Indian student in Dubai builds robot modelled on Lego Technic toys to automatically dispense hand sanitiser

Dubai: A class seven Indian student in the UAE has built a robot to dispense hand sanitiser to help with maintaining hygiene while social distancing.

The robot detects a hand at a distance of 30 cm and squirts a drop of sanitiser fluid on to the hand.

Siddh Sanghvi, a student of Spring Dales Schools in Dubai, said his mother showed him a video where people were touching the hand sanitiser's bottle to clean hands and probably getting infected, Khaleej Times reported.

"But this defeats the purpose because coronavirus can be spread by touching contaminated surfaces," the paper quoted him as saying. "So, I thought why not create something using the STEM technology, where the machine can dispense the sanitiser automatically, without bringing your hand in contact.

A startup in Kerala, Asimov Robotics, has also deployed a robot to dispense hand sanitiser in an office in Kochi. However, it does not automatically dispense the sanitiser. One has to touch the sanitiser bottle to pump out a few drops of the fluid.

The robot, developed under the Kerala Startup Mission, was not built for that purpose as such. But it does display messages about the coronavirus from the WHO website. A video of the robot in action was shared by MP Shashi Tharoor recently.

As for the more advanced robot in Dubai, its young inventor was quoted as saying, “If you are one of those who have a penchant for Lego Technic systems (a range of toys with interconnecting plastic rods and parts made by LEGO), then you are bound to love this interesting robot.”

"It will soon be normal for machine learning systems to drive our cars and help doctors diagnose and treat our illnesses. It's important that kids are aware of how Artificial Intelligence can be used in real life applications," he added.