Bodhi; A Policing & Security Robot During COVID Lockdown and Social Distancing

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.

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, Dr. Rajesh Kannan Megalingam, Humanitarian Technology Lab, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus has unveiled four 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. “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 realised the seriousness of COVID-19, we began working on robots connected with the pandemic.”