Akansha Agarwal
17 November 2020
Kanpur: With the advent of the festive season, there is a constant fear of the Air Quality Index (AQI) reaching alarming rates in several cities across India. While cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Patna are always on the worst air radar, owing to the unrest of the pandemic, there is growing tension in cities with significantly better AQI as well.
In the midst of all this, two students of Kanpur have resolved to take conscious efforts to control pollution. According to the Times of India, Pranjal and Aarendra of class 11th have invented an 'Air Purifier Robot'. The robot which comes with an air purifier machine installed within it soaks up pollutants from the air, thus cleansing it.
The ‘Air Purifier Robot’ (Source: ANI)
"With rising air pollution, I thought of building a robot that could purify the air in the environment and soak pollutants at the same time. We have installed a purifier within the device for this purpose," Pranjal told ANI. "When operational, the robot can filter the polluted air and clean air would be released in the atmosphere whereas the polluted particles will remain behind in the air filter inside,” he added.
Pooja Awasthi, the school principal applauded the innovation and their efforts when the students first demonstrated the functioning of the robot to her. "Pranjal is our future scientist, he has also helped a lot in the school lab. I am incredibly proud of the boy and the robot that he has built. Air pollution is a major concern of recent times and therefore his invention seems more worthy than ever," Pooja told The Tribune.
Talking about environmental concerns Pranjal told ANI, "My city ranks third, with the AQI of 443. This is a grim issue. The census of the previous year says that inhaling Delhi air for an hour is equivalent to smoking 5-6 cigarettes. This is extremely harmful. It is not possible for us to wear the mask at all times of the day and this leads to lung cancer and other severe diseases among people."
Speaking about the tech that went into the invention Pranjal said that he used Artificial Intelligence, Arduino Programming and different types of sensors including the MQ135 sensor.
(Sources: The Times of India, ANI, The Tribune)
Edited by: Tanya Jain, Anjali Dinesh