Two things I know–First, this is, and always has been, a blog. That means that it’s personal and written by me. On the other hand, I’ll gladly quote anyone relevant. Second, people who work for PR agencies are under great pressure. Evidently they get paid per placement rather than collaboration and effectiveness. Either they or their marketing clients have read about the great Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of “guest posts” on blogs. I am inundated with requests–mostly from people who have no clue what my market is.
This is one such request from an agency I don’t know about a company I don’t know. I seldom write about robots for a variety of reasons. Mostly it’s because there hasn’t been much that is news. But robots are greatly misunderstood especially by writers in mainstream media who have no clue but do have lots of readers. So this request, with a somewhat poorly written intro, contained an “infographic” (something I also dislike) busting some myths. It’s worth a scan. The company is Acieta. Following is the intro.
Flying cars and moon colonies might still be a ways off, but the future is here in a lot of ways. Anyone old enough to remember watching “The Jetsons” can recall a world in which human beings have it easy because robots are doing all the dirty work. We might not be at the point where robots are doing everything we don’t want to do ourselves. Nonetheless, in the manufacturing sector, robots now make up a significant portion of the “manpower” used to make the items we use every day. Modern manufacturing as we know it today wouldn’t be possible without the contributions of robots. However, there’s a lot of information most people don’t know about them. They may be concerned that robots will make human beings in the manufacturing sector obsolete. They may be worried that robots create an unsafe working environment for people. Or, they may even be concerned that one day robots will become smart and independent enough to take over the world.
Knowing some of the basic facts about today’s modern manufacturing robots can do a lot to help alleviate those concerns, however. For instance, even though robots do much of the heavy and dangerous jobs in the modern manufacturing facility that humans used to risk life and limb to do, they still can’t do everything themselves. Human beings still are needed on the production floor for many tasks involved in the manufacturing process, as well as programming and servicing the robots themselves.
There’s also no reason to worry about manufacturing robots deciding they don’t need people anymore. Although advancements in artificial intelligence are being made seemingly every day, the robots found in manufacturing environments by and large are only capable of doing what they are programmed to do. What’s more, today’s robots are so sophisticated that they can recognize when an unsafe condition occurs and stop what they’re doing immediately until people are out of harm’s way.
The following guide dispels some of the most common myths about robots. If you’re concerned about robots’ place in the modern manufacturing landscape, take a look and have your questions answered. The future is here, and it may be better than you think.
