Koraput: An eight -yr-old boy Tanmay Sahu fell into the borewell in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh while playing with friends a fortnight ago. Though the local police, fire fighters, home guards and the state disaster response force personnel struggled for 4 days, they were unable to extract the boy alive.
This incident had a great impact on 3 Odia friends working in Chhattisgarh ‘s NMDC, Sisir Mallik, Biren ku Pradhan and Lingaraj Pradhan.
“We wanted that no child should be sacrificed at the altar of the borewell incidents. So, we decided to innovate a device which would help to rescue the kids in such situations. Being electrical and electronics engineering students, we started working on it and the result was ,”Borewell Robotics Rescuer, ” said Sisir Malik, who hails from Jeypore in Odisha ‘s Koraput district.
All three joined hands together and have now successfully completed a dummy of their project “Borewell Robotics Rescuer”.
“Once our mission was clear, we began collecting materials needed for our project and have successfully prepared a dummy of the robot. The working module of this Borewell Robotics Rescuer is that an iron frame will be stationed at the top of the borewell and then the robot will be descended into the pit with the help of an iron cable. The whole process will be controlled by a robotic controller,” informed Lingaraj Pradhan who belongs to Krusnapur village in Ganjam district.
“There are 2 wheels on each side which will help it in descending and ascending process. When it comes near the trapped child (victim), a camera would capture the whole scenario with the help of waterproof lighting system. Moreover, there are provisions of mike and speaker in the robot. While nearing towards the child, the fan at the lower end of the device will provide oxygen to the child whereas the fan at the upper end will blow out all the toxic gases out from the pit,” he further explained.
“Meanwhile, the child will be positioned with the help of a hydraulic hand and the child will be asked to hold both the pipes hanging from device. If the child will be unable to comprehend the whole process or will not be able to hold it, then the hydraulic cable will try to hold the child tightly.
Then the child will be carefully and slowly ascended and rescued.”
The whole process will be able to be monitored by the help of camera, and speaker.
Hydraulic hand, LED light, camera, speaker, mike, wheels, oxygen tanks, fans, laptop, etc used in preparing the device.
8-inch breadth, 2ft 6inches length. It can carry weights upto 50 kgs.
“The dummy was created with an expenditure of ₹8000 whereas the amount needed to make the real device will be around ₹30,000. If there will be any kind of assistance by the government, we can use much better materials for it and create a more sustainable product,” elucidated Biren Pradhan who belongs to Badhpur village of Ganjam district.
India has over 27 million borewells. According to the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), since 2009, over 40 children have died after falling into borewells and over 70 % of rescue operations failed. So, an attempt of this kind is really commendable and of course, the need of the hour.
