A Class 12 student from Delhi Public School R.K. Puram has developed a low-cost semi-autonomous robot designed to help industrial facilities detect hazardous gases and identify potential safety risks, with the project now moving from prototype development to commercial adoption.
Ridit Aggarwal developed SAFR (Safe Autonomous Field Responder) using a Raspberry Pi-based system equipped with gas and volatile organic compound (VOC) sensors, thermal imaging, temperature and humidity monitoring, and a camera for visual inspection. The robot can detect gases including ammonia, hydrogen sulphide, methane and ethanol.
The system has been piloted and evaluated across industrial settings including breweries and distilleries, ferro-alloy and cement facilities, thermal power plants and small and medium-sized enterprises.
According to the project team, SAFR has been adopted or sold to four industrial organisations and a government hospital across Haryana, Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh.
The project has also moved into the startup space. Ridit’s venture, Ramsi Tech Pvt Ltd, has received ₹25 lakh in pre-seed funding to support further development and deployment of the technology.
Beyond the robot itself, the initiative has focused on industrial safety awareness. The team says it has conducted workshops that have trained more than 500 workers and developed a standard operating procedure and report titled Low-Cost Environmental Safety & Corrosion Risk Assessment: Framework for SME Industrial Facilities.
The robot is designed to collect and log data with location coordinates, allowing safety teams to record environmental conditions and inspection findings for subsequent analysis.
The project’s development comes as industries, particularly smaller facilities, face challenges in deploying sophisticated safety and monitoring systems because of cost and operational constraints. SAFR is positioned as a lower-cost alternative for environments where continuous human inspection can involve safety risks.
With the technology already tested across multiple industrial sectors and the startup securing initial funding, the project is now moving beyond a school-level innovation towards wider commercial deployment
