Robot training data from Jamnagar's brass parts workshops
Jamnagar is one of India's biggest centres for brass parts. Its workshops turn, finish and assemble small brass parts such as plug pins, terminals, fittings, fasteners and inserts, and much of that work is done by hand. Small, shiny parts are exactly what robots find hard, so we record people handling them, as egocentric and close-up video, raw or labelled.
The hand work
Turning is done on automatic and semi-automatic lathes, which someone has to feed, watch and clear. Drilling, slotting and knurling are often done on small single-purpose machines loaded one part at a time. After that, most steps are manual. Workers deburr and polish parts, tap threads, hang parts on racks for plating and take them off again, and check threads and sizes with gauges.
Sorting is a job of its own: spreading out a tray of parts, picking out the faulty ones, then counting and weighing the rest into bags. At assembly benches, workers put together electrical accessories and fittings from several small parts, often with a hand press or a screwdriver.
The parts are small and reflective, which makes them hard for cameras and depth sensors. That makes this useful data for any robot that has to pick, sort or assemble small metal parts.
Where we record
- Jamnagar
- Brass parts workshops, from family units to larger factories. Finishing, sorting and assembling small parts.
- Rajkot
- Castings and machined parts in iron and steel, if you need metals other than brass. Finishing, assembly and inspection.
Capture setups
- Head camera
- Shows the whole bench, the tray, the gauge and the bag, and the order in which the worker reaches for them.
- Close-up camera
- A fixed camera above a sorting tray or assembly fixture, with lighting arranged to cut the glare off the brass.
- Wrist cameras
- For fine grips on small parts, where the fingers hide the part from most other angles.
- Multi-view rig
- Two or more fixed cameras around one bench, so you can reconstruct hand pose in 3D while the worker sorts or assembles.
- Labels
- Step boundaries such as pick, inspect, reject and bag, part types, hand keypoints and a short description of each action.
Consent and privacy
Every worker who appears in the footage signs an informed consent form, and every workshop signs an agreement covering what we record and how it can be used.
Many Jamnagar units make parts to a buyer's drawing, so drawings, part numbers and packaging can be kept out of shot or blurred, along with faces, before delivery.
Start with a pilot
Tell us which tasks you need recorded, the camera setup and the labels you want. We'll reply with questions and a plan for a pilot: a few hours of footage first, so you can check the quality before committing to more.