provide farm machinery rental service opportunities digitalization and systematic running.
One of the possible situations when there are any platforms at all is that they are either too restricted or they do not show real-time information. The limited farm machinery monitoring features, the absence of a self-control advisory system, and the lack of the newest cybersecurity protocols make the platforms seem less exposed to customers as time goes on.
This new application revolutionizes all the opportunities that were not availed of by the previous inventions through the introduction of AgroLease: a smart platform consisting of modular features. The platform ensures real-time monitoring of equipment through its availability, economically viable, and accountable nature. IoT sensors which are placed on the equipment will be able to track the location, fuel, usage hours, and performance of the equipment which are relayed with the dashboard for decision-making.
Web technologies are used to provide an increased level of access across different devices; there are voice assistants and regional languages that increase inclusivity. Smart contracts are used to automatically enable users to handle terms of use, schedules of maintenance, and payment.
The AgroLease solution sparks an automation wave in the agricultural sector, by making costly machines available to a wide range of users and thereby increasing the efficiency of use it also contributes to the digital agriculture irrigation, and the empowerment of farmers with technology will also lead to a higher yield in the field.
WO2021153791A1 describes a credit management device that utilizes the evaluation of a currently cultivated crop for credit management purposes, along with a corresponding matching device, and outlines the methods and programs associated with these devices.
021153791A1
Summary of the Invention
AgroLease is a modern agricultural equipment lease platform designed to provide farmers with easy and efficient ways to get to and manage their equipment. With the help of a simple web interface, farmers can now find and rent the needed tools according to their location, category or the price they are willing to pay, while just as easily the equipment owners can provide details of the machines, and the availability, specs, and cost are stated. The element that is most promising is that of the IoT-based monitoring system that collects a variety of raw data, such as geographic location via GPS, usage hours, engine health, and available stock of fuel. This results in time and resources saved, as well as in optimizing the equipment performance due to the fact that the problems are foreseen and handled. With the intention to minimize the occurrence of frauds and to help people rely on a trustworthy environment, AgroLease has introduced digital payment systems and identity checks. The important moment of the process is the stage where the payment is in escrow, thus being protected until the signing and the end of the contract are fully successful.

AgroLease promotes a multicultural, easily accessible platform. By introducing a multilingual version and voice-assist chatbots that enable users to communicate, upload documents, search and rent equipment in their native language, the company has extended its reach to include the digitally illiterate. The backend platform allows administrators to sort out the users, manage disputes, and inspect the processed information with ease, thus enabling them to get the idea of the new features, demand, and equipment performance and the regional usage. As a matter of fact, AgroLease has been designed to be easily customizable in the future as it will be incorporating AI-driven agriculture advisory systems and intelligent contracts based on blockchain, features that will lead to security and efficiency hence will work well with the expected changes in the agriculture sector.
Detailed Description of the invention
The current invention, titled "Agrolease – A Smart Agricultural Equipment Rental System", presents an innovative system that enables easy access to sophisticated farm equipment for farmers, especially from small and marginal farmer communities. It fills an important rural mechanization gap through the use of mobile technology, IoT integration, real-time data analytics, and machine learning to make an intelligent, reliable, and accessible rental platform. Agrolease is an intersection of recent technologies adapted to address the socio-economic needs of rural farming in developing countries where farm mechanization is unevenly distributed.
This unified system includes a mobile app, cloud-based backend infrastructure, IoT sensor-based tracking of equipment, voice-based accessibility interface, and machine learning-based recommendation engine. The aim is to minimize operational hurdles like high cost of ownership, restricted technical know-how, and low digital literacy, and to provide transparency, monitoring, and data-driven decision-making across the rental life cycle of farm equipment.
Agrolease's system architecture is cloud-native, modular, and scalable in nature to facilitate future extensions like integration with government plans or agri-financing modules. The architecture consists of six major layers: a user interface, backend infrastructure, IoT device integration, a machine learning recommendation engine, a voice assistant module, and a security and access control layer.
The User Interface Layer includes web and mobile platforms, designed for three major stakeholders: farmers, equipment owners, and administrators. Farmers access the system to find, book, and track hired equipment. Equipment owners, as lessees, access the interface to post machinery, define rental terms, and view usage. Administrators execute regulatory functions like approving listings, performing Know Your Customer (KYC) verification, and tracking platform analytics. The mobile app is built on frameworks such as React Native to provide smooth performance on lower-end Android devices prevalent in rural areas. The web version, constructed using React.js, is used as a portal for admins and equipment owners.
The Backend Infrastructure is created with Node.js (for routing APIs) and Express.js as the middleware framework. MongoDB is used as the main NoSQL database to store transactional, user, and equipment metadata, and Firebase for real-time messaging, notifications, and light authentication. Hosting is done through scalable cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP), subject to deployment feasibility. The backend further extends support for load balancing and fault tolerance to manage big user volumes when it's farming season.
One of the unique selling points of Agrolease is its IoT Integration Module, which is integrated into chosen farm machinery. IoT-integrated machines consist of equipment like drones, tillers, weeding machines, and sprayers. The devices have sensors that monitor location (using GPS), state of operations (e.g., RPM, engine temperature, and battery health), and environmental factors (e.g., soil moisture, pH, and ambient temperature). These sensors are controlled by microcontrollers such as Arduino or Raspberry Pi, exchanging information using lightweight protocols like MQTT in order to save power and effectively send data to the cloud. Real-time data from the IoT layer is important in detecting abuse, optimizing rental period, and recording utilization statistics.
A key element is the Smart Recommendation Engine, an artificial intelligence trained on large farm data sets fetched from sources like the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), and open government data sets. The algorithm processes past data consisting of soil class, crop period, farmer rating, location, seasonality, and user scores to recommend appropriate equipment to farmers. This customization guarantees that a farmer who wants to plant paddy in sandy loam soil during the monsoon gets a suggestion that is not the same as a sugarcane farmer who is clearing land in black cotton soil. The recommendation engine also incorporates feedback loops to enhance suggestions based on successful transactions and reviews.
In line with inclusivity, Agrolease also has a Voice Assistant Functionality that enables users—specifically those with lower levels of literacy or digital capability—to interact through voice commands in local languages like Telugu and Hindi. Both smart phones and affordable edge devices support this assistant through offline speech libraries like Vosk or CMU Sphinx, which offer voice-to-text and natural language processing without the need for constant internet connectivity. For instance, a farmer can say, "Tractor kavali," and the system will reply with a list of available tractors in the vicinity. This method improves usability in areas with poor internet connectivity and fills the technology access gap.
To provide data integrity, user privacy, and contractual trust, Agrolease has a Security and Access Control Module with role-based access control, SSL/TLS-based data transmission encryption, and optional blockchain-backed smart contracts for transaction verification and historical auditability. This is particularly valuable in regions where formal contracts cannot be enforced because of unawareness or legal infrastructure. A multi-factor authentication system (MFA) provides additional account security, particularly for lessees and admins.
The Agrolease platform has a systematic and detailed workflow in place to provide transparency, simplicity of use, and operational effectiveness throughout its user network. The system is initiated through user registration and KYC, where everyone—from farmers looking for equipment to owners providing it on rental—has to submit documents of identification like Aadhaar cards, voters' IDs, and supporting documents of landholding or machinery ownership. Bank details are also gathered to support direct refunds and payments. These are checked and validated by the administrator via a special panel for ensuring the purity of the system and against any fraudulent listings or abuse.
After successful registration and verification, equipment owners can go ahead and list their agricultural machinery on the platform. Every listing facilitates the upload of images, working videos, specifications, and usage instructions. The owner can also indicate geolocation data, rental rate, terms, and availability. Conversely, farmers can utilize the search feature to browse available equipment by different filters such as machine type, compatibility with certain crops or soil types, proximity to their farm, hourly or daily cost, and user ratings from previous rentals. The system accommodates both text and voice interaction to facilitate accessibility for users with different literacy levels.
Once the farmer selects the right equipment, the booking and payment process begins. During this stage, the platform creates an electronic rental agreement that states essential terms like rental duration, stipulated usage conditions, price, and liability provisions. The agreement acts as a binding agreement for both parties. Payment can be done via safe digital means like Unified Payments Interface (UPI), mobile wallets, or direct bank transfer. Besides the rental rate, a returnable security deposit is charged and placed in escrow to serve as a fiscal protection against any damage or misuse of the equipment.
After payment verification, the dispatch of equipment phase is initiated. While the machine is being delivered or collected, IoT sensors placed inside the equipment begin to stream real-time information to the backend system. The sensors monitor major operational parameters like engine on/off times, GPS location, working time, fuel consumption, and mechanical performance metrics. The system applies this information to make sure that the equipment is being used within the conditions of the agreement, such as geofenced areas that are specified. Any variations, such as disabling or unauthorized use of sensors, cause instant notifications to both the owner and the administrative panel.
Upon expiry of the rental period, the system moves to the review and feedback phase. Both the farmer and the equipment owner are encouraged to rate their experience based on various factors such as equipment condition, punctuality, payment compliance, and general satisfaction. Such ratings are deposited into the database and directly impact the recommendation algorithm, allowing the system to improve its matching capability for future transactions. This feedback loop also increases community trust and offers social proof to new users, keeping the platform dynamic and trustworthy for all participants.
Brief Description of Drawings
The invention will be described in detail concerning the exemplary embodiments shown in the figures wherein:
Figure 1 System Architecture Diagram of the Agrolease Platform
Detailed Description of Drawings
To design a productive, accessible, and technology-based agricultural equipment rental and monitoring system, Figure 1 shows the Agrolease platform architecture. The architecture is reflective of how different user roles such as farmers, equipment owners, and administrators access the platform through a dedicated mobile or web application. The application serves as the main interface for all user operations such as equipment booking, status monitoring, voice commands, and rental history viewing.
The app is linked to a centralized cloud backend that serves as the system's central processing and storage hub. Farm equipment posted on the platform has Internet of Things (IoT) devices like working sensors and GPS modules integrated into them. The sensors track vital parameters like working hours, soil contact, and equipment health, while GPS enables real-time location tracking. The IoT modules talk to the cloud with light and efficient protocols like MQTT or HTTP so that data can be synchronized between the server and equipment in real time.
Linked to the backend are smart subsystems that facilitate advanced capabilities of Agrolease. A voice assistant module is integrated to understand and respond to local language voice commands from farmers, making the platform accessible and user-friendly. The payment processing module facilitates secure transactions, clear billing, and automatic invoice generation. The recommendation engine relies on user profiles, crop information, soil type, and season information to recommend suitable machinery, facilitating better decision-making for farmers.
A dashboard and analytics module provides visual reporting capabilities for administrators and equipment owners to view metrics like booking trends, stats on machine usage, and system performance. All sensor and transactional data are captured in a structure database which aids in warehouse scale and security. The warehouse scale and security environment is aided by the bi-directional data flow among cloud services, end-user apps, and IoT-enabled equipment to provide transparency, accountability, and system reliability in all operations in the Agrolease environment. , Claims:The following claims define the scope of the invention:
Claims:
1. The claims of Agrolease may include:
a) A Mobile/Web Application (1) configured through a web-based platform.
b) A IoT Device (2) is a IoT module can monitor and send real-time data from the rented machine.
c) A Equipment Search (3) comprising the user interface allows farmers to search for machines by location, price, or category.
d) A Dashboard & Analytics (4) displays equipment owner dashboard to manage their machines.
e) A Payment Processing (5) interfaces payments and identity checks link transactions to verified users.
f) A AI System (6) connected to a system that uses in detection that analyzes IoT data to spot early equipment faults and misuse, prompting timely intervention.
g) A Voice Assistant (7) comprises of local-language chatbot or voice assistant helps farmers use the
platform and get answers easily.
h) A GPS Module (8) GPS and fuel tracking improve equipment use by monitoring location and fuel.
2. As mentioned in claim1, A system for leasing agricultural equipment is provided through a web-based platform that supports the seamless rental process between farmers and equipment owners. It provides an intuitive interface for both parties to interact with.
3. As mentioned in claim1, IoT module has the capability of monitoring and dispatching real-time usage data from the rented machine, the module also gathers some vital statistics like the fuel level, engine status, and working hours, and they are transmitted to the server for processing and animation further.
4. As mentioned in claim1, User interface gives farmers a choice of different machines to search for, which they can do by location, price, or category, whilst the farmers can also upload their identification and land-related documents and make sure they only have to share those documents with the available calendar that displays the real-time status of the machine.
5. As mentioned in claim1, A dashboard for the equipment owner allows the owner to list and manage his/her machinery, change pricing, adjust the availability, and track the performance and usage of his/her equipment in the whole leasing, IOT tools are provided for managing of water and waste through, hence, real-time insights.