In India alone, the warehouse automation market will be more than 10,000 crores in next five years.

Neeraj Sharma, Co-Founder, Addverb Technologies

How do you assess the scope and potential for robotics and automation technologies across the manufacturing and supply chain companies / segments - the size of the market and expected CAGR?

There have been some key triggers in last five years which have changed India's supply chain and manufacturing sector, such as the rise of e-commerce and it has spread into every nuke and corner of the country after internet data revolution, the growth of organised retail in major towns and cities, implementation of GST which led to the consolidation of small warehouses, the high real-estate prices in cities which forced the consumer warehouses to outside the city and supply and demand fluctuations.

These triggers necessitated a flexible supply chain to accommodate the demand surges and reliable warehousing operations that help in fulfilling the requirement within the stipulated time and in an accurate manner. As operations scale up, it is critical to improve the productivity of people working in the warehouses and factories. And here comes Industrial robotics to the rescue. So, in line with that the demand for automation solutions such as autonomous mobile robotics, automated guided vehicles, etc, is increasing as these can improve the productivity drastically vis-a-vis manual operations. Also, the packaging robots, once constrained to the assembly line are making way into the warehouses for different applications such as bin picking, pick & place, and then mobile robots which are used for multiple applications of material transfer inside the warehouses.

The global robotics technology market size was valued at $62.75 billion in 2019, and is projected to reach $170.08 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 13.5% from 2020 to 2027. We envision to be global Robotics company to touch the Asia-Pacific industrial robotics market i.e expect to grow by 13.39% in terms of robot system revenue and reach $97.0 billion by 2026, representing the largest regional market in the world.

Could you throw some light on the latest solutions developed and being offered by Addverb Technologies?

The idea is to focus on converting the 'static factories &warehouses' into 'dynamic&smart' factories driving up productivity and efficiency. To drive up efficiencies in the system by almost 300-400%, industries analyse and take decisions themselves for changes. Addverb has extensive offerings to meet those exponential demands, and we have incorporated our industry experience in our products to give the best in class products and solutions to our clients. Hence, we see ourselves rightly positioned to realise this opportunity.

While some industries had an adverse blow due to the shutdown of the economy and the lockdown, some other industries flourished, especially the groceries, F&B, pharma and FMCG industries. To meet out the increased demand and the handicapped supply chain, automation has emerged as the levelling point and with-it various distribution concepts such as micro fulfilment centres arose. Till now, the concept of micro fulfilment centres was restricted to some of the advanced countries, but now they are mushrooming in India. With a diverse range of automation product portfolio, we can design multiple solutions of micro fulfilment centres. Some of the significant components that can fulfil the customer order fulfilment within an area of 2k to 10k sq.ft. and within 2 hours of order placement are Dynamo - our autonomous mobile robots, Quadron - our carton shuttle bots, Veloce - our multi-purpose vehicle, Box-it- our picking stations, and the web of smart conveyors.

We are also launching a few solutions to enable picking such as bin picking robot, cobot and a few other applications for our existing Dynamo line. In WMS, we are launching various modules such as slotting, inventory management, picking through AI-based algorithms to make it smarter and autonomous.

Also, to successfully fight the pandemic and assist the frontline warriors of Covid-19, we have designed and deployed Decimator - our disinfectant mobile robot across hospitals and quarantine centres. This can be used across multiple public places such as shopping malls, airports, railways stations, schoolsetc to disinfect with UV rays. With 50mj/cm2 UV light, it kills the virus/bacteria/fungi to 99.99% & helps in reducing the contraction of facility acquired infections by keeping the surroundings clean. With the natural navigation capability and the computer vision, Decimator moves from place to place and sprays UV rays in 360 degree.

How the pandemic has opened up new avenues of solutions in mobile robotics applications?

The latest development has been the rise of online deliveries for grocery and other personal care and home care items which has been triggered due to Covid-19 pandemic. Companies are also constrained by manpower availability to manage the warehousing operations as many people have left for their hometowns due to the lockdown. To maintain adequate social distancing and to ensure that many people do not touch the product during the warehousing operations, companies must assort to automation, and hence the pandemic has accelerated the adaptation rate by 10-15%. Especially, the Goods-To-Person technologies like mobile robots, carton shuttle robots have been picking up extremely fast. These technologies ensure fast, productive, and reliable warehousing operations.

Another reason the rise of micro fulfilment centres which are sprouting across the country to ensure a low cost and fast last-mile delivery of orders. MFCs can achieve performance expectations through manual and automated solutions. Needless to say, MFCs implementation will give enormous rise to mobile robotics applications to fasten the operations and fulfil demand on time every time.

Could you tell us the transformative impact of IoT, AI etc on robotics and especially in the navigational part of it? How do you ensure safe and trouble-free movement goods and navigation in the products you offer?

With the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0, mobile robots have been used for many applications in various fields such as industry, space, defence, and other social sectors. They have been used for material handling, picking, special applications such as disinfectant robots, etc. Therefore, an intelligent mobile robot is required that could travel autonomously in various static and dynamic environments. Several techniques have been applied for mobile robot navigation and obstacle avoidance. For instance, LIDAR - Light Detection and Ranging technology, which is an essential ingredient in robotic autonomy and navigation. It allows mobile robots to extend outside controlled situations and pre-defined task functions in unpredictable and unfamiliar conditions. The benefits provided by SLAM technology include easy navigation without reliance on external technologies and real-time formation of 3D maps with reduced cost and power requirement. Another is Vision system of the robot, which allows the mobile robot to see its environment as a human see and interpret the information. Vision-based navigation technique uses a computer algorithm and data from optical sensors calculate the optimal path. These sensors collect & process the data in real-time.

Our mobile robots are based on the LIDAR (light detection and ranging) technology so, from a safety standpoint, the point of entry is to make sure you have what is recognised as a capable safety system to detect objects and people and to react appropriately. This also allows the robot to assess appropriate risk behaviour models, which is essential for managing safety in robot-human collaboration. Deep learning technology is also used for path optimisation & obstacle identification. In addition to that, in all our mobile robotics, we follow SIL 3 Level safety standards.

In the earlier systems, robots used to take directions from the central server, but now robots are talking to the other robots on the floor through fleet management systems without interacting with the higher up systems for small decisions. This is being possible through various IoT systems and the ML & DL algorithms that are enabling the continuous visibility of the operations & predictive and preventive maintenance.

What do you think the major challenges in the faster development and adoption of robotics solutions? Which are the major clients that drive the demand for robotics?

We would like to answer this question in the perspective of automation in large. Indian industry is graduating and is graduating fast from go-downs to modern warehouses. In yesteryears' go-downs, the goods were kept on the floor in an unorganised fashion, and material movement used to happen through people carrying the goods from one point to another point. But due to the rise of ecommerce, GST and tremendous competition, some companies started taking the 1^st step to build quality warehouses that is warehouses that are structurally strong, stable, with suitable flooring and a height of minimum 7m-10m and these companies are gradually moving towards modern way of handling material. Still, this is 20-25% of total warehousing and is not enough to bring a significant transformation in material handling. In fact, automation is much more meaningful when vertical space is utilised along with reasons such as throughput requirements, which can't be achieved by increasing labour, space constraints such as single facility operations, equity or customer demand for instant gratification such as 2-4 hour delivery window, then people need automation.

So, after knowing the levers of automation in the Indian context, let's look at the significant impediments of modernising material handling.

- Infrastructure Availability - Height, quality, floor of the building etc is one of the major impediments to adopt automation and modern-day material handling using robots, shuttles and other automation equipment. Some of the green field warehouses are built with acceptable standards, but most of the warehouses are not.

- Knowledge of the People - It includes two parties.

- Automation Providers - Most automation providers do not educate people enough about the different types of automation solutions. During our initial days, we gained the trust of customers through PoCs wherein we demonstrated the capabilities of the systems at a miniaturised scale before implementing at a large scale; virtual commissioning of the solutions, workshops and training etc. More and more players should do such knowledge workshops, supply chain meets, PoCs etc to educate the customers and to widen the knowledge of the customers and to enable informed decision making.

- Customers Measurement of Automation KPIs - Wrong KPIs to measure the ROI of the equipment- Substituting manpower with robotics gets justified in developed economies such as Europe & US, but not in India. Here, the parameters that justify automation should be- solving the real problems like the scale of operations, picking accuracy, reduction of reworks, increased throughputs, storage density etc. More and more projects and operations people must follow this to get approvals.

- The very mindset that warehouse operations can be done by people who have limited knowledge of the technology - Though this scenario is changing; still, this is one of the major impediments of automation.

Right now, the consumer-facing industries such as FMCG, F&B, groceries, fashion, retail and pharma industries are heavily investing in automation and they continue to do so for the next 3-5 years.

Could you brief us on your R&D and what are the new solutions you are excited about?

We have a truly multi-disciplinary team of engineers such as IT, embedded, electrical, mechanical, mechatronics, design etc. A large chunk out of a team of 450 engineers is working in the R&D department, driving the research on various products of ours, and building solutions that can seamlessly integrate with any software or hardware. These software technologies are enabled with advanced technologies such as AI, natural navigation, DL, ML are giving us an edge in comparison to the existing technologies in the market. We have also commissioned a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Noida, where robots make robots, and it is one of its kind in the entire world. This manufacturing facility helps us to descend the design to the manufacturing cycle and lets us experiment with different iterations of products. The manufacturing facility comprises an advanced electronic manufacturing line, fully automated tool room, paint booth, machine shop and automated assembly sections and material storage. With innovation being at the core of our DNA, we spend 10% of our revenue on R&D, which has not only played a pivotal role in creating the extensive product portfolio that we have but has also shaped our journey by making these products affordable to a lot of SME businesses through affordable and sustainable technologies.

What is your assessment on competition in this field - from within the country and out of the country - and what differentiate up Addverb Technologies?

 The robotics and warehouse automation field has got a tremendous push due to Covid-19. In India alone, the warehouse automation market will be more than 10,000 crores in next five years. As we have expanded ourselves to the global space, the major players in the market are Knapp, Dematic, Intelligrated, Vanderlande, Daifuku and Schaeffer, to name a few. With a wide variety of product portfolio, Addverb Technologies competes with different players depending on the category.

Our software interfaces are powered by deep tech technologies giving us an edge over all our competitors. Also, our ability to combine the traditional or fixed and the flexible automation is the unique feature, which clubbed with our In-house state of the art manufacturing capabilities, gives us the flexibility to provide innovative solutions.

How do you foresee the future trends, and also throw some light on your roadmap? 

The company aims to become the world leader for the mobile robotics segment and intends to make India the factory of the world and a hub of innovation for industry 4.0 technologies. In the next three years, we aim to generate revenue of INR 4000 crore and looking forward to penetrate the consumer industries such as education, hotels, and airports through another level of breakthrough solutions. The end goal is to pioneer human-robot collaboration to deliver affordable and sustainable technological solutions.

Hits: 36