ROBOTICS // COVER STORY
GYAN PRAKASH VICE PRESIDENT – ENTERPRISE IT, SCADA GEOINFORMATICS PVT. LTD.
“New generation of industrial robots are intelligent and autonomous, robots
RAGHU SUBRAMANIAN PRESIDENT AND CEO, INDIA, UIPATH
“Today, CIOs want to adopt the automation-first approach. However, they should
first ask what can be automated. Thinking automation first would enable them to dominate the competition by moving faster, resulting in improved productivity and efficiency. Additionally, CIOs should understand the ROI of automation which makes budget allocations for RPA projects easier.”
unspecialized in nature, are slowly being taken over by the bots and are rendering a large chunk of the workforce obsolete, unless they upgrade their skills to something that has not (yet) been robotized. It will lead to a cycle of reskilling that will change the very nature of the specialized skill market. This will change the nature of the jobs available in the market and drive it towards a more specialized and skilled workforce. Commenting on the challenges faced by the industry, Gyan Prakash, Vice President – Enterprise IT, SCADA Geoinformatics Pvt. Ltd. said “Despite strong interest in using Robotics by organizations, there is still perceived resistance holding back widespread adoption. Inevitability, much of the resistance is tied to cost, access to skills and a lack of understanding of how to produce attractive returns on investments; both up-front and ongoing through maintenance and programming of new tasks.” Besides that, Jayakrishnan T, IEEE Member
and CEO, Asimov Robotics says that “The major challenges faced by the industry are the lead time to deployment, increased cost and high expectation of the customer.” Most of present-day requirements in robotizations are comprehensive solutions that involve various components as explained in the industry 4.0 revolution. Since these solutions have to be developed from scratch, the lead time to development is too high, he elaborates. With respect to the high cost, as these solutions are developed for the first time, the expenses include the both hardware cost as well as development expenses which often affects the affordability of the solution. Finally, unlike enterprise solution, B2C robotic products at present finds it very difficult to meet the expectations of the customer. Hence it is highly important to educate the customer on the usability and limitations when it comes to a practical application. Commenting on the state of the Robotics Market in India, Jayakrishnan T, IEEE Member
whose improvements will be in the direction of : identifying specific objects, manipulation, knowledge, increase computing performance, numerically controlled remotely, working with miniature and complex products that require adjustment in the assembly, reliability and precision which exceeds human ability with the help of AI/ML & Edge Computing.”
and CEO, Asimov Robotics, said “Indian markets are not yet matured to include robotics as unavoidable part of the work force due to high initial cost and delay in identifying possibilities due to lack of knowledge. In fact, these two aspects are related since only volume can bring down the cost. Additionally, labour in India is not as expensive as in well-developed countries. Hence ROI of robotisation takes long time.”
FINALLY... The Robotic revolution though slow, is picking up pace in the Indian market. With assistance from the technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Robotic Process Automation can evolve exponentially. Though the lack of regulation and standardization complicates the matter. With technologies like AI and Robotics, there is no way of knowing when or where to stop. If we are not careful, we might just find ourselves in an apocalyptic Scifi movie.
JULY 2019 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD 25