Taking robots to the classroom

Even during their engineering college days at Shastra University in Tamil Nadu, the trio was interested in robots. They even participated in an international event. But after graduating, each went his way, only to come back again later to start a venture to develop robots for multiple applications.

One of them, P Sudhir Reddy, who did course work for his doctoral degree on robotics after completing his Master’s from Florida University, set himself on realising his passion of developing robots. He was joined by Sundeep Reddy Rajula, with experience in design, and Mohan Krishna Naraharisetty, who had gained experience in business analytics and technology consulting.

The trio, in their mid-20s, took the plunge and floated Jay Robotix in 2010 with a ₹5- lakh bank loan. The unit came up at the Patancheru industrial area on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

‘Big opportunity’ Sudhir, who taught robotics to undergrad students in the US, realised that using robots for teaching was in nascent stages in India. “We saw a big opportunity here. We quickly grew our team to a dozen and put our efforts to develop various courses. Our target was engineering colleges,” he says.

Jay Robotix has come up with a Robotics Centre of Excellence concept, RoboGuru software and a 3D simulator. The latter will be a programming tool that will aid in learning concepts in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) through a linkage with course curricula, explains Sudhir, Managing Director.

Their persistence is paying off now, with an MoU signed with a large university to train 15,000 students in the next four-five years.

The company has gone back to the bank to raise another ₹25-lakh loan to scale up the business in education. The push came when the first centre of excellence was established in Sri Venkateswara Institute of Technology (SVIT), Indore.

How did Jay Robotix stay afloat to do research, design, develop software and engage engineering colleges to accept their courses? Says Sudhir, “We were involved in projects for the defence and industrial sectors in a small way. We were lucky to get a break with the defence forces in training simulators.”

In addition, pop up target robots and tactical simulators developed at the labs of Jay Robotix also found favour with the Indian Army to train its personnel in the north-eastern States. This engagement brings a steady stream of income, which cross subsidises costs for the education segment, he explains. They want to hive off the defence area into a separate entity soon and focus on education, where the scope is huge.

Big challenge Another area that has challenged the youngsters and where some progress has been achieved is industrial robotics. The company has come up with a prototype of a ‘Roboruka (ruka in Czech means hand). The idea is to make available a universal design, low-cost robot arm to help small and medium enterprises carry out shop floor activities such as welding, spray painting, material handling, loading and unloading.

At present the equivalents available from multinationals are prohibitively expensive to SMEs. Further, training people to use them is another cost. The company has developed a software that makes training easy, says Sundeep. There is a potential to rake in good revenues a year from now, when the product could hit the market, he feels.

The team’s heart is in leveraging robots for education. They have caught the imagination of school kids with their Robokid competition, in which 75 schools are participating this year. The winner is offered a robotics lab to be set up in the school, so that large number of kids benefit and Jay Robotix also get good mileage, says Sudhir.

Working with colleges At the level of engineering colleges, it is working with Manipal Institute of Technology to make an ‘online robotics education course’. On competition, Sudhir says there are companies like Think Labs and Intab. However, he feels their advantage is that they are into products and deployment and training using robots. “We are not just meeting the hobby expectations of kids, but extending it to sustained interest levels with different programmes and courses over years.”

The start-up has had a smooth journey financially, so far with 15 employees. But to grow into a multidimensional robotics company, talks are on to rope in a strategic partner. It is not averse to private equity funding as well, says Sudhir.

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