Deep-tech manufacturing: Robots with human-like hand movements

A typical work desk in the 1980s would have a typewriter, fax machine, telephone, and calculator, among other tools of trade. Today a laptop alone can take care of all their functions.

Now imagine a similar redundancy in a parallel world of manufacturing, where any product — irrespective of model or size — can be produced on a single assembly line, as opposed to the multiple lines in use today.

This is the idea of ‘universal factories’ that Bengaluru-based CynLr (Cybernetics Laboratory) is bringing to life. Founded by Gokul NA and Nikhil Ramaswamy in 2015, the deep-tech robotics and cybernetics company has developed a robotic system that interfaces with industrial robotic arms to achieve human-like hand movements or ‘universal object manipulation’.

Gokul, the company’s CTO, explains that industrial robotic arms today are limited to performing predefined repetitive actions like picking and moving objects or products or parts. Due to this shortcoming a significant chunk of operations across industries cannot be automated currently. “We are now building a robotic system that can pick, place, move, and orient objects of any size and shape in any environment, like a human hand would,” he says.

Industrialisation 2.0

What these arms will help achieve is the next phase of industrial automation.

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“A lot of functions in the automotive and electronics industries — two significant adopters of automation — remain unautomated because the models/ objects/ parts keep getting updated, but repositioning the robotic assembly lines accordingly is time-consuming and doesn’t keep pace with the changes,” Gokul says. 

Citing trade research, he says the market size of industrial robotic arms is $16 billion and nearly 500,000 robotic arms are sold annually by makers such as Fanuc and Kuka, which are largely absorbed by the automotive industry, followed by electronics and logistics. Nearly 70 per cent of the robotic arms are deployed in just two activities — welding and painting, and the rest is used for palletising.

The smarter, product-agnostic robotic assembly lines can be rapidly repurposed for multiple uses at little additional cost, taking automation to newer areas of industrial production. Their adoption will lead to economic feasibility, consistent quality, higher productivity, reduced labour costs, and faster capital investment recovery, Gokul says.

Cost factor

CynLr’s customers currently include two of Europe’s largest automotive manufacturers and its products are piquing interest from the space tech and energy sectors. The company also targets business from electronics manufacturing.

Its products come in two variants — a manipulation stack (three-armed visual robots on a moving platform) priced $160,000; and a vision stack priced $30,000. Over the next five years, it aims to reduce its prices below $100,000 to spur more sales. The start-up has so far raised $5.3 million in funding over three rounds, with the latest led by Speciale Invest and growX Ventures. It aims to raise $18-19 million more by fiscal 2025-26.

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