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group of five Gadjah Mada University students have created an anti-mosquito robot, called Robotack-O-Mos, which is capable of resonating ultrasonic waves to get rid of mosquitoes.

'The device is environmentally friendly,' one of the inventors, Agus Wigardi of UGM's School of Mechanical Engineering, said.

The other four members are Diah Budiasih and Dwi Puspitarini of the Medical School and Aditya Doni P and Saprindo Prabantara of the School of Math and Natural Sciences.

The group won a gold medal during a national competition held earlier this month in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, for the creation.

Agus said the robot was created following the group's concern over the danger of anti-mosquito coils and spray commonly used.

'Both anti-mosquito coils and spray are posing bad side effects on peoples health,' said Agus, adding that the smoke from burning coils and moisture from anti-mosquito spray could cause dizziness and itchiness.

This, Agus said, had inspired him and his friends to create a safe and environmentally friendly way to get rid of mosquitoes. They looked for references, conducted research and sought solutions to get rid of mosquitoes effectively and with minimum side effects.

They finally found a way by using ultrasonic waves, which have a frequency of over 20 kilohertz (kHz).

This kind of wave can be heard by particular animals like bats and insects including mosquitoes but not by us, and thus is safe. We can only hear sounds within the frequencies of 20 Hertz and 20 kilohertz. 'Once hearing the ultrasonic wave, the mosquito becomes disoriented' Agus said.

The wave is applied on Robotack-O-Mos, which actually looks like a decorative lamp. Only, this particular lamp has a number of components including a motor, buzzer, accumulator and a speaker.

The accumulator moves the motor that is connected to the buzzer to produce ultrasonic sounds.

Another member of the group, Saprindo, said that the cap of the lamp could rotate 180 degrees to point the ultrasonic sound in all directions.

Saprindo also said that the group created two different sizes of Robotack-O-Mos: one is 15 centimeters by 15 centimeters with a height of 40 centimeters and a weight of 1 kilogram and the other is 30 centimeters by 30 centimeters with a height of 1.2 meters and weight of 10 kilogram.

An aluminum and brass carving is attached on the cap of the lamp to show the specific feature of the Yogyakarta province.

Diah Budiasih expressed hope that the device they created would be of some help to prevent the spread of diseases infected through mosquito bites such as dengue fever, malaria and chikungunya, some of which can lead to death.

'Actually there have been many ways of preventing the spread of such diseases but they still have side effects that endanger health,' Diah said.