Hubballi students’ ‘Maya’ ready to assist you at banks

‘Maya’, a first-of-its-kind humanoid robot designed by the students of KLE Technological University, Hubballi, will soon be ‘employed’ by a nationalised bank in Mumbai. It can interact with customers and help them in completing banking transactions without supervision from the bank officials.

Speaking to media persons here on Friday, Pruthvi Deshpande, Abhijith Sampathkrishna, and Alwin N, final year students of the Automation & Robotic Department of KLE Tech University said, Maya has been programmed in such a way that it can interact with any kind of customer in any of the major languages of India.

The first prototype will be sent to Mumbai in next 15 days, where Maya is expected to help customers, both financially literate and illiterate, to complete banking transactions including transfer of money, cash withdrawal, pin change, details of prevailing interest rate, various loan facilities, and others. “As per the contract agreement, we are not allowed to share the name of the bank,” the students informed.

“The bank approached us last September with specific requirement for ‘Grahamithra’ (humanoid robot), and based on their requirements, we have prepared ‘Maya’ that could interact with customers, pull up old relevant data based on the face recognition system,” they said.

The students said, Maya can also act as surveillance officer in the bank and alert the branch manager if a pre-updated VIP or celebrities arrive at the bank.

Maya is so advanced that every time, her energy-levels goes down, she can head to a designated charging point and recharge herself. The in-built battery can hold her in steady for at least eight hours depending upon the day’s work load.

The entire project, which was sponsored by the bank, was completed at an estimated cost of Rs five lakh. “The prototype is ready for delivery, and we are ready to prepare any number of such robots within a span of one month,” said Abhijith, and added that the bank staff will be taught how to maintain Maya.

The students completed the project under the guidance of Automation & Robotic Department Head Arun Giriyapur, Ashwini, and Shridhar Hosamani.