Project Report on

ROBOTICS IN INDIAN AUTOMOBILE

INDUSTRY
A REPORT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT
FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
IN
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Under the Supervision of

PROF. DR. SUDIP MUKHERJEE
Submitted by

AKASH SASMAL - 17101103034

ANIK HAZRA - 18101103081
ASIM CHANDRA - 18101103086
BIBEK KUNDU - 18101103092
BISWAJIT PAUL – 18101103082
MOLOY SARKAR – 18101103087

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

JALPAIGURI GOVERNMENT ENGINEERING COLLEGE

(A Government Autonomous Engineering College under Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University
of Technology (formerly known as WBUT))
JALPAIGURI – 735102

MARCH 2021
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is our proud privilege to release the feelings of our gratitude to several
persons who helped us directly or indirectly to conduct this project. We
express our heart full indebtedness and owe a deep sense of gratitude to our
project guide Prof. Dr. Sudip Mukherjee sir, without whose valuable
suggestion and comments, we could hardly finish this project.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to Department of Mechanical

Engineering, Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College, for their kind
guidance and encouragement and also like to thank respected principal of our
college for allowing us to do this project.

The study has indeed helped us to explore more knowledge related to our
topic and we are sure that it will help us in my future.
AKASH SASMAL – 17101103034

ANIK HAZRA – 18101103081

ASIM CHANDRA – 18101103086

BIBEK KUNDU – 18101103092

BISWAJIT PAUL – 18101103082

MOLOY SARKAR – 18101103087

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College

Page | 2
FORWARD

I have immense pleasure in certifying that the project entitled “Robotics

In Indian Automobile Industry” submitted to the department of Mechanical
Engineering, Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College is bona-fide record of
work performance by the group of students as a result of their combined and
untiring effort under my guidance and supervision. The main purpose of this is
to help the students to activate their skills most effectively, in applying the
knowledge they have already acquired to reach a satisfactory solution of
engineering problem, particularly those involving in the process of “Developing
India with Automation". I think they will be able to deal boldly with such
problems in practical field in future.

I wish them every success in life.

Prof. Dr. Sudip Mukherjee

Dept. Of Mechanical Engineering

Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College

Page | 3
 Government of West Bengal

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College

Jalpaiguri-735102, West Bengal

CERTIFICATE
I have immense pleasure in certifying Akash Sasmal (2017-2021), Anik
Hazra, Asim Chandra, Bibek Kundu, Biswajit Paul, Moloy Sarkar , of 2018-
2021 final year student (B-TECH) of Mechanical Engineering Department of
Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College for their project “Robotics In
Indian Automobile Industry” under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Sudip
Mukherjee, a distinguished member faculty in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering of Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College.

This is confided record of the project work submitted by them towards

partial fulfilment for obtaining the degree of “Bachelor of Technology” in
Mechanical Engineering from Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College.
I do think that they will be able to deal efficiently with such problems in
practice. I wish them all success in their future life.

Prof. Subrata Bhattacharya

(Head of the department)

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College

Page | 4
 CHAPTER-1 Page No
1. Introduction

1.1 Introduction and History of Robotics 8-9

1.2 Automation 10

1.3 Semi-Automation 11

1.4 Objectives 12

CHAPTER-2
2.1 Main Components of A Robot 14

2.2 Six Basic Motions 15 - 16

2.3 Principle and Theory of Automation 17

2.3.1 Power Source 17

2.3.2 Feedback Controls 18

2.3.3 Machine Programming 18

2.4 Programming Languages 19

2.5 Applications of Robots 20 - 21

2.6 Design of A Robotic Arm 22

2.7 Advantages 23 - 24

2.8 Limitations 25

Chapter-3
3. Robotic In Indian Automobile Industry 27

3.1 TATA 28 - 29

Page | 5
 3.2 MARUTI SUZUKI 30 - 31

3.3 HYUNDAI 32 - 33

CHAPTER-4 Page No
4. Future Of Robotics 35 - 36

4.1 An Army of Robots 37 - 38

4.2 Unique Quandary 38

4.3 A Renewed Opportunity 39 - 41

4.4 Digital Factories 41 - 42

4.5 The Future Office 43 - 44

4.6 Conclusion 45

References 46

Page | 6
 CHAPTER - 1
Introduction

Page | 7
 1.1 Introduction and history of robotics
History reveals that the human race has always been having
a craze for newer innovations, for protection against
environmental effects, raising standards of living, safeguarding
against hazardous situations, etc., etc. This quest gave rise to the
development of several different types of machineries over a
period of many centuries. The industrial revolution prior to,
during and after the second world war and the corresponding
global competition in the manufacturing industries resulted in
continuous improvements in production machineries and
processes from various angles, such as increasing production
rates, improving quality of products, ensuring safety for men and
machines, etc. This led to the advent of semi-automatic and
automatic machines and systems.
In the postwar era, the technological developments the
world over occurred at an extremely rapid rate. In 1950s, the NC
Machines changed the whole concept and pace of manufacturing,
which was markedly revolutionized with the introduction and
application of computers in manufacturing. These improvements
have continued and the entire concept and scope of
manufacturing has drastically changed with the advancements in
micro-processors, electronics, computer technology, control
systems and many other similar areas. A very useful development
in this series of innovations are the Robots, especially Industrial
Robots.
Robotics is a multidisciplinary science, encompassing a
number of fields like computer technology, control engineering,
sensing, techniques to recognise shapes, mechanical design,
kinematics and dynamics of machinery manufacturing processes,
etc.

Page | 8
 Historically, origin of the term 'Robotics' is related to a
French author Isac Asimov who gave the following three popular
rules of Robotics:
1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through
inaction, allow one to come to harm.
2. Robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings
except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such
protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
According to the history of technology, the term 'Robot' is
known to have been derived from a Czech word 'Robota', which
means a 'Slave labourer' or Forced labourer. A Robot can be
conceived as such an automated machine which can be
programmed and carries many bumanistic characteristics in
respects of its different movements. Once programmed, it can
repeat the same sequence of motions any number of times. Also, it
can be reprogrammed to perform a different sequence of motions
to suit different types of requirements.
Many efforts have been made by different people to define
'Robots' in their own ways. However, the most widely accepted
definition is the one given by the Robot Institute of America (now
known as Robotic Industries Association) RIA, which goes as
follows:
"A robot is a programmable, multi-functional manipulator
designed to move material parts, tools, or special devices through
variable programmed motions for the performance of a variety of
tasks."

Page | 9
 1.2 WHAT IS AUTOMATION?

Automation is the technology by which a process or

procedure is performed with minimal human
assistance. Automation, or automatic control, is the use of
various control systems for operating equipment such
as machinery, processes in factories, boilers, and heat-
treating ovens, switching on telephone networks, steering, and
stabilization of ships, aircraft, and other applications
and vehicles with minimal or reduced human intervention.
Automation has been achieved by various means
including mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, electronic
devices, and computers, usually in combination. Complicated
systems, such as modern factories, airplanes, and ships typically
use all these combined techniques. The benefit of automation
includes labour savings, savings in electricity costs, savings in
material costs, and improvements to quality, accuracy, and
precision.
The World Bank's World Development Report 2019 shows
evidence that the new industries and jobs in the technology sector
outweigh the economic effects of workers being displaced by
automation.

Page | 10
 1.3 WHAT IS SEMI-AUTOMATION?
Semi-Automation is a process or procedure that is performed
by the combined activities of man and machine with both human
and machine steps typically orchestrated by a centralized
computer controller. Many manufacturers choose not to fully
automate a process, and instead implement semi-automation due
to the complexity of the task, or the number of products produced
is too low to justify the investment in full automation. Other
processes may not be fully automated because it may reduce the
flexibility to easily adapt the processes to reflect production
needs.

SEMI AUTOMATIC THREE PHASE ASSEMBLY LINE

Page | 11
1.4 OBJECTIVES OF USING INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS
The use of Industrial Robots is increasing day by day with a
view to achieve the following main objectives:
1. To increase productivity,
2. To raise the quality level of products,
3. To minimise the labour requirement,
4. To reduce production time,
5. To take advantage of fatigue-free continuous deployment of
robots, because the human beings are always bound to
experience fatigue when put to continuous working.
6. To improve existing manufacturing processes,
7. To enhance the life of production machines.
8. To make the viability and applicability of new high-speed
production processes and their related machinery possible.
9. To increase the safety level of the labour force by replacing
them by robots for performing monotonous, tedious and
hazardous jobs and thereby creating better working conditions
for workers.
10. Thus, to minimise the loss of man-hours on account of
accidents and diseases.

With these factors in view, continuous research all over the world
is going on to ultimately produce such robots which could sense
by touching, seeing, tasting and hearing, just like human beings
and could, therefore, take decisions themselves.

Page | 12
 CHAPTER - 2
Theoretical Analysis

Page | 13
2.1 MAIN COMPONENTS OF A ROBOT

A Robot carries a large number of components, of which the main

components are the following:
1. Base: It may be fixed or mobile.
2. Manipulator Arm: With a number of degrees of freedom of
movement.
3. Gripper or End effector: For holding a piece or a tool,
depending upon the application of the robot.
4. Drives: Also known as actuators, they move the manipulator
arm and end effector to the required position in space.
5. Controller: It delivers commands to the actuators with the
help of hardware and software support.

6. Sensors: They perform dual functions: (i) To act as feedback

devices to direct further actions of the manipulator arm and the
end effector (gripper) and (ii) To interact with the robot's
working environment.

Page | 14
2.2 THE SIX BASIC MOTIONS OR DEGREES OF FREEDOM

The basic idea in the design of a robot is that its manipulator

arm should possess the same versatility of movement as a human
arm, such that the former is capable of following the same
sequence of motions as the latter. Then only its arm can reach at
any location in space, perform gripping and picking jobs and
many other similar functions. For this, a robot is made to possess
six basic motions or degrees of freedom which provide it the
desired versatility and capability.
It is reckoned that different types of robots are designed
and manufactured to carry varying degrees of freedom, usually
varying from two to ten according to the application
requirements. However, majority of Industrial robots usually
carry five or six degrees of freedom, i.e., basic motions. For this,
the manipulator arm of the robot is considered to be made of two
main parts, the body and the wrist. The body consists of three
links and the other part (wrist) also of three links. The first three
links, i.e., the body, enable the end effector to reach the desired
location in the work area. The other three links, which constitute
the wrist, orient the end points of the manipulator.
The six basic motions or degrees of freedom are as follows:
1. Vertical motion: The entire manipulator arm can be moved
up and down vertically either by means of the shoulder swivel, i.e.
turning it about a horizontal axis, or by sliding it in a vertical slide.
2. Radial motion: Radial movement, i.e., in and out movement, to
the manipulator arm is provided by Elbow extension by extending
it and drawing back.

Page | 15
3. Rotational motion: Clockwise or anticlockwise rotation about
the vertical axis to the manipulator arm is provided through Arm
sweep.
4. Pitch motion: It enables up and down movement of the wrist
and involves rotational movement as well. It is also known as
wrist bend.
5. Roll motion: Also known as wrist swivel, it enables rotation of
wrist.
6. Yaw: Also called wrist yaw, it facilitates rightward or leftward
swivelling movement of the wrist.

Page | 16
2.3 Principles And Theory Of Automation
The developments described have provided the three basic
building blocks of automation: (1) a source of power to perform
some action, (2) feedback controls, and (3) machine
programming. Almost without exception, an automated system
will exhibit all these elements.
2.3.1 Power source
An automated system is designed to accomplish some useful
action, and that action requires power. There are many sources of
power available, but the most commonly used power in today’s
automated systems is electricity. Electrical power is the most
versatile, because it can be readily generated from other sources
(e.g., fossil fuel, hydroelectric, solar, and nuclear) and it can be
readily converted into other types of power (e.g., mechanical,
hydraulic, and pneumatic) to perform useful work. In addition,
electrical energy can be stored in high-performance, long-life
batteries.
The actions performed by automated systems are generally
of two types: (1) processing and (2) transfer and positioning. In
the first case, energy is applied to accomplish some processing
operation on some entity. The process may involve the shaping of
metal, the moulding of plastic, the switching of electrical signals in
a communication system, or the processing of data in a
computerized information system. The second type of action—
transfer and positioning—is most readily seen in
automated manufacturing systems designed to perform work on a
product. In these cases, the product must generally be moved
(transferred) from one location to another during the series of
processing steps.

Page | 17
 2.3.2 Feedback controls
Feedback controls are widely used in modern automated
systems. A feedback control system consists of five basic
components: (1) input, (2) process being controlled, (3) output,
(4) sensing elements, and (5) controller and actuating devices.
These five components are illustrated in the Figure below. The
term closed-loop feedback control is often used to describe this
kind of system.

2.3.3 Machine programming

The programmed instructions determine the set of actions
that is to be accomplished automatically by the system. The
program specifies what the automated system should do and
how its various components must function in order to
accomplish the desired result. The content of the program
varies considerably from one system to the next. In relatively
simple systems, the program consists of a limited number of
well-defined actions that are performed continuously and
repeatedly in the proper sequence with no deviation from one
cycle to the next. In more complex systems, the number of
commands could be quite large, and the level of detail in each
command could be significantly greater.

Page | 18
 2.4 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
Some commonly used computer languages are listed below:
1. AL-Developed at Stanford University, U.S.A. 2. AML-A
Manufacturing Language, developed by IBM.
3. VAL-Developed initially by Victor Scheinman at Unimation
Inc., for PUMA robots.
4. RAIL-Developed by Automatix Inc., Massachuseus, U.S.A. 5.
RPL-Developed at SRI International, U.S.A.
6. MCL-A Machine Control Language, developed by McDonnell
Douglas Corporation, U.S.A.
7. HELP-Developed by General Electric Company.

Page | 19
 2.5 APPLICATIONS OF ROBOTS

Some common areas of their applications are the following:

1. Welding: Mostly spot welding and are welding in

automobile industries.
2. Spray painting: Robots are used for spray painting of
automobile bodies and bodies of a number of home appliances.
Use of robots for this process provides the following
advantages:
(a) Saves human operators from likely health hazards due to
toxic fumes and mist, noise, fire, etc.
(b) Consistency of paint layer over the entire surface.
(c) Saving in energy consumed.
(d) Higher productivity.
(e) Substantial saving in consumption of paint.
3. Machine loading and unloading: Robots are commonly
used for loading of stock parts and unloading of finished parts
on CNC machine tools, Die casting machines, Injection and
transfer plastic moulding machines, Forging presses and
hammers, Stamping and punch presses, transfer machines,
testing machines, etc.

4. Material handling and transfer: Robots are commonly

used for shifting an object from one location to the other. The
prominent areas of application for this purpose are:
(a) Palletizing and depalletizing.

Page | 20
 (b) Transfer of blanks from an incoming conveyor to the
machine tool for further processing.
(c) Transfer of parts from one conveyor to the other.
In general, we can say that most of the above operations are
pick and place operations only.
5. Other processing operations: Apart from welding and
spray painting. Applications of robots are found in a number of
other processing operations like polishing, wire brushing,
riveting, heat treatment, etc.
6. Sorting of parts: To sort out correct parts from a lot of
finished parts and place them in proper locations in respective
bins.
7. Inspection of parts: Although it is a relatively new area of
robot application, robots are now being used on a fairly good
scale for inspection of finished workpieces and subassemblies,
specially of electronic components and devices.
8. Assembly operations: Assembly operations offer a very
large potential area for applications of robots. But it needs a
number of intelligent traits in robots to perform these
operations, comparable to those performed by human beings,
such as good sense of touch, eye-hand coordination, flexible
wrist actions, etc.

Page | 21
 2.6 Design of a robotic arm:

The design of the physical structure of the body of a part or

the whole part of a robot is done with the help of the tools such
as the different design software instead of drawing it on paper
manually.
We tried to show such an example with a design of a Robotic
Arm that may be used to lift loads.

2D DESIGN OF A ROBOTIC ARM

Page | 22
 2.7 Advantages of Using Robots
Advantages commonly attributed to automation in
automobile industry are

1. IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY - Automation increases the

production rates and increases the total production. It also
improve product quality

2. MATERIAL UTILISATION - Increased process control

makes more efficient use of materials, resulting in less scrap.

3. IMPROVE SAFETY - Worker safety is an important reason

for automating an industrial operation. Automated systems
often remove workers from the workplace, thus
safeguarding them against the hazards of the factory
environment.

4. LESS WORKING HOUR - Mechanization and automation

have played a significant role in production time reduction.
Finally, the time required to process a typical production
order through the factory is generally reduced with
automation. It helps to shorten workweeks for labour and
reduces factory lead times

Page | 23
 5. IMPROVE PRODUCT QUALITY - Automation systems
typically perform the manufacturing process with less variability
than human workers, resulting in greater control and consistency
of product quality.

6. LOWER PRODUCTION COST - Automation can eventually

mean lower production costs for businesses because the process
does not involve recurring costs, except for routine instructions
and repairs. While the initial expense might be hefty, the
investment will prove worthwhile, in the long-run.
7. RELIABILITY AND CONSISTENT OUTPUT - The manual
processing of any task is prone to error, no matter how dedicated
or skilled the person entering the data is. It is also time-
consuming and resource intensive. Automating tasks that
typically require significant manual input can eliminate the
probability of human error. With automation, businesses can
expect precise and consistent outputs. With automated
technologies, what takes a person days of effort can be finished in
a matter of seconds.
8. REDUCE LABOUR CRISIS - Automation can reduce the need
of finding labour for ordinary and repetitive tasks.

Page | 24
2.8 Limitations
Limitations commonly attributed to automation in automobile
industry are
1. LESS VERSATILITY – By having a machine that can perform a
certain task limits to the flexibility and variety of tasks that an
employee could do.
2. MORE POLLUTION – Different types of machines operate
using motor which may require gases or chemicals in order to
operate. This can cause an increase in pollution in the workplace.

3. LARGE INITIAL INVESTMENT – Automated machines can be

one of the most costly operating costs for a company. With
automated machines running anywhere between thousands and
millions of dollars depending on the type and degree of
automation.

4. INCREASE UNEMPLOYMENT – By increasing the amount of

automation, there are less employees required causing high
unemployment rates.
5. UNPREDICTABLE COSTS – There can be several unpredictable
costs that may exceed the actual cost saved by the automation
itself. Some of these costs could include research and
development costs of automating a process, preventative
maintenance costs, and the cost of training employees to operate
automated machines.
6. MAINTENANCE - Automated machines require lots of upgrades
and maintenance during operation like system upgrades, broken
electronics etc.

Page | 25
7. DEPENDENCY ON TECHNOLOGY - Implementing most
automation requires some degree of technical assistance

CHAPTER - 3
Industrial Robots

Page | 26
3. “Robotics in Indian Automobile Industry”
India became the fourth largest auto market in 2019 displacing
Germany with about 3.99 million units sold in the passenger and
commercial vehicles categories. India is expected to displace
Japan as the third largest auto market by 2021.
This could not be possible if robotics was not introduced to the
different automobile companies in India.
As the demand in car units increased, the production time needed
to be lesser that is why so many companies are trying to bring
more robots and semi-robots into production work.
This does affect the human resource requirements but improved
the production rate, profit and also perfection of the products .

Following are some of the leading automobile companies that

have been using these advanced robots in their manufacturing
unit.

Page | 27
 3.1 TATA
A Tata group company, TAL Manufacturing Solutions, unveiled
India's first ever robot called 'BRABO'. In the Make in India week
that took place in the year 2016. The development cost was
Rupees 10 crore.

Brief details of Tata Tal Brabo:

• The robot is a Tata Motors innovation.
• It has been developed in-house by a team of six engineers led by
Anil Bhingurde , COO of TAL Manufacturing Solutions.
• The development cost of the robot is reported to be about
Rupees 10 crore.
• The designing has been done at TAL, the styling at Tata Elxi, and
the manufacturing of some parts at Tata AutoComp.
• Tata Capital, a housing finance company, provided the finance.
• The robot is being developed for micro, small and medium
enterprises.
• The robot are easy to install, use, program and maintain.
• Tata Brabo comes with a low-cost power transmission system.
• The prices of BRABO are Rupees 300,000 for a payload of 2
kilograms, and Rupees 600,000 for a payload of 10 kilograms.
• The main advantage of Tata is that the company controls the
localised manufacturing of the robot and it can price the robots
lower than the foreign players.

Page | 28
• The idea behind the making of the robot is to drive
mechanisation in the Indian markets by offering cheap and cost-
effective solutions.
• It has also been reported that by manufacturing robots, TAL
Manufacturing doesn't intend to compete with the global robot
manufacturing companies but plans to target the small initiatives
in the Indian markets with affordable solutions.

TAL BRABO ROBOT (TATA MOTORS)

Page | 29
 3.2 MARUTI SUZUKI
Signalling the rising tide of automation in India, Maruti Suzuki
India Ltd now has at least one robot for every four workers
employed at its Manesar and Gurgaon car factories, the country’s
largest.

 Maruti Suzuki has one robot for every 4 factory workers at

its Manesar and Gurgaon car plants, signalling growing
automation in India's manufacturing sector.

 For 16 hours every day, a serpentine production line coiled

inside a 600-acre facility in Manesar shapes and slots steel,
rubber, and plastic into shiny new Maruti Suzuki cars.

 The largest facility of India’s biggest carmaker, some 55

kilometres away from New Delhi, works at a prodigious
pace. Amid a somewhat dystopian industrial township of
glass-fronted buildings, boxy manufacturing units and dusty
sidewalks, this sprawling factory typically spits out 3,100
cars in 960 minutes daily. The rate of over three vehicles
every minute helps Maruti Suzuki, majority owned by
Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corporation, maintain its control over
47% of India’s passenger car market.

 Robots are deployed largely in the weld shop, the paint shop
and the press shop, where automobile car bodies are
shaped. The three are fully automated. Manual work is now
done mostly in car assembly.

Page | 30
  India’s largest carmaker is now buying C-series robots,
which are smaller in size, take up less space and are 15 per
cent faster than their predecessors. Among the suppliers of
the robots is the Japanese company Fanuc Robotics. For the
company’s upcoming car, the new generation Dzire, as many
as 104 C-Series high-speed robots are being used for
welding.

 More than 2,000 robots work seamlessly at the weld shop in

Maruti’s Manesar facility. On one particular car at a
particular time, at least 12 robots could be at work. There
are around 160 robots in the body paint shop and 65 in the
bumper paint shop.

Maruti’s automated welding floor at its Manesar plant

Page | 31
 3.3 HYUNDAI

 The Hyundai plant in Sriperumbudur in suburban Chennai

doesn’t conform to the old-fashioned image of a factory with
greasy floors and deafening noise.

 A few hundred kilometres away, Honda's two-wheeler plant,

near Narsapura, in the outskirts of Bengaluru, also uses
robots to improve efficiencies. Indeed, most automakers
who have set up manufacturing plants in India are resorting
to automation to boost their productivity.

 At Hyundai's Sriperumbudur factory, where 580 robots are

in use, the defect ratio has dropped from five per cent to less
than two. This plant is in the Top 5 in the Qualitivity charts
(Quality + Productivity) amongst Hyundai Motor Group’s
(HMG) 32 plants worldwide. It was also HMG’s Number 1
performing overseas plant and the No 1 Safety Plant in 2017.

 As per S Ganesh Mani, vice president, production, Hyundai

Motor India Ltd, “Our strategy is to use automation to
minimise and eliminate dirty, dull and dangerous jobs and to
improve overall efficiencies.”

Page | 32
 Hyundai's Sriperumbudur factory

Page | 33
 CHAPTER - 4
Conclusion

Page | 34
 4. Robots are coming for India’s shop floors, how will 
it look 10 years from now?
While India may have missed the manufacturing bus of the
1980s and 1990s, the bus has now become more advanced.
And the edge lies in industrial IoT,  robotics,  AI  and 3D 
printing. Three years ago, TAL Manufacturing Solutions Ltd, a unit
of Tata Motors Ltd, showcased a robot called BRABO at the “Make
in India" week in Mumbai. Short for “Bravo Robot", BRABO was
touted by the company as the first “Made in India" industrial
robot, and is designed to lift loads of up to 10 kilograms.

Mahindra and Mahindra LTd already has a “robotic weld line"

at its factory in Nashik, which now caters to many of its products
including the Marazzo and the XUV300. Tata Motors, too, uses
robots in its Pune factory, while Godrej and Welspun run their
shop floors with the help of an Intelligent Plant Framework,
which enables tracking of machinery and productivity on the floor
in real time.
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd has numerous robots employed at its
Manesar and Gurugram car factories, with more than 2,000
robots working at the weld shop in its Manesar facility alone.
Manjushree Technopack Ltd’s Bidadi (innBengaluru)
manufacturing plant also has more than a dozen of its packaging
machines connected to a network, providing monthly updates on
maintenance issues. Automation, of course, is no stranger to shop
floors. Many factories all over the world and India have been
using computer numerical control (CNC) machines for years.
These machines allow operators to feed a program of instructions

Page | 35
directly into a mini-computer via a small board, similar to a
traditional keyboard. After loading the required tools in the
machine, the rest is done automatically by the CNC machines,
which use these instructions to control machinery such as the
grinder, milling machine, and lathe. But next-gen automation is
likely to be vastly different on one score: it will either make
humans redundant or vastly alter the necessary skill set that is
required to hold on to one’s spot on the shop floor. A human-
machine interface, or HMI, may eventually make the good old CNC
machine voice-activated, for example, allowing an operator to just
speak instructions. These oncoming changes will leave long-
lasting impacts on India’s labour force, particularly in some
sectors like automotive, textile, and banking and financial
services, apart from information technology, which have become
far more attuned to global shifts due to the nature of modern
supply chains. The “smart factory" will, in all likelihood, change
the popular conception of what a shop floor looks like.

4.1 AN ARMY OF ROBOTS

Page | 36
 The number of robots in use worldwide multiplied threefold
over the past two decades to 2.25 million, according to a June
2019 report by Oxford Economics. Trends suggest the global
stock of robots will multiply even faster in the next 20 years,
reaching as many as 20 million by 2030—with 14 million in China
alone, the report adds. India is way behind at the moment. But
things can change very quickly. The automotive industry, which is
currently racked by a slowdown, is a great example. In the face of
stagnation, firms that had begun to ramp up their robot density
(robots per 10,000 workers) in the mid-2000s have now merely
chosen not to rehire a bulk of the short-term, rotational, low-
skilled contract workforce. According to a 22 January 2019 report
by the International Federation of Robotics, India’s automotive
sector was the main customer for industrial robots, accounting
for as much as 62% of the total supply.

“On average, each newly installed robot displaces 1.6

manufacturing workers," the report says. Despite these rapid
changes, industry players like Harshvendra Soin, chief people
officer at Tech Mahindra, say: “We believe the future will be more
human than we think." However, some factories are now
beginning to acquire the capability for “lights out" production—
meaning, they can operate without the presence of human
workers. In fact, Japanese robotics firm FANUC, which is
considered to be the poster boy for such factories, has been
operating a “lights out" factory with robots since 2001.

Page | 37
 Lights out automotive factory

4.2 UNIQUE QUANDARY

India is in a unique quandary. While the country needs to find
jobs for its booming population, the globally competitive
opportunities are almost entirely in smart manufacturing, most of
which require less human hands per unit of output. “The
conventional ways of doing incremental business will no longer
suffice. India needs to push its people to adopt disruptive ways of
doing business," said Ashutosh Sharma, secretary, Department of
Science and Technology at the 4th Confederation of Indian
Industries Smart Manufacturing Summit, held on 26 October 2018
in Delhi.

Page | 38
 Technological unemployment

4.3 A RENEWED OPPORTUNITY

While India may have missed the manufacturing bus of the
1980s and 90s, which powered China’s growth, the bus has now
become more advanced. And the competitive edge lies in artificial 
intelligence (AI), industrial internet of things (IoT), wearables,
robotics and additive manufacturing (better known as 3D
printing), which are all set to fundamentally transform global
production.
In any case, automation on the shop floor is now being taken to
new levels. Machines develop faults like parts getting worn out or
equipment not getting calibrated properly.
An operator could, thus, waste a lot of time trying to locate the
origin of the problem.

Page | 39
 It’s here that automation is being combined with AI and IoT on
the shop floor to resolve such issues.
AI, for instance, can be integrated with CNC machines to enable
self-diagnosis. Thus, when a fault develops, it will be detected and
the software will try and solve the problem. Apart from using the
data that is collected thus for diagnostics, a more advanced AI
system could analyze that data and alter the settings of the
machine to optimize a prototype being manufactured.
According to a 10 May blog by Craig Lyjak, EY Global Smart
Factory leader, the smart factory is no longer a futuristic vision. It
is the heart of the broader Industry 4.0, or the Fourth Industrial
Revolution, which refers to the gradual combination of traditional
manufacturing and industrial practices with digital technologies.
The most prominent of these technologies, according to Lyjak,
include computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided
engineering (CAE) software, cloud computing, IoT, advanced
sensor technologies, 3D printing, industrial robotics, data
analytics, AI and machine learning (ML), and enhanced machine-
to-machine (M2M) communications.
These technologies are already showing impressive results
both globally and in India. In 2016, The Times of India reported
that the country’s first “self-aware" factory was being set up in
Bengaluru at the Indian Institute of Science’s Centre for Product
Design and Manufacturing with seed funding from the Boeing Co.
The factory is enabling data to be continuously collected and
monitored, from both sensor-fitted machines and digitally
connected wearables in order to provide real-time insights about
every movement and process taking place on the factory floor.
The factory remains a “work in progress".

Page | 40
 On its part, German auto-component maker Bosch’s Bidadi
plant has cobots, or collaborative robots, working alongside
humans. GE’s Chakan (in Pune) factory’s enterprise resource
planning (ERP) system is linked to the manufacturing execution
system (MES). Equipment efficiency is monitored in real time to
decide production schedules like availability of forks or lifts, raw
material trucks, workers and machines while sensors (read IoT)
send warnings on possible breakdowns.

4.4 DIGITAL FACTORIES

While the Indian automobile industry is unquestionably at the
vanguard of the oncoming change, other companies are not
entirely untouched. Mondelez India describes its Sri City (in
Andhra Pradesh) unit as an “integrated digital factory", one which
can pack 6,300 chocolate bars a minute, while Jaipur Watch Co.
has added a new collection of stainless steel watches that were 3D
printed.

Lyjak cites the example of Microsoft Dynamics’ integration

with smart factory processes and technologies as a case in point.
Microsoft Dynamics’ Remote Assist application, for instance,
combines Microsoft HoloLens (a self-contained, holographic
computer) with mixed reality, video calling, annotations, and file
sharing to enable experts to remotely troubleshoot complex
problems and help technicians. This saves time, reduces travel
costs and improves operational efficiency on the shop floor.

Page | 41
 Further, AI is used to optimize the multi-robot fulfilment
system in Amazon warehouses. The average cost for a spot
welding robot, according to the report, is projected to decrease by
22% by 2025, and robots-as-a-service models are beginning to
appear. Although bringing AI onto the shop floor would require a
massive capital investment, the return on investment (ROI) is
higher, according to SaaSnic Technologies. AI and ML, for
instance, can test numerous demand forecasting models with
precision, while automatically adjusting to different variables
such as new product introductions, supply chain disruptions or
sudden changes in demand. Using AI systems, every single part of
a product can be tracked from when it’s first manufactured to
when it is assembled and shipped to the customer.

Walmart, for instance, cut its physical inventory from one

month to 24 hours by using drones that fly through the
warehouse, scan products, and check for misplaced items. Using
algorithms that learn from experience to optimize logistics, BMW
tracks a part from the point it was manufactured to when the
vehicle is sold—from all of its assembly facilities across the world.
In finance operations, AI can close operations and automate
monthly, quarterly and year-end processes. Using ML, robots can
learn from human inputs to make better judgments and adapt to
the behaviour patterns of accounting professionals.

Page | 42
 Digital automotive manufacturing

4.5 THE FUTURE OFFICE

Smart robots also assist shop floor operations indirectly by
increasing employee satisfaction and appealing to a millennial
mindset. A couple of months ago, for instance, Indian IT services
provider Tech Mahindra introduced a Human Resource (HR)
humanoid at its Noida Special Economic Zone Campus in Uttar
Pradesh. Christened K2, this was the second HR humanoid (a
robot that resembles a human) from the Mahindra Group
company, the first was launched at its Hyderabad campus in May.

K2 can address HR-related employee queries and even handle

personal requests for actions like providing payslips, tax forms,
etc. With the help of AI, K2 can start a conversation without any
need for wake-up commands. It can even converse with
differently-abled employees by responding to queries with a text
display along with speech. Tech Mahindra now plans to deploy
the next humanoid at its Pune campus.

Page | 43
 Despite the immense potential benefits of enhancing ERP
systems with AI, there are risks with regard to sharing of
sensitive data and regulations that need to be considered, such as
the European Union general data protection regulation (GDPR),
besides the loss of jobs to automation and robots. That said, the
benefits may outweigh the risks if governments devise sensible
privacy regulations, and revamp labour policies to factor in the
impact of these new technologies on the workforce.

As an example, Tech Mahindra, which has already implemented

an AI-based facial recognition (which typically raises privacy
invasion concerns) system to register the attendance of
employees, claims it has “drastically reduced the time spent by an
associate in updating the timesheet". The company also has Talex
—an AI-driven marketplace of talent that maps skills of the
existing talent pool.

But the increasingly common use of AI and robotics in the

Indian context may lie inside the e-commerce package. Gurugram-
based AI-powered robotics firm Grey Orange’s Butler, for
example, is an autonomous robot that uses goods-to-person
technology for inventory storage and order picking. It populates
the many warehouses that have come up across the country in
order to fuel the e-commerce boom. Butler runs on a software
platform that uses AI algorithms and ML, which optimize path
planning, maximize storage, and accelerate order fulfilment.

Page | 44
4.6 CONCLUSION
The final piece of the puzzle is the ability to hire these
intelligent machines on contract, like workers. As a precursor for
what may become commonplace soon, US-based Hirebotics
allows firms to hire cloud-connected robots. The hourly wage
starts at $15 per hour and they can work a minimum of 80 hours
a week and, they neither tire nor need bathroom breaks. Of
course, companies have to give Hirebotics a 30-day written notice
if they fire any robot. What these robot work contracts show is
this: the future is already here.

Page | 45
References:
1. “A Course in Workshop Technology Voll. II (Machine Tools)”
by B. S. RAGHUWANSHI. ISBN : 1234102749

2. “Advanced Robotic Vehicles Programming: An Ardupilot and

Pixhawk Approach” by Julio Mendoza-Mendoza. ISBN10-
1484255305

3. “Industrial Automation and Robotics” by A. K. Gupta, Jean

Riescher Westcott, and Satish Kumar Arora.

4. “TAL BRABO Robot” Blog by tatamotors.com.

5. "Robots sweep across Maruti Suzuki’s shop floor" blog from

livemint.com.

6. “Future of Robotics” blog from livemints.com.

7. “Hyundai Industrial Robots: blog from rediff.com.

Page | 46