Students design robot that may clean lakes

Suraj M Singh (middle), Yashwanth Singh (left), Vishnu Maheswar (right) students who participated in aqua soccer. 

The students of MVJ College of Engineering unveiled a robot that can float in water and play soccer. Upon improvisation, the robot may help reduce the pollution in city lakes too.

The robot was showcased in Vertechx 9.0, an intercollegiate technical fest held in the college on Friday.

“We can fix a few minor problems. For example, we can put a net in front of the robot and collect all the dirt from the water without having to step into the water. If I lose anything in the water, I can engage high frequency sonic sensors which will help locate the lost object,” explains Suraj M Singh, a third-year student of electronics and communication.

The robot was conceived along with two other students - Yashwanth Singh and Vishnu Maheswar - for a competition titled aqua soccer.

“The concept is similar to that of a remote-controlled car but with some tweaks. Instead of round wheels, we have put paddles, so that the robot can go back and forth in water. We used an app from the play store called RC controller, which works with Bluetooth,” adds Singh.

The students say the robot, if developed can help resolve the contamination of Bengaluru lakes.

Another team, meanwhile, designed a voice-controlled robot that can perform tasks based on voice inputs. “Our robot can pick up a ball and place it elsewhere. It can move forward, backward and sideways based on the programmed voice input,” explains Shakthi Vel, a third-year electronics and communications student.

“We created a voice-recognition app using our own code. The app is connected to Bluetooth which in turn is connected to the robot’s motor driver.,” adds Vel.

The model is slightly better than real-time voice sensing robots.