AAKRUTI Innovation Competition 2026 · Robotics

AquaSentinel

Watches the river. Warns the bank.
Keeps the evidence.

A solar-powered float on a guide pole, clamped to a bridge pier. Every 15 minutes it reads the river; when a spill passes it turns its beacon red, sends an alert and seals a time-stamped water sample. The river moves it, not a motor.

SOLIDWORKSSOLIDWORKS SimulationENOVIAESP32Python
Explore the 3D model ▶ Watch the pitch Presentation (PDF)
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96readings a day, instead of one a month
0 motorsthe river lifts and turns it
≈ 1/25ththe cost of a real-time station (estimate)
66 partsdesigned and checked in SOLIDWORKS
The problem

Rivers don’t wait
for the monthly sample.

A spill passes in hours while the river is sampled once a month

Water-works

need a warning in time to close the intake.

Pollution board

needs a timed, sealed sample to act on.

People at the ghat

need a signal anyone can read: no phone, no app.

How it works

Sense. Decide. Act.

🔬

Sense

Every 15 minutes, on the float itself.

  • pH, conductivity, optical DO, turbidity
  • temperature and river level
  • probes on a pull-up cartridge with a wiper
🧠

Decide

On the ESP32, no cloud needed.

  • CPCB hard limits act immediately
  • site baseline learned in the first 7 days
  • acts when 2 of the last 3 readings are unusual
🚨

Act

Warn, alert, keep the proof.

  • 360° beacon turns red for the bank
  • SMS / LTE alert to the water-works
  • 250 mL sample sealed and time-stamped
Annotated AquaSentinel with every major part labelled
The float rides the river up and down its guide pole
  • A float on a pole, not a boat. A 2 in SS316L pole is clamped to the bridge pier; an 8-roller carriage lets the float ride 2 m of river level.
  • Weathervane by design. The pole sits at the bow, so the current turns the float and the pole carries no torque.
  • Zero watts to hold station. A 20 W solar canopy shades the pod and charges a LiFePO4 battery.
  • Off before a flood, no tools. The front of the carriage is a gate held by two T-handle pins.
Interactive

Take it apart in your browser.

Raise the river, open the gate, lift the sensor cartridge, trigger a pollution event, explode the assembly, or click any of the 66 parts.

▶ Load the 3D model

Prefer full screen? Open the viewer on its own page ↗

Videos

See it, then meet the team.

Pitch · 1:50

The problem, the solution and its impact.

Our journey · 1:58

The team, the brainstorming and how the idea grew.

Assembly & operation · 1:47

Every part in place, then a day on the river.

Full-quality 1080p files are on the latest release.

Engineering

Numbers, and how we know them.

CheckValueSource
Size · mass1.0 × 0.8 × 0.9 m · 48.5 kgCAD mass properties
Freeboard · reserve buoyancy143 mm · 2.27×Hand calcs on the CAD geometry
StabilityGM 0.55 m, rights itself to 60°Hand calcs on the CAD geometry
Guide pole, flood + debris38.3 MPa, safety factor 4.4, 1.3 mm swaySOLIDWORKS Simulation
Pier bracket3.7 MPa, safety factor 46SOLIDWORKS Simulation
Carriage jamming8.6× margin (1.7× with seized rollers)Hand calcs
Clashes over 2 m travel0Voxel interference on the real meshes
Spill detection4 / 4 flagged, each within 30 minDecision logic on 30 days of synthetic data
Prototype cost≈ ₹1.34 lakh vs ₹35 lakh+ per stationCatalogue prices
Design-stage estimates. AquaSentinel has not been tested in water yet; a tank test is next. Detection was checked on synthetic data, not field data. The full claims register is in the repository.
Guide pole von Mises stress
Guide pole: von Mises stress
Pier bracket von Mises stress
Pier bracket: von Mises stress
Detection on synthetic data
Detection replayed on synthetic data
Inside

Decides on the float.
No cloud needed.

Hard limits act immediately: anything outside CPCB Class C is an alert. For the first 7 days the float learns what normal looks like at its site, hour by hour, then acts when 2 of the last 3 readings are unusual, so a single splash cannot trigger a sample.

System architecture
The design journey

Our own CAD caught our biggest mistake.

In v2 the guide pole ran straight through the electronics box. Moving it to the bow fixed the clash and turned it into a feature: the float now weathervanes with the current and the pole carries no torque.

Design journey timeline
Open everything

The whole project is here.

CADSOLIDWORKS Pack and Go

Assembly + all 66 part files

 PresentationFinal Design Concept deck

13 slides, official AAKRUTI template

 DemoCommand dashboard

English · मराठी · हिंदी, synthetic scenario

 ValidationSOLIDWORKS Simulation

Pole and bracket studies with reports

 FirmwareESP32 edge controller

Sense, decide, act, log, alert

 Drawings6 × A3 drawing set

GA, installation, carriage, well, hull, bracket
Team Sanjivani Hero's Journey · AG26-1500$41

Made in Kopargaon, on the Godavari.

SK
Soham KaduProject Lead
SK
Shriraj KambleSystem Design
BK
Bhakti KadamElectronics Lead
TP
Tanmay PendbhajeSoftware Lead
KW
Dr. Kiran WakchaureMentor · Director Projects

Sanjivani University, Kopargaon, Maharashtra. Built for the AAKRUTI Innovation Competition 2026 with Dassault Systèmes, designed in SOLIDWORKS, validated in SOLIDWORKS Simulation and planned in ENOVIA on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.