“>Water and sanitation are two fundamental needs of any human being. In India, we face enormous challenges in providing universal access to both. In the water industry for example, while on one side we have 88 million people who lack access to safe water and have states where more than 40% of cities are drought-hit, we have non-revenue water (NRW, water losses in pipeline distribution) going as high as 40-50%, just in distribution losses. The case for sanitation, sewer line and septic tank cleaning, is even worse. Even after significant advancement in technology, manual scavenging is still rampant, leading to deaths, accidents and diseases despite being made illegal according to the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013. As per market research, one of the major problems in these sectors is the lack of automation and organization.

Solinas Integrity is an IIT Madras incubated Startup working in the water and sanitation industry and aims to solve both aspects of the problem. They have developed two robots with features as follows:

HomoSEP: The HomoSEP robot is designed to homogenize septic tank hard sludge and suck out the tank slurry using a vacuum pump. This HomoSEP robot will aid sanitation workers in cleaning the hard sludge without entering the potentially dangerous atmosphere of a septic tank. 
HomoSEP is a compact robot made up of five main modules. The bottom module can homogenize hard sludge with water to create a pumpable slurry, and the feeding machine module can push and pull the bottom module inside a septic tank manhole at a depth of 3-5 meters. The portable module is mounted on a mobile frame to hold the whole robot at actual septic tank sites. The electronic module is configured so that the entire robot can be operated by sanitation workers with a single remote. The suction module is intended to suck the homogenized slurry from the Septic tanks.
Figure 2 HomoSEP

Endobot: Solinas is developing a completely indigenous robot for pipeline inspections to reduce water losses and contamination. Endobot leverages visual techniques and image processing to detect defects inside the pipeline and do condition assessments. It is a remotely-operated and has a tethered crawler robot that carries multiple sensors into the pipelines to perform the endoscopy to detect and locate various kinds of defects. The data from the pipeline is further analysed to understand the ovality & c-value of the pipeline. This is immensely useful for asset maintenance companies to manage their pipelines.

Implementation & Impact
Focused on water and sanitation, Solinas products have an enormous impact on society in all forms. Their pipeline inspection robot  water loss by 600 KL every day per kilometre of the pipeline monitoring which translates to an economic saving of INR 7 lakhs per km/month to the city. They also provide data that enables pipeline operators to maintain their assets well before they need to be replaced, ensuring five times cost savings. 

Detecting leaks in time ensures that the quality of water in the household is kept high and also helps in reducing groundwater contamination by detecting leaks in sewer lines. Similarly, the septic tank cleaning robot, HomoSEP promises to completely eliminate manual scavenging and provide safety and dignity to Safai Karamcharis. It also empowers the state to clean septic tanks efficiently with lesser costs, thereby improving both social and economic impact. IoT will be leveraged to ensure municipalities know about cleaning the tank well before it starts overflowing and contaminating the groundwater. 

They have received INR 10 lakhs from Tamil Nadu start-up grant & INR 45 lakhs from CSR support to build HomoSEP. They would also be receiving INR 37 lakhs from the Akamai CSR program. They have paid customers for their product Endobot across Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Bhubaneswar. 

In total, they have inspected more than 7500 meters of water and sewer pipelines and currently, 20 kilometers of pipeline inspections are in order. They are in partnership with Ulhasnagar Corporation in Maharashtra and are closely working with the Coimbatore corporation as well. In terms of pipeline inspection services, they are charging INR 150-250 rupees/meter of inspection. The Endobot product will be priced at INR 20 lakhs for sale of 1 unit including the robot, a display unit, camera and 200 meters of wire. The HomoSEP product is priced at INR 20 lakhs.

Solinas Integrity is the winner of the ISGF platinum awards 2020 and the National Bio Entrepreneurship competition 2019. They were also among the top eight regional finalists in the ASME Innovation Showcase conducted by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2021.