Robot ‘Capt Arjun’ scans passengers at Pune railway station

Pune, June 13

The Central Railway’s Railway Protection Force, here, has deployed a robot, ‘Captain Arjun’, to screen patients and also enhance security surveillance at the Pune station, an official said.

“The ‘Robotic Captain ARJUN’ (Always be Responsible and Just Use to be Nice) keeps an electronic eye on to screen passengers and a watch on anti-social elements during boarding time,” said Central Railway (CR) chief spokesperson Shivaji Sutar.

The first such robot on the CR was launched by RPF Director-General Arun Kumar in the presence of CR General Manager Sanjeev Mittal, Principal Chief Security Commissioner (PCSC) Atul Pathak, Divisional Railway Manager Renu Sharma, CSC Alok Bohra and Divisional Security Commandant Arun Tripathi.

Besides, the CR had installed FebriEye body screening facility at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus to detect temperatures of multiple passengers entering the premises, said Mumbai DRM Shalabh Goel.

Lauding these automatisation efforts, Mittal said the Robotic Captain ARJUN would protect the passengers and rail staff from any possible infection and its surveillance would ensure enhanced security.

Built by the RPF Pune team, with the help of technical experts, the robot is equipped with motion sensors, one pan-tilt-zoom camera and a dome camera which use Artificial Intelligence to track suspicious or anti-social activities.

It has an inbuilt siren, motion-activated spotlight, and inbuilt storage for recording in case of a network failure.

Captain ARJUN does thermal screening and records temperatures in the digital display within half-a-second, and if the temperature is higher than desired, it sounds an automatic alarm with a counting capacity of 999.

It also comes with a two-way communication mode, voice and video and speaks in local language Marathi, has speakers to broadcast public awareness messages, floor sanitisation ability and rugged wheels, which can move freely on all kinds of surfaces, said Sutar.

“The high infection rates among multiple segments of people around the world have prompted us to consider robotic screening and Captain ARJUN can do it without physical encounters for best security,” said Bohra, who was the brainchild behind the initiative. IANS