These engineers are building robots to kill India's manual scavenging issue

While Genrobotic's 'Bandicoots' are capable of cleaning manholes in 20 minutes, the company is looking at using artificial intelligence for building fully autonomous robots

Jaya Singh is a contract worker with the Kumbakonam Municipality in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu. Not long ago, Singh and his other colleagues used to clean the manholes manually. But during this process, they were exposed to a hazardous environment as sewers were filled with poisonous gases, bacteria, viruses and parasites that cause various life-threatening infections among drainage workers. The lack of safety equipment such as ventilators, gloves, face masks and gas concentration detectors also put their lives at risk. Thanks to the robots created by Genrobotic Innovations, a Kerala-based startup, life is now much different for Singh and