Introduction
At first, robot technology was an invention whose aim was to fascinate the human being. Its ability to imitate certain characteristics of a human being, and its ability to do certain specific tasks that it was programmed to do is a point of fascination and impression. Inventors would display their technological skill through making such inventions that would outdo human beings in performing certain tasks.
For instance, the French brothers, Pierre and Henri have been credited for inventing a doll that is capable of playing the Piano. Such early inventions proved to be of no economic or social value to the community, yet the idea of letting robots assist in some of the human activities was still to be unveiled.
Since this time in the eighteenth century to date, robotics has revolutionized to a point that it threatens to face off some of the common duties that a human being performs.
One look at the modern industries will give an idea as to what extent robots have been engaged in performing human duties. Though most of what they do involve only small functions that they could possibly perform, man has done a lot to ease the amount of work that he needs to do. This paper seeks to persuade business persons and government institutions to implement the use of robots in their working fields.
The idea here is to give the importance of using robots and the amounts of benefits prospected from their use. On the other hand, the paper is purposely written to convince people to get used to the fact that robots are a part of humanity and that they should involve them in their day-to-day activities.
Level of Acceptance of Robots by the Human Being
Regardless of what other people think, robot technology has ultimately taken over a greater part of our day-to-day activities. Even without noticing it, robots perform more duties in our daily lives than we can even realize. For example, robots make human beings save a lot of time in reaching their destinations since they are capable of preventing the build up of traffic jams. A robot can guide one in booking a holiday trip online.
In the same regard, computers offer a credible amount of aid in schools for many children (Doyle, 169). Many have tried to argue that the robot technology has reduced the amount of jobs available and therefore; many people have lost their jobs. Most of these people argue that due to the increasing number of computer equipped robots, the banking industry, the technical industry and even the administrative departments of many countries have suffered great losses at the expense of these inventions.
The above chart is a breakdown of industrial robots worldwide.
Nevertheless, there are more jobs being created even when some are being lost. Technology simply brings with it a different twist of nature whereby one party looses as the other gains. The world cannot at any one point demand that robot inventions should stop. These creations have assisted men in doing more than meets the eye.
The use of robots has made it possible for man to make great strides in certain fields like astronomy, medicine and even geology. Further discoveries concerning the earth, the outer space and the unreachable places have been made due to the presence of these robots. Microbiological discoveries in medicine have been accomplished through certain assistance from robots, which have the ability to analyze objects through a microscopic eye.
Doyle also puts it that of late, trade unions have come to the realization that they cannot do without technology. They have been seriously affected for the past few decades, yet, they are quite realistic about the whole issue. The telephone industry for example, lost 33000 of its workforce to technology.
Yet it has realized that looking at the bigger picture the technology upgrade has benefited the population more than the workers would. The same applied for the television industry. Instead, the workforce implemented counter attacking methods in order to prevent the loss of shares in the market. Very soon, analysts predict that the world will be on the verge of a purely electronic age. The most that the workforce can do now is to prepare adequately for such moments in order to gain a maximum yield from such a change in time.
Industries/ Fields that should have Robot participation
Without doubt, the technological advancement has given rise to a very new view of the industrial sector in the developing world. The need for each industry to work faster, produce more and be more accuracy has led to the initiation of robot technology in the same rate. The reason for this change is simple. Robots work without getting tired or losing concentration. The human being is affected by so many internal and external factors leading to inefficiency. Robots are the complete opposite of this.
They are not affected by such factors as environmental conditions and exhaustion. In the 1990s, robots were mainly used in hazardous environments. These are places where possible health risks would occur for workers in that particular area. Nevertheless, the demand for more in the market has contributed majorly in shifting the focus of using these robots in these places to replacing manual production of goods in most industries.
Probably one of the biggest industries that would benefit greatly in the use of robots is the automobile industry in China. With the demand of such products like motor cycles and better automobile machines from the market, China’s industries would benefit greatly.
The industry should abandon the previous behavior of importation, assimilation and adoption of foreign ideas and concentrate on robotic technology. This though will have to rely on how fast the electrical and automobile industry will perform over the next few years. This is so if the country will want to reach its optimum potential in the near future.
In addition, spot welding can gain greatly from computer technology since a lot of calculation concerning tool trajectory can be done more accurately. Intelligent systems of paths to be followed when welding can also be done through these applications. The other beneficiary to robotics can be the machine tool industry. Robots have the advantage of applying programmed languages in planning systems and compiling sensory data in cell components.
Other advantages of using robots include their speed and accuracy, reduction in the time and effort used in general work and in the long run, saving up on time, energy and resource (Rembold, 41). On the other hand, automobiles are a good example of how technology can backfire in the present world. The exhaust gases from the automobiles pollute the atmosphere so much that the next technology must find a way to heal the environment.
Probably one of the greatest beneficiaries of robotics is the aerospace industry. The amount of accuracy and precision that is required in this industry will require the use of equipments that can manage sensitive tasks such as sealing, riveting, metal routing, and analysis of finished products.
Painting of interior parts of the aircrafts, drilling through fuselage panels, assembly of every circuit board required can all benefit from the precision that the robots possess. Off-line programming and general assembly will also require the use of robots. (Rembold, 43).
Advantages and disadvantages of using Robots
From the discussions that have been given above, one can single out a few benefits and challenges that have been posed over time by the introduction or the continuous use of robots in the real world.
In as much as it has brought about some form of revolution in the industrial sector in most countries, there will never lack challenges that will come with its use. Below is a general overview of the advantages that the technology carries with it, after which we are going to discuss some of the disadvantages of implementing the use of robots in our industries or our daily activities.
Advantages
The main advantage that will stand out for all types of robots is their ability to give quality performance. The dramatic improvement on accuracy of the task that is performed has made the robots gain more demand in the industries that have turned to their use. The comparison between robot performance and manual performance is almost too large.
This is because robots possess the ability to achieve certain tasks faster and precisely with the ratio in the precision of humans to that of robots being very low. Human beings are prone to mistakes due to factors that are either internal or external. Another advantage that robots have is their production capacity. Human beings have the challenge of pausing to take breaks, sleep and vacations.
Robots on the other hand constantly perform with little requirement for maintenance. Consequently, their production capability increases, coupled with accuracy to give an efficient output. Dangerous jobs are left for robots. This ultimately increases work safety as the workers are moved up the ladder to supervisory levels. Dangerous levels of performance can therefore be maintained with no human being at risk of any hazardous conditions.
Finally, there is a lot of saving on resources all round. For employers, working with one robot that performs the overall amount of work that more than five employees would otherwise do gives him a financial advantage. Not only does a robot save financially but they also save a lot of time used in production or servicing. Energy consumption is also reduced with the correct use of robots and this leads to great amount of savings for a company (RobotWorx, 1).
Disadvantages
The amount of investment needed, especially in starting a company utilizing robots is great. Considering such factors as shifting workers’ roles, giving retrenchments, purchasing the robotic equipment and the regular maintenance cost may become a difficult activity to carry out.
One will have to count the possible cost of replacing manual work with robotic work and strike a balance. In essence, this will lead us to look at the rate of a robot’s Return on Investment (ROI). It is not obviously guaranteed that whenever one invests in a robot, his returns will shoot up. One will have to compare the numbers that are within the investment and the ones that are currently running without this kind of investment. Without taking much care, this same technology may as well lead to great losses for the company.
Moreover, the use of robots that are capable of making autonomous decisions is not advisable in areas to do with surveillance and giving care to the elderly persons. This is because these robots have the ability to make decisions without any human involvement. These robots have been used in the military.
However, many people feel that the autonomous robots may kill many people accidentally. In addition, studies indicate that Samsung is in the process of designing a robotic sentinel that can be used to man the border between South and North Korea. This gadget will be provided with a gun and cameras. This is naturally a risky gadget in any environment because the increase in the number of robots leads to escapism on the part of human beings.
Yet another disadvantage of using the robot is the level of expertise that is required by employees. We have just discovered that the robot gives the employee a leap up the ranks in the workplace. The problem in doing this is that management may have to retrain its workforce to be able to interact better with the new technology.
A lot of time is wasted in doing this and thus this can have a negative impact on the finances of a company. It is usually an expensive activity. Finally, as much as robots create safety for the worker through replacing them in certain dangerous environments, there are also other safety concerns that come with robots. One has to be careful of such activities as malfunction and imbalances that pose as hazards for workers who interact with these machines (RobotWorx)
More so, technology can change our sense of common purpose. For many years, human beings are used to do everything for themselves. The new standard for survival means making money to go to a mall or supermarket and get everything a family needs. With technology one does not have to physically go to a bank, withdraw cash and do the shopping.
With robotic technology, everything has been made easier. The technology does the work. Humans no longer do the work; they would rather oversee or totally avoid doing the work. If the machines fail to do the work, then the effect is felt on the production level.
Economic and Social Impact of Robot Technology
Clearly, there has been some form of impact brought about by this new technology over the ages. In this post industrialized world that we live in, the replacement of human workforce with robots has had a significant impact on the way life is viewed by most people in the industrialized world. For instance, the American automobile industry has sent packing a large number of its workforce due to the introduction of these machines. Consequently, labor unions have moved to curb the job losses until the senior workers have retired or currently working employees are retrained.
The growth rate in a country will also determine the impact that robots create. For example, since robots make work done far more efficient, goods that are produced are of high quality. The company head will have to balance off the selling price of the goods, taking into consideration the purchasing power of the worker who has been laid off. Most industrialized nations are having a hard time dealing with this fact, yet the robotic technology has to continue even as these challenges are being addressed.
The machines nevertheless are a remarkable agent of social transformation, which has furthered industrialization from where it was to what is currently being termed as super industrialization. The effect of having to understand the functionality of these machines even by normal civilians has caused extensive advancement in education levels as early as the childhood level.
With the increase in technology, comes an increase in knowledge. We cannot assume the impact that robots have eventually had on the food market, being the most important industry in any country. One farmer in an industrialized country has the ability of feeding at least one hundred people in the world. In addition, the world has moved at a faster rate, since the rate of production, service, transportation and marketing has increased.
Contrary To this, when manufacturing plants cut back on the number of workers, social security crisis is inevitable. The fact that not enough workers pay into the system due to the reduction on the number of employees, substantially has an adverse effect on the social security pool.
In the past, if there were five workers assembling doors on cars then there would be five salaries with each contributing towards the pool. When the robots took over, only one technician is needed to control the robot, hence a reduction in the amount that goes into the social security pool. However, the other four individuals will still need social security. As a result of this, the amount of money available for social security decreases. With this in mind, the question is, are the robots really better than manual labor? (Marinelli p.9 -10).
Conclusion
Robots are part of us; they are a part of the growing technology that we all desired in the beginning. The fact remains that technology constantly advances year after year. More inventions arise, all with the aim of making man’s life a little more comfortable.
Without this technology, and with the constant increase in population and the heightened demands from the society, life would be unbearable. Even in our daily lives, some form of robotic technology possibly took part in making life more bearable. With all the negative implications that come with the technology, we cannot do away with them, especially with the amount of aid they give to man.
The most we can do is to accept their existence as part of this new generation and try to reduce any negative impact caused by their presence. Just as food is of unavoidable importance to the human body, consuming excess of it possesses a great health risk. In the same way, robots have a threshold in which they could possibly assist man. They can and should only be used to assist in the different activities and not replace man completely from his activities.
Works Cited
Doyle, Stephen. “Trade Union reaction to computers”. GCSE Computer Studies for you. 2010. Gloucester, United Kingdom: Nelson Thornes. 169.
Marinelli, Olivia. From human to robots: The consequences of labor replacement in the automobile industry. 2008.
Rembold, Ulrich. “Types of Robots and their Integration into CIM Systems.” Robot technology and applications. 2010. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. 41-43.
RobotWorx. Advantages and Disadvantages of Automating with Industrial Robots. “Industrial Robots.” 2010. Web.