Bengaluru: India’s first AI & Robotics Technology Park (ARTPARK) participated in the recently held Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) 2022, showcasing leapfrog AI & Robotics innovations. Bengaluru Tech Summit is Asia’s most sought-after technology summit, and this year marks the 25th year of this initiative. Five preventures under the Startup @ ARTPARK program showcased their work in developing quadruped robots, drone solutions, telepresence technologies, indigenous robotic components, and AI-guided yoga-driven wellness solutions. Startup@ARTPARK aims at helping startups whose objectives align with ARTPARK’s bigger vision of impacting 1 billion people by 2030 with leapfrog AI & Robotics innovations in healthcare, mobility and education. ARTPARK is also supporting the creation of a $100 mn ART Venture Fund(AVF), a SEBI registered Category 2, AIF, to further co-fund cutting-edge startups in AI & Robotics.
Apart from this, ARTPARK also moderated thought-provoking panel discussions on three key topics. The first discussion on ‘Building Robotics ecosystem for the developing world: Challenges and Opportunities, was moderated by Dr Bharadwaj Amrutur <Research Head, ARTPARK/IISc>. The second session talked about growing AI startups from India, which are now scaling to billion-plus users, moderated by Umakant Soni (CEO, ARTPARK). The third session discussed ‘One Health and Pandemic Preparedness’ by Raghu Dharmaraju <President, Products ARTPARK >.
The Government of Karnataka has been creating task forces, participating in institutional collaborations and increasing the number of Centres of Excellence to promote newer technologies. This event has continued to encourage and celebrate entrepreneurship in the state. BTS is a great platform for established businesses, budding entrepreneurs, researchers, and other stakeholders in the startup ecosystem to discuss technology developments and their impact on transforming the Indian business landscape.
BTS 2022 witnessed the presence of 350+ experts from 20 countries, 5000+ entrepreneurs and 575+ exhibitors. The event also included the signing of MoUs and collaborations with 9 reputed companies from various sectors, followed by an award ceremony, where 35 companies serving in Bengaluru for more than 25 years in IT, 10 from STPI, 6 from BT, and 10 Unicorn innovators from the state were recognized.
Details on the 5 Pre-Ventures:
Chirathe Robotics, named after the famous black panther found in Karnataka, develops highly agile quadruped robots that can navigate on rough and uneven terrains effortlessly. Built with indigenous components and technology, their first quadruped, BH1 (Bhaghira One), can take diverse payloads and traverse autonomously indoors and outdoors. BH1 will initially be available in early 2023 for Indian academic institutions to buy to help build the robotics talent ecosystem in India.
AHAM Robotics aims to unlock telepresence technology by enhancing it with robust autonomous mobility, augmented reality and natural, easy-to-use UI. They develop cost-effective and modular mobile telepresence solutions for global businesses.
Gati Robotics develops the key building blocks for robotics through next-generation high-quality robotic components made in India from the ground up. Gati’s indigenously designed and locally sourced novel robotics solutions lower the barrier for new industries for adoption, as actuators can take up to 80% of the cost of robots.
AlgoFET brings true autonomy to drone operations by developing an autonomous Charging Management Infrastructure to manage energy storage for unmanned vehicles. AlgoFET’s solutions are cost-effective, retrofittable, scalable and reliable, and foster the possibility of 24X7 operations of unmanned vehicles. They are already working closely with multiple drone manufacturers.
Kreeda.AI is a Mobile Health & Wellness (m-Health) platform guided by AI. The platform serves as a means to provide high-quality and cost-effective solutions for physiotherapy, employee wellness and sports performance by incorporating cutting-edge computer vision algorithms for guiding users.
Umakant Soni, Co-founder & CEO, ARTPARK said, “Next game-changing startup in AI & Robotics is going to come with the seamless blending of cutting edge research and innovation with unique markets in Bharat, where 850 million Indians live. We at ARTPARK are blending large-scale impact with sustainable, innovative companies to address real-world challenges. And BTS 2022 served as a launchpad to showcase our best-in-class tech solutions, gain feedback from industry stalwarts, and collaborate with them to explore new business opportunities. We will continue to innovate to create a massive impact for India’s #Atmanirbhar push .”
Meena Nagaraj C.N., IAS, Director, Department of Electronics, IT, Bt and S&T
“This year marks the 25th year of BTS, and we’re so glad to see the deep technology ecosystem thrive in Karnataka with investors and startup founders. We are excited to see academia, industry and government coming together at ARTPARK to solve societal scale challenges with the AI and Robotics revolution. We look at ARTPARK to help seed and support the next generation of deep-tech unicorns out of India.
Prof. Bharadwaj Amrutur, Research Head, ARTPARK, Professor, IISc
“The Indian startup ecosystem is rapidly growing in India, and it is bringing with them innovative products and solutions to solve real problems in the country. BTS 2022 enables startups to come together and showcase their innovations. ARTPARK has exhibited solutions that can add more value to India’s AI and Robotics ecosystem with indigenously developed and locally sourced solutions.”
Organized by the Department of Electronics, IT, BT and S&T, Government of Karnataka and Co-Hosted by STPI, Bengaluru Technology Summit brings together the most established businesses across technologies, the most talented individuals, researchers, consultants, academia, professionals and other stakeholders, providing them with a unique opportunity to interact and engage for mutual benefit.
About ARTPARK
ARTPARK (AI & Robotics Technology Park) is a one-of-its-kind, not-for-profit (section-8) foundation promoted by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, with support from the AI Foundry in a public-private collaborative model, to promote technology innovations in AI & Robotics. With seed funding of INR 230 ($32mn) from the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India, under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) & from the Govt. of Karnataka, the ecosystem is designed to bring about a collaborative consortium of partners from industry, academia, and government bodies.
At ARTPARK, we believe in moving forward the key technology milestones in AI & Robotics in a “Mission Mode” model leading to societal impact by executing ambitious mission mode R&D projects in healthcare, education, mobility, infrastructure, agriculture, retail, and cyber-security focusing on problems unique to India.
