IndianOil Contributes ‘BANDICOOT’ to Clear Kumbakonam’s Sewers

CHENNAI:
IndianOil Tamilnadu contributed under its CSR initiatives, an innovative product, the Robotic Scavenger – BANDICOOT, to support the mission of cleaning the sewers of the temple town, Kumbakonam.
The machine was launched by G. Prakash, Commissioner of Municipal Administration, Tamil Nadu in the presence of M. Pradeep Kumar, Sub-Collector, Kumbakonam, K. Uma Maheswari, Municipal Commissioner, Kumbakonam Municipality, Vimal Govind, Chief Executive Officer, Genrobotics, S. Seetharaman, General Manager (HR), IndianOil Tamilnadu State Office, K. Babu Narendra, Chief Divisional Retail Sales Manager, IndianOil Trichy Divisional Office and other IndianOil officials.
G. Prakash, while launching the BANDICOOT, appreciated the efforts of IndianOil in reaching out to the poor and needy and supporting the District Administration and Municipalities with innovative CSR Projects. He also presented a Certificate of Appreciation to IndianOil for this unique initiative.
“There are about 5000 Manholes in Kumbakonam Municipality which are to be regularly cleaned. The Municipality has been cleaning approximately 400-500 Sewer manholes a month by using Mechanical Arms. The procedure is cumbersome and involves manual intervention at times. In order to automate these works, IndianOil has provided the Man-hole cleaning Robot – BANDICOOT under CSR”, said K. Uma Maheswari, Muncipal Commissioner, Kumbakonam Municipality.
What is a BANDICOOT?
BANDICOOT is a robot developed by M/s Genrobotics, Thiruvananthapuram, a start-up promoted by a group of engineers from Kerala. This is an innovative product which has the potential to eliminate Manual Scavenging and effectively clean the sewage and manholes thus saving many precious human lives.
BANDICOOT is an automated system with a stationery unit that has the control unit and user interface on top and at the bottom a robotic device like a spider with four limbs which can get into the manhole with the help of seven cameras and sensors, the limbs collect the accumulated silt from different angles and scoop and the heap up. The silt would be then lifted up using the bucket system with a rope.
BANDICOOT has many advantages when it comes to precision in work as it cleans manholes and sewers with precision unlike the Mechanical arms which are sloppy and less effective. It takes very less time to clean and unclog bigger manholes, thereby saving precious man-hours. The entire process requires one or two people to operate this robot, thereby saving manpower.