AUTOMATION FEBRUARY 2020
DISRUPTIVE
AUTOMATION
Two architects are on a mission to
‘democratise’ industrial robotics,
having developed a simple-to-operate,
cost-e ective solution to automation
BY CHRIS BECK & ANDREW ALLCOCK
When you think of a ‘disruptor’,
your mind will immediately
turn to the tech or online
sectors – companies like Uber
and Airbnb have shaken up the
ride-hailing and accommodation
markets respectively in recent years, causing the
‘traditional’ players to adapt and modernise in
order to stay relevant.
Now, muscling into the world of industrial
robotics, dominated by the likes of ABB, FANUC
and KUKA, is Automata Technologies, which was
set up by Suryansh Chandra and Mostafa El Sayed
in 2015. However, this enterprising pair don’t
come from an industrial background, or even a
technology one. The duo previously worked for
internationally renowned architect, Dame Zaha
Hadid, the visionary behind buildings including
the aquatic centre for the London 2012 Olympics,
the administrative buildings at BMW’s factory in
Leipzig and the Riverside Museum in Glasgow.
, her sculpture for the
But it was Arum,Gallery of Venice Biennale in 2012 – a six
metre-tall, self-supporting folded aluminium
structure – that led to Chandra and El
Sayed challenging existing robot design
and programming. The sculpture was
built of 500 separate pieces of folded
aluminium, all put together to create
the fi nished piece. This, as Chandra
said at an event in July 2019, was
daunting. “We basically had to study
origami for a year,” he explained.
“As a result we became obsessed
with automation, which would
allow a four-person team to
completely automate the
panel design process – take
the shape, break it down into
panels, fl atten them, defi ne
the sequence of build and spit
out all the data necessary to realise
it in the real world.”
In theory, this sounds simple
enough, but in reality, caused
more problems than it solved.
“It took half an hour to fold a
panel using a robot and just fi ve
minutes by hand,” said Chandra.
As a result, the team folded
85% of the panels by hand and
shipping them to Venice.
Refusing to be disheartened
by their initial foray into the
world of automation, Chandra
and El Sayed decided to buy
their own robot to tinker with
and improve. However, with a
starting price of £20,000 and
Main picture:
Suryansh
Chandra (left)
and Mostafa El
Sayed with Eva
software, Choreograph, Eva
is a low-cost, plug-and-play,
table-top collaborative robot.
Chandra explained
the reasons why Eva is so
important for the industry:
“The drivers for change for
manufacturers are obvious:
over the past 30 years, labour
costs have doubled while robot
costs have halved. Before, it
made sense to use robots for
things that people couldn’t do.
Today, it makes sense to use
a robot to do whatever it can
do. We’ve also outsourced a lot
of manufacturing jobs to the
Far East; the jobs have already
gone, the question now is will
they come back in the shape of
robots? At this stage, the cost
of a robot becomes critical.
“We wanted to address both
the robot cost and the ease
of installation. Our solution
has 80% of the capabilities of
a Universal Robots cobot for
25% of the cost (see diagram,
right: while the initial cost
of such a machine may be
relatively competitive, there
are often additional costs to
factor in) – it’s good enough
for the vast majority of the
applications that UR customers
will be using them for, but also
opens up possibilities for other
companies.”
The Automata team were
limited by budget: “We
tried to fi nd the cheapest
commoditised versions of all
the components in a typical
no defi ned use case, it proved
34 www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk
to be a challenge. “As architects
without a specifi c use case, it
was quite hard to persuade
anyone to help us out with
the cash,” said Chandra.
The solution was a
radical one: the pair set
about trying to build a
robot themselves.
From humble beginnings…
Four months down the line, the
two entrepreneurs had built
their initial prototype. It was
mostly 3D-printed, with off
the shelf electronics, and was
lugged about in a backpack. It
could be fully up and running
in fi ve minutes. Today, the
product, known as Eva,
requires a suitcase
to be transported,
but can be set
up in just three
minutes. Along with
its programming
/www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk