It was a time when robots were only limited to sci-fi movies and also to the robotic research sector, but in the present days, robots are being used in our daily life for household works. Yes, it became possible when Gribots came into picture, which is robotic start-up company contributing to the fields of consumer, industrial and military robotics.

Founded in 2007 and based in India, Gridbots is an entrepreneurial venture by an Indian engineer Pulkit Gaur, who is also the Chief Technology Officer of the company. He is a production and industrial engineer from MBM Engineering College in Jodhpur. The company is currently incubated by IIM-Ahmedabad's business incubator CIIE for the innovation in robotics and machine vision technology. Having an envision to make machines assist humans in routine tasks to make life simpler and efficient by saving precious time and energy, Gridbots took shape through his passion for robotics. "Earlier, working on the robots was all about taking part in competitions in my school days. And, then I soon realized robotics was in its nascent stage, and a lot can be built on it," he says. There comes the embryo of the idea for Gridbots.

Gaur claims that Gridbots makes intelligent cost effective robotic products to solve unmet needs and provide assistance in doing the tasks not possible for human being, but very critical for safeguarding the resources. With its image recognition application, Gridbots adds value to lot of recognition processes and leads to host of other novel applications. According to the company, the product line involves robots for home use, underwater robots, and surveillance and automation products. The robots used at home and hospitality robots are being manufactured under the gBOT series, the company says. Recently, it has developed a robot that can go underwater and clean water or chemical tanks. According to the company, this low-cost robot will remove any sludge particles in water. Also, as stated by the company it is a compact machine with tracks fitted movement and has a drive system on the front side to which a brush mechanism is attached to scratch dirt from the tank walls. This robot is available at Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 20,000, and is a consumer version of SaUsR, the robot that is already in use in medicine industries. These robots are targeted at those who make medicines. The company’s earlier products include – The Trurtle – an educational robot, autoGRID, gridSURV (provide fully autonomous surveillance round the clock) and many more. According to the company, however, the prices of its robots vary as per the functionality and its level of sophistication.

The company claims that its proprietary software and hardware modules work independently and efficiently, which provides an interface to access and control powerful hardware components with an ease which makes the complete system user-friendly, yet powerful. As a part of product strategy, Gridbots will function as a firm with two segments of products, one in Robotics and the other in Image recognition. While the underlying technology is a bit overlapping, but the application of the product is in totally different fields. Gaur said that the overheads will be minimized, and largely devoted to business development and technology products needed to deliver high quality experience to the clients. "We are devoted to both the segments equally. Strong technical and business teams will be deployed to further develop the market and orient it towards market requirements. All our products have been designed keeping the user in the mind and the specific problems they face," asserts Gaur. The company's few of the targeted customers include the educational institutions, stock photographic websites, analytic industry (television, and so on) and the photography houses.

Playing big in the robotics market with a competency in the technology domain, the company believes that its approach is tailored exactly to the needs and capabilities of the client. Having 15 dedicated team members, Gaur claims, "Having the best team of technologists, research scholars and a strong support of advisors from the industry we are poised to grow into a great and big successful business."

Having well-chalked out plans to spread its wings in the market, Gaur concludes, "We are working on developing defence robots, and also a surveillance robot that can be controlled via mobile or the Internet."