The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has introduced three advanced robots named ‘Bandicoot’ that will help in cleaning and maintaining city manholes safely and eliminate manual cleaning. PMC has taken this initiative in alignment with the vision of Pune Smart City to ensure better safety in maintaining the city manholes using the latest technologies.
Manual cleaning involves humans entering the manholes and cleaning them physically. This practice was a threat to the lives of sanitation workers and many of them had lost their lives during the manual scavenging. To eliminate this issue, PMC has now started using robots to clean sewers.
Cleaning using robots will ensure safer and dignified job opportunities for sanitation workers. The user interface of the Bandicoot Robot is designed for manual scavengers, which is interactive as well as user-friendly. The Bandicoot robot is the world’s first manhole cleaning robot initiated in alignment with ‘MakeInIndia’ and ‘Swachh Bharat’ designed and developed by Genrobotics. These robots come with a human comparable robotic arm and can clean manholes more efficiently. These robots are equipped with 4 IP68 waterproof cameras to clean the manholes even under low light conditions.
Vikram Kumar, Municipal Commissioner launched the Bandicoot Robots on 2 May at the Pune MC office in the presence of other dignitaries including, Dr. Sanjay Kolte, CEO of Pune Smart City, and Dr. Kunal Khemnar, Additional Commissioner of Pune Municipal Corporation.
