Featured picture courtesy: Flickr (For representational functions solely)
Handbook scavenging, a follow as previous as time, is a stark reminder of humanity’s darkest facet. This hazardous and dehumanising process, involving the handbook cleansing of sewers and septic tanks, has claimed numerous lives and inflicted untold struggling.
Whereas there are legal guidelines in place to forestall the employment of handbook scavengers — The Employment of Handbook Scavengers and Development of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, and The Prohibition of Employment as Handbook Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 — the statistics are grim. A Rajya Sabha report revealed over 300 deaths between 2018 and 2023, a chilling testomony to the hazards of this follow.
And past the bodily toll, there’s an much more insidious impression: the social stigma. Handbook scavengers are sometimes ostracised, their dignity eroded by a society that deems their work impure. Consequently, these engaged on this work are sometimes left with little hope for higher job prospects or social mobility.
However what if know-how might finish not simply the bodily hazard of this work, but in addition the centuries-old stigma hooked up to it?
Kerala-based startup Genrobotics guarantees to reply this query with Bandicoot — a machine designed to get rid of handbook scavenging.
A robotic resolution to a dehumanising downside
Based by 4 engineers — Arun George, Nikhil NP, Rashid Okay, and Govind MK — Genrobotics’ flagship innovation, the Bandicoot robotic, is called after a species of rats which is thought to dig and dwell in tunnels underground. It’s particularly designed to wash sewers, septic tanks, and manholes with out the necessity for handbook labour.
The Bandicoot robotic is designed to function in slim, confined areas, that are usually tough and harmful for people to navigate and consists of two principal elements: a stand unit and a robotic drone unit. The drone unit is lowered into the manhole, the place it makes use of high-resolution cameras to scan the environment.
These cameras assist the operator monitor the within of the manhole on a 13-inch show, offering real-time footage of the atmosphere. As soon as the operator identifies the waste that must be cleared, the Bandicoot’s multi-functional robotic arm, geared up with shovels and grabbing instruments, is deployed to gather the waste.
The robotic’s 4 sturdy robotic legs guarantee stability and agility because it strikes throughout the manhole, making it excellent for these difficult-to-reach places. It additionally options sensors to detect poisonous gases, akin to methane, that might in any other case be deadly to a human employee.
There are totally different variations of the Bandicoot, together with the ‘Mini Bandicoot’, which is solar-powered and compact, and the ‘Mobility Plus’, a bigger, extra superior mannequin that options car mounting and an built-in waste disposal system.
Not solely does the start-up’s method supply a technological resolution but it surely additionally creates a extra sustainable and humane future for sanitation employees. By its mission, ‘Mission Robohole’, the corporate has deployed over 350 robots throughout 23 states and 4 nations, serving to enhance the work situations of over 3,300 sanitation employees.
The introduction of robotic cleansing has allowed cities and municipalities to transition from human labour to machines, thus eradicating the necessity for handbook scavenging to an extent, in lots of areas like Ulhasnagar, Kanpur, Nava Raipur, and Noida. Lately the Gandhinagar Municipal Corp. added two extra Bandicoot robots to their stock, along with the six that had been already employed.
The corporate has gained important recognition, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UN Secretary-Normal António Guterres attending the launch of an early Bandicoot mannequin in 2018.
Along with Bandicoot, Genrobotics has additionally developed different robots for specialised duties, such because the Wilboar, designed for cleansing petroleum tanks, and the G-Gaiter, a gait-training robotic for folks with mobility points.
Edited by Arunava Banerjee
