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Smart Robots Can Now Work Right Next to Auto Workers
MIT Technology Review ^ | 9-17-2013 | Will Knight

Posted on 09/17/2013 9:12:09 AM PDT by markomalley

BMW has taken a huge step toward revolutionizing the role of robots in automotive manufacturing by having a handful of robots work side-by-side with human workers at its plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

As a new generation of safer, more user-friendly robots emerges, BMW’s man-machine collaboration could be the first of many examples of robots taking on new human tasks, and working more closely alongside humans. While many fear that this trend could put people out of work (see “How Technology Is Destroying Jobs”), proponents argue it will instead make employees more productive, relieving them of the most unpleasant and burdensome jobs.

Robots have been a part of automotive manufacturing for decades. The first industrial robot—a hulking 4,000-pound arm called the Unimate—attached die castings to car doors at a GM production line in 1961. Such manufacturing robots have been powerful and extremely precise, but it’s never been safe for humans to work alongside them. As a result, a significant number of final assembly tasks, in auto plants and elsewhere, are still performed almost entirely by hand.

(Excerpt) Read more at technologyreview.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS:
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1 posted on 09/17/2013 9:12:09 AM PDT by markomalley
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To: markomalley
Smart robots can now work right next to Auto Workers. They've been Welding Auto Bodies for many years with Robots.
2 posted on 09/17/2013 9:17:33 AM PDT by gigster (Cogito, Ergo, Ronaldus Magnus Conservatus)
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To: markomalley
I do machine motion programming and support. The outer boundry of any automated machine programmed to move must extend three feet beyond it's area of potential movement along with any tooling or product it's holding. That means a lockout-tagout cage which cannot be opened when the machine is energized with electricity, air, hydraulics, and gravity hazards.

Nobody works along side an automated robot which would crush you like a bug or cut you in half at a pinch point. I think OSHA has something to say about that.

3 posted on 09/17/2013 9:21:28 AM PDT by blackdog (There is no such thing as healing, only a balance between destructive and constructive forces.)
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To: markomalley

I can’t believe M.I.T. is even mentioning the argument that “technology destroys jobs.” Asinine.

If that’s the case, let’s all go back to plowing the fields with wooden hoes and oxen. Come to think of it - that’s what much of the left wants.


4 posted on 09/17/2013 9:22:32 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: markomalley; Bender2; Revolting cat!

UAW will want the robots to unionize and take more breaks.


5 posted on 09/17/2013 9:22:50 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (America 2013 - STUCK ON STUPID)
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To: gigster

Been there done that...

” Fascinating 1936 Footage of Car Assembly Line”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPpTK2ezxL0


6 posted on 09/17/2013 9:23:30 AM PDT by Mechanicos (When did we amend the Constitution for a 2nd Federal Prohibition?)
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To: PGR88; Revolting cat!

Smart hoes are killing the pimping industry.


7 posted on 09/17/2013 9:23:40 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (America 2013 - STUCK ON STUPID)
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To: blackdog

That’s the difference between how a “low information” person and someone that’s informed looks at “robots”.

A “robot” is a machine. It moves as it is programmed to do.
It is not some anthropomorphized metal human.


8 posted on 09/17/2013 9:24:20 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: PGR88

Those leftists to which you refer would indeed love to live in some sort of neo-feudal society where they have control of all resources and the “peasants” live and die at their whim.


9 posted on 09/17/2013 9:25:44 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: blackdog
I do machine motion programming and support. The outer boundry of any automated machine programmed to move must extend three feet beyond it's area of potential movement along with any tooling or product it's holding. That means a lockout-tagout cage which cannot be opened when the machine is energized with electricity, air, hydraulics, and gravity hazards.

Of course, this won't apply to autonomous cars, i.e., robot automobiles.

10 posted on 09/17/2013 9:29:33 AM PDT by Paine in the Neck (Is John's moustache long enough YET?)
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To: markomalley
Computers were supposed to save us work, instead it created a whole new industry of things that were not possible before. And more work for humans too.
I have no problem with machines taking over dangerous and unpleasant tasks.
For example, robots could revolutionize the mining industry: No humans underground. No more loss of lives. Robots and telepresence instead.

11 posted on 09/17/2013 9:32:46 AM PDT by BitWielder1 (Corporate Profits are better than Government Waste)
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To: PGR88

Sandra Fluke does not like corn husks. She wants her real boy.

On a serious note, communists hat capitalist precisely because capitalism is meant to free ornconsciousness from menial mundane tasks to go into advance thinking above the animal concerns.
It still does not prevent unconscious pervs from vaunting their OCD as something of a good paranoia even if it makes one slave.

Liberals an commies debAUche modernity to intensify means ofbpercersion, not to use he gained time for higher works an purposes. Government nanny management is being on tauting that with Obama retards.


12 posted on 09/17/2013 9:35:03 AM PDT by lavaroise
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To: MrB
Servo motors are just high speed counters which provide a feedback loop so that certain changes in speed, torque, or direction can take place at specific counts. errors are prompted and executed when those numbers are outside what a person programmed them to be.

A machine with complex servo systems runs a parent or master servo motor, by which all other motors must home to or coordinate their counted positions off of. The whole shabang has to be then processed with a very high speed processor and servo control. The most common today are the Allen Bradley RS logix 5000 and their Kinetix drives. In the past, systems were proprietary to the robot manufacturers and not real end user friendly to make any changes without enormous costs. Now, anyone in house can do it. That means jobs!!!!

13 posted on 09/17/2013 9:35:06 AM PDT by blackdog (There is no such thing as healing, only a balance between destructive and constructive forces.)
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To: MrB

Well, all I know is that according to king hussein there aren’t any bank tellers or travel agents anymore cause they done been robotized.


14 posted on 09/17/2013 9:35:39 AM PDT by rktman (Inergalactic background checks? King hussein you're first up.)
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To: gigster
They've been Welding Auto Bodies for many years with Robots.

But they have a keep out area around the robots unless they are powered down and locked to keep UAW members from being welded.

15 posted on 09/17/2013 9:36:50 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (Why is our military going to be used as Al Qaeda's air force in Syria?)
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To: blackdog

Sounds like a cool job. I just brought my Mindstorm Robot to work to demo a solution for testing video calls within a conference call. The robot performs motion at various speeds to test for anamolies in frame rate, resolution, video artifacts etc. It is outside my normal job, but I would love to do this for a living.


16 posted on 09/17/2013 9:58:36 AM PDT by lormand (Inside every liberal is a dung slinging monkey)
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To: markomalley

These will be replacing the newly created $15/hr fast food workers....


17 posted on 09/17/2013 10:01:49 AM PDT by nascarnation (Democrats control the Presidency, Senate, and Media. It's an uphill climb....)
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To: markomalley

Well, robots do destroy repetitive jobs that employ the ignorant and unlearned, but they also create jobs for the willing and educable.

Problem is the schools are turning out too many of the former and not enough of the latter. American schools are a wasteland.


18 posted on 09/17/2013 10:24:30 AM PDT by Valpal1 (If the police can t solve a problem with brute force, they ll find a way to fix it with brute force)
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To: markomalley

Since robots are extremely efficient in their tasks, don’t take days off and don’t come to work with hangovers, it only makes sense that eventually their work performance vis-a-vis their human counterparts will be taken into account.

We will see robot foremen on assembly lines admonishing their crews.

Workstation 1. “Bob, you are falling behind. work harder.” “Thanks, Hal, I’m trying.”

Workstation 2. “Dave, you missed one screw in the thingamajig assembly. That’s 3 this week. One more and you will be up for review.”

“Hal, don’t report me. I’ve got a family to feed.”

“Dave, it’s really out of my claws.”


19 posted on 09/17/2013 10:25:18 AM PDT by wildbill
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To: blackdog
blackdog said: "Errors are prompted and executed when those numbers are outside what a person programmed them to be."

The challenge is to define what constitutes an "error" in any given circumstance and to shut down the system safely when such errors occur.

The complexity of understanding all the failure modes of a robotic system coupled with the high amount of energy available to the mechanism is what has made it difficult to have robots in the vicinity of humans.

Highly complex systems with many of the same characteristics as robots fail frequently, the most notable examples being the space shuttle and other aircraft. Despite best efforts, these systems fail.

20 posted on 09/17/2013 10:38:26 AM PDT by William Tell
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