Bodhi, a robot that can patrol streets during the lockdown and broadcast messages if necessary. Operated remotely via smartphone at up to a distance of 500 meters and fitted with a 360° camera, Bodhi was designed for use by police and security personnel. It can be used in containment areas on streets where even police/security personnel can’t access it. Police/security personnel can play recorded messages or even give live instructions from the control station.

While Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham remains closed as per the Government lockdown, its professors and HODs continue to develop more and more innovations aimed at helping society deal with the novel Coronavirus.

Most recently, Humanitarian Technology (HuT) Lab, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri campus, headed by Dr. Rajesh Kannan Megalingam (Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication, School of Engineering, Amritapuri), has unveiled robot prototypes that are ready to help in places unsafe for humans to tread.

“The whole purpose of Amrita HuT Lab is to make robots for humanitarian ends. Robots that can assist sick people or that can do jobs that are unsafe for humans,” said Dr. Rajesh Kannan from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. “For example, some of our early successes were with the creation of a low-cost self-driving wheelchair and a Cocobot that harvests coconuts from places so high that if a human climber were to fall, he would certainly be killed. So, as soon as we realized the seriousness of COVID-19, we began working on robots connected with the pandemic.”