School student creates 'hands-free' sanitizer dispensing robot

Motivated by the motto "stay safe and be clean" amid the coronavirus scare, a grade seven Indian student in the UAE has created a robot that dispenses sanitizers without the need of touching the bottle as it detects a hand from a range of 30 cm.

As a part of @SpringdalesDXB Innovative distance learning program SPRINGDALIAN Siddh Sanghvi of Grade 7- Motivated by the motto "stay safe and be clean" & FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19", has created a robot that dispenses sanitisers detecting a hand from a range of 30cm @KHDA @edarabia pic.twitter.com/6sBpWRi78H

— Springdales School, Dubai (@SpringdalesDXB) March 21, 2020

Siddh Sanghvi, a student of Spring Dales Schools in Dubai, said his mother showed him a video where people were touching the hand sanitizer's bottle to clean hands and getting infected. "But this defeats the purpose because coronavirus can be spread by touching contaminated surfaces," he said.

"So, I thought why not create something using the STEM technology, where the machine can dispense the sanitizer automatically, without bringing your hand in contact," added the young inventor. "Washing hands from a robotic hand sanitizer can be super fun. Not only does this discovery take your mind off from the COVID-19 pandemic panic, but it intrigues you to dig deeper," Sanghvi, who has a keen interest in Artificial Intelligence said.