There has been a lot of buzz around AI, Machine Learning and IoT both globally and in India. Currently, AI techniques like machine vision are still in a nascent stage in India. Implementations of Machine Vision will take a significant amount of time and resource among the organisations to acquire knowledge of hardware components like camera, optics and lightings.
As for demand and acceptance of machine and computer vision systems, the demand is largely from the early adopters who are keen to adopt the latest technology-oriented solutions, and organisations are yet to enter a phase where there is mass demand for this technology.
Founded in 2017 by Sharan H and Manjula Patil, Bangalore-based RedBot Innovations deliver machine vision, computer vision, industrial automation solutions that help to transform smart manufacturing and business operations.
Flagship Product
The key solutions portfolio of RedBot includes assembly inspection, surface defects, non-contact measurement, packaging label and process flow inspection. As non-manufacturing applications, the flagship product is contactless facial recognition and thermal system integrated with an attendance management system.
The company has developed almost 20 new vision products for quality inspection in the manufacturing industry which meet the requirements of customers. Their recent flagship product with face recognition can identify a person accurately from a distance of 1.5m and can handle 10,000 faces.
The thermal system integrated with an attendance management system can replace a contact-based biometric system that is potentially unsafe as a medium for the transmission during the pandemic. This product helps the customers in ensuring the safety of the employees and visitors going forward at their office and manufacturing premises.
How Is It Different From Other Products In The Market?
To this question, Sharan stated, “I would like to say that our differentiation not only lies in our products but in the overall service experience and solution fit. We differentiate ourselves as a single-window integrator for all hardware and software components be it camera, software development, automation components, installation, commissioning and after-sales service.”
He added, “As for value delivery, our products developed for manufacturing have more than 98% inspection accuracy with high repeatability and throughput. Our vision systems are capable of working in open environment light conditions too. Besides, our systems are robust and highly customisable as per the need of customers.”
Use of AI and ML
Sharan said, “We integrate all core technologies like Machine Vision, Computer Vision, Image Processing, Machine Learning, Deep learning, Robotic Guidance, Industrial Automation (like PLC, Pneumatics, Mechanical automation). However, we basically use the main computer vision fundamentals rather than only ML or DL.”
According to Sharan, RedBot uses AI and ML in mainly two fields. One is for large database applications, and another one is for image processing. The company focuses on the best lightings, a vast number of pre-processing and post-processing algorithms, various hardware integration techniques and mechanical automation.
He added, “We would like to re-iterate that only frontend and backend software doesn’t ensure a robust product. It is the total seamless integration of hardware such as camera selection, lens and lighting selection, and software such as detail analysis of images, pre-processing, pixel counting, image tolerance, pattern matching algorithms, fine-tuning based on the changes in the images, feeding of learnt images to RNN, and CNN at the later stage.”
Tackling Hiring Phase
The company hires those candidates who have a passion for technology and need a platform to develop their skills with hands-on experience. Sharan said, “As ours is largely an R&D based product development company, attitude and approach towards problem-solving is another parameter for tackling the talent crunch.”
Potential Competitors
As potential competitors, RedBot Innovations considers MNC companies like Cognex, Keyence and other such companies.
Future Roadmap
Currently, Redbot Innovations is planning to enter the defence manufacturing and security surveillance industry to serve the country in terms of indigenous development. In the next 5 years, they are planning to build their brand reputation based on the excellent customer service experience from a long term perspective and not on the scale or rate of growth.
