Robots, economy and society
Questions about the influence and role of robotics in the world to come.
Robots are they essential?
If you've seen the film starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson, K 19, you will be convinced.
It is the story of Soviet submarine who to save their ship came in pairs in the nuclear reactor room to plug a leak.
The seven sailors died quickly of irradiation. It would have been practical to send spam on their behalf. This would have saved lives.
Robots appear more and more indispensable to work in risk areas, mining, deep sea, outer space, nuclear power plants, some sites ...
Which countries have the most robots?
Japan is well ahead of two other countries in the Far East. The first European country is Germany. France and Great Britain do not appear in these tables.
There is an inverse correlation between robotics and immigration. Emigration countries as well that the countries of immigration have no robots.
Who built the most robot?
The number of domestic robots is difficult to assess because it depends on what one considers to be a robot. To include the various household robots, Roomba, washing machines, would have hundreds of millions.
If one takes into account the most advanced models, industrial robots and androids, 30% are operating only in Japan.
What budget for robotics?
Europe spends 50 million euros per year in different robotic projects. Experts have predicted that the robotics market is expected to exceed 55 billion euros annually by 2025.
Why would robot improve the life?
It will open a world of opportunities for men by creating all sorts of artificial partners.
It will boost the economy by providing access to new resources, the exploitation of the oceans by example and thereby indirectly create new jobs.
It will allow factories to run 24 hours on 24, because you can ask the robot to work all hours and even on Sundays and holidays, but less easily to humans. This course will bring down production costs by making efficient infrastructure faster and free returns.
Life can be symbolized by the image of the skier who must have the trouble of climbing up the slope before having the pleasure to slide to the bottom. We must work to have fun. Technology has allowed for the installation of automatic lifts that take you to the top, leaving only the pleasure of the descent.
It is also the role of robotics: get rid of the painful part, leaving only the fun.
Robots will they put workers unemployed?
When the bow and arrows were invented, the one that runs the better after the deer was left unemployed. And this invention has not pleased him at all. But it turned out that the troupe suddenly have a lot of free time, because running around with the animals is time consuming, especially since it fails to catch that once in ten ! So they decided to take the opportunity to create a small village, better equipped and new occupations have emerged: mason, carpenter, etc. ...
So it is with computer, media, robotics. New activities appear when others are useless. Film put troops in theater unemployed, but has created other businesses, television did the same to the cinema. Robotics will generate a new ecosystem infinitely richer ...
Since the start of production of automatic weaving machines operating with punch cards, workers feared for their jobs.
However, the economic system, every time he removes jobs through automation, is known to invent new ones to offer new services. Indeed, the automation makes goods cheaper, freeing resources for other purchases and creates new applications.
Obviously, a factory automation eliminates jobs at first. For the world of work, a bad time to pass. What workers want to avoid going, obviously. But jobs are actually more threatened by offshoring because it permanently suppresses the income of local workers and does not generate new jobs.
Since the revolt of the Luddites, it was found that mechanization created as many jobs that it was lost.
The idea was expressed by a book of Jeremy Rifkin in 1995 of the jobs disappearance. He predicted the growth of volontary, community-based services.
Business model: From container to robot
As it is possible to buy containers and leasing them to companies who need occasional transportation, robots could be purchased and provided to businesses as temporary workers.
Obviously the technology is more advanced in this case. The robot can replace you in the enterprise, make available to it your experience. Depending on the task the robot would be unmanned or fully autonomous.
One must know how to program a robot to put it on the market, or more accurately train it, because the need for good interactions with others in a work environment, a training is better than a rigid program.
For simple or repetitive tasks, the same person or company could invest in many robots, but for more advanced tasks where supervision and a remote control may be necessary, an expert in the area would be associated with a single robot.
This business model, purely speculative, and from my own imagination, could be interesting and promising.
Infographics of robotics develoment.