Explore. Build. Grow
Explore. Build. Grow

Our flexible three-stage framework to craft digital experiences.

Learn more
Expertise
Outcomes
View our portfolio
View our portfolio

Explore our range of digital solutions.

Learn more
Industries
Our Approach to AI
Our Approach to AI

Keeping ourselves at the forefront of emerging technology is part of our DNA. But we recognise that ‘technology for technology’s sake’ is not the end goal – there is a balance to be struck.

Learn more
DXP
Headless
Cloud Platforms
Marketing Optimisation
Contact Us
Contact Us
Explore. Build. Grow
Explore. Build. Grow

Our flexible three-stage framework to craft digital experiences.

Learn more
Expertise
Outcomes
View our portfolio
View our portfolio

Explore our range of digital solutions.

Learn more
Industries
Our Approach to AI
Our Approach to AI

Keeping ourselves at the forefront of emerging technology is part of our DNA. But we recognise that ‘technology for technology’s sake’ is not the end goal – there is a balance to be struck.

Learn more
DXP
Headless
Cloud Platforms
Marketing Optimisation
Contact Us
Picture of Animesh from GuardianSkies presenting
Home / Insights / ＿

Animesh Ghimiray: Engineering a new era in crop protection

Drawing on his background in mechanical engineering, Animesh Ghimiray has created a sophisticated solution to the enduring challenge of crop protection.

Tami Iseli
Tami Iseli

20 April 2026

5 minute read

Bird damage is a persistent problem in agriculture, but traditional deterrence methods – nets, scare guns, or lethal control – are either too expensive, labour-intensive, unethical, or ineffective.

Animesh Ghimiray is the CEO and co-founder of GuardianSkies Drones, an Australian AgTech company building autonomous drone systems to protect farms from bird damage. GuardianSkies combines AI and autonomous flight systems, with smart infrastructure to deliver ethical, low-touch crop protection in agricultural environments.

A new solution to an age-old problem

The idea for GuardianSkies emerged from the real-life experience of a vineyard owner in Victoria’s Pyrenees Hills. In 2018, the five-hectare property produced around 20 tonnes of wine grapes, but as bird pressure escalated over successive seasons, the vineyard’s yield was progressively whittled down to just four tonnes, with the owner losing 80 percent of his crop. 

Despite actively trying all the available control measures, none proved viable. The issue was not a lack of effort, but the absence of a scalable, reliable solution. And the problem is not just an economic one. For many growers, repeated crop losses lead to chronic stress, long working hours and a sense of hopelessness as traditional control methods fail. 

Growers clearly needed a system that could actively deter birds during peak pressure periods without increasing workload or harming wildlife. 

Utilising his expertise in autonomous systems, Animesh began exploring whether drones could fill that gap, not as manually piloted tools, but as autonomous systems capable of operating reliably in farm environments.

“Bird damage was being treated like an unavoidable cost in agriculture. That didn’t sit right with me,” he explains. “Most existing deterrence methods were inconsistent, unethical, labour-heavy, or didn’t scale well. Meanwhile, the problem itself is dynamic and persistent. There was a mismatch between the problem and the tools being used to deal with it.” 

GuardianSkies team presenting

The vision for GuardianSkies

Animesh’s aim is that GuardianSkies will create a fundamental shift in farm operations. “If we get this right, bird control will become an automated, always-on layer of farm operations, rather than something farmers have to constantly manage themselves,” he says. “Instead of reacting when damage is already happening, the system is detecting bird pressure early, responding in real time, and adapting throughout the day. Farmers aren’t driving out to blocks, firing scare guns, or rotating deterrents that birds eventually ignore.”

This reduces crop loss and saves labour, but just as importantly, it reduces the mental load on growers. By providing a reliable, automated tool that actively protects crops, the system restores a sense of control and predictability to farm life. “Bird pressure is one of those problems that sits in the back of your mind all season,” Animesh explains. “If you can trust that it’s being handled, that frees up attention for everything else that actually grows the business.” 

The social impact also extends to promoting ethical practices. The use of non-invasive light and sound deterrents ensures growers can protect their livelihoods while aligning with community expectations around animal welfare.

Picture of GuardianSkies drone image

Market traction

GuardianSkies has already moved beyond the prototype phase into repeatable, commercial deployments. The company successfully completed a five-day vineyard trial at Wild Duck Creek Estate in February 2025, covering up to five hectares in around eight minutes and achieving immediate flock dispersal.

Another significant milestone was a paid commercial deployment at Pitchford Produce in July 2025, where 156 autonomous flights were conducted over eight days, successfully deterring Australian Wood Ducks. This validation resulted in the grower immediately inviting GuardianSkies back to protect an additional plot against Cape Barren geese. 

The company has also secured regulatory readiness with CASA Remote Pilot and operator approvals and has received competitive funding from LaunchVic.

Not all smooth flying

Despite GuardianSkies’ early success, the product’s flight path has not been completely free of turbulence. “Getting something to work in a controlled environment is one thing,” says Animesh. “Making it reliable outdoors is another. Wind, dust, lighting, power constraints, communication issues, docking reliability, all of it shows up at once.” 

Early challenges included electronic speed controllers overheating and failing due to the combination of sustained high loads, dust, heat, and limited airflow during vineyard trials. Precision landing also proved sensitive to environmental factors like shadows and lighting conditions, requiring repeated iteration on visual markers and approach logic to achieve consistent autonomous docking.

On the strategic side, the challenge has been prioritisation. “You can’t solve everything at once,” Animesh says. “You have to decide what matters now and what can wait, while still moving toward a product that actually works commercially.”

He adds that the biggest shift has been learning judgement under pressure. “At the start, I thought progress came from working harder or pushing more things forward at once. In reality, most of the time you’re choosing what not to do. There are always 10 things that feel urgent. Only one or two actually move the company forward.”

He also had to let go of trying to get things ‘right’ too early. “In engineering, you’re trained to refine before release. In a startup, that slows you down. We’ve had to put systems into the field that were good enough to test, knowing they would break in ways we didn’t expect, and then improve them quickly from there.” 

A lasting legacy

In terms of GuardianSkies’ long term legacy, Animesh hopes that it will shift expectations around crop protection to a point where “bird damage stops being written off as an unavoidable percentage of loss and starts being treated as something you can actively manage and reduce with the right system”. 

Animesh believes a lot of innovation attention currently goes toward what is flashy, consumer-facing, or easy to explain. “I’m more interested in the kinds of technologies that quietly transform industries people depend on, especially where the problem has been tolerated for too long because no one bothered to solve it properly. I want to build technologies that earn their place by being useful, durable and commercially viable in the real world.” 

Ultimately, the social impact of GuardianSkies is not just in what the technology does, but in what it removes: constant vigilance, escalating losses, and the sense that farmers must choose between effectiveness and ethics. By reducing that burden, the platform aims to support a healthier, more sustainable agricultural community.

Picture of Animesh winning Entrepreneur of the Year
Tami Iseli
Tami Iseli

20 April 2026

5 minute read

Enjoyed this article? Share it...

Our people

Our success as a business starts and ends with our people. We support our team to work remotely, empower them through coaching and remove barriers to help them achieve and thrive. Our people make extraordinary things happen because we give them the space and support to bring out the best in themselves and each other.

Picture of mangroves growing in water

6 min read

Reflecting on 5 years as a B Corp

Being a B Corp is more than just putting a logo on a website. For us, it has been a five-year North Star that has guided how we treat our team, how we serve our clients, and how we impact the planet.

Marty Drill
Marty Drill

12 March 2026

6 minute read
Picture of Jaka and Andik running and training in Bali

2 min read

Luminary Launches BeFit Program

New habits are hard to start and harder to stick with, but what if we could decrease the number of steps between our team and good habits?

Marty Drill
Marty Drill

21 April 2024

2 minute read
Luminary's 20th birthday celebration

3 min read

Luminary achieves international recognition as a Great Place to Work

Luminary has been certified as a Great Place to Work for the first time in Indonesia and for the sixth consecutive year in Australia.

Tami Iseli
Tami Iseli

31 March 2021

3 minute read
The view from a window looking over a lake and mountain with laptop in foreground.

5 min read

Working from anywhere

From 1 July 2020, Luminary team members can elect to work from any suitable place at any time – a distributed team working from any location that allows them to be their best.

Marty Drill
Marty Drill

30 June 2020

5 minute read
Luminary 20th birthday team photo

3 min read

Our social contract

To create a social contract, all we had to do was distill the essence of 60+ individual views across 15+ cultural backgrounds, four time zones and two continents… simple, right?!

Marty Drill
Marty Drill

05 December 2019

3 minute read
Neil's jumping during his run on the beach in Bali

6 min read

Tour de Vic – Luminary's Big Run for Fred Hollows

Throughout the month of August, the Luminary team have been pounding the pavement from Docklands to Denpasar in support of the Fred Hollows Foundation.

Tami Iseli
Tami Iseli

04 September 2020

6 minute read
Lisa coaching a Luminary team member

5 min read

Empowering Team Luminary through coaching

Performance Coach Lisa Hough talks about why she loves working as a coach at Luminary and what it’s meant for our team.

Lisa Hough
Lisa Hough

17 June 2019

5 minute read
Our Halloween costumes

4 min read

Keeping connected while keeping apart

Our Office Manager, Mike Trueman, has been an integral part of keeping us all connected while we worked from home. Here, he shares his perspective on some of the things that made it all work.

20 November 2020

4 minute read
Remote Work Duble

6 min read

Debunking the myths of remote work

The biggest barrier to remote work is the myths that surround it, writes Adam Griffith.

Adam Griffith
Adam Griffith

27 June 2016

6 minute read

Keep Reading

Want more? Here are some other blog posts you might be interested in.

Follow
Contact Us
1300 554 891
[email protected]

Our locations

Stay informed
Our best articles, observations and news delivered to your inbox
Subscribe
Flags

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work, live and engage. We pay respect to Elders past and present.

Luminary is a registered trademark of Luminary Digital Pty Ltd

Terms of Services
Privacy Policy