Panaji: Pained by his ailing wife not being able to feed their differently-abled daughter, a daily wage worker in Goa having no technical knowledge has built a robot to help the girl have food without anyone’s support. The Goa State Innovation Council has lauded Bipin Kadam for his innovation, which he has titled ‘Maa Robot’, and is providing him financial support to work on the machine further and explore its commercial viability.
The food is kept on a plate which is part of the robot. It feeds the girl, who cannot move and lift her hands, on a voice command specifying what she wants to eat, like vegetable, dal-rice mix or other items. Mr. Kadam, who is in his 40s and a resident of Bethora village in Ponda taluka of south Goa, has been doing odd jobs as a daily wage worker.
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He told PTI that his 14-year-old daughter is differently-abled and cannot eat on her own.
She was entirely dependent on her mother to have her meals.
About two years back, my wife was bed-ridden. She used to feel sad and cry as she was not able to feed our daughter. I had to come from work to feed our daughter, he said.
Mr. Kadam’s wife insisted he should do something so that their daughter could have meals on time without being dependent on anyone.
This led Mr. Kadam to start a search about a year back for a robot which could feed her.
There was no such robot available anywhere. So, I decided to design it myself, he said.
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Mr. Kadam looked for information online to learn the basics of software.
I would work for 12 hours without a break and then spend the rest of my time researching and learning how to make a robot. I researched continuously for four months and then designed this robot. I get energised when I come back from work and see my daughter smiling at me, he said.
The ‘Maa Robot’ feeds the girl on her voice command, he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been promoting Atmanirbhar Bharat. The same way, I wanted to make my child atmanirbhar (self-reliant) and not dependent on anyone, he said.
Mr. Kadam said he wants to make similar robots for other children too.
I want to take this robot across the globe, he said.
The Goa State Innovation Council has lauded the work of Mr. Kadam and the state-run body is providing him financial help to fine tune his robot further and also work on exploring a commercial market for the product.
The Council’s project director Sudeep Faldesai said Mr. Kadam has prepared a scalable product which can help several people who are facing a similar situation. Faldesai said a price cannot be fixed for this product right now as it is yet to be evaluated commercially
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
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