3 ways robots can transform manufacturing

Soon, more robots will be at work, in the service industry and in the home. World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer Rodney Brooks, founder of Rethink Robotics, thinks there are three big forces that will transform the manufacturing industry with the help of robots.

1. Robots in factories

Fewer people than ever before want to work in factories, and especially in China, it has become more difficult to get enough people to man the factories. Rethink Robotics has therefore designed a robot to work alongside humans.

2. Robots who can sense

Video games have brought about low-cost 3D sensing, so we are now able to put a lot more sensing on our robots than ever before. Combined with the low-cost processes that cell phones have driven, we have high-performing 3D vision coming to robots. That will make them able to work in much more collaborative environments and also much more safely.

3. A generational disruption

As a new generation becomes the manufacturing engineers, they are going to be ready in a way that the previous generations haven’t been for technology innovations. This generation is used to having software that gets regularly updated on their smart phones. That’s not what we have come to expect in mancufacturing industries, but that’s something that will change – the constant updating of software.

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Note: Rodney Brooks is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Technical Officer of Rethink Robotics, USA. He will be participating at the Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions, which is taking place in Dalian, China, 9-11 September.