Imagine a home automation system that learns from the behaviour of users in the home and works accordingly. Vanora Robots – a Mangaluru-based robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) start-up – is working on such a process.

Krishnan Nambiar, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Vanora Robots, told BusinessLine that the start-up has designed a switch – ‘Hunch’ – that uses ‘swarm intelligence’ technology to learn behaviour of multiple users and to differentiate between them. All mechanical switches can be replaced with Hunch which can control multiple devices.

For example, when a person switches off the lights and fans in a school for three days, Hunch learns the routine. The next day when the person switches off the third switch, it asks if the remaining lights can be switched off.

He said the current automation systems rely on a single controller to process the input signal and send the commands to devices. Most home automation solutions fail because they are not programmed well or due to data communication failure.

“There was speculation about online safety, and people were concerned about their homes being open to hacking,” he said.

In such a situation, the user experience was one of the major factors for decision making when Vanora Robots designed ‘Hunch’.

No controller or Wi-Fi

Stating that it took two years for his start-up to develop a working prototype, he said the system does not rely on a single controller, neither it does need Wi-Fi.

The product is based on ‘swarm intelligence’, where it programs itself based on usage, learns behaviour of multiple users , and at the same time distinguishes between them.

Nambiar said, swarm intelligence -- in nature honey bees show swarm intelligence -- is the collective behaviour of decentralised, self-organised systems, natural or artificial. SI is the idea of coordinating massive numbers of individual technology entities to work together.

Nambiar, who started his career as an architect in the UK, shifted to robotics and artificial intelligence after getting a masters degree in autonomous robotics.

He said patent is pending on the product. The start-up is housed at the ‘K-Tech Innovation Hub’ in Mangaluru.

comment COMMENT NOW