By David In factories, and not only, they do more and more jobs, but they will never be able to do them all, because it simply… will not be convenient. And for all companies, but especially for SMEs, their adoption must be considered … with a grain of salt. But where are the robots now? And where will we find them in the future? Sunny Mehta of the Indian Institute of Technology explains it to us.
Looking for a job?
Become a data scientist or artificial intelligence expert or – why not – become a robot! According to Ifr, 387 thousand robotic units were sold worldwide in 2017, double the number sold in 2013. Not only that, in the last year the growth was 31%, a dynamic inversely proportional to the number of conventional employees. whose employment rate, in relation to the population, has fallen from 60% to 58% since 2008 (World Bank data). The choice is yours.
But if you want to be a robot, don’t think it’s an opportunity to become smarter. The robot, with exceptions involving more service use, is a stupid machine that does stupid things. The robot used in an industrial environment is certainly stupid. But being stupid isn’t necessarily a minus. Robots are useful, they free humans from fatigue and repetition of movements. Their applicability can theoretically be extended to all activities that involve the manipulation of some object. However, in reality what matters is economic sustainability or the relationship between costs and benefits, which so far has proved to be optimal, especially in very structured industrial contexts with high production volumes, primarily the automotive sector.
However, we are at a turning point. Robots begin to become a resource also for SMEs thanks to the extraordinary evolution of cobots, true collaborative machines that can support workers in a variety of activities. In the interview with Giorgio Metta – deputy scientific director of the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, now The guidelines that should oversee a robotics project by large companies and SMEs, as well as the most interesting contexts of use: from workplace safety to the treatment of harmful substances, from logistics to predictive maintenance.
A premise, however, is a must. As Mehta says, “Making intelligent, autonomous and problem-solving robots is very difficult. If you read the newspapers it seems that they will arrive tomorrow, but the reality is quite different. The robots we deal with in industry require human intervention, who must ensure their supervision. In the assembly line, the operator must, for example, know how to prepare the machine so that the components intended to be assembled and welded are in the correct position. In short, the presence of the robot in the factory always implies a collaborative man-machine relationship: man puts intelligence, the robot effort. This is the optimal combination with which the use of the robot in the industrial sector is configured
James Strauss:
Recently joined the Artificial Intelligence commission set up by the Mise to contribute to the definition of an AI strategy at a national level, he has been responsible for numerous European projects and consultant within the European Commission programs. His research activities concern bioinspired humanoid robotics, with particular attention to the study and implementation of artificial systems with machine learning capabilities. He carries out his scientific activity with interdisciplinary teams: neuroscientists, psychologists, computer scientists and robotics. Author of over 200 publications, Metta is also Professor of Cognitive Robotics at the University of Plymouth (UK) since 2012, and Deputy Director with responsibility for European and international funding to IIT.
Robotics is becoming more advanced and more affordable