In Durbarmarg, Kathmandu, there is a robot that serves food (at Naulo Restaurant), and another one that is capable of navigating on its own and giving vital information (at the Nepal SBI InTouch branch). Many assume these robots are imported or have only been assembled in Nepal. But they are actually manufactured, in toto, by Paaila Technology, Nepal’s first robotics and artificial intelligence company with the intent of commercially selling robots. Five young graduates of IOE Pul­chowk Campus started Paaila Tech­nology in December 2016. At the time, Dipkamal Bhusal, Rabin Giri, Sagar Shrestha, Niraj Basnet and Wasim Akram Khan had each fin­ished their Bachelor’s in Electronics and Computer Engineering. They were all classmates and none of them wanted to leave Nepal despite lucrative offers from abroad. Nor did they want to work for another company.

 

It was then that they met Aayush Kasajoo and Binay Raut, both from business background. The seven youngsters, all aged between 23 and 26, got together opened their com­pany by renting two small rooms. At first, they did web and software development because that is all the work they got, informs Bhusal, 25, the managing director of Paaila.

 

That was before Nepal SBI Bank approached them for a robot for its SBI InTouch branch in Durbarmarg. Actually, the bank first approached the Pulchowk Robotics Club in 2017, and the club referred the bank to Paaila. “They asked us to make a robot, within a month, which could do basic things such as greet peo­ple,” says Bhusal. As plastic was expensive they used fiber glass. “If we use plastic dye, we need Rs 10 million in just fundamental capital,” adds Bhusal.

 

 

In the elaborate process of robot-making, Paaila Technol­ogy utilizes local manpower and resources to make robots. “We get the motor from Taiwan. Everything else is made right here in Nepal,” says Bhusal.

 

Their first robot for the SBI Bank was ready in July 2017. The bank was impressed with their ‘Pari’, and encouraged them to work on a better version of the robot, ‘Pari 2.0’. This latter robot, which was deployed at the bank in April 2019, is an intelligent business assistant robot designed to help bank cus­tomers. It is powered with features like face recog­nition, query answering, automatic docking system and autonomous naviga­tion, and these features can be further enhanced for specific needs. Even museums have shown an interest in Pari. Just this May, Pari was deployed in the BP Koirala Memorial Planetarium Observatory and Science Museum at Kirtipur. At the inauguration ceremony of the museum, Pari, renamed Fulmaya by the museum, hosted the program. Fulmaya can answer some general knowledge questions, reply to que­ries about the museum, and guide visitors.

 

Between all this, in May 2018, Paaila also opened their own restau­rant, Naulo, at Durbarmarg in order to test a service robot named Ginger. Ginger is already generating interest from buyers in Egypt, Singapore, India and China. “Every week, we get at least two queries about Ginger from abroad,” reveals Bhusal.

 

There has been such interest in Ginger as this service robot requires no human intervention to function. “Mostly, robots need to be told or touched in order to give them instructions. But we have made an independent system. Suppose there are four robots and there is a mas­ter robot. The master robot gets notified of food being ready in the kitchen. It communicates with other robots internally and sends signal to a free and nearest robot to go to pick-up region. This robot picks up food and delivers it to the table. If there is no work, the free robot goes to the charging station,” says Bhusal.

 

Currently Paaila plans to export Ginger for $9,800 and Pari for $20,000 apiece. Their target is to export at least eight Ginger robots and two Pari robots a month. With the queries they are receiving, Bhu­sal says they could export 10 to 15 service robots a month. But first the company wants to make the use of plastic fiber in robots commercially viable. They also want to have a dedicated support team in the coun­try they are exporting to. Bhusal hopes that they will be ready to do so within the next nine months.

 

Paaila Technology wants to sell Naulo Restaurant as a franchise so if you want to buy Ginger, you would have to buy the whole franchise. But what if someone wants to buy a specific type of robot? Bhusal says they can try but it all depends on the available human resources. With 17 members in their team, they are cur­rently capable of tweaking existing models. “But developing an entirely new robot may not be beneficial for our business in the long run,” Bhusal says.