Robotics startups are benefitting from the growth in another industry, automobiles, as both share several components. The growing automotive manufacturing ecosystem makes it easier for the startups to source these parts, helping reduce the cost and time to manufacture their products.
Peppermint Robotics, which supplies cleaning robots to enterprises, has built its own supply chain in Pune, sourcing from the local automotive manufacturers, founder Runal Dahiwade said. “If you rip it (Peppermint’s robots) open, you will see that the integrated circuit (IC) inside it comes from an auto rickshaw which is made in Pune,” he said.
Another fundamental change came from the electric vehicle industry, which brought down the cost of motors, batteries and sensors in India, a huge challenge earlier. “All these things came together and robot adoption is no longer about cost. That is an important realisation,” Dahiwade said.
Sateesh Andra, managing director of Endiya Partners, which has invested in robotics startup Perceptyne, said for robotic systems, real-time decision-making is critical, and that requires processing at the edge since sending data to the cloud introduces unacceptable latency.
