FAMOUS HUMANOIDS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
For instance, both Mitra and Sayabot, which can be considered India’s counterparts to Japan’s Pepper, currently the most widely used customer service robot, cannot move their heads as Pepper does.
“The Japanese started humanoid research several decades before the rest of the world, have made much larger investments and have a history of technological superiority,” says Viswanathan of Invento.
It’s a cycle. Bigger investments, due to economies of scale, will make humanoids cheaper, and create the demand that will in turn push research and more production. “India doesn’t have the kind of demand that would create such an ecosystem,” says Kisshhan Psv, founder of H-bots. But demand is already coming in from elsewhere.
Hyderabad-based H-bots has built a Robocop complete with painted-on uniform, cap and gloves. It will be starting the first batch of deliveries later this month.
“The Robocop can recognise people, register complaints, scan faces to match a suspect or missing-person description, for instance, even in public spaces like malls and offices,” says Psv . “It has 360-degree vision. It can chase a suspect, though laws don’t allow it to grab or arrest someone. It currently speaks and understands English, Hindi and Telugu.”
The Hyderabad police gave H-bots feedback for the prototype. “Earlier, it was only supposed to be used to register complaints. They suggested we add a surveillance system and facial recognition. So we modified it accordingly. For test use in India, we asked them to restrict it to places like malls because of the rough terrain,” Psv says.
The company is also working on a humanoid for hospitals. “So instead of a nurse, a robot can record your body vitals like temperature and blood pressure, through a handshake, freeing up overworked nurses,” says Psv.
Domestically, Sheth of Ernst & Young says, there is potential for robotics deployment in hazardous jobs, such as in the Army.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation has already created a bot called Dakhs that can detect and destroy hazardous objects. Genrobotics, a Thiruvananthapuram-based company, has completed a test run of Bandicoot, a robot that cleans sewers. “It is in such areas that I see potential,” Sheth says.
So how many of the humanoids are likely to be deployed at home? Will we have Bandicoots on our streets and export batches of IRAS? Or will we too have entire hotels run by bots, as there already are in Japan? As a bot would tell you, in that stoic, flat-toned, mechanical voice —‘We do not know the answer to that question’.