State eyeing robot that can dive into manholes

PUNE: Climbing down bare-bodied into deep manholes while battling the stink and hazardous fumes emanating from it. This sums up the routine of an average manual scavenger in the country. However, this may change in Maharashtra in the future.
Bandicoot, a robot developed by startup Genrobotics, will start cleaning up sewer holes in Thiruvananthapuram from February 15. And Maharashtra is impressed.

State chief secretary Sumit Mullick said, "Though we have roped in latest technology to clean manholes, we do not mind hearing more about this innovation. If everything goes right, a pilot may be tried out in Mumbai," he said.

Interestingly, the brains behind Bandicoot developed the product after watching Manual Scavengers of Mumbai, a film on the lives of manhole cleaners.

Co-founder Arun George told TOI the film's visuals got them thinking, which eventually resulted in the robot with four limbs and a bucket system attached to a spider web-like extension to go inside the manhole. "After shoveling the garbage heap or the solid waste at the bottom of the manhole, it is collected by using the bucket system before lifting it upward," George, who formed Genrobotics along with Vimal Govind, Rashid K and Nikhil NP, said.

The team then conducted a survey for six months in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram sewer division and found that many manholes and sewer lines were jammed because of the waste from residential areas and hotels.

"The Bandicoot will clean up manholes without putting the human lives at risk," Arun added.

Genrobotics recently tied up with the Kerala Water Authority and the Kerala Startup Mission to clean up sewer holes. "An MoU for transfer of technology, including use of the robots, has been completed," the team said.