Revolution is here

Minutes after executing killer dance moves at the cancer care centre St Jude India Child Care Centre in Kharghar Abhirami slipped on the slippery floor The children peered over their white sterile masks and hovered around her ldquoTheir comments were incrediblerdquo remembers 30yearold Sasi Kiran Gade director and CEO of Gade Autonomous Systems Private Limited ldquoThey didnrsquot say that she stopped working Instead they said she must be sleepingrdquoSasi Gade with two robots including Abhirami in white PicAnu PrabhakarWe on the other hand find something else thatrsquos far more incredible in the anecdote That Abhirami is a robot who had just finished playing with the children using flashcards before the crash And that lsquoshersquo can also pull off a flawless suryanamaskarThe emotional bond that the children forged with the robot convinced Gade of the need to solve issues using technology ldquoAnd thatrsquos how I thought of the crowdsourcing and cocreating web portal Robolutionmerdquo says the entrepreneur when we meet him at his office in MaladA space for problem solversRobolutionme which will go live on February 5 a teaser for the portal was out two weeks ago is Gadersquos effort to bring out the lsquoproblem solverrsquo in everyone ldquoThe portal will invite people to voice the issues that they face on a daytoday basis mdash it can be anything from incessant honking on the roads to finding out their most annoying problems It will also seek opinion and ideas from people on how they would like to solve these issues Popular and doable ideas will be chosen and shaped in the form of a lsquochallengersquordquo says Gade This will then be prominently displayed on the portalrsquos home page along with a wellarticulated video on the issue and clues including details courses and books that one can refer to to solve itldquoOnce someone has a prototype of a gadget ready that can solve the problem they have to submit a video about the same to us If they want to make money out of it they can put the gadgetrsquos programming or algorithm on the portalrsquos store which runs on the lines of App Store where interested parties can purchase it and develop it furtherrdquo elaborates the engineer ldquoSo say you want to find out the discount rate of something and the salesperson is clueless Why canrsquot we have bar code readers everywhererdquo he asksBy the end of this year Gade hopes the portal will help churn 10 to 15 prototypes that can help solve what he calls real world problems ldquoWe will cocreate solutions with the problem solvers and mentor them in terms of the technology and skills one needs to solve a challenge We will also connect them to companies that are on the lookout for such talent So the bottom line is if you donrsquot want to be stuck in a R3 lakh job and want to do something different this will force the world to look at you in a different lightrdquo he elaboratesIn the first year the portal plans to develop prototypes that will target six sectors mdash special education rehabilitation fitness elderly care common sense or daily living and retail ldquoIf a solution grabs eyeballs at the store we will also help the problemsolver look at mass productionrdquo he adds Also once the portal takes off Gade plans to spend time in villages towns and cities to look at the issues there so that he can crowdsource ideas and cocreate solutions to solve themA breakup robotWhile running his company for the past four years Gade has closely worked with interns He opines that although young Indian designers are skilled and talented they do not know how to put them to good use ldquoThey lack directionrdquo he says while explaining the inspiration behind RobolutionmeAnother robot meanwhile watches us from a corner ldquoI am planning to install the robot at a mall in Malad by the end of next month for retail purposes But I am still working on itrdquo explains Gade who has a masterrsquos degree in autonomous systems from a German university where he had his first humanrobot interaction ldquoIt really opened up my mindrdquo he recallsBut the biggest surprise comes when we ask the tech whiz what his ultimate invention would be ldquoMaking a breakup robotrdquo he says after a pause ldquoSomeone you can talk to when depressed or lonelyrdquo And why did he name his robot Abhirami ldquoI donrsquot have a sister but if I did have one my mother would have named her thatrdquo he smiles