Drishti

Drishti Technologies provides an AI-powered video analytics platform designed to enhance human productivity on manufacturing assembly lines. The company was established in 2017 by Prasad Akella, Krishnendu Chaudhury, and Ashish Gupta, who brought together expertise in robotics, computer vision, and entrepreneurship. Akella, the founding CEO, previously led the team that developed collaborative robots at General Motors in the 1990s and later worked at SAP and Thomson Reuters. His experience revealed a significant lack of data and investment in manual manufacturing processes compared to sales and marketing. Chaudhury, a computer vision specialist from Google, became the CTO, while serial entrepreneur Ashish Gupta provided early backing and guidance.

The company's core business revolves around digitizing human actions on the factory floor to create a new dataset for analysis. By installing cameras on assembly lines, Drishti's system captures continuous video footage of manual tasks. This addresses a century-old problem where manufacturers relied on manual time-and-motion studies to gather data, a process that is often limited and subjective. The platform uses deep learning and computer vision to analyze these video streams, converting human movements into quantifiable data. This provides real-time visibility into manual processes, which still account for over 70% of manufacturing tasks. Drishti's primary clients are large global manufacturers in the automotive, electronics, and medical device sectors, including prominent names like DENSO, Flex, Ford, and Nissan.

Drishti's product suite includes two main components: Drishti Trace and Drishti Flow. Drishti Trace is a video capture solution that creates a searchable video database, enabling remote visibility of the entire assembly process and providing material for training. Drishti Flow adds an AI layer to analyze the video data, measuring metrics such as cycle time, identifying bottlenecks, and providing feedback to operators to improve line performance. The system is delivered as a subscription-based service (SaaS) over Google Cloud, typically bundled with the necessary hardware. The technology empowers line associates by providing them with data to become more consistent and efficient, thus augmenting human capabilities rather than replacing them. By making manual work visible and measurable, the platform helps manufacturers improve quality, increase efficiency, and reduce the time it takes for new associates to become proficient. In December 2023, Drishti was acquired by Atlas Copco, a Swedish industrial group, to expand its presence in the AI and computer vision market.

Keywords: manufacturing analytics, AI video analytics, computer vision, human-in-the-loop, assembly line optimization, lean manufacturing, digital transformation, manual process data, worker augmentation, production efficiency, quality control, cycle time analysis, bottleneck detection, industrial AI, smart factory, Industry 4.0, video traceability, workforce productivity, automotive manufacturing, electronics assembly