Discuss about the Robotic Technology in Industries.
VelxRobotics Limited is a company incorporated in Greenville Texas in the United States of America but has operations in Australia. The firm has a total of 500 employees dispersed across the regions where it has operations and other which are hired on contractual basis. The artificial intelligence company is involved in the coding and production of robotic technology for domestic use, industrial use, military, and now planning to expand in other continents namely Asia and Australia to capture the market there. In Australia, the company has a base in Brisbane in Queensland, and it proposes to diversify into the manufacturing sector due to increased competition and the emergence of many industries. Besides the company also designs and supply electronics part for autonomous robots and further provides educational and training support to workers in the organization to boost their competitive ability in the production of products and to offer services to consumers.
In the modern society, Robots are gaining currency, and they are now beginning to infiltrate all the major industries such as mining, cleaning industry, transport and communication and the manufacturing sector. Across the world managers are now using automated robots due to rising wage bill, the needs to increase efficiency which requires the organization to reduce dependence on manual labour. In the manufacturing industry companies that have been slow to adopt robotic technology have faced stiff competition from rivals due to the reliance of manual labour which is slow and costly. Therefore the purpose of the report is to study how robotic technology can be used to increase competitive ability and its applications to help the company survive in an increasing automation in the manufacturing sector.
The report will first describe the organization under consideration, explain the objectives in the introduction. In the body of the report, the paper defines robotic technology, explores types of robots used in various industries, incorporation of robotic technology in the organization in the future, pro and cons of their use, ethical, social and legal issues and how to address them in the organization. Finally, there is a recommendation of how the company should continue with the process and the issues to consider.
The term robot is variously defined by various authors. Nilsson describes the concept Robot as an automatically controlled machine that can do the work of a human but does not in any way similar to people in terms of their appearance and does not have the ability like that of performing activities like a human. Besides, robotics technology is the form of engineering which deals with the formulation, design, construction, and control of robots. Across various industries, the robot can be manipulated, reprogrammed, and may be either fixed in a static position or mobile in the cases of industrial applications (Nilsson, 2014). The first robot to be used for industrial purposes took place in Swedish in a metal works factory in the year 1959. It weighed estimated two tons and was controlled by the utilization of a magnetic drum and program and mostly relied on hydraulic actuators to change its position in a precise manner (Shah, Rattan, & Nakra, 2015).
Since the advent of robots, the technology used has shown the capabilities of revolutionizing the way things are done in the society in two distinct phases. The first one is credited with the introduction of electric machines that were tasked with repetitive tasks but were considered as useless (Siciliano & Khatib, 2016). For example, Ford Motors used Robots in the manufacturing of vehicles and the assembly lines and the production of similar products. The second is occasioned the production of industrial robots that were capable of performing sophisticated tasks such as collection of data and information and respond to this information to improve the activities being performed. For example, these type of robotic technology are applied in the automotive industry, and their influence is pervasive to all the sectors of the economy such as transport and communication, cleaning and others (Nilsson, 2014). The report focuses on the application of robot technologies in the mining industry, military, cleaning, transportation and communication, domestic sectors and the manufacturing sector. Besides, the company is planning to enter in the healthcare industry in the next five years when it expands in Australia.
The robots technology continues to revolutionize many industries, and one of the major beneficiaries is the military industry. There recent development of drones has played a role in the military industry, and this has resulted to complete change. This is because the army has been heavily using robots to carry out battlefield and reconnaissance and other sentry duty. For instance, the military can employ Robots in rescuing people and colleagues in a time of danger such as fire and also use them for surveillance of enemy lines (Subhan, Bhide, & SSGB COE, 2014). For example, IRobot is a type of robot that is fitted with sensors and cameras and can be used to spy the enemies and plan how to rescue the hostages and other risk assessment roles. Besides, the military also uses robots that is remotely controlled to locate and destroy dangerous objects in a way military personnel is not put at risk. An example can be recovering explosive devices such as grenades and also has the capability to use X-ray to scan materials that are suspected to be suspicious (Siciliano & Khatib, 2016).
The manufacturing sector is slowly embracing the use of robots in the productions of goods for the market. In the beginning, they were used to perform automatic roles such as doing repetitive functions and manual tasks that posed a danger to people and caused boredom. Since then, there has been development and evolutions that introduced them in performing unskilled labor more efficiently. For instance in Australia’s a company by the name Drake Trailers has adopted the use of robots which carry works such as welding and the company is reported to have realized an increased productivity by a huge margin (Gwiazda, et al., 2015).
Recently, the mining industry is slowly adopting the use of robots, and the investors are now heavily relying on robots to perform various tasks. These form of robots in use performs tasks such as compiling essential information regarding the interior of a mine. Therefore, the technology is helpful as it makes it easy for the company to ascertain the level of safety in the mines and other features that require consideration (Subhan, Bhide, & SSGB COE, 2014). For example, there are companies such as Stanley Innovation that have embraced the use of costumed robot which makes it for maneuver in the dangerous terrains. Other than this, currently robots are used for drilling deep the earth and at the offshore, and this makes it possible for mining companies to dig deeper in a condition known as treacherous conditions where human beings cannot operate (Siciliano & Khatib, 2016).
The development of industrial robot has made a significant change in the environment as a response to high level of competition in the industry. For our company to be competitive, there must be speed in the way goods are produced, and therefore we propose the use of robotic technology in the production of products and the inspection of the workplace. Therefore, our company proposes to use robots to handle heavy goods and transporting them efficiently to the stores. Further, the company will use robots to improve the level of inspection, consistency, quality and safety and this means human presence will be significantly reduced in these jobs. The implementation of robots in the manufacturing of cement and other related products such as blocks, culverts and other construction materials that are hard to lift and can threaten human health. In addition, when working it can lead to injuries and possible death and this is why robots has been considered.
The technology will be implemented in small scale, and then the company will fully implement it fully in the organization before transferring the technology to other branches in the United States and then other regions such as Asia and Australia. In the short term, the objective includes using to understand the challenges that can face the automation process, solving it and ensuring the same does not happen during full implementation. When this is achieved, the technology will be transferred to Australia, but will further be perfected to remove errors and deal with other arising issues.
There are various pros and cons of employing robots to perform in our industries because they have become a common occurrence in our human lives. Their use can be found in stores, homes, hospitals, organizations and the battlefield and the role carried by them is one that is done by a human (Siciliano & Khatib, 2016). The advantage of using them is because they have the capacity to perform better when compared to people and especially in handling some tasks. Besides, they can work faster when compared to individuals and can perform better and efficiently in the environment that would be considered dangerous for humans. For example, they can work in a condition with a high level of heat, chemical fumes, radiation and other hazards which can affect the person. Furthermore, they can perform many tasks conveniently at a go and protect lives, increase the productivity and others (Strong, 2016).
However, despite the many advantages, the use of robot poses myriads of threats to a human being. Research revealed that robots technology utilizes insecure communications, problems with authentication, lack of authorization schemes, the presence of weak cryptography and the privacy of information is jeopardized because they have poor configurations. Therefore due to this issues, there is a possibility of cyber attackers to launch malicious commands on the robots that can threaten human lives (Gwiazda, et al., 2015). Besides, some of the robots do not need any authentication due to weak mechanisms that can be bypassed by hackers. For example in the case of a hack of robots, spying can take place through cameras, microphones, exposure of private information. Besides, due to their kinetic abilities, there are other dangers posed by robots such as hurting a human, destroying objects and killing due to sudden moves (Subhan, Bhide, & SSGB COE, 2014).
The research as identified some risks such as the hacking of the robots and the access to private information. The issues and risks posed can be dealt with through implementation of cyber security practices that prevents the hackers from accessing and manipulating the tools. Furthermore, the company needs to have professional to assess the vulnerability of the automation systems to determine the level of dangers posed by them. For example, assessment of their security can be done through testing on how they can be manipulated by outside forces. Therefore, the organization should consider cyber security threats and incorporate in the product development cycles to make it secure (Levy, 2015). In addition, the management need to have a regulatory framework which needs to be followed in the adoption of robotic technology in the future. To allow proper interaction between the employees and robots, constant training should be carried to respond to changes and remove human errors in the process of operating them (Kernaghan, 2014).
When using the robotic technology, there are various legal, moral and social problems that will emerge. The report calls for the organization to automate major organizational functions including inspection of the production process, moving of products to the stores and loading them for transportation. However implementing the process will eliminate human being from this role and render them jobless (Lin, Abney, & Bekey, 2014). This means that robot will make many people in the society unemployed. Besides, there is the possibility of injuries during interaction with the robots, and this can cause death. The legal issues at hand which can be sued instead of damages and why. For instance, can manufacture be sued for incorrect coding or products and services? These are issues that need consideration, and they can be solved through policy and rules that allow better interaction between man and technology and having a legal advisor (Salem, Lakatos, Amirabdollahian, & Dautenhahn, 2015).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the increased employment of Robotic Technology in many sectors of the economy has produced a significant impact in many ways. The reports have proposed the use of Robotic technology in the manufacturing of products. However, the use of robots has various advantages and disadvantages which should be taken consideration of by the organization seeking to use them. For instance, they are employed in hospitals, workplace, and in the military battlefield. their advantages includes accomplishing the task that cannot be easily performed by a human, increase speed, can work in harsh conditions that could be dangerous such as heat, chemical fumes, radiation and other divergent hazards. Besides they are capable of accomplishing jobs with less energy, and without wasting time. However, Robotic technologies come with different disadvantages such as the possibility of causing harms to human, vulnerability to hacking and can be used to spy human through cameras and microphones. The study found that using the robot in the manufacturing sector guarantees the improvement the quality due to automation, ensure safety and precise inspection of the production process, to increase the speeding of production and to increase the consistency. Though robotic automation is essential to improve the competitive ability of the company, their work is limited since they work under specific coded instructions and therefore cannot improve the quality of produce alone. Therefore the organization will require engineers with professional to control them. Further, due to lack of emotions sometimes there are challenges when interacting with human beings. The objectives of the reports have been achieved through analysis of how robots have been used in the past to improve the productive of organization and the probable future utilization in the industries. In future, the use of robotic technology should not be used to replace people in the workplace but meant to complement human capability. This is because machines, although they are trained to sense and respond to the various pattern, cannot make decagons to change the situations like human beings. Further, there is a need to improve the techno used to make the robot secure and free from hacking and use for ulterior motives.
The paper makes various recommendations regarding the use of robotic technology in the manufacture of cements and construction related products in Australia. As seen in the findings, robots has the ability to replace human efforts in the workplace and this lead to economic ramifications such as loss of jobs. Therefore robot technology should be employed in areas where human being cannot perform well and thus their use should be for the purpose of complementing human effort and capability. for instance in the manufacture of cement, there are certain processes that poses health hazards to humans and this is one area that should be considered.
In addition, the implementation should be on the small scale and feedback should be incorporated to understand how to improve and where to consider their use. Further, the management should ensure regular training of employees on how to handle robots without endangering their life and that of others.
In the future, companies will have 75% of their process carried by automated machines and this means the future workplaces will look rather different and it is important to create awareness of on the implications for implementation of robot technology to employees to help them adapt on the techniques, cultures and processes.
Social, legal and ethical issues should be at the forefront when implementing the technology. As such, the management need to have policies and framework that will guide their use to avoid ethical issues such as how they endanger life. Also the firm needs to understand who is capable of any legal issues arising out of robotic technology use. For instance there is need for workers to understand on who is responsible for damages that can be caused during their operation.
References
Gwiazda, A., Banas, W., Sekala, A., Foit, K., Hryniewicz, P., & Kost, G. (2015). Modular industrial robots as the tool of process automation in robotized manufacturing cells. In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 95). Bristol, England: IOP Publishing.
Kernaghan, K. (2014). The rights and wrongs of robotics: Ethics and robots in public organizations. Canadian Public Administration, 57(4), 485-506.
Levy, D. (2015). When robots do wrong. In Cognitive Robotics (pp. 3-22). Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.
Lin, P., Abney, K., & Bekey, G. (2014). Ethics, War, and Robots. In Ethics and Emerging Technologies (pp. 349-362). . London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan .
Nilsson, N. (2014). Principles of artificial intelligence. Burlington, Massachusetts: Morgan Kaufmann.
Salem, M., Lakatos, G., Amirabdollahian, F., & Dautenhahn, K. (2015). Towards Safe and Trustworthy Social Robots: Ethical Challenges and Practical Issues. In ICSR (pp. 584-593).
Shah, J., Rattan, S., & Nakra, B. (2015). Dynamic Analysis of Two Link Robot Manipulator for Control Design Using Computed Torque Control. International Journal of Research in Computer Applications and Robotics, 3(1), 52-59.
Siciliano, B., & Khatib, O. (2016). Springer handbook of robotics (eds ed.). New York City, NY: Springer.
Strong, A. (2016). Applications of Artificial Intelligence & Associated Technologies. Science [ETEBMS-2016], 5, 6-15.
Subhan, M., Bhide, A., & SSGB COE, B. (2014). Study of unmanned vehicle (robot) for coal mines. International Journal of Innovative Research in Advanced Engineering (IJIRAE), 1(10), 116-120.
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