Humanoid Robots Are Coming For Warehouse Jobs

PatriotandLiberty ^ | 9/23 | Jennifer Kingson

[spirited irish]

Human-shaped robots with dexterous hands will be staffing warehouses and retail stores, tending to the elderly and performing household chores within a decade or so, according to a Silicon Valley startup working toward that vision.

[Jonty30]

I could be wrong, but that sounds like a scam to me.
Send them money.

[.44 Special]

They may be a little late for takin% care of Joe’s diaper.

[Libloather]

Then why so many illegal aliens?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

It’s like fusion power…always 20 years away.

[rdcbn1]

Automation is coming much faster than many realize. In fact, it's already here for many things such as phone in customer service. Covid labor shortages are driving a lot of the push to automation

It's becoming more cost effective and easier to implement and our political class is making sure that human labor is as inefficient, and expensive as possible - and fraught with liabilities and interpersonal conflicts.

[George J. Jetso]

Will they have their own union or will they be able to join the regular unions?

[Rockingham]

My guess is that the jobs that require professional licenses or have a high degree of discretion and liability due to potential harm will always have humans in charge even if assisted by robots and AI.

For example, I have a brother who works in back office operations for a major firm in the financial services industry. He holds a full set of securities licenses and his job routinely involves transactions and tasks for many millions of dollars. He often has to diagnose and remedy complicated issues. I cannot imagine anyone with a problem demanding "Put me through to the AI system."

Similarly, it is hard for me to imagine anyone trusting AI and robots to provide care in a hospital or nursing home without humans exercising close supervision. And I cannot think of a robot lawyer arguing a case to a jury except in comedic terms.

I do look forward though to the day -- soon I hope -- when diligent, dignified, polite, fluent English speaking robots will tend to the crops and landscaping and commercial and household tasks instead of the hordes of illegal immigrants we have now.

[rdcbn1]

My guess is that the jobs that require professional licenses or have a high degree of discretion and liability due to potential harm will always have humans in charge even if assisted by robots and AI.
For example, I have a brother who works in back office operations for a major firm in the financial services industry. He holds a full set of securities licenses and his job routinely involves transactions and tasks for many millions of dollars. He often has to diagnose and remedy complicated issues. I cannot imagine anyone with a problem demanding “Put me through to the AI system.”

Similarly, it is hard for me to imagine anyone trusting AI and robots to provide care in a hospital or nursing home without humans exercising close supervision. And I cannot think of a robot lawyer arguing a case to a jury except in comedic terms.

I do look forward though to the day — soon I hope — when diligent, dignified, polite, fluent English speaking robots will tend to the crops and landscaping and commercial and household tasks instead of the hordes of illegal immigrants we have now.

---

Complicated surgery is done robotically already and AI is well suited for dealing with what are now simple GP office visits.

Integration of AI is taking things to a whole new level

[Bayard]

Tech start up company has big plans. And predicts what will be in 10 years. This says it all

[normbal]

This SHOULD send a message to unions.

“Hey, union thugs, we got your ‘living wage’ solution right here” [tug-tug]

“Go pi$$ up a rope!”

[central_va]

Union jobs? Unions are dead. Only 7% of the US work force is in a union. These are not union jobs being displaced.

[RoosterRedux]

Warehouse and factory robots (not the humanoid type) have been heavily relied upon since the late 1960s. For the most part, there is no reason why such machines should be built like humans.

It seems the urge to create humanoid robots has more to do with image than anything else.

That said, they (human-like robots) are just about to hit the market.

The money is on Tesla, Boston Dynamics, and the like.

And the goal of humanoid robotics isn't warehouses. That was the first stop for robots in their early days.

The goal is intricate work (delicate assembly/maintenance, surgery, companionship).

[oldasrocks]

So you buy a high priced robot to replace a worker. Then you have to hire 3 tech guys to service the robot. What am I missing here?

[SauronOfMordor]

There are already companies doing that, and I can see commercialization over the next few years

Boston Dynamics
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/2DollqtPTAs

Musk
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KW3iRzXs940

Ghost Robotics dog robot is already being used in the field, for things like patrolling and investigating hazardous areas.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f93akjQW100

[SauronOfMordor]

You buy 100 robots to do work around your warehouse, have a few people supervise, and a repair team on call for any which break down.

If enough break down that you need a 3-man team continually on site, then you sue the company for making crap.

[Varsity Flight]

...... limited warranty:

...Three year limited warranty on parts and service.

...Parts and service call xxxxxxxxx.

[RoosterRedux]

Look at robots in factories.

Robot makers didn't say, "Buy our robots and replace all your factory workers."

They said, "Try one ('we'll loan it to you as a demonstrator') and see if it is cost-effective. If it is, buy more."

Robots chipped away at factory jobs little-by-little.

Say a factory robot costs $30,000. It can work 24 hours a day (except for a little downtime for maintenance). It's maintenance is a little more than that required for most machine tools, but not by much. Historically, factory robots did specific jobs, so their programming was repetitive and not particularly complicated.

Now compare that to a human being.

Human beings are expensive and moody.

And, unlike humans, robots are precise and predictable.

Humanoid robots will follow the same path as historically taken by factory robots. They will be tried for one job. If they do that cost-effectively, they will try another one...and so on and so on.

[sauropod]

.

[T.B. Yoits]

Robots in warehouses? Most warehouse operations can’t even get their conveyors and automated scanners to work well enough.