Electronics and automation are areas that have always fascinated G Vamsi Krishna. After looking at the entrepreneurs around him at NIT Rourkela, he decided to look at home automation but quickly realised that the market is saturated. He decided to take the plunge anyway and register his start-up Awalk Innovations in August 2017 to deliver electronic prototypes to companies. Then, one of their first clients, Natraj Iron and Castings, approached them with an interesting proposition last year.
"They wanted us to develop a smart valve that could help tackle the water scarcity problem. These valves should be able to detect when the level of chemicals in the effluents from factories that are being released into the sea cross the permissible level," explains the 25-year-old. Now here was his chance to really put his love for IoT to good use and help the environment at the same time. So would you fault Vamsi for quickly jumping at the opportunity? Since they were only being asked to design a smart valve and not the motor itself, which would need them to get into the mechanical side of things, they were up for it.
Thus, enters Smart Valve. The very first thing it does is that it eliminates the need for a team of environmental engineers, operators and drivers to drive to the site and check the valve every time there is a problem, saving resources spent by canal management companies. It not only detects leakage but also its location which helps with the pipeline maintenance and repair.
"Basically, we are not just automating the process of operating the valves, we are also enabling them to monitor everything remotely via an app," explains Vamsi who pursued Electronics and Instrumentation from NIT Rourkela. Now, the 'them' he is referring to are their 20 clients in Vadodara, Gujarat like Bodal Chemicals, Loxim Industries, Kiri Industries and many more. In the big leagues already, so cool! "These are usually chemical and effluent releasing companies who need to monitor the effluents that mix into the water bodies and control it as per the policy," he adds.
But if you think this device is for factories alone, think again. Since it helps with sewage discharge management, public water distribution and residential water management, even residential areas can do with one. In fact, they are in talks with the water boards in Assam and Telangana to enable this. "There are players in the market who are supplying front-end support to apartment complexes, we want to help with the back-end side of things," he says. Here's to being more conscious of how we use and consume water.
What the Smart Valve is capable of doing
- Stop or redirect flow based on the quality of the water, based on pH, Chlorine and so on
- Operation reports for easy compliance with the Pollution Control Board
- Interconnect pumps, tanks and valves wirelessly
- Responsive web app to support seamless usage across all screens
For more on them, check out awalk.co.in
