‘Our education system is just churning out engineering clerks’

Fahad Azad, 29, who wanted to be a fighter pilot, makes robots. His claim to fame is Duct-Bot, a robot for cleaning air conditioning ducts in buildings and ships. Duct cleaning remains a challenge till date as accessing the narrow metallic passages is very difficult.

Duct-Bot looks like a toy car, weighs about two kilograms and can be controlled manually. Navigation is easy as Duct-Bot comes equipped with cameras in the front.

For about Rs1 lakh, Duct-Bot is five times cheaper than the next available commercial option. Robosoft Systems supplies the tiny robot to Bluestar, EPSCO, and the Indian Navy. Azad tells DNA that his team is now developing multiple variants for vertical ducts.

Is this the first idea that clicked?
No, the first was a commercial industrial robot which I made as a student in 2004. We started selling that through Robosoft Systems in 2008.

What are you currently working on?
We plan to launch robotic toys soon, and we are working on an oil tank inspection robot for an oil company. We are also in talks with the defence sector to develop low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles.

Given a choice, would you work independently with funding or with a research institution?
It does not matter as long as the required funding is coming on time.

Is innovation an end in itself or a means to become an entrepreneur?
At Robosoft Systems, we breathe innovation every day in our work, in our products, in cost cutting and accounting because resources are very limited and creativity abundant.

Does India value and reward innovators?
I don’t know as I have not seen any regular awards being given out by the government for innovation. I haven’t seen respect for innovators since my childhood in this country. To help innovators, Indian intellectual property laws have to be really watertight and simple. It’s this that can transform the country’s economy and improve our standard of living. I have met many people who stopped innovating because of these reasons. Also, Indians are best in reverse engineering.

Has your innovation made material difference to your standard of living?
Not much. We are putting everything into the company. For now, that is more important than our current standard of living.

Who are the biggest influences in your life?
My father. I learnt everything from him. He, in turn, learnt from my grandfather about automobiles, on how to repair them. He is an electrical engineer by qualification. We never needed to go to any garage and I used to assist him during my school days.

Once we completely ripped open the engine of our Mercedes and rebuilt it from ground up. Once it was done the car was better than new. Similarly, we helped in repairing video cassette players, home appliances like fridge, washing machines, microwave etc.

I started opening things on my own when I was in high school & repaired small faults in machines at my relatives’ homes whenever I visited them. It was a huge learning experience. It gave me the confidence to do the technical stuff.

What has been your biggest mistake?
Making mistakes helps me learn and grow. We encourage our staff to make mistakes — it is the most important part of R&D. Mistakes happen only when we do things which we don’t know or is beyond us, so it’s a good sign — making new mistakes and not repeating the old ones, that is.

If you could change one thing about your life as an innovator, what would it be?
The point when I didn’t know that the past is past and what I have is the present and I am always moving to the future. The present is the only thing we have. If you carry your past, you tend to forget the present and the results, more often than not, are like those in the past. I should have realised this when I was in school.

Did you have a childhood dream?
I wanted to be a fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force. I love being surrounded with buttons and gauges with all their readings. It makes me calm and peaceful. I am living my dream because I like flying and gadgets and I am getting both here at Robosoft Systems. I am a glider pilot, I design robots that move on ground and air, and own a company. It’s my passion for flying which has helped me grow in robotics.

Anything else that you would like to share?
I was never the academic-type; the two-dimensional blackboard was not enough for me to understand concepts in school and college. I had my own methods to understand things—by experiencing them through senses.

Reading is not my cup of tea and I have been very bad at it. I was a very good painter in my class and used to win drawing competitions but at the same time my handwriting would compete with a doctor’s.

I found many students struggling this way, so we came up with a solution on how to learn engineering practically and started conducting workshops in college across the country. Now we have tied up with both IIT Mumbai and Kharagpur to conduct robotics workshops around the country to improve the employability of students.

The education system today is just churning out engineering clerks, not designers and innovators. It’s killing our talent pool. The same students, when they go abroad outperform because they get a more fertile ground for the mind to grow.