Robotics learning in the age of Open Innovation

If one has been part of a Multinational Conglomerate with several business verticals, the recent latest fad one can relate to is the term “Open Innovation”. Open innovation as a concept is fairly new and it’s adoption is yet to take off on a massive scale. One can blame this on the mindset of big institutions that are risk averse and tend to lock up their innovation with patents.

While safeguarding ideas with patents may have been lucrative with the royalties that it had earnt the industry until now, it has had a significant impact on the innovation culture within the ecosystem.

Innovation is no longer disruptive. At best it can be termed as innovation that is incremental and gradual. This means that the innovation engine has run dry across most sectors and needs to be restarted.

While the concept of open innovation has been promoted by big players and small players alike, there has been quite a struggle in getting it moving forward. This can attributed to the general climate where innovation and creativity are no longer words of importance outside R&D and product development. The common employee who probably is a part of testing has no medium through which he can express or explore his creative and technical prowess. 

While it is understandable that Industries encourage employees who think outside the box or go the extra mile in bringing uniqueness to the products, more often than not, an employee’s thought processes are locked up in the rigours of routine. 

What is of paramount importance is the discovery of an activity or curriculum that not only promotes thinking creatively, but also help think on lines that bring in an element of futurism to ideas.

This can be made possible only if technologies of the future are embraced and employees are made “early adopters”.

With the advent of regimes such as Industry 4.0, Internet of Things(IoT) and Cyber Physical processes, the industry and employees in particular need to acquaint themselves the nitty-gritties of these technologies. Also, with the “Hardware Revolution” underway, more computing has been extracted from non-conventional platforms with devices such as 3-D printers, SBCs (Single Board Computers) and Microcontrollers coming to the fore.

With such being the case, the knowledge of robotics, and the subjects under it’s gamut- electronics, mechanics, algorithm, programming- provide employees with the right skillsets to think across the spectrum and be capable of delivering innovative solutions for many a problems. More importantly, it removes the need to look for solutions from elsewhere. With a climate that embraces ideas within the system, the solutions can be found within the industry. Even if solutions exist elsewhere, employees empowered with the necessary skills will be able to cross-pollinate them to meet the requirements of firms.

Happy Roboting !