No taste for waste

Founder: Divanshu Kumar, Krishnan Balasubramanian and Prabhu Rajagopal 
Year: 2018 
Big idea: Using robotics to put an end to manual scavenging 

The Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras had given his students a task: develop a robot to clean septic tanks. Divanshu Kumar, who has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master's in Product Design, began working on the project, and saw "good signs" of success.

Divanshu Kumar (left) set up Solinas Integrity Pvt Ltd with Professors Krishnan Balasubramanian (centre) and Prabhu Rajagopal (right); its products Endobot (below) detects leaks in pipes, and HomoSEP cleans septic tanks.

PHOTO: BY N. RAMAKRISHNAN/BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Kumar went on to set up a company — Solinas Integrity Pvt Ltd — with Professor Krishnan Balasubramanian and Professor Prabhu Rajagopal, both from the Mechanical Engineering Department at IIT Madras. It was Rajagopal's problem statement that led Kumar to develop a robot to clean septic tanks. Kumar says that once he'd finished the project, they realised it had commercial potential, and Solinas was founded.

Kumar believes that while attention is focused on the manual cleaning of sewer lines, the bigger challenge lies in the manual cleaning of septic tanks, a process that often leads to deaths due to asphyxiation because of the high concentration of sludge in such tanks. While Solinas designed its mini robot to deal with septic tanks, it also worked on ways to detect leaks in water pipelines. It now has two products — one to clean septic tanks and the other to detect leaks in water and sewer lines.

Endobot

After almost two years of research, Solinas launched its first product — Endobot — in mid-2020. The robot is small enough to crawl into a pipeline of a 100-mm diameter and can go up to a distance of 200 metres. The challenge in developing this product was to miniaturise the motor, develop a printed circuit board (PCB) that would sit on the robot and optimise the mechanical design. The robot is 15-18 cm long and about 8.5 cm wide.

According to Kumar, Endobot can be deployed in water and sewer lines to detect leaks through live visual feeds without having to dig trenches. It can help reduce the wastage of huge volumes of water in pipelines. It uses high-profile cameras with image processing, and through constant condition assessments and analyses, Solinas helps maintain the integrity of the pipelines. The company provides Endobot as a service.

The second product — HomoSEP, launched in mid-2021 — homogenises sludge that has settled at the bottom of a tank and become hard. The slurry is pumped out with an integrated suction mechanism. This robot helps in cleaning sludge without humans having to enter a septic tank. HomoSEP has an inverted umbrella kind of a structure that opens up after entering the narrow opening of a septic tank. Its blades mix the sludge, making it easier to be removed. Solinas has sold seven HomoSEP robots so far and has orders for over a dozen more.

Founders: Dipanjan Gope, Anant Devi, Bibhu Nayak and Harikiran Muniganti 
Year: 2017 
Big idea: Simulation software to help electronic hardware manufacturers detect defects at the design stage

A Bengaluru-headquartered company is helping manufacturers of electronics spare parts save money — and time. SimYog Technology has developed a virtual laboratory that allows them to test parts for defects early on in the design stage.

Electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic compatibility are problems that contribute significantly to compliance failures for electronics and electrical hardware parts. Electronics parts may appear to work well in isolation, but when placed in what is called a noisy environment — electromagnetic noise — as in an automobile, they may start malfunctioning.

Traditionally, automobile manufacturers require that parts makers get such components tested in a physical laboratory before they place orders. If any of the parts is found to be defective, the suppliers have to go back to the drawing board and come up with a fresh design and go through the whole time-consuming and expensive process again. 

"Our value proposition is a virtual laboratory enabled through simulation," says Dipanjan Gope, co-founder and CEO. Traditionally, he adds, this was a physics-based simulation. "We are trying to also use data-based models to handle such a complex problem."

 SimYog Technology co-founders (from left) Anant Devi, Harikiran Muniganti, Bibhu Nayak and Dipanjan Gope have developed a virtual laboratory that tests electronics parts for defects.

PHOTO: BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Why is it complex? It is because there are multiple printed circuit boards (PCBs), with many components and cables. Computational time- and memory-wise it is a challenge, says Gope, adding that the company is "handling" this problem.

Gope, who has a B.Tech in Electronics and Communications Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, and a Master's and a PhD from the University of Washington, met his three co-founders at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru. The initial R&D was done at IISc between 2014 and 2017, with the help of grants and industry collaborations. Algorithms and basic prototypes were developed during this period. SimYog released its first product in 2020.

Electronics parts may appear to work well in isolation, but may start malfunctioning when placed in a noisy environment.

SimYog's product is an enterprise software, where its customers have to load their design that includes all the information of the PCB and its components, after which an analysis is given.

The company is now focusing on the automotive space. Nearly 60% of its customers are outside India. The percentage of electronics and electrical components has been steadily increasing in automobiles, making it a challenge for parts manufacturers and providing an opportunity for SimYog, which helps them to figure out defects.