Lending MSMEs a helping hand

An MSME shop floor near Chennai has nothing unusual, just scuff marks, the constant hum of machines and heat radiating from them. Till you notice a custom-made robotic arm toiling shoulder to shoulder with the workers.

It’s the invention of a father-son duo, running a small-scale unit at Irungattukottai Sipcot industrial estate, to deal with repeated labour shortages. So, the robotic arm is specific to the needs of small industrial units. The inventor: Abilash Chakaravarthy who has a degree in mechanics. He put in extra hours at his father’s factory to experiment with various tools, learned programming and circuit and embedded design. And spent 4 crore on product development.

“The first year was very tough in development with a lot of trial and error,” says Abilash, founder and managing director of robotics startups Ace Robotics.

His father Dr S Rajasekaran, who owns the industrial unit and is co-founder of the startup, comes with expertise in machine learning, (ML, like AI) in machining process, process control management, and other industrial automation processes. He is also part of various industry and academic bodies.

Initially, Abilash deployed an early prototype of the robotic arm at their facility in 2017. He had no plans to sell it. But after showcasing the product at a machine tool exhibition, the response changed his mind.

Now the company has two patents in design and a couple more in the pipeline. It has a manufacturing facility at Ekkatuthangal in Chennai. And 90% of the components are made in the country. Only a few parts such as servo motors and chips are imported. He tried manufacturing servo motors, the part that provides precise control of angular or linear position, but could not manage costs.

“The demand for robotic process automation is higher in small and mid-tier units, but price remains a major constraint and lack of know-how also dissuades a lot of people,” says Abilash.

Ace Robotics rolled out its commercial product in March 2023 and started serving customers across the country, including in Bengaluru, Pune and Punjab. It now offers robotic arms in the 3 kg, 6 kg and 12kg payload categories and is developing a 20kg variant. It is focusing on CNC and VMC machine operations for auto, aerospace, consumer pipefitting industries.

This year the startup plans to sell more than 100 units and is working on three to four products, including robots for cold and hot forging, injection molding applications, house-cleaning bots and frying bots with an eye on commercial kitchens.

Ace Robotics sells tailor-made products in the range of 14.5 lakh-15 lakh including the cost of the robot, installation, training and auxiliary support, which it says is cheaper than MNC products.

The machines can be operated for long without break, even on Sundays, says Abilash. “Though they cannot match human speed, they provide consistent output, which can prove more valuable. The focus is on automating areas with manpower shortage and safety risks,” he says.

India’s industrial robotics market is now dominated by imports from Japan and Germany. But, says Abilash, imported products are made for major industrial shop floors and are not suitable for space-constrained Indian industries, especially small ones. Their pricing is also not suitable for MSMEs, he says.