Rama Raju Singam: The Robot Man

It seems like the age of robots is about to begin in the country. Robots, smarter and safer, are on the way. No need to beware of them, though. They seek to enhance customer satisfaction and add to value creation in companies. Indian companies are prepping to launch their robots for various uses in social, services and production sectors. Among them, the first make-in India robot startup, Vistan NextGen, is readying a slew of 'Flunkey' robots for the next wave of automation.

"The use of technology and robots is the need of the hour and various industries should begin to use robots for future. Technology will not help only humans but industries as well," says Rama Raju Singam, a UK-returned entrepreneur-cum-roboticist and technology expert. Inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Atmanirbhar concept in 2019, he set up Vistan.

With Covid accelerating digital adoption and automation, Vistan has launched Flunkey as a service robot for business and consumer interface in hospitality industry recently. "Covid-19 will not obliterate completely now, so we have taken a social responsibility to develop robots which can help us combat this virus and we are ready to dispatch it whenever required. We have to prepare ourselves for the future as well. We must make ourselves habituated to such an atmosphere," he says.

They have launched two variants. Flunkey Bearer assists customers' end-to-end – from selecting the best dishes from the menu to displaying the special offers run by the restaurant, from closing the financial transaction to recording the customer feedback through an application seamlessly without any human intervention. Flunkey Steward is specially programmed to undertake the task of delivering pre-ordered food to the customers at the right table.

"We will deploy 12 robots in Tirupati in the month of April as to provide help to the restaurant industry. We have delivered robots in a restaurant in Rajahmundry We have got an order from Kothapet for the robots in the same industry. Not only that, our robots attracted the medical industry in the city as well. As there are long queues in hospitals for appointments, people may contract the virus in no time. Our robot can act as a medical assistant," informs the robot man.

If you wonder how robots can be of help in these pandemic times, Nightingale Robot is an AI-enabled interactive solution with integrated contactless technology to track early symptoms of Covid-19. The robot can guides patients in obtaining consultation and also helps in performing such tests as testing body temperature, heartbeat, respiratory rate, blood oxygen level.

Sushruth Robot helps in booking appointments, collecting consultation fees, sanitising customer's hands and disinfecting body. All of these tasks are performed, in a couple of minutes, while appointment receipt is printed on the other hand. There is zero intervention from receptionist at hospital lobby.

Then they have Flunkey Auto Pure that can constantly sanitise the living areas and helps in keeping the surroundings safe and clean, using autonomous UV-based disinfection. The startup also expects demand for banking assistant robot. A few managers want to launch these robots across all their branches.

"We are working with our neighbouring state Andhra Pradesh. The government has reached out to us for robots. A private school wants a robot that can interact with students and answer their queries," adds Singam.