Day 4 Visiting Induktun

Visit at Inuktun, a Nanaimo based robot company producing custom made robots. The company has about 40 employees of which 35 employees are in the Nanaimo factory. Alan McDougall, Purchasing Manager at Inuktun was giving us an introduction to Inuktun and showing us around at the robot factory. The company has a revenue of 4 million USD.

Al Robinson and Terry Knight started the company 22 years ago in a garage in their backyard making their first prototypes of robots. The first kind of robots was submarine -based with propellers and then it developed to land based robots. Today, the company expanded and produces around 20% custom made robots and 80% standardized products.

Robots are used to pipeline inspections in various industries including oil and gas industries. The little Nanaimo based company became famous for delivering the robots to Ground Zero. The only plane that took off from American soil was the one flying to get the search and safety robots from Nanaimo to ground zero.

The Robots are equipped with small cameras and caterpillar traps instead of wheels. The cameras and the traps as well as the ability to customize robots differentiate the company from its competitors. The other key advantage is the modularity of the products which makes it possible to use them in different industries easily.

The market is changing quickly and the customers require to a larger degree miniaturization of robots. This requires the company to continuously develop new competencies and innovate.

Al Robinson still works at the company as the main designer and an innovative driving force. The innovation process starts with him making a rough design based on the customer requirements and such as pipe diameter, then the engineering department is refining the plans and a prototype is build. All robots are extensively tested before they are shipped off to clients.

It was very interesting to meet the employees and get to know Induktun. We are sure we will be hearing more from the Nanaimo based firm.