Are Robots Slowly Replacing Humans in the Workplace?

Simple robots — such as the six-axis arm robotics used in automobile assembly lines and elsewhere — have been a common part of the workplace landscape since at least the 1970s.

But ever since their first introduction, robots have always been viewed with suspicion by their human co-workers who fear they might one day be replaced permanently by these increasingly intelligent machines.

As warehouse and manufacturing facilities look for ways to reduce costs, increase speed and efficiency, and deal with the growing demand for smaller, more frequent orders, one of the first places they have looked for solutions have been robots. Among the most popular are Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS).

Robots Doing the Dirty Work

These types of robots can perform many of the dull, dirty and dangerous tasks workers don’t want to do themselves. Yet increasingly these and other types of industrial robots are not replacing workers, but optimizing their productivity.

Adam Brown, manager of integrator partners at SSI Schaefer Systems International, said human workers shouldn’t be afraid of being replaced by robot workers.  They should see their growing use as an opportunity to work better, not harder.

“Humans are the most dynamic piece of equipment you could ever deploy,” Brown told Modern Materials Handling. “They are more capable and flexible than anything. And if you can minimize movement and fatigue (you can) keep them focused on what they do best, which is dynamic manipulation.”

The humanoid robot as depicted by the fictional robot C-3PO in the popular Star Wars movies — continues to be a dream rather than a reality While robot technology has certain improved in recent decades and the Internet now allows instant global communication and retrieval of data and information at a scale never before known, human workers still have nothing to worry about. At least that’s the message Jim Lawton, chief marketing officer for Rethink Robots, is promoting.

“Don’t worry too  much about the big, ultimate utopia of what could be,” Lawton said. “If you look at the effortlessness with which a human can shuffle a few small items into a carton, robots are not even close.”

Humans and robots working in unison offer a better team than one or the other can provide on their own. With increasing frequency, work flow is being separated into smaller pieces and decisions are being made as to whether each slice can be better performed by a human or a robot worker.

Famous Robot Villains in Film

Suspicion toward robots has always been in the back of workers’ minds. And this uncertainty has frequently made its way into popular culture.

One of the first robotic villains was the murderous HAL-9000, which was featured in Stanley Kubrick’s groundbreaking film “2001: A Space Odyssey”. This was followed by James Cameron’s successful “Terminator” series of movies. Perhaps this anxiety was taken to its ultimate level in the Wachowski Brothers’ “Matrix” movies, in which humanity itself was enslaved as a power source for their robot overlords.

The reality is that, for the time being at least, human beings are still in charge and robots are simply tools used to make industrial processes less costly and more efficient.