Cool!
KMel Robotics – the spinoff from the GRASP Labs of the U of Penn – and Kurtis Films, have a new video of a squadron of KMel’s super-quiet flying robots creating music in ways never seen before. KMel is also providing flying entertainment robots for concerts and shows of all types.

Future cool
SRI has released a video showing a swarm of ant-sized robots manufacturing an intricate glued carbon rod structure. Using magnetically actuated micro-robots, SRI foresees a near-term future in small components manufacturing.

Yes … but
American milk producers, faced with choices regarding improving their milking methods and labor practices, and deteriorarting equipment, are beginning to choose robotic milking platforms – as this video from the NY Times attests. The affordability metrics, described here by a writer for DairyLogix, are slightly different in the EU where smaller dairies have long been using these robotic milkers.

Long-term planning
For the last 7 years, Schunk – the robot gripper manufacturer – has hosted (at their factory in Hausen, Germany) the International ExpertDays Service Robotics conference and exhibition. This video gives you a flavor of the event and, for me at least, a desire to attend their 8th annual 2015 conference.

Scary
The dialogue about arming robots – whether on the ground, in the air, or armed with tazers or Hellfire missiles – has focused on the West. But this training video shows Russian soldiers working alongside an unmanned armed mobile robot. Psst: Campaign to Stop Killer Robots: you should watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj98jcEeOJM

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… Grabit, a 2012 SRI International spin-off, secures $3 million in Series A funding from ABB Technology Ventures, Nike and Formation 8, a tech VC in Silicon Valley.

… Grabit’s products include grippers and fixtures, case and box handling grippers, and smart conveyors for material handling.

… At the core is Grabit’s patented electroadhesion-based material-handing technique – a grasping method that can successfully handle a wide variety of objects, shapes, sizes and materials.

This post is part of Robohub’s Jobs Focus.

At this stage, I don’t think the core technology is the primary differentiator for the success of emerging companies. One aspect of robotics commercialization that is often highlighted, but often overlooked, is the fact that the actual business value of a robotics company can take many years to validate. The existing base of successful robotics companies, Intuitive Surgical, iRobot, etc., all took close to a decade or more to become successful. The basic premise is that low-cost hardware is helping to support more startups. But the success of a start-up is based on management ability, and it will take time to see which companies have the technology, target market, and team to succeed. Going forward, these teams will be the ones that reveal the real value of robotics, and the resulting impact on jobs.

I think there are two trends for management teams to watch regarding jobs and the emerging personal robotics market. The first is New Efficiencies.  In this case, emerging robotics technology is integrated into emerging markets as part of the overall business model and bottom line performance. In this case, there is a growth trend with respect to a new market, and robotics plays a role in the success of the emerging business solution by automating key activities that keep costs down. The jobs story in this case is usually a good one. New jobs are created as companies succeed. This is what is happening in the warehouse logistics market right now.  Driven by the competition to provide same day delivery, Amazon, Wallmart, Target, etc. are all building out new distribution facilities closer to population areas. Robotics technology (Kiva is a well-known example) is being used to create super efficient product handling.  These new warehouses become a source of jobs, although with different requirements than the traditional warehouse job.

Motorika’s ReoGo.

The second trend, and the one that is more compelling to me, is High-Value Gap Filling. In this case, the robot product works closely with a skilled human operator to augment the operator, performing functions that would not be done easily otherwise. I spent several years introducing a robot to support therapists working with stroke patients to rehabilitate arm function following a stroke. Our product focused exclusively on arm therapy, where it has been shown that intense rehabilitation can lead to better outcomes than were traditionally thought possible. The device is used by patients to perform hundreds of engaged arm movements per therapy session. Therapists know how to perform this type of therapy, but the current treatment landscape, which is very complicated for stroke recovery, rarely has room to just focus on arm movements, and actual arm engagements are in the dozens per session. In this case, the robot helps the therapist help the patient, but in no way could replace the therapist’s knowledge and experience.

A related example of Gap Filling is the use of robotics to address needs in agriculture. The opportunities are in part driven by the lack of available labor resulting from recent changes in immigration policy. It is likely that the labor market in agriculture will be impacted going forward.

Remember also, that the robotics market is where personal computing was back in the 1980s. Few would have been able to predict the types of jobs that would emerge related to personal and mobile computing, social networking, etc. Robotics has the potential to result in similar game-changing new markets, with similar implications on the jobs market.

Only time, and innovative management teams, will tell.

See all the posts in Robohub’s Jobs Focus →

This post is part of Robohub’s Jobs Focus.

A few simple facts emerged:

1. It’s true: industrial robots do take away jobs, often in big numbers. Generally, these are jobs that humans don’t want to do or shouldn’t be doing. After a short time, the displaced workers are replaced in higher level tasks (and perhaps re-distributed downstream or elsewhere). This process has already begun, and will continue.
2. On the other hand, Service Robotics create jobs that didn’t exist before, often in respectable numbers — numbers that today,  as Service Robotics grows, may very well equal or exceed jobs lost by the use of industrial robots. And these new jobs could grow to much greater numbers as the industry continues to flourish. These are jobs that people want and that pay well.
3. There is a political component not presently being adequately addressed as automation transforms the workplace by replacing humans with machines that have encapsulated their skills and can perform those skills flawlessly. Retraining and upgrading the general educational system to enable the higher tech skills needed for these new jobs needs a shot of reality instead of spin.
4. Under the rubric that success breeds success, each recent successful robotics venture was less focused on the metrics of labor cost reduction than on enabling growth limited by hard-to-find labor.

Curt Carlson, President & CEO, SRI

As we move quickly toward what Curt Carlson, CEO of SRI International, said is a “zero inventory, zero delay, and 100% personalized” world, it will likely be true that fewer people will be working in manufacturing.

Carlson’s catchy phrase encapsulates both the complexity and simplicity of the process — and the momentum required for it to happen. The process will likely be driven by (1) lower costs of sensors, CPUs and hardware and (2) more capable AI; and the drivers propelling it forward will be the aging population and global competitiveness.

Thus jobs were not the main topic at the Xconomy Forum; the issue was an aside. The main topic was really the progress and inroads robotics are adding to the global automation and business solutions process.

The jobs issue did lend itself to the two best jokes of the day:

1. Ten years from now all the robots will be out on strike saying, “Those damn 3D printers are taking away our jobs!”
2. Let’s reconvene this debate 10 years from now when we have all this time on our hands [after our jobs have been replaced by robots].