Brother Robot — ‘friend of the workers’

Press, 15 May 1981, Page 13

Brother Robot — ‘friend of the workers’

By

FRANCIS COOPER

Features International

A decade ago there were: none. Today, there are 10,000. In ten years time, there will be more than a million . . . and some of them will even be members of trade unions. That is how fast the new generation of robots ' is marching into all our lives. Already they can manufacture themselves with little human help. In some factories they are now in sole charge — and even left to “lock up” after their human colleagues have gone home. • By 1990, industrial robots will be at least 100 times more intelligent than the present generation, according to Japanese experts. “They could even be leaving the shop floor and going into middle management. It will certainly be wise to keep friendly with them.” says a Japanese government spokesman. A robot’s great advantage is that however boring the job, its attention never wanders and the quality of its work never varies. They are already making car components, castings, pumps, bearings, and a host of other engineering products. Now there is even a factory staffed by robots making more robots. Predictably it is in Japan, ‘.he Land of the Rising Robot! In the slopes of Mount Fuji near Tokyo, a $45 million plant is now turning out 350 robots a month. A spokesman for the

owners, Fujitsu.’Fanuc, says: “We now employ 30 robots. The factory operates round the clock but the human staff are' there for only eight •hours in the day. The rest of the time the robots work automatically, with just one employee watching on video cameras in case anything goes wrong. “Now we have developed a robot to replace the solitary night-shift employee. It will monitor the other robots and switch the whole plant off in case of trouble.”

Japanese businessmen have certainly taken the robot to their hearts. Their Industrial Robot Association is spending $25 million a year on research. Its spokesman says: “Most of it is being spent on research into robots which will be at least 100 times more intelligent than the present generation.” Today, Japan uses almost half of the world’s industrial robots and builds a good proportion of the rest, but other countries are trying hard to catch up. For instance, the leading European user of robots is Sweden, which now has 10 per cent of the world’s total in use in its factories. ' ’

The Swedish Government, industry, and universities are co-operating in the development of new applications for

robots. As the spokesman of one leading manufacturer arid exporter, the Swedishbased Electrolux, explains: “There are basically three generations of robots now in use. “One is the ‘handling’ device, which simply performs monotonous tasks. “Next is the ‘process’ robot, which actually performs a job, like welding or drilling. These are the kind you see in television advertisements for robot-assembled motor cars. “Third, there is the ‘assembly’ device, which can put together complicated items •like gearboxes from start to finish.” A Stockholm robot expert, Goeran Luridstroem, adds: “It is already possible to link robots with computers, sensors, and television camgras, to assemble an entire car.” Car workers, though, often remain suspicious of the inroads that robots are making on the shop-floors, and a wide-ranging survey has just been started by Sweden’s University of Lulea, into whether these fears are justified. Workers in Japan, however, are amazed that their European arid North American counterparts remain hostile to robots. Ichiro Shioji, president of the powerful confederation of

car workers’ unions in Japan, says: “Our willingness to introduce new technology, and Western opposition to change, has resulted in a big transfer of jobs from west to east. “In Japan, workers treat robots as friends and colleagues and regard them as a means of keeping factories productive.” In at least one plant, the robots are even registered as union members, with all their dues paid by the company. “We have built up the know-how on productivity and quality-control using robots and we have realised that in the end they safe-

guard jobs,” Mr Shioji says. “The sooner western industrial workers realise that, the sooner they’ can start strengthening their factories.” The dramatic growth in robots is illustrated by the fact that the combined robotelectronics industry in Japan is expected to be bigger than the car, steel, or shipbuilding industries within five years. Indeed, it seems the robot takeover is inevitable. Researchers at Sussex. University recently reported: “Concern for social implications should not stop managements from installing robots wherever they are suitable.”