Rethink Robotics
The new collaborative-robot from Rethink Robotics (Boston USA) is now a reality and its name is Sawyer. Cousin of Baxster (the first best seller cobot of the company) is on a whole year now.
It can perform almost every existing action in production under any circumstances. It offers unique characteristics, such as:
- Force Sensing,
- Embedded Vision
- 7 Degrees of Freedom
- Flexible
- Fully guaranteed
- Stability in character
Morover he gets no fatigue, he is not careless, he stays focused 24/7 and costs reasonably! Naturally all these characteristics are not really innovative as you may see them in other existing robots that already serve mankind. Lets see what Sawyer does.
What he does
Sawyer can perform a tremendous variety of actions, CNC machining, PBC handling and ICT, metal fabrication, packaging, molding operations, test and inspection, just name it…
Basically it is not what he does, but what he might do. The most important is that he can learn, can be taught!
Where is he different?
The main advantage of Sawyer is that he is a very good learner, an easy learner. Exactly the same you teach an intern you mau teach Sawyer. No need for thousands lines of code in order to be programmed to execute an action. He just watch, learn and execute! Via Intera 5 software things become extremely simple and automatation gets in another level.
What does this mean to a worker?
Thiings are becoming interesting now. At the late 1900s a similar discussion took place in agriculture. Of course horses faced the biggest problem. History proved them right! Something similar will trouble human soon enough.
Human race always invented tools in order to produce faster, easier, cheaper and in larger quantities.
Jobs that need struggling or can endanger humans are the first where machines already outplaced humans(for instance agriculture).
What about professions of responsibility or specialties;
Talking about teachers, accountants, lawyers, cooks doctors etc. These professions seem the last to fall. Nevertheless it is inevitable that machine learning and development will bring unimaginable changes even in these sectors.
Lets take for instance the accountants. They know perfectly the taxation system, they keep track of the finances of their clients and they consult them. What exactly of these will not be a machine capable to perform?
Or for instance the mass transport driver. Cars when they become auto-driven will not blink an eye, will not talk over phone, will not be careless or irrational, will not loose focus, generally they will not provoke car accidents!
Another example are the cooks. Lets take a look at the promo video of Moley a company that “serves” us the future in our dish, through its robotic kitchen.
By 2018 you may buy it for your house!
Automatic Baristas will prepare our coffee wherever we find ourselves in the unique way we desire! Bank employees will be replaced by hub ATMs etc… All this really sooner than we can imagine.
Threat?
Is now the point we should feel threat? Is it here we should get stressed and become enemies to the machines?
Absolutely NOT!
The answer is the elevator handler. An occupation that thrived in the 1930s but after WWII was vanished along with the evolution of the lifts. Nevertheless mankind not only survived but evoluted as well.
Paychecks were risen, social care is now a reality and generally everything is far better. Quality of Life is better than ever now and technology was a big supporter to this.
What we should never forget is that today we find ourselves on the thin line of a changing society concerning professions. It changes so rapidly that a lot of todays professions will be replaced by others, that might be not yet created.
The pace of technology is so fast that similar changes in the past needed centuries… now decades if not sooner.
Already mentioned that no existing profession cannot be performed by a machine. This will happen only if it is profitabe. Lets get back to Sawyer, very effective, but not for free. Aqcuiring him needs an investement, which needs an attractive ROI. Anything based on technology needs a superb ROI, otherwise it is useless!
In any case lets find ourselves prepared by thinking all these changes and start absorbing the everyday changes around us!
P.G.A. & E.L.
