At a BMW factory in South Carolina, a human-shaped robot with a screen for a face recently stepped from a charging station toward a stack of green plastic boxes. It grasped an auto part from one of the boxes, pivoted, placed the part in a trolley, then pulled the trolley across the floor.
The robot’s slow, stiff movements suggested a worker with a bad hangover rather than a technological revolution.
“They’re still slower than humans,” Ulrich Wieland, a BMW vice president in charge of logistics at the factory, in Spartanburg, told reporters invited to see the robot in June. But, he added, “they’re advancing fast.”
Automakers have used robots for decades, but they are usually powerful, one-armed machines that are fixed in place and perform repetitive tasks like welding body frames or applying adhesives to door panels.But many experts who have studied the use of robots and other automation tools caution that there is also a gloomier scenario.
With any kind of automation, you generally reduce the amount of labor you need per widget that you make, and that’s generally a gain for society,” said Susan Helper, a professor of economics at Case Western Reserve University who testified on robotics before a congressional committee in April.
“But,” she added, “how do you use that extra time that’s freed up? You can use it to just take away the interesting work and leave the human workers with the boring work. And have fewer workers that you pay less.”
And Chinese companies already have a head start after their government made robot technology a national priority. Robot makers in China can draw on a network of suppliers for actuators, a part that enables movement, and sensors that are hard to find in the United States.
“The cost of deploying a robot in China is just a fraction of what it is to deploy a robot in the U.S.,” said Ben Armstrong, the executive director of M.I.T.’s Industrial Performance Center. “They have this extremely dense ecosystem of toolmakers and equipment providers.”
Dear Readers, Good and credible news reportage is tedious task and requires huge finances.
We are soliciting your Noble support for as low as N1,000 your support would go a long way in assisting us to continue to guarantee our readers quality news.
Bank transfers can be made to:
Account Name: Harvest and Commercial
Bank: Sterling Bank
Account Number: 0078627735