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The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay researchers have designed an indigenous spherical, compact teleoperated robot for military purposes. The robot can be deployed by the military for explorations, observations and search operations.

A team of 05 research scholars and 02 professors has designed a palm-sized robot that can roll, with the speed of 20 cm/second, in any direction. The team was led by the associate professor from the Department of Systems and Control Engineering Leena Vachhani.

The robot can be deployed in difficult, hazardous and enemy-intruded regions and can be controlled from a safe area. The spherical structure of the robot is advantageous over conventional mobile vehicles. The ball shape enables the robot to move in any direction on planar surfaces. The camera fitted inside the bot provides genuine, 360-degree, panoramic visual feedback.

Vachhani said, "Sensors and other electronics are completely inside the shell, making it robust to collisions".

An assistant professor from the Department of Mechanical Engineering Abhishek Gupta informed that the robot can be easily controlled and maneuvred with an android application by using visual feedback.

The team has filed for a patent for the robot.

Vachhani also informed that there is no risk of getting struck or overturning as it travels indoor from point to point and uses GPS to travel or navigate outdoors.

The project was funded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and was allocated to the National Centre of Excellence in Technology for Internal Security of IIT-B.