'He gave me a high-five': Mumbai innovator creates robots that will assist during pandemic

Santosh Hulawale with the robots at his Goregaon home. Pics/Anurag Ahire

A Goregaon innovator, Santosh Vasudeo Hulawale, has used the outbreak to create robots that will assist during the pandemic. Hulawale, 40, a computer engineer doing research and development in robotics since he was 19, has created several robots through the years starting on his own. "I started Indro Robotech Pvt. Ltd in September 2020 and have a team of engineers working alongside me." The company manufactures a range of humanoid robots, service robots and industrial robots and also provides robots on rent.

Four score

Hulawale claimed that they have made four robots specific to the Covid-19 situation. "Today, the robots generally being deployed during the Covid-19 situation need an operator who manoeuvres it manually with a remote control. Yet, the idea of using a robot is to minimise human intervention," he stated. The Indro Robotech's basket of Covid-19 situation-specific four robots, ranging from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 9 lakh, goes by the names MSR-S1 (Multiple Service Robot) size 1, SHR (Service Humanoid Robot), MTR (Massage Therapist Robot) and DMR-S1 (Disaster Management robot) size 1.

Hulawale claimed that the first robot could be custom pre-programmed for any kind of health facility. "If we want the robot to deliver a particular type of food or medicine to particular patients, select the programme in the robot (with a click of a button), after which it will automatically follow the path and deliver the items. The robot will also return to its original position by itself. The operator has to specify the task by clicking a button on his device, after which human intervention is over," he said.

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Being human

The human touch though is just what the Covid-19 afflicted in isolation need. The mentally tough phase is compounded by the lack of companionship, but "a robot can replace that," said Hulawale, who knows loneliness is a very real aspect of Covid-19, because of the nature of the disease.

The tech team pointed to the Service Humanoid Robot (SHR), which they said is, "basically a humanoid robot, which can be used to give a more human-like experience to the patients. Apart from delivering food, water and medicines it can interact with patients not only vocally but also physically. The SHR is a life size (5.10 feet tall) humanoid robot, which has 10 functional axes or joints (also known as degrees of freedom). The robot can dance, shake hands, give a high-five, wave goodbye."

Disaster management

Still in the making though, another robot that substitutes for human therapy, the self-explanatory Massage Therapist Robot, "is under development. Yet, it will be capable of giving a healthy or ill patient a full massage," said Hulawale pointing to the already developed DMR-S1, a Disaster Management robot size 1, which he said is a six-axis robot with a very sturdy rover, which can carry a massive weight of up to 400 kgs.

"This robot can be used to spray sanitiser, and a single unit of DMR-S1 can disinfect a very large area with minimal human intervention. It can also carry patients from ambulances to the hospitals or quarantine centres and back, and those with physical disabilities to the restroom and back," Hulawale claimed, adding, "The Disaster Management machine because of its size and functions can be programmed to extinguish fires or act as a security guard." It is an emergency robot, signed off the team, for Covid-19 is an emergency that has upended our world order.