The engineer who taught a machine to make rotis
The Times of India [
Pune
]
Bengaluru
,
Mumbai
,
Chennai
Oct 1, 2025 | Page No.: 14 | Position: Top Right | Source: Akhil George | Sq Cm: 359 | AVE: 869926 | PR Value: 4349630
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The engineer who taught a machine to make rotis iron Alchil George timesofindia com says We needed over-the-air recipes diagnostics and re- Aroti Pranoti Nagarkar mote fixes because our users likes to say is a non- were spread worldwide That Newtonian fluid its telemetry later underpinned behaviour shifts with support The machine knows pressure temperature and its own health motor cur- time That scientific itch sits rents sensor drift even clean- at the heart of Rotimatic the ing lapses and we can nudge robot she conceived to auto- maintenance or push targeted mate a task millions consider fixes without a service visit both quotidian and madden- ing You don t have perfect 200 million rotis served parameters every time she So far 200 million rotis have says Even humans adjust been served in more than along the way The machine 100 000 homes across 58 she imagined had to develop countries with the United the same instinct to sense States as the biggest market decide and correct in real time That early diaspora demand so a single button-press could gave us the runway to keep yield a hot well-puffed roti improving she says again and again A dedicated user base has Nagarkar traces the idea to even stretched the machine s her years in Singapore as a repertoire People are won- mechanical-engineering stu- derfully inventive she says dent and young product de- They add protein powders signer I m a builder by na- spices multi-grain mixes ture she says I learnt how Rotimatic takes a couple of to take an appliance from cycles to learn and then re- concept to a working proto- members That adaptiveness type then the harder leap to is magic The firm publishes a robust manufacturable official profiles for millets and product In 2008 she co-found- gluten-free flours but she s ed Zimplistic with software happiest when customers ex- engineer and husband Rishi periment As long as it s dry Israni who is the CTO of the ingredients go ahead she firm Rotimatic needed a says laughing brain after all she says To actually build the prod- Roti is a non-Newtonian uct Pranoti began by decon- fluid-you never have structing the ritual of making perfect parameters so the a roti You re automating machine must sense and adjust several major actions meas- in real time I built Rotimatic uring and dispensing flour for one-click automation and water and oil making a dough micro-kneading-one dough ball transferring flattening ball at a time-using cooking to flame-like finish commodity sensors as a and ejecting she says And tactile-sensing system We all of this had to be done with- added connectivity for recipe in a form factor that would be updates and remote suitable for your average diagnostics and a camera with kitchen I set a microwave- vision tech so it learns each ish form factor and refused to flour type The aim is simple grow beyond it and so built a hot rotis on demand without thermocol mock-up to freeze depending on the size then hand-built rigs anyone to prove pressing and knead- Pranoti ing The commercial machine Nagaricar still matches that early silhou- FOUNDER CEO ette she says ZIMPLISTIC The pivotal design choice ROTIMATIC Pranoti says that helped Roti- matic become a practical ma- chine that works was the deci- sion to design the machine to make one dough ball at a time In homes you batch-knead then divide We eliminated that We micro-knead in- Manufacturing the actual stead smaller mass higher machine followed a classic precision That did raise scale-up arc We tooled in complexity however Any Malaysia to begin with in- time you go micro your reso- vested in moulds set up a lution and tolerances get bru- line trained technicians tal she says We had to and shipped to our early achieve lab-like repeatability adopters she says As we with commodity parts matured we relocated manu- The sensing philosophy of facturing to the Bengaluru- the machine in a way mirrors Mysuru region to be closer human judgement We stud- to engineering suppliers and ied flours for example ragi our India roadmap The In- absorbs water differently to dia move also reflected af- cornmeal but data tables fordability goals Cost mat- weren t enough to solve the ters she says Bringing the problem she says Humans supply chain home helps us feel dough So we built a tac- keep improving the price-to- tile-sensing system with off- value equation the-shelf sensors then taught The newest iteration of the machine to adjust flour- the product is Rotimatic water-oil ratios and kneading NEXT We ve put a camera dynamics on the fly behind the door and added While the company has IP vision AI now she says If that has been published for a roti puffs and pops a hole their tech Pranoti says the the system can see weak hard part is the internal know- gluten bonds and strengthen how how each sensor talks kneading on the very next to the algorithm how deci- dough ball for that specific sions happen every second flour Extra sensors in the Making sure the machine kneading assembly sharpen was connected to the net was its grasp of flour-water-oil also a deliberate choice that ratios It s the same idea turned out to be crucial for its taken further more eyes long term success IoT wasn t and ears better decisions fashionable decor for us she better food she says