Fascinating Technology

Roti is a staple part of the Indian cuisine. However making them by hand is not an easy task (at least not for me). I first heard of the Rotimatic machine 3 years ago when they started marketing their product and were taking pre-orders. Honestly, it looked too good to be true. Knowing how complex it is to make Roti’s it was almost unbelievably that someone can automate that process and more importantly do that consistently.

Fast forward a few years, one of our close friends decided to buy the machine and we got to see it in action. I was honestly stumped and in awe of how cleverly they had designed the product. Being a product manager, I started thinking of all the design choices they had made and why they had done things a particular way. It truly was marvelous engineering and we decided to purchase it as well

Does it actually work?

We have had the machine for over one year now and I can personally attest to the fact that it does work! While it has its quirks it is amazingly consistent in the quality and for a product which is still in version one, I think it’s a great one.

They have done a good job of separating the mechanics (creating a dough ball, flattening, cooking) from the different modes which allows them to extend the use of the machine to different types of flour like Bajra and also different type of flat breads like poori and pizza. They are able to add new options via software updates and are operating the product just like TVs and streaming sticks work today.

Another cool feature about the machine is how it allows you to add dry ingredients to the flour to make your own creations. We have experimented with several different spices and loved the flavors we get from those

The future

The machine has an a lot of moving parts which makes it a bit fragile. However I am sure this and other companies will continue to innovate in this space and future hardware will be smaller, faster and quieter.