IIT Madras to deploy Robot to clean Septic Tanks

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IIT Madras to deploy Robot to clean Septic Tanks
10 Jun 2022
5 min read

News Synopsis

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras announced on Thursday that a robot developed to help eliminate manual scavenging in India is ready for field deployment. Ten units of the 'HomoSEP' robot will be deployed in Tamil Nadu first, followed by Gujarat and Maharashtra.

"The septic tank is a poisonous environment, filled with semi-solid and semi-fluid human fecal material that makes up about two-thirds of the tank. Hundreds of deaths are reported every year across India, due to manual scavenging in septic tanks despite bans and prohibitory orders," said Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal, from Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, in a statement.

Divanshu Kumar created HomoSEP as a final year Masters' project in 2019 under the supervision of Prof. Rajagopal. Despite the difficulties associated with the pandemic over the next few years, the IIT Madras researchers worked with an IIT Madras-incubated start-up Solinas Integrity Private Limited (now led by Kumar) to further develop HomoSEP.

Several CSR donors initially supported the groundbreaking project over the years. The HomoSEP Robot can homogenise septic tank hard sludge using a custom-developed rotary blade mechanism and pump the tank slurry using an integrated suction mechanism.