IIT-B robot can sort, send out written notes

Professors at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay’s (IIT-B) have designed a robot that can sort handwritten letters and deliver them to the correct address.

Professors at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay’s (IIT-B) have designed a robot that can sort handwritten letters and deliver them to the correct address. A model of the robot was on display at Mumbaiimpex-2019, an exhibition hosted by India Post, on Wednesday.

HT Image

The specimen consisted of a maze of colour-coded areas representing four cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. When prompted, the bot was able to sift through the letters, arrange them according to the city to be delivered to, and then post them accordingly.

The robot was built by IIT-B’s Industrial Design Centre (IDC) under the aegis of e-Yantra, the annual robotics competition sponsored by the ministry of human resource development.

According to Kavi Arya, professor of IIT-B’s computer science department and principal investigator of e-Yantra, the bot displayed at the exhibition on Wednesday is an example of technology integration to solve real-life problems. “When India Post approached us, we wanted to use the opportunity to tell people how technology can ease real life situations,” said Arya.Arya, along with professor BK Chakravarty, designed the specimen within a week. “The open source bot is an e-Yantra robot that was built in 2009 and is used as a prototype for projects and ideas,” said Arya.

Earlier, IDC had developed letter-boxes and easy-to-use trolley bags for handling mail at railway stations.