Jaipur, Feb. 5 : A Chandigarh-based manufacturing company dealing in defense equipment has developed a robot that can diffuse explosives. The indigenously built robot is first of its kind in the country.

The robot is stated to have the potential of being a substitute for bomb disposal squads in which humans are involved to de-activate live bombs. Manual de-activation has always posed high risk to individuals in bomb disposal squads.

A demonstration of the robot was showcased here recently that coincided with a three day exhibition hosted by the Rajasthan Police.

"This robot has been developed for the first time in India and it has the feature of picking up a suspected object and will take it to a safe place for diffusing. The bomb squad can later diffuse it. The machine will diffuse the bomb without manhandling and it also has a gun attached to it which can fire on a suspected person," said Sunil Sahdev, Managing Director, Security Defence Systems, Chandigarh.

Sahdev further mentioned that a team of around ten engineers worked day and night for over three years in developing this robot that has a totally indigenous technology.

Robot’s special features, like being remote controlled within a range of 200 meters and having a machine gun fitted on its trunk to fire any time, attract attention. There are four cameras installed in the robot to capture view of all four sides.

"One camera is in on the top, which can focus the object, and two of them are on the front and the back, which can detect the pathway. It has RF (radio frequency) technology and data transfer is done through the wireless system," said Sushil Bharadwaj, a software engineer, Security Defence Systems, Chandigarh.

The robot is estimated to cost around rupees 60 lakhs (six million rupees) and the manufacturer has plans to supply it to the various defense and police agencies in the country.

So far such robots are only available in developed countries like the United States of America, Germany and Canada. (ANI)