A young engineer with the vision of leveraging technology to improve the lives of people finds ways to make conventional robots more intelligent. In 2007 he founded Gridbots which develops robots with a solution-centric approach. They consume only a fifth of the power consumed by conventional robots, and weigh only a third of their weight. Audio- and video-based analytics technologies make them more intelligent than conventional ones. We bring you the case study on Gridbots’ venture into robotics in an exclusive arrangement with India Brand Equity Foundation. This is the first in a five-part series from IBEF’s Innovations from India: Harbingers of Change. The series focuses on the innovation-driven entrepreneurial spirit of Indian companies.
The global robotics industry is estimated to be worth $17.6 billion. The Indian robotics industry is worth approximately $750 million and is expected to grow at two to two-and-a-half times the average global growth rate. In conventional understanding, robots are associated with industries in the manufacturing domain. However, advancements in technology have enabled robots to be put to use in domestic functions as well. Robots can be utilised for cleaning homes, swimming pools, sewage and water supply pipelines.
India is quickly gaining the maturity needed to start using robots. Customers in India are beginning to understand their usefulness. Many ventures have been initiated in India, wherein robotics technologies are being developed for improving the quality of life of people.
One of the most noteworthy examples of these has been that of Gridbots. The company began with the initiative of Pulkit Gaur. After acquiring a degree in engineering in 2004, he began his career in a multinational company. He rose to a commendable position and led a team of over 100 people. His work for the multinational involved driving key innovation initiatives. It was in 2006 that Gaur started to envision his own venture in the technology space. It was in mid-2007 that he realised his aspirations, when Gridbots was established. Gaur used his savings to initiate the venture. For him, the key motivating factors for venturing into robotics were to leverage knowledge to solve real world problems in ways that would have a lasting impression on society, and to develop the technology to make robots more intelligent. Since robots are associated with machines which can do work based on a pre-decided work plan sequence, Gaur decided to make robots more intelligent by infusing some key technological features.
Building intelligence
The journey began with developing key robotics technologies. The basic premise behind developing these technologies was to make the robots more intelligent.
The technology is termed as SLAM, that is, simultaneous localisation and mapping. It helps the robots to sense the environment and respond accordingly, and can be of two types. In VSLAM, that is, video simultaneous localisation and mapping, video data is analysed to derive outputs. In sensor-based SLAM, sensory signals (which refer to signals generated by vibration, noise, smoke, etc) are leveraged for delivering appropriate responses.
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The company also utilised an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system to analyse audio-visual data. The combination of SLAM and AI technology enables a robot to interpret visual and audio signals. For instance, just by looking at a person the robot can determine whether the person is a male or a female, or whether the actions performed by the person are appropriate or are in accordance with the protocol of the location. It also enables a real-time analysis of any situation. For instance, in a jewellery shop, a CCTV camera enabled with this technology can detect suspicious movements by a customer on a real-time basis, and alert the on-floor personnel almost instantaneously.
Technologies such as these form an integral part of the robot. As a result, the robot’s capability and usability increases. However, Gridbots does not want to call itself a pure play robotics manufacturer that works on the classical manufacturing theory of economies of scale. Instead, it prefers to be known as a “modular robotics solution maker”. By this, the company refers to the fact that it has a solution-based approach to any problem. The company does not develop a standard product and push it into the market. Instead, it tries to understand the pain points being faced by a company or a society, and then enables the robot with features that can address those issues.
Robotics in everyday life
The municipal water tanks that are used to supply water to households in the state of Rajasthan faced the issue of deposition of sand in the water tanks. Cleaning up the tanks generally required all the water to be drained out of the tank. However, Gridbots’ robots were able to perform an underwater operation, thus eliminating the need for draining the tank completely. Only about 10 per cent of the water in the tank needed to be drained. The product is called SaUsR (Smart Autonomous Underwater Service Robot), and it can do underwater inspections, operations and cleaning, up to a depth of 50 metres.
Gridbots has also developed a robotic solution called “Turtle”. This robot is equipped with features that make it very easy to use. For instance, Turtle robots are programmable. To combat the learning challenges involved in programming languages, Gridbots has developed a “visual programming language”. The language has a drag and drop option. This option helps users to program the “Turtle” easily without having to face the learning challenges involved with programming languages.
At the same time, Gridbots has been developing robotic solutions for the mass market. For instance, the robotic arm developed by Gridbots is finding its uses in small and medium enterprises (SME). These robots can help SMEs in automating certain processes such as polishing, packaging and loading their products. Considering that India has over 35 million SMEs, the robotics solution by Gridbots has a large addressable market opportunity.
Benefits
The Gridbots initiative has received an encouraging response. Here are some of the benefits it has resulted in:
Economic benefits: The robots developed by Gridbots come at a third of the cost of conventional robots. Gridbots robots are also a third of the weight of conventional robots, and consume only a fifth of the power consumed by a conventional robot.
Innovation impact: The company is in the process of filing three patents in the technologies that it has developed. The company calls these “machine vision technologies”.
Achieving scale: The company has been able to sell 10,000 robots since its inception. By doing so, it has been able to cater to the needs of about 20,000 people in India.
Gridbots does not want to expand without the appropriate service ecosystem in place. Since robotics requires a lot of maintenance post sales, Gridbots prefers to bring on board only those franchisees, channel partners or distributors who can support the after-sales requirements. In fact, the company has delegated specific responsibilities to each of its business associates. For instance, franchisees have been asked to educate customers on the potential uses of robotics, while channel partners have been entrusted with the responsibility of making sales and generating volumes.
Interest among associates: Bringing the solution concept into robotics has helped Gridbots generate a lot of interest among businesses which want to partner with it. The level of interest can be gauged by the fact that Gridbots launched its franchisee selection process in August 2010. Within 10 days of the launch of the selection process, Gridbots was able to select 10 franchisee partners. In addition to franchisees, Gridbots has been able to bring several channel partners and distributors on board.
Impressive clientele: Gridbots has been able to acquire clients in both the private and the public sectors. Some of these clients are Wipro, the Indian Navy and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Going forward, Gridbots has some ambitious plans. The company wants to develop robotics solutions that can help doctors to treat and assist their patients more effectively. It also plans to have its presence in almost all the major metropolitan cities of India, and then reach out to tier 1 and tier 2 cities. Besides its existing 15 outlets, Gridbots plans to open 85 retail franchise outlets pan-India by the end of the current fiscal year, with the aim of improving its brand visibility. The company has received seed funding worth $54,000 from the department of science and technology (Government of India). The company has also received orders from countries in Europe and the US. The future is bright for robotics.
Reprinted with permission from IBEF.
Next week, in the second part of the series, read the case study on EKO, the low-cost banking services company