Friday, March 29, 2024

“Design Engineers should not focus too much on Optimisation”

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Q. Are there any specific demands vis-a-vis robot design and functionality being put forward by your clients or some trends which you expect to dominate this field ?
A. One of the more common requirements we get in the robot specifications are for robots which are mobile and a little intelligent(having some level of Artificial Intelligence). A trend which has been picked up from the Western Markets is for the Robots to be modular. Modularity refers to a Robot’s capability to be able to be very flexible. For example, the same robot should be able to navigate through rough terrain and when a gun is mounted on it; be able fire at someone, fix a robotic manipulator, then the robot must be able to integrate that into its function (should de-activate mines and perform other motor functions). This is what most organisations are asking for now-a-days. So while designing our Robots we keep this aspect in mind.

Q. What about R&D centres and collaborations with foreign R&D teams?
A. Currently, Ahmedabad is our only centre. We have had a great work environment here and as of now, we don’t see a reason to expand our offices to other lands. As for collaborations, I don’t think it’s either required nor is it something we foresee (at least in the near future).

Q. Are your production facilities located in Ahmedabad too?
A. We have small vendors right here in Ahmedabad to whom we outsource the making of large orders or particularly skilled operations. For smaller orders, we have a manufacturing facility on-site.

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Q. What about testing/troubleshooting/debugging these robots?
A. We have a testing/debugging facility on-site too. After design at our facility, we send over the list of specifications to the individual vendors. The vendors manufacture the parts according to the specs we hand them and after they fabricate it. We assemble them, make the final product and proceed to test them extensively at our facility.

Q. What are your views on R&D in the country?
A. In most of the countries with an active R&D community, the focus is still to kind of reinvent the wheel. Nothing new is coming up. But, at Gridbots, our solutions are very fresh. We encourage out-of-box solutions. I think design engineers should not focus too much on optimisation, they should focus on inspecting solutions in terms of design and solving using a very different angle of perception. Competition is increasing day by day. The edge in this day and age is out of the box thinking, that’s how design engineers should think.

Q. Expansion in India?
A. We are having short-term plans to increase our presence in India. We are in talks with some domestic companies with whom we plan to collaborate on certain key aspects. They are putting up facilities and setting up a robot manufacturing setup where robots will be manufactured on a larger scale since industrial robotics is becoming bigger now.

Q. Since you are a relatively small company (with regards to ‘size’ and ‘reach’), what kind of marketing strategies do you employ to ensure maximum visibility for Gridbots?
A. We organise live product demonstrations for our clients. We demonstrate specific capability of our products and once they are convinced, we ask for their feedback and then customise it again to make it as per their requirements. Our director is a TED fellow and he goes to various places to deliver lectures, thereby increasing our visibility and reach. Plus, our strong work ethic ensures a good word of mouth going about and that’s better than anything we might do.

Q. So, moving on to your recruitment policy, what group of freshers are you looking for?
A. I, personally have no stringent, set-in-stone rules about recruitment. I don’t care if you have no experience. I don’t care if you were the best in your class from 10th to 12th or you graduated top of your class from IIT. We hire students from all spheres. We have B.Com students, math graduates, 12th pass, 10th fail. If he is coming for a technical job like the one at Gridbots, he should only satisfy our requirements, everything else is negotiable.

Q. That’s the first time I’m hearing something so fresh. I’m curious as to what those requirements are?
A. He should have the grasp of the basic concepts. He should always want to learn something new (at Gridbots, there’s always a chance for that). He should be proactive, willing to take responsibility on his/her shoulders. Lastly, he should be able to work in a team, take orders and put the team above all.

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