The one-armed robot Sawyer is able to do many things. He can collect the goods at the factory day by day, not knowing weariness, without interruption to the toilet, and he will not ask the boss a raise.
What Sawyer can not, understand the meaning of this debate about its potential to make a revolution in the production and in society – such as we know it.
Depending on who you talk to, robots, like Sawyer, or bring a new era of global unemployment, or save us from the boring work that you did not want to be their child.
It is a great responsibility for the robot the size of a meter with one hand and the touch screen instead of a face. When Sawyer barely a month, he was famous as a new word in the field of robotics with super-flexible limbs that can perform complex tasks.
Machines for the manufacture of machinery
It will be possible to see how Sawyer is busy with cards with their fellow human beings on the factory floor, says the creator of robot Rodney Brooks of Boston-based Rethink Robotics.
We aim to build the electronics industry – a large part of the production will be in Asia – said the Australian-born engineer, who is also behind bomb disposal PackBots, used by US forces in Iraq.
Sawyer unusual design with one hand has been developed after the analysis of more than 150 factory tasks, thereby concluded that most of them can be performed by one extremity.
The robot is priced at $ 29,000 will be “younger brother” Baxter, a larger two-armed robot, released in 2012, which is more suitable for weight lifting than awkward maneuvers. Both robots have animated eyes that look to where directs the movement of the robot – just as humans do.
Revolt of robots Sawyer
But increased agility Sawyer can also bring us one step closer to the fact that the entrepreneur Martin Ford Silicon Valley describes as “final phase” of production – a time when the plants will be staffed almost entirely by machines.
Robots are moving into an area where they start to compete with the people in those kinds of jobs that rely on hand-eye coordination – that so far only men could do – said Ford, who is also the author of “The Rise of the Robots: Technology and threat to the future of the unemployed. ” – What do we do for the people whose work will cease to be necessary? Evidence suggests that there will be enough new jobs in other areas. There are some – for engineers and so on. D., But the figures from different sources do not match.
With that as robots become more advanced, they can not just workers at the plant, but also support staff and office workers, he added.
Show me the workers
Brooks sees things differently, arguing that the company can no longer find enough people willing to do the dirty work in the production – and the robots have nothing to do with it.
If it were the people who want to work in a factory, have lined up in the queue, the concern would be fair. But in the US the average age of factory worker – more than 55 – people do not want these jobs! – Says the former director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. When people say to me “robots will take away jobs,” I always ask them: “Do you want your child to work in the factory?”. And they always say to me, Oh, no, my child, but children of other people.”
Brooks says that at the moment Agility is one of the biggest problems in robotics.
We just do not know how to make dexterous hands. ” This is an area where there was a lot of progress over the last 40 years. So that’s one of the reasons why the robots take over the world and do not replace all. I think it is the place where Hollywood misleading. Robots are not really that smart. They do not understand what they are doing and why – added the 60-year-old engineer, who first began to build robots when he was eight.
The jobs of the old world
And Sawyer and Baxter named after the archaic English words denoting profession: “Sawyer” – Sawyer, and “Baxter” – a baker.
This is the name of the old professions that no longer are used, – explained Brooks.
Robots replaced people in the office, “factory worker” remains to be seen.
Source: gizmag
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