A team of five BTech students from Dumka Engineering College in Jharkhand developed an autonomous water cleaning robot to clean the Shiv Ganga pond at Basukinath Dham during the Shravani Mela, which begins on July 3.
‘Nautes Revival Bot is an Autonomous Water Cleaning Robot’, designed as a final-year engineering project and is now set for real-world deployment. A live demonstration of the robot is scheduled to take place before it begins regular operations during the annual pilgrimage.
The project was developed over five months to provide an efficient solution for cleaning polluted water bodies without relying entirely on manual labour. The robot is capable of removing floating waste, including plastic bottles, polythene bags, clothes, paper and other debris, from ponds and lakes.
According to the project team, the robot uses a Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) hub motor for propulsion, a gear motor to operate the conveyor belt, and a servo motor for steering. It also features a photoelectric sensor that detects obstacles and prevents collisions.
Built on a plastic frame with an aluminium structure, the robot runs on a 48-volt hybrid battery system and can operate continuously for up to 20 hours on a full charge. It is capable of cleaning around eight square feet of water every minute and can collect approximately one kilogram of waste before the collection bucket needs to be emptied. The system can also be monitored and controlled remotely.
The project has received support from the Dumka district administration, which plans to deploy the robot at one of Jharkhand’s busiest religious sites during the upcoming pilgrimage season.
