IIT-K to make robots for monitoring pollution in rivers

KANPUR: The pollution in Ganga, Yamuna and other rivers of the country will now be monitored through high tech robots.

The robots will be placed in the industrial towns from where the rivers passes, said Indra Shekhar Sen, scientist, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K), who will be leading the team to develop the project.

THE ROBOTS WILL BE PLACED IN INDUSTRIAL TOWNS FROM WHERE THE RIVERS PASSES

“In phase one, the union ministry for water resources has decided to place 17 robots at different places,” said Sen.

Saying that the special robots will be developed for online monitoring of rivers, Sen said the fully-automatic robots would run on solar power.

“Four departments of the IIT-K will jointly work on the project,” he said. They include departments of earth science, electrical engineering, aerospace and mechanical engineering. Besides Sen, professors Ketan Rajawat and Mangal Kothari will also assist in the project. Sen said the robot would be of a shape of a duck with 80% of its body in water.

“It will not only collect the data but would send complete report of the water quality to the control room through satellite,” said Sen. “The robot will have the equipment to assess heavy metals, Chromium, Arsenic, BOD level, dissolve oxygen water velocity and Ph value in the water,” said Sen. In the first phase, about 17 robots will be made, each costing around Rs 15 lakh.