Manish Kumar
Bhubaneswar, Oct 9: A six-member team of robotics enthusiasts in the state is working on a machine, which they claim, would more effectively clean swimming pool walls.
The team comprises two alumni from NIT Rourkela, an engineering student from the college, an alumnus of Konark Institute of Technology (KIT) and two management graduates from Cuttack.
Trials and simulations of the robot have worked well and the final product is likely to hit the market in three months, the team members told Orissa POST.
Swagat Baral, team member, alumnus of KIT and entrepreneur, said: “We have tried the technology and the initial testing has yielded amazing results. Usually robots find cleaning surfaces perpendicular to each other very difficult. We are working to make our machine carry out such jobs with ease.”
The model being built by the team is expected to be far cheaper than existing European and American models, and “more effective”.
The robot would cost between `82,000 and `1 lakh compared with between `4 lakh and `5 lakh that the models from abroad cost, said Baral.
As part of final stages of development of the machine, the team is working on its cabinet and fixing its filter system.
The team had ventured on the project with a view to tap the growing demand for such machines from hotels and apartments.
Baral said the technology is likely to replace manual labour required to clean the swimming pool walls.
“Normally it takes 3 to 4 hours of manual labour to clean a swimming pool of normal size. Our technology will drastically reduce the time required,” Baral, who had founded a business solutions firm for constructing swimming pools, drip/sprinkle irrigation and rainwater harvesting called dew drop systems, said.
