The Indian Railways have been under a lot of pressure while screening hundreds of passengers every day for the COVID-19 spread. To assist the railway staff and lessen their burden, the Railway Protection Force (RPF), Pune, on Friday introduced a latest technologically automated robot called ‘Captain Arjun’ (Always be Responsible and Just Use to be Nice) to screen all the passengers in the railway station before their boarding. The Central Railways confirmed this in a statement.
This automated service by the robot is expected to boost the process of screening and monitoring passengers amidst the coronavirus induced lockdown. The robot is anticipated to screen every passenger while they are boarding and will also be surveilling any objectionable or offensive activities.
On Friday evening, Director General (RPF), Railway Board, Arun Kumar launched the Robotic Captain Arjun on a virtual event where Atul Pathak, principal chief security commissioner and Renu Sharma, divisional railway manager, Pune were also present. This latest initiative by the RPF has been praised by General Manager, Central Railway, Sanjeev Mittal who thinks that the measure is very creative and innovative. “The Robotic Captain ARJUN will protect the passengers and the staff from any possible infection and also its surveillance will provide enhanced security,” said Mittal.
Piyush Goyal, Indian Railway Minister, tweeted: “Adding another feather in the cap, Railways launched a robot’ Captain Arjun’, a device for enhancing the safety of passengers.” He also uploaded a video where the robot was shot screening the passengers.
A press release issued by Central Railways said, “Captain ARJUN is equipped with a motion sensor, one PTZ camera (Pan, Tilt, Zoom Camera) and one Dome camera. The cameras use Artificial Intelligence algorithms to track suspicious activity and antisocial activity, have an inbuilt siren, motion-activated spotlight H-264 Processor, there is also in-built internal storage for recording in case there is a network failure.”
After the thermal screening, the temperature is recorded by the robot in a digital display panel. The robot has an expected response duration of 0.5 seconds. In case the passenger’s temperature crosses the reference range, an unusual alarm gets switched on with a counting capacity of 999.
A two-way communication system has been used by Captain Arjun, which combines voice and video; it can also speak in the local language. There are also speakers inbuilt inside the robot through which it spreads various messages related to the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
Captain Arjun also has a sensor-enabled sanitiser and mask dispenser along with sanitisation facility for cleaning floors with proper and extended battery backup. The robot has sturdy wheels which enables it to walk through all kinds of surfaces.
Alok Bohra DIG/RPF, Central Railway is the man behind this innovative creation of Captain Arjun. “The high infection rates among multiple segments of people across the world have hampered efforts to tackle COVID-19 pandemic that prompted us to consider robotic screening. Captain ARJUN can be deployed for multiple uses, and it is an effective element in station access control and will augment the station security plan,” said Bohra.
The robot is expected to allow screening without any manual help, and its feature of monitoring is a great way to prevent any wrongdoing or abnormal activities and ensure security throughout the railway stations, according to Central Railway.
