Blog #8 "This Robot Could Transform Manufacturing"

This article talks about the new manufacturing tool to help companies have a competitive edge with their production. Couple months ago there was a robot created in Connecticut, that was once known for its U.S. manufacturing factories but saw a decline in the manufacturing industry. The new invention called Baxter Robot which can do most tasks human beings can do. The inventors say that the machine is the new way of bringing smarter more sophisticated robots that will adapt to the industrial world than previously build robots. The machine is made to look like a human form with two pair of eyes that signal the process at hand the robot is doing while at the same time lets employees know when the robot has made a mistake or provides clues to what task it is doing. The article states that while "conventional robots are too expensive to program incapable of handling even small deviations in their environment, and so dangerous that they have to be physically separated from human workers by cages." As we see even in industries like the automotive and pharmaceutical industry use robots as their main functions in certain areas. While some industries like the manufacturing industries have not practically been accustomed to the robots that are put in place. However, this new invention of the new robot give the manufacturing industries a way to use robots more safely in the future and reduce the risk of human errors and help humans adapt to the new robot called Baxter. The researchers say that this new robot could "bring the benefits of robotics and automation to areas of work where it never made any real progress."

This new technology could bring potential benefits to a lot of industries around the world, but at the same it will also bring disadvantages to an already reduce the economy around the world where humans have less jobs as these machines have already replaced human beings with less skilled work. But the creators of the new robot suggest that the new invention could help the U.S. economy compete in the global manufacturing market against countries that have low skilled people and offer lower wage labor to its employees. The U.S. has been the major country around the world that has been hurt on the manufacturing market, while most jobs have shifted to countries like china where they offer low wages to its people and perform simple and unskilled jobs for less than. But robots like Baxter could wipe out that advantage by taking over such tasks, making it once again possible for many industries to competitively manufacture their products in the United States and other developed countries. I am optimistic about this new idea but I hope it brings more manufacturing jobs back to developed countries like the U.S. once again so people can get back to work and learn to deal with the robots as they have been before and work counter with each other.



http://www.technologyreview.com/news/429248/this-robot-could-transform-manufacturing/