Thinking Machines : Book I Robotics: From Mechanical to Sentient Machines (CREATING THINKING MACHINES 1) by ALASDAIR GILCHRIST

Author:ALASDAIR GILCHRIST [GILCHRIST, ALASDAIR]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2017-06-30T04:00:00+00:00

Cobots in Action

So far we have discussed electro-controlled robots with minimal intelligence, but with incredible strength, endurance, reliability, accuracy, dependability and repeatability, hence their huge popularity in industry. But still most of these robots are dumb machines, even though they are dependable and probably the most reliable workers an employer may hope to employ, they have extremely limited intelligence. Even some of the advanced research robots are dumb in comparison with living entities and are nowhere near comparable to any mammal. For example; Honda's ASIMO the hugely expensive research humanoid robot cost over $200m and yet ASIMO's developers admit it is far less intelligent than a cockroach. In order to provide a robot with some sort of basic intelligence we have to provide it with something more capable than a microcontroller or to cease controlling it via the factory PLC (Programmable Logic Controller). And this is where we see a new class of robots emerging.

The International Federation of Robotics estimates that there are now over 1.1 million working robots around the world. Also about 80 percent of all the work involved in manufacturing a car is now done by automated machines with an emphasis on robots and 3D printing. In some areas of manufacturing, the production volume is too low to make automation financially feasible let alone worthwhile. Similar constraints are also found in industries where the product line and lot size are low or changes too rapidly. However, new manufacturing philosophies such as Industry 4.0 are being rapidly adopted by small and large manufacturers in response to significant changes in technology, supply chains and demand. Today's manufacturers no longer have the benefit of long term production lines so they need to be nimble and have production lines which are automated and quickly and easily re-purposed to satisfy new demand or innovation. Industry 4.0 is influencing the operational and strategic practices in manufacturing which includes small-scale Job shops but also relatively advanced industries such as car, aerospace and cell-phone manufacturing.

However traditional manufacturing plants have long term production lines and fixed robot layouts and this will take significant resources to reimaging. The problem is especially vexing for a company to set up a work environment for a robot for the first time as it requires many changes to existing processes and procedures. Further, it requires redesigning the whole factory infrastructure, reviewing the systems for quality assurance and health and safety and it will require caging the robot. There may even be changes running deep into the supply chain for example suppliers having to provide materials in a certain way, and if you need to reprogram these robots, it often takes special expertise or external consultants.

The amount of manufacturing in the United States and in Europe has declined dramatically over the last few decades, with many companies opting to off-shore their manufacturing burden. This is in part due to the disparity between national GDP were workers in other parts of the world can perform manual work at a price significantly lower than the minimum wage in the US or EU.

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