The robot ‘Bandicoot’ was developed by startup firm Genrobotics

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A few months ago, managing director of Kerala water authority received an image from office of chief minister and water resources minister featuring a man in a manhole in neck-deep sewage, asking whether KWA could do something to solve the issue.

Later when KWA launched its innovation zone KWIZ, it got a proposal from a start-up firm which developed prototype of a robot which can clean sewers .

If things go as per the plan, pilot work for cleaning sewers using this robot is likely to be held at the time of Attukal pongala in the city. The KWA routinely cleans sewers ahead of pongala and after the festival.

‘ Bandicoot ’, a spider-like robot with arms, was developed by a start-up firm – Genrobotics – under the Kerala Start-up Mission (KSUM).

Genrobotics, the firm which is incubated at Technopark, has approached KWIZ with Bandicoot. As stages of ideation and development of prototype are over, the KWA will support the firm in developing a pilot project.

KWA MD A Shainamol said that they have been providing all technical support to the startup.

Based on directive of KSUM, Vimal Govind M K, CEO of Genrobotics, who founded the startup along with his engineering classmates of MES Kuttippuram, decided to do a reality check of the situation pertaining to sewer cleaning in the state, which finally led them to create Bandicoot in six months.

“Only when we do some socially committed work, our technology will become relevant. When we came up with Bandicoot, we realized that it has the power to turn Kerala into the first manual scavenging-free state. It has huge relevance in the time of of initiatives like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Our aim is to turn the name manhole to robohole,” he said.

The KWA and KSUM will sign a memorandum of understanding to develop solutions for KWIZ in the presence of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday.

Water resources minister Mathew T Thomas, IT secretary M Sivasankar, water resources secretary Tinku Biswal, KWA MD A Shainamol and KSUM CEO Saji Gopinath will attend the function at CM’s conference hall.

