India's startups build humanoids with local code, global hardware

A group of school students is drawn to a large tent on Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay's campus, where a lineup of supercars and superbikes is on display.

- AJINKYA KAWALE

It is not these gleaming machines that hold them in awe, though.Instead, their attention is fixed on a quadruped robot confidently weaving through the crowd, greeting them and drawing laughter as it jumps and waves its front legs while balancing steadily on its rear ones.

Beyond entertainment, quadruped robots or robodogs are proving their value in real-world applications such as security and surveillance, exploration, and search-and-rescue operations, particularly in environments where human access is limited or unsafe.

As the name goes, these are stable autonomous or semi-autonomous robots with four legs, a set of sensors to map and understand the environment, a processing unit and batteries.

"These work best in areas that are hazardous by human standards or industrial areas where human intervention is risky. Humanoids, quadrupeds, or drones (underwater and air) are still manufactured in China, whereas a bunch of complex programming and code can be done locally," said Fahad Baig, business manager, XBoom, a Bengaluru-based robotics firm.