Stirring up a ‘robolution’ in India

By OEM Update Editorial November 11, 2019 4:42 pm IST

SMEs should be ready to invest in robotics to enforce efficiency in their production
Amit Bhingurde, Chief Executive Officer, Brabo Robotics and Automation Ltd.

Amit Bhingurde, Chief Executive Officer, Brabo Robotics and Automation Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of TATA Motors. In conversation with Liesha Tripathi, he discusses how BRAL Brabo is bringing about a radical change in the Indian market.

Please walk us through your participation at the Automation Expo 2019.
We have been participating in Automation Expo since the last 4 years, mainly because we are growing rapidly in the automation sector. This year, we came out with maximum number of new robotic technologies; the latest technology that is being used in the industries is displayed here by Brabo.

How is automation and robotics bringing about a radical change in the defence sector? How is Brabo Robotics catering the defence sector?

If you ask me, defence sector is one of the key areas where robotics should be used. Though, we are not providing anything to the defence sector yet, we are looking forward to innovate new technologies that can support the defence sector, for example, mind detection to help near borders. We are currently in some initial discussions with defence R&D sector, where we are talking about how we can help them to create this robot for defence sector, and since this is the first Make in India robot, we feel we would be able to contribute more in near future.

There was news that Brabo Manufacturing Solutions is also planning to tap the SMEs with its robotics and automation solution. What is the status of the same? Are SMEs open to make such huge investments?
Our idea was to start Brabo robotics to mainly support the SMEs sector. At the end of the day, people look for ownership cost for SMEs sector i.e. the initial cost and subsequent after sales service cost. We have come out with robotics solutions, so it is an affordable robot and which can be used easily, maintained easily and is extremely user friendly; so that is the idea. As far as the question arises whether SMEs are ready to invest such money, let’s be honest, it is the need of the hour.

Today, in India, when people are getting educated, they would obviously want some different kind of skill sets, because people don’t want to do the labour job anymore as everybody is turning towards white collar job. Anyway, we need someone to do blue collar job too that us where robots come into the picture. Other reason is that you need productivity, quality and efficiency and if you fail to provide that you would not be standing strong in the market. Because of such factors and to be in the latest market trends, SMEs should be ready to invest in robotics to enforce efficiency.

Industrial robots have said to come of age. How much of that is true when we talk about Brabo (Brabo Robo)? Going forward, what are the new launches that we can expect?
If you see our journey, we started in 2014. In 2017, we launched our first Make in India robot. We started with the 5-axis robot with staple driven motors and going forward after supplying more than 100 of 5-axis robots across India, we realised that we make faster and more accurate robots for different sectors and industries. That is how we manufactured 12 kg and 20 kg robots with server driven motors and drives. This gives more accuracy and speed to the robot, which makes it useable to different industries. This is how transition happened. We call it ‘join the robolution’ because we are trying to create a robotic revolution which right now doesn’t exist for India but we are creating it.