The company, which has a team size of 28, is planning to set up 40 such facilities across India in major cities and mini outposts in districts and rural areas by 2020.

By | Published: 10:41 am 11:37 am

Hyderabad: T-Hub based startup H-Bots Robotics has opened its robotics and hardware making facility named ‘Makers Leeway’ in Hyderabad. The company which has invested about Rs 70 lakh in the new facility (major money going into inventory) has raised $1 million from Soniks Consulting.

Kisshhan PSV, founder of H-Bots Robotics told Telangana Today, “We are planning to set up a manufacturing plant in Shamshabad in next two months which will attract an investment of Rs 2-3 crore. The land has already been acquired and construction is in progress. We can make 50-60 robots every day. We will be raising $20 million next year to meet the expansion needs.”

Kisshhan got the idea to start such a lab 10 years back and since then he has been involved in robotics. Makers Leeway is a personalised lab facility that will enable prototyping, PCB designing etc to individuals, startups and will be open to all robotics and hardware enthusiasts to work on their ideas providing them equipment, hardware and other research inventory. About 50 people could use the lab at any given time.

Scaling up

The company, which has a team size of 28, is planning to set up 40 such facilities across India in major cities and mini outposts in districts and rural areas by 2020. The facilities will help develop solutions for social and commercial problems and aid in product development across verticals. Robotics can play a key role in agriculture, healthcare and security/law enforcement.

He said, “We are going to create a facility/lab Khammam by December this year and will spread to other districts too soon. We want to address social issues and problems. We have conducted an elaborative study and identified about 8,000 social challenges across India. MNCs will not try to address these problems. We are going to work with individuals, students and researchers in fostering social innovation using robotics. We are introducing a card system in August that will give individuals access to any of these 40 labs in the country which could be located in colleges and in independent locations, charging a nominal fee of Rs 500 per month. SMEs can make use of these facilities. Usage of inventory can be tracked and collaborations can happen of the card users. Intellectual protection of innovations happening will also be protected.”

Principal secretary, ITE&C Department, Government of Telangana, Jayesh Ranjan, said, robots are found to be useful in executing a variety of tasks. Chatbots are also being increasingly used in various industries. This emerging field will mean that country will have to create a talent pool in machine learning, artificial intelligence and coding. Several of the social problems could be addressed by robotics. It cannot be imparted in a class room set up and such labs need to be there to give practical exposure.

He said through TASK, the government can provide skilling and training support. It can also extend incentives and subsidies in various forms to the company.