THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ‘Bandicoot’, the manhole cleaning robot developed by a startup firm in the state, is likely to be invited for a presentation at a national event to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Union minister for drinking water and sanitation Uma Bharati and other top officials of the ministry were reportedly impressed by its presentation at a national consultative workshop on solid and liquid waste management in New Delhi on February 22 and 23. “We have been told by officials at the workshop that we will be invited to a national event in Bihar in April, which would be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A formal invitation is expected soon,” said Genrobotics chief executive officer Vimal Govind.
Genrobotics, the startup firm of young engineers that developed ‘Bandicoot’, has also started developing an advanced version of the robot, which would be more compact with reduced weight and more user-friendly, accepting voice commands. Along with chief operating officer Rashid K., he made the presentation at the national consultative workshop organised by the ministry of drinking water and sanitation. Since the unit could not be taken to Delhi, a video presentation of trial runs was made.
“We received good applause from the minister and other senior officials. The minister even made a second round of enquiry with us to know about the product. Many officials had said that manual scavenging was a serious social issue in many states that need to be addressed. The feedback from the workshop gives us hopes of taking up Bandicoot at the national level,” said Mr Govind. Genrobotics, which had already received queries from other states and some foreign agencies, plans to bring out the second edition of Bandicoot in a couple of months.
Machine rollout in capital today
‘Bandicoot’, the manhole cleaning robot, will be formally pressed into service in the state capital from Monday. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will be launching the unit at Kerala Water Authority headquarters here. It will be initially used for manhole cleaning activities related to the Attukal Pongala.
Kerala Water Authority Innovation Zone had earlier signed an agreement with Kerala Startup Mission based startup firm Genrobotics for deploying ‘Bandicoot’ for sewage cleaning. A trial run of Bandicoot was recently done at couple of manholes in the city and found to be effective. A nine-member team comprising K. Rashid, Vimal Govind, Arun George, Nikhil M.P., Jaleesh P., Afzal Muttikal, Srijith Babu, K. Sujith and P.K. Vishnu formed Genrobotics.
