The Rise of Industrial Robotics

Will this dismembered robo-arm come for your job?

Earlier this year, Martin Ford published a book titled Rise of the Robots. If the title is not ominous enough, the subtitle, Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future, should have you really paying attention.

Over the course of 350-plus pages, Ford develops the idea that robots are already on the rise, and that advances in machine-learning algorithms and artificial intelligence are making way for a future in which a lot of people could be put out to pasture. While that’s not likely to happen soon, Ford points out that robots are getting better at doing their jobs, and they are proliferating.

Now alarms should be going off. But before the (human) workers of the world unite to try to drive off the robot menace, it might be time to pause and look at the state-of-the-art in industrial robots.

Close Enough for Contact

Baxter, a human-friendly robot.

Modern industrial robots have been working on manufacturing floors since the mid-1970s. Most have all been built on a form factor that sort of resembles a human arm. And while these mechanical beasts are largely benign, workers tooling in their vicinity (if they’re even allowed to work alongside them) have always had to be wary of the robot’s motion, strength and speed. Or suffer an unsightly accident.

Enter the Kinder, Gentler Robot

Baxter working with a colleague.

Today, massive, rapidly-moving robots dominate many a factory floor, but a new, safer, better-mannered robot might be making its way forward.

Standing at roughly six feet tall, Baxter is one of the world’s first industrial robots, built with a barrier-free, human-robot work environment in mind. To accomplish this feat, while still providing the tireless efficiency of a robot, Baxter comes equipped with a suite of sensors that control the movement of its hands and arms, which allow it to dynamically adapt to its environment. In addition to that level of awareness, Baxter’s motions can come to a screeching halt — a motor can decelerate in an instance, giving Baxter lightning-quick reflexes to prevent human injury.

Though Baxter’s been built with safety in mind, another profound characteristic that signifies an important advance in robotics is its ability to learn through “motor suggestion.” Baxter can be taught to perform tasks by having co-workers move its limbs. The movement is converted into a program that will then repeat the motion.

So, robots are getting safer to work with and teach. Check.

Spinning Up for Space

ISAAC is NASA's composite building behemoth.

NASA’s always been known for building some of the most complex and rigorously-designed systems on the planet. In fact, at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia, some of the most advanced composite concepts are designed and analyzed. But, while the center has always been a hub of creativity and cutting-edge engineering, it has been unable to build complex and large composite structures. Seeing this bottleneck as a huge impediment to progress, the Langley brain trust invested in ISAAC (Integrated Structural Assembly of Advanced Composites).

To say that ISAAC is special would be an understatement. Only three similar machines exist on the planet, and NASA’s is built to do one thing: create complex composite structures for next gen spacecraft. To perform this specialized task, ISAAC (which was originally a gargantuan KUKA robot) has been outfitted with a disc-shaped head that contains as many as 16 rollers full of differing carbon fiber ribbons. To build spacecraft geometry, ISAAC lays down different patterns of carbon fiber material and switches its many spools to give its product myriad properties.

With this capability, NASA’s engineering will be able to prototype new designs, do accurate wind-tunnel simulations and speed up the time it takes to build payload and rocket components for missions to Mars and beyond. What’s more, given ISAAC’s size, it’s likely that, if called upon, other robots of its ilk could be brought together to rapidly build truly massive structures. Think architecture, think extra-terrestrial in-situ construction. Robots of ISAAC’s quality could be the construction crews of the future.

So, robots are getting larger and learning to perform ever more complex tasks. Check.

One Small Step for Robo-Kind

KAIST's HUBO, Winner of the DARPA Robotics Challenge

Over the last three years, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been leading an effort named the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC). The goal of this multi-year tournament has been to build a humanoid robot that’s semi-autonomous and can perform complex rescue operations in devastated “human-engineered environments.” While DARPA’s always been known for ambitious visions for the future, the DRC was devised to reinvigorate a science that’s been slow to mature.

What’s the best way to get roboticists around the world to push each other’s limits? Construct a competition around a timed obstacle course, of course.

Within an hour, the DRC pushed robots from 25 international teams to drive a car through an obstacle course, open a door, cut a hole in a wall using a power tool and turn a valve.

While a civil servant after a four-martini lunch may have passed at least the driving part of the test —and maybe the rest — only three of the 25 teams in the competition managed to do so.

In the end of DARPA’s course, South Korea’s KAIST robot beat out the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition machine by racing through its obstacles in a scant six minutes. What made for the speed? KAIST’s robot was unique in having legs and wheels, which made its robot more nimble when traversing level terrain.

And therein lies the big robotic rub.

Robots today just can’t figure out bipedal motion. While machines like Boston Dynamics’ BigDog and MIT’s Cheetah can run on all fours, roboticists are still trying to develop algorithms that can keep machines balanced while they perform the graceful act that we call walking. Or is bipedal motion overrated — with humans just trying to anthropomorphize everything?

Regardless of whether it’s necessary, the walking conundrum points out just how difficult it is to breathe life into a machine, making it capable of even the simplest of tasks.

So, robots are getting better at autonomy. Check. Advance motor skills…

Maybe Gill Pratt, program manager of the DRC, said it best: “If 10 or 20 years from now we see robots not only for disaster response, but for construction, agriculture and use in the home for aging society and healthcare, I think [the DRC] will have been a success too.”

Your Job Is Safe for Now… I Think

Today, industrial robotics is undoubtedly progressing. Robots become more capable and “smarter” day by day. Still, even the most advanced bots are a ways from challenging humans in most of the offices between the factory floor and the boardroom. So, while it is impossible to see Ford’s thesis as a reality in the near-term, and improbable in the near distant future, industrial robots, and robots as a whole, are coming along. I just don’t think many of us are going to be out of a job anytime soon, at least not at the expense of a hydraulic colleague.