The Economic Times

Two 14-year-old girls from Kerala built a robot to save ancient palm-leaf manuscripts. Their invention is now headed for a global presentation

Two visionary students have unveiled Smriti 1.0, a cutting-edge robot aimed at the preservation and digitisation of fragile palm-leaf manuscripts. The machine employs suction and oil to gently cleanse and dry each leaf, while high-tech OCR capabilities convert the ancient writings into digital text. Their pioneering project clinched first place in a national robotics competition, propelling them to represent India at a prestigious international showcase in Puerto Rico.