Posted on 05/25/2021 8:53:41 AM PDT by BeauBo
The robots are coming to labor-strapped North American warehouses.
Growing numbers of self-driving machines are shuttling clothing and sports equipment down warehouse aisles, pulling bins of groceries, cosmetics and industrial parts from high stacks and handing off goods to human workers to help deliver orders faster...
The push toward automation comes as businesses say they can’t hire warehouse workers fast enough to meet surging online demand for everything from furniture to frozen food in pandemic-disrupted supply chains. The crunch is accelerating the adoption of robots and other technology in a sector that still largely relies on workers pulling carts...
“This is not about taking over your job, it’s about taking care of those jobs we can’t fill,” ...
Logistics-automation companies say demand for their technology has grown during the pandemic as companies look for ways to cope with big swings in volume when workers are scarce and social distancing requirements limit building occupancy.
“Robots are beginning to fill that void,” said Dwight Klappich, a supply-chain research vice president at Gartner Inc. The technology-research firm forecasts that demand for robotic systems that deliver goods to human workers will quadruple through 2023...
“The driver here is not to reduce costs, but simply to serve the customer’s needs. They simply cannot hire.”...
Users say mobile robots and other logistics technology can also boost output and efficiency, helping businesses handle sudden spikes in demand without investing millions of dollars in fixed infrastructure.
XPO Logistics Inc. said its use of robots in warehousing operations increased efficiency by as much as six times in some cases...
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Would anyone design a robot like him on purpose? He can't even read the Teleprompter or cheat sheets correctly or repeat the words he hears in his earpiece.
"I'd say more but I'd get into big trouble so I'm going now."
This has nothing to do with the spot price of unskilled labor.
It makes me wonder about the job market of the future. I know people.often say new jobs in robot repair and maintenance will be created. But will millions of lower skilled people he able to get such jobs? And will there be millions of such jobs created?
I need one that will weed my garden
No.
One turning point was when AI software could discern which customers of a product or service would be more or less likely to repeat. That was once a big human quality——if you could make those predictions by intuition or body language or psychology you went far. Now machines do it.
Labor gaps = able bodies lazies who’d rather sit on the couch while collecting freebie gov unemployment checks.
Megadittos.
lidar helps out a lot now along with cameras and radar .
Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, Best Buy, Wayfair, Jet... list goes on and on.
There’s also places like Shippers’ Warehouse and others that serve as distributors.
Best Buy and Home Depot don’t have groceries.
And no lunch trash/beer bottles thrown into body panels and welded in, like the UAW used to do with S-trucks made in Shreveport.
The first all-robot-assembled car was the 1990 Nissan 300ZX - they stopped doing that not because of quality reasons but because it took too long to reprogram the bots if changes were needed as the bots had no AI. Expect all-robot-assembled cars to return and become the norm over the next decade. At least we’ll get a massive improvement in US domestic brand quality as a result. :P
If this surprises anyone, you’ve not been paying attention.
They do have foodstuffs - the snacks and drinks in the checkout areas.
They also have things that you can’t get from Amazon like lumber and concrete, so that kind of makes up for it.
It probably surprises and shocks about a third or so of the people on FR. :P
You are sick. Yes, Republicans are the party of the people. LOL.
On the other hand, spellcheck is my worst enema.
They were so creative! :)
There’s a difference between the ones on your consumer devices and language processing systems that cost $10K and up.
Systems a couple generations back are currently being used to do live transcriptions for closed caption display on TV. They’re more accurate than the humans formerly employed to do that.
“I need one that will weed my garden”
Me as well but it also must be able to dead head, trim bushes, refresh mulch and redefine the edge of the bed.
If ‘robots’ can pull my grocery order together for me so all I have to do is pick it up, I’m good. ;)
One thing about the Sham-Demic - I learned to LOVE having everything delivered to my doorstep!
“As G-d is my witness, I will never grocery shop again!”
(Well, hardly ever again...)
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