Water-carrying robot a hit with India villagers

● Glasgow team aims to use tech to improve lives in remote areas

To mark World Water Day, research has been released after a remote-controlled water-carrying robot was trialled by scientists to help people in rural villages in India.

Computer scientists from the University of Glasgow who took the robot to Ayyampathy in southern India, said that robotics could empower local women, who do much of the manual work, including carrying heavy water containers over long distances.

More than half of India’s population have no access to tap water in the home, and instead have to draw it from a well.

The four-wheeled robot from Clearpath Robotics, known as a Husky, could carry 20 litres of water, and had a male “voice”. Its motion and speech were adjusted by researchers via remote control.

Once the volunteers decanted

0 The joint Scots-indian research team found the villagers enjoyed working with Husky the robot, which made their lives easier the water into their storage containers at home, the robot thanked them and reminded them to wash their hands before their next meal. Dr Amol Deshmukh, a research associate at the uni- versity’s school of computing, said: “Most of the research on human-robot interactions are carried out in lab environments in urban settings, with people who have developed some conception of what robots are and how they work by seeing depictions in TV and film.

“We wanted to see how people from considerably more remote rural populations would view robots, which have a lot of labour-saving potential.

“Robot helpers are also ideally placed to help those population reach the United Nations’ sustainable development goals of bridging the digital divide and opening up beneficial technology to people around the world, so it’s vital to explore how they are likely to be perceived in the developing world.”

He added: “Every one of them said the robot made their lives easier, and they unanimously reported that they enjoyed working with the robot. Interestingly, they were also unanimous on the robot being ‘alive’, despite being aware that it was being controlled remotely.”

The research was funded by Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance and Amrita University in Kerala, India.

Researchers from Amrita University’s robotics and women empowerment research centre spend time with rural and tribal communities to understand their issues and nuances of need, which are not often considered in technology design for such residents.

World Water Day is marked annually on 22 March, with the aim of highlighting the importance of access to and management of fresh water.