The unsexy truth about robotics beyond the demo stage

This article summarizes an episode of Stock to Watch’s video series featuring Humanoid Global Holdings Corp. CEO Shahab Samimi and Formic Founder & CEO Saman Farid.

Saman Farid (right), founder and CEO of Formic/ Photo credit: Saman Farid

While robots look great in the news, they are rarely found in actual factories. Formic founder and CEO Saman Farid argues that the industry is distracted by showmanship. By focusing on “cool” demos, companies fail to do the hard work of building tools that are tough enough for daily use.

The demo is not the business

The robotics market is full of machines that perform impressively in controlled settings. While these demos look convincing, they often give a false sense of progress.

Viral videos make things look perfect
Farid says, “A lot of these YouTube videos that you see of robots doing backflips, they’re awesome, but what they don’t show you is the other 99% of the video that they cut out where the robot was falling on its face.”

The factory floor is not a laboratory
Farid explains, “What’s really important when it comes to robotics, particularly if you’re trying to make a business and not do demos, is that the robots have to be robust and resilient to real-world environmental situations.”

Durability is more than the first setup
Farid notes, “Robot maintenance is a really important and very under-discussed, painful, and unsexy topic. These joints on these robots will fail from time to time. The sensors will get covered with dust from time to time.”

Customers cannot digest raw technology

This gap between a perfect demo and a product that lasts causes another problem. Even when a robot works, it is often too complex for a typical business to manage on its own.

A tool is only useful if people can use it
Farid argues, “You can’t give a baby a hamburger… when we’re talking about the majority of industrial businesses, SMBs, they’re not going to be capable of becoming the world expert in robotics themselves.”

Tech history offers a familiar solution
Farid draws an analogy, “[For email,] there were these managed service providers that came around… ‘I’ll put all the servers in there. I’ll air-condition all of them for you, and you can just provision service.’ I think the same thing is true in robotics today.”

The industry has a problem getting customers
Farid concludes, “There’s really just this massive adoption gap, and unless we figure out a way to really make it easy for people to adopt robots… we’re not going to see mass adoption until it’s easy.”

Ignoring the boring basics

Focusing only on exciting technology makes startups ignore the most important part of business success. They fail to build a strong business reason for their product.

• Early use is in industries with a lot of manual work, like warehouses and factories.
• Success comes from cutting costs and getting safety approvals.
• Customers need to see that they will make their money back in two or three years.

Customers are focused on the bottom line
“A lot of the catalyst that comes further to broader adoption is going to be that continued cost reduction, safety certifications,” adds Shahab Samimi, CEO of Humanoid Global Holdings Corp., “and more importantly, proof of a two- or three-year payback, you know, ROI ultimately.”

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