UIET Student Develops Low Cost Touchless Hand Sanitizer
Second year Mechanical Engineering student of UIET Panjab University
Chandigarh, Shri Arjun Mittal, has developed a very low-cost touchless
machine to dispense hand-sanitizer. Total cost of all consumables in
this machine is just Rs 500/-. This machine is instrumented with an
active IR (Infra Red) sensor, a small pump and one transistor. Shri
Arjun Mittal has not used any microcontroller in this machine but has
instead used a transistor as a switch to operate a small pump based upon
the signal of an active IR sensor.
Active infrared sensors both emit and detect infrared radiation. Active
IR sensors have two parts: a light emitting diode (LED) and a receiver.
When an object comes close to the sensor, the infrared light from the
LED reflects off of the object and is detected by the receiver. Active
IR sensors act as proximity sensors, and they are commonly used in
obstacle detection systems (such as in robots).
In this machine, whenever a user places his/her hands in front of the
active IR sensor, a pump placed inside the machine starts operating and
sanitizer is released. This machine is housed inside a transparent
Acrylic body. Panjab University has 78 departments and 15 centres at
the main campus in Chandigarh. If on an average 2 such automatic
hand-sanitizer dispensing machines are placed in each department/centre,
then 186 such machines will be required. At the rate of Rs 500/- per
machine, in just Rs 93000/- the entire campus of PU can be provided this
machine at required locations.
This machine was presented by Shri Arjun Mittal to Honourable
Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Raj Kumar today.
