In 1982 comments given before a House subcommittee by the General Accountability Office (GAO) presented the view that automation can be an important factor in productivity improvement, although rapid, wide-scale adoption of automation may exacerbate such problems as labor displacement, skill shortages, geographic dislocations, and labor-management bargaining. The U.S. lag in implementing automation in comparison with other industrial nations is in part reflected in the Nation's declining productivity. The barriers to more rapid implementation of automated technologies include: (1) technical barriers which are encountered in getting automated equipment to work; (2) financial barriers which arise from the necessity to invest in new capital equipment such as automated devices; and (3) social barriers which are based on human resistance to change. Published predictions have cited the potential loss of millions of jobs in the manufacturing sector because of the use of robotics. At the same time, new and existing occupations are expected to increase because of the advent and diffusion of automation. Federal efforts to encourage automation include: (1) financial incentives for private sector action; (2) research responsibilities; (3) technology transfer mechanisms; (4) support of engineering education; and (5) the development of standards to facilitate integration of diverse components of automation systems.
(Link: http://www.gao.gov/products/118784)
Welcome to the 21st Century!
One exciting element of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership is the National Robotics Initiative. Robots are working for us every day, in countless ways. At home, at work, and on the battlefield, robots are increasingly lifting the burdens of tasks that are dull, dirty, or dangerous.
But they could do even more, and that’s what the National Robotics Initiative is all about. Four agencies (the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, NASA, and the United States Department of Agriculture) issued a joint solicitation that will provide up to $70 million in research funding for next-generation robotics.
The focus of this initiative is on developing robots that work with or beside people to extend or augment human capabilities, taking advantage of the different strengths of humans and robots. In addition to investing in the core technology needed for next-generation robotics, the initiative will support applications such as robots that can:
The initiative will also designed to accelerate progress in the field by requiring researchers to share the software and robotics operating systems they develop or contribute to, and funding the purchase of robotics platforms. The Obama Administration decided to make robotics a priority because:
(Link: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2011/06/24/developing-next-generation-robots)
The goal of the National Robotics Initiative (NRI) is to support fundamental research that will accelerate the development and use of robots in the United States that work beside or cooperatively with people. The original NRI program focused on innovative robotics research that emphasized the realization of collaborative robots (co-robots) working in symbiotic relationships with human partners.
The 2.0 program significantly extends this theme to focus on issues of scalability: how teams of multiple robots and multiple humans can interact and collaborate effectively; how robots can be designed to facilitate achievement of a variety of tasks in a variety of environments, with minimal modification to the hardware and software; how robots can learn to perform more effectively and efficiently, using large pools of information from the cloud, other robots, and other people; and how the design of the robots’ hardware and software can facilitate large-scale, reliable operation.
(Link: https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503641&org=CISE)