The robot apocalypse is hard to find in America's small and mid-sized factories

  • 📰 Reuters
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 63 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 28%
  • Publisher: 97%

United States Headlines News

United States Latest News,United States Headlines

When researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology visited Rich Gent's machine shop here to see how automation was spreading to America's small and medium-sized factories, they expected to find robots.

"In big factories - when you're making the same thing over and over, day after day, robots make total sense," said Gent, who with his brother runs Gent Machine Co, a 55-employee company founded by his great-grandfather, "but not for us."

Anna Waldman-Brown, a PhD student who worked on the report with MIT Professor Suzanne Berger, said she was "surprised" by the lack of the machines. Nick Pinkston, CEO of Volition, a San Francisco company that makes software used by robotics engineers to automate factories, said smaller firms lack the cash to take risks on new robots. "They think of capital payback periods of as little as three months, or six - and it all depends on the contract" with the consumer who is ordering parts to be made by the machine.

To be sure, robots are spreading to more corners of the industrial economy, just not as quickly as the MIT researchers and many others expected. Last year, for the first time, most of the robots ordered by companies in North America were not destined for automotive factories - a shift partly attributed to the development of cheaper and more flexible machines. Those are the type of machines especially needed in smaller operations.

"We're getting another machine delivered in September - and hope to attach a robot arm to that one to load and unload it," he said. But there are some tasks where the technology remains too rigid or simply not capable of getting the job done.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 2. in US

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

The two largest wildfires in the US have burned land nearly the size of New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago combinedAmerica's two largest active wildfires have burned land nearly the size of New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago combined But global warming isn’t a thing right? 😳
Source: CNN - 🏆 4. / 95 Read more »

A Cash-Strapped Corner of China Finds a Financial Tonic—Hard LiquorThe rise of China’s biggest liquor company, Kweichow Moutai, has been a gift for the indebted province that is the company’s majority shareholder. “There is a lot of pressure to share the joy in Guizhou,” says one analyst. good luck So the local gov'ts have to create businesses to have governing funds? And so they encourage their citizens to drink for taxes? so weird.
Source: WSJ - 🏆 98. / 63 Read more »

People Are Sharing What A Common “Picky Eater Meal” Is In Their Country, And It’s FascinatingExcuse me while I hide my Costco-sized box of mac 'n' cheese.
Source: BuzzFeed - 🏆 730. / 51 Read more »

Why are so many Americans still unvaccinated?Why are so many Americans still unvaccinated? On our “Checks and Balance” podcast: - TamaraGilkes on health literacy in Arkansas - America’s plateauing life expectancy - gelliottmorris’s data model offers solutions to vaccine hesitancy why are we at war over vaccines? the reasons why you shouldn't worry about COVID-19 vaccines and how to go back to life the way it was Because the government abandoned the working class decades ago and works for oligarchs and created a deep mistrust I think it's really cool they were able to come up with a vaccine for a virus that's only been here for a little over a year now, before coming up with a vaccine for the other viruses that have been killing people for 20 years now!
Source: TheEconomist - 🏆 6. / 92 Read more »

NPR Cookie Consent and Choiceshorrible Please. More efficient? Lmao
Source: NPR - 🏆 96. / 63 Read more »

Asia-Pacific stocks rise; private survey on Chinese July factory activity aheadThe Caixin/Markit manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index for July is set to be out at 9:45 a.m. HK/SIN on Monday. They are having a crisis due to the delta variant. Total collapse of chinese manufacturing
Source: CNBC - 🏆 12. / 72 Read more »