Leaving the gas cylinder on, and smelling the house full of gas, is the stuff of nightmares. Sometimes, a leak isn’t detected—till someone lights a match, and it is too late.
Now, thanks to Shravani Reddy of Class 11 and Purushottam N of Class 9, from Government High School, Uttarahalli, you can rest easy. Their invention, Suraksha Ma, is a robotic sensor that can turn off an LPG cylinder in case of a leak.
One of the many projects displayed at the Dayanand Sagar Talent Search 2017, the device has a sensor that identifies the presence of gas. It then sets off a buzzer and LED flashlights to warn people. A servomotor, attachable to the regulator, simultaneously plugs the leak. All it takes is a few seconds.
The students are siblings and have invented other brilliant contraptions as well. Shravani worked in an Atal Tinkering Lab for six months, and, along with friends, came up with a blind eye sensor for the visually impaired, a flood detector, a smart irrigation system, and a heartbeat sensor. With her latest intervention, Shravani aims to keep everyone safe from gas leaks.
This is indeed a timely project. Speaking to the Times of India, she said, “There have been several gas leak cases, some of which have led to building collapse. When we collected data, 82% of victims were found to be women. The realisation that our mothers who work with gas cylinders are always at risk gave birth to the idea.”