Robots Inherit Skills

The title “Robots Inherit Skills” might surprise you, but trust me you will also say the same after going through their achievements. Oh sorry! actually the achievements of scientists who created them.

Dancing Robots

Image source: independent.ie

Can you imagine a platoon of robots dancing to the same tune in synchrony? Isn’t it going to be interesting to see? This was witnessed recently when a brigade of 540 dancer robots showed off their moves in a ceremony while welcoming Chinese New Year. 

Li Chao was the man behind the performing robots. He revealed the secret behind their moves and mentioned that each robot which was 16.5 inches tall and weighed 1.5 kg, consisted of 16 steering engines developed independently by researchers. These engines imitate the motion of human joints and move agilely.

Robots were doing flips, rounds, and handstands gracefully without creating a mess, but they were not the only stars of the show, they were also accompanied by drones that were giving the much needed special effects by dropping glitter on dancing robots. 

If this dancing troop can sound so interesting, just imagine how good would have looked together while performing. It is hard to imagine what technology can do; it can make the robots dance and it would be interesting to see the performances given by technology in future.

Robots begs Humans Jobs

Image source: trucktrend.com

According to the Robotics Industries Association (RIA) trade group, at present, robots are working in factories in a record number i.e., 260,000 in U.S. As per the data in 2015, companies of only North American region ordered robots having value of $1.8 billion. This marked a whopping 14% growth in the usage of robots. Not only U.S., but many other countries are also following the same path such as Japan, China etc.- usage of robots is increasing and utility of manpower is decreasing.

Companies are altering humans from robots in tasks that are mechanical or associated with risk. Their highest demand is from the automotive, semiconductor and electronics industries that include tasks like spot welding, coating, material handling etc.

Usage of robots is undoubtedly making the tasks more automatic, safer and faster, but it may affect the employment rate of humans.

A Doctor-less hospital May Become the Future

Image source: joedog.org

Robots are more efficient, they do exactly the same for which they have been programmed and this quality makes them suitable for almost any job. Medical services happens to be one among them. 

As of now, robots have the capability to work like doctor’s assistants. It may take a bit of time before robots will be able to take the complete charge of a procedure or surgery.

The face of healthcare is likely to change completely in the next 10 to 20 years. There will be more skilled robots in the hospital and skills of doctors will also change a lot. They will be seen giving instructions to machines to carry out a particular task.

Robots Got the Grip

Image source: makezine.com

A new invention has given another skill to robots i.e. holding something with grip using a technique called electro adhesion. With this new innovation, a simple robot will be able to hold something with a strong grip. This factor is another add-on in the skills inherited by a robot.

One of the important advantage of this skill is that it is based on non-technical principles. The working principle of electro adhesion is based on creating positive and negative charges to adjacent electrodes that lets the generation of electrostatic adhesion between electrodes that further creates pressure up to 100 times of its own weight.

The process is really simple, but unknown for most of the scientists. However, its simplicity is likely to take it further and will make the favorite of most of the scientists.

All the innovations in the robotic industry are a result of passion and dedication of scientists who want to see the world grow with technology. Their imagination and innovation created such a technological masterpiece that can work like humans with an immensely higher efficiency. But, according to an old saying, everything comes some advantages and disadvantages. Same is the case with robots. Let’ take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of robots in detail.

Pros & Cons of Robotic Revolution

Pros of Using Robots

Productivity & Efficiency

One of the biggest advantage of robots over humans is that they are highly efficient. Humans need nutrition and rest after regular time intervals, but robots can work for hours. They are highly productive and keep on doing the same work repeatedly until they are commanded to stop.

Increasing abilities

The abilities of robots are increasing day by day, they can do any mechanical task, they can dance, they can assist doctors in healthcare, and they can work in factories, shops or anywhere else. Their limitless capabilities are making them highly desirable in almost every field.

Speed & Strength

There is no comparison between speed and strength of robots and humans. Robots are machines so they can be programmed to do a task as fast as possible. However humans cannot retain the same speed for long. Robots can lift heavy weights easily because they cannot feel it. Being machines they are highly suitable for mechanical tasks and tasks having higher risk for humans such as welding, weight lifting etc.

Suitable for All Environments

Robots can work in any condition, in those as well that are not suitable for humans such as extreme heat, fire, extreme cold, ice, underwater, heavy industries etc. They can do just anything you want them to without any safety issues.

Cost Effective

Robots may cost a bit high while purchasing, but their long run use proves to be cost effective because it is not required to give regular salaries to them on a monthly basis. Their maintenance costs are lower than hiring an employee. It is also one of the biggest advantage of using robots.

Cons of Using Robots

Loss of Jobs

One of the most significant disadvantage of using robots is the loss of jobs for humans. Middle class servicemen who are majorly involved in doing mechanical tasks are affected the most by the arrival of robots. The trend of robots has increased tremendously in the U.S. which is likely to increase even more in future. This trend has wiped out the manpower from factories replacing them with machine power i.e. robots. This trend is likely to spread worldwide in future and in such a situation the matter of prime concern is “how the loss of job of manpower will be compensated”?

Lack of Understanding

Robots are machines designed to perform a certain task. They cannot think, they cannot differentiate between right and wrong. This raises a risk of programming errors. In an error occurs, it may ruin the whole production.

Limited Functionality

Robots are designed to perform a specific job only, they cannot handle typical or unexpected situations. This is another major sector in which robots cannot surpass humans.

Future of robots is bright and their usage is on the rise. The technology is rising so rapidly that soon we may also bring a robot for ourselves for doing all the domestic chores. Just imagine yourself giving commands to a robot for doing tasks like chopping fruits and cleaning floors and robots doing those jobs in minutes.

Conclusion

Technology is acting as a helping hand for humans from a long time and a robot is just another extension of this technology that can help humans more aggressively in every possible field. No matter how much technology grows, a fine line will always remain between usage of machines and requirement of humans. If this is the pace of growth for robotics, it will become important to maintain a balance between work requirement of machines and humans, otherwise mankind may have to pay a big price for developing such machines.