Since the beginning, the human race has always tried to make living convenient. Be it the discovery of fire, invention of wheels, farming, pottery and many more, for all these inventions and discoveries there has been this constant drive to make life comfortable or reduce human effort for any work. Since then we came a long way. From inventing wheels in ancient times to industrial revolution around 1860, we always moved forward with our objective of making life comfortable and reducing human efforts. Earlier 2-3 wagons were pulled by animals on the track, then came Mr. Thomas Newcomen who designed the first steam engine which could be commercially used in the 16th century and we use electric engines for the same purpose. This step by step progress helped humankind achieve a more efficient system for transportation. We made various speculations about space in the beginning, and then we understood how, what and where our planetary bodies are. Now we have travelled to the moon and back several times. We even went to mars. So it is clear that humankind has made all the efforts for better life and better understanding. This is the so-called technological advancement of the human race.
Today in our industries and in our day today life we are surrounded by technologies. Things look to be working just fine all around. But it is said that “If something is working fine it doesn’t mean it cannot be perfected”. So now with the entire tech in our hands and industries, it is time to move forward. It’s time for artificial intelligence to be used for better productivity and efficiency. We will learn about its benefits and what could be its demerits in the following section.
At present we and technology move hand in hand. In any job more and more automation is being used. Automation reduces the human effort and produces optimum results. With a small joystick it can operate massive cranes, for its operation motors are used and for their speed control drive is used. Drive is the automation part but operators are responsible for crane operation; this is the human part. In different fields different types of automation are used. If we look into the automobile sector or any sector which involves production line, utilizes robotics on the production line. These robots are designed for a particular job type, and they perform that task efficiently and increase productivity. In many other types of industries other types of robotics are used to enhance the performance and efficiency.
Before we look into the future of industries with robots, we should understand, what is artificial intelligence? The book definition of artificial intelligence is “any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals”. This means, if a device is able to understand its surrounding and acts as per requirement for a successful completion of a task, that device can be called operating on artificial intelligence. In other words we want robots to act much like humans.
Now what should be our next step? To answer this question, we should look into the utilization of robotics in our industries. At present, they are designed for a particular task. What if they could be used for multiple tasks? To solve this problem, we are advancing towards a new type of robotics i.e. a robot with AI (Artificial intelligence). Robots with artificial intelligence will be able to see, analyze and perform tasks as per current situation. We already use artificial intelligence in many fields, such as smartphone applications like Google maps, smart speakers etc. But to use artificial intelligence in robots for industrial purposes will be a completely different thing. It will reduce human effort to minimum and increase productivity to maximum. Industries will enter into a new era with artificially intelligent robots.
We are even thinking about developing Cobot which means collaborative robots. Currently robots work at a distance from humans for all safety reasons. The idea is to bring robots and humans together. Cobots can work in close proximity with humans. They can be utilized in manufacturing fields, in any type of industries and service for humans. They could be used for surveillance, production at plants or any other services at industries or in society. Work on cobots still has a long way to go, so this could be a topic for another time.
Now when we look at robotics as a viable option into our industries, it is fairly possible. Even today we use a lot of robotics in our industries. In production lines, especially in the automobile sector. The whole assembly line is full of automated robotic hands doing their business. But they are designed for a particular work and they do that efficiently. But henceforth robotics involvements should be increased at industries. It will lead to an efficient and productive environment for business. In addition to that we will go green. Which will be helpful for our planet in a great way.
Let’s look into what are the advantages of involving bots in industries.
Robots have been used for a long time in industries. With the increasing tech the pricing for its installation has reduced. We can say it has become cheap. In addition to that it takes comparatively less time to install. Utilizing robots maximizes production and minimizes downtime, which is directly proportional to monetary gain.
Currently robots are in a big production line, by big companies only, but with the advanced tech they can be used in medium to small industries. It won’t be wrong to call them scalable. They are easy to program. Once installed they can operate 24/7 continuously. Robots can be utilized for many utilities as per industrial requirement.
Many of us think that utilizing bots will kill our job. No, it will always need regular maintenance. After all it is a machine only. In addition to that it will create more jobs in bots associated fields, like programming, assemble, engineers, data analyst etc. With the advancement in technology we only move forward.
We all love to eat cakes. Have you ever wondered why its price always hikes and never falls? On the other hand take mobile phones for example they were costly and now their price has fallen. Why does this happen? Dosa price could not decrease but mobile phone price did. It is because technology for making cakes has not changed. The process is the same as it was many years before and labor cost kept on increasing. So the price kept on increasing. Whereas in the case of mobile phones the technology has tremendously changed over the years. Which leads to decrease in manufacturing cost, leading to decreased price on final price.
From the above discussion we can conclude that advancement in technology is the next step forward. We use bots in industries not to that extent. So the future of industries depends upon utilization of bots in the production and manufacturing sector. It will reduce the production cost and increase the production. This will lead to cheaper availability of final products. It will keep us away from harm’s way. Making our life easier and comfortable.