Researchers at UPES develop unique sanitizing system for public transport

A team of researchers from UPES, including two students and faculty members, designed an automated detection, sanitization and screening system for fighting COVID-19 in public transport. The design system is proposed to be installed at the doorway of buses, to facilitate easy screening and sanitization of individuals boarding them

Sanitization of public transport is a cause of major concern for governments in these COVID-ridden times. In a bid to facilitate sanitization post the lockdown period, researchers at UPES are endeavoring to come up with a solution that can facilitate easy screening and sanitization of individuals entering the public transport. The researchers comprise Faculty of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, including Geetanjali Raghav, Suraj Meshram, Nilanjan Bharadwaj and a student of B.Tech Mechatronics Engineering Udayveer Mittal.

Geetanjali, talking about the uniqueness of the project, says, “It can be integrated with the existing transport system to sanitize with zero manual contact.” The project is in prototype phase and will be filing for patent shortly.  She further adds, “We will develop a prototype and apply for patent, and once developed, we also plan on proposing this project to the state and national governments for implementation in local transport system as this is the need of hour during lockdown and post the COVID crisis too.”

The proposed system will consist of three sub-systems, namely a camera to perform object recognition to ensure the person is wearing a mask, an infra-red camera/ temperature gun to do temperature screening of the individual and a set of high-pressure sprays coupled with proximity sensors to detect and sanitize the individual. Says Nilanjan, “These systems working together will ensure complete safety of all people inside the bus. Entry will be denied to those individuals who are either not wearing a mask or have a high temperature.”

B.Tech Mechatronics engineering students utilized their knowledge in making this system automatic, along with mechanical components. Udayveer, who was a part of this research team, elucidates, “As a person steps into the transport system, sensors located along the door will detect his presence and will provide a signal to the sanitizing system to operate. Thereby, the person will be exposed to sanitizer from top to bottom with the help of high-pressure nozzles. By this time, the movable system attached to the doors will detect the presence of mask. If not found, a buzzer will go off to indicate breach.”

The key objective of the project is to ensure that public transport can be resumed with limited capacity using this system. It also seeks to ensure minimum risk to the people commuting through public transport.