Isaac Asimov outlined nearly 50 years ago the increasing use of robots in industrial chains and the birth of humanoid robots like Aibo , Parrot orAsimo. What we had not seen yet is a real attempt of replacement of man … until now.
In the last hours two news announce us this fact. The first one is about Foxconn. In 2010 the Chinese factory endured the controversy about the mysterious suicide of employees working on the assembly of electronic products intended for the main brands sold around the world. Some days ago Foxconn announced a massive reorganization plan with the aim of replacing human workers with those made of metal and electronic circuits. The company is going to increase exponentially the number of robots-workers currently in use in the factory, taking it from the current 10 thousand to 300 thousand for the next year, and adding another million by 2014. If we consider that the number of human workers currently used by Foxconn reach 1.2 million, it means that in about three years the factory will be almost entirely populated by robots.
In the same hours the swiss robotics giant ABB unveiled a new concept robot that showcases how the company is aiming to have humanoid machines work side by side with people in manufacturing environments or eventually replace them. Being the reproduction of anthropomorphic manipulation capabilities and having roughly the size of a small human, FRIDA (Friendly Robot for Industrial Dual-arm Assembly) can perform many of the same tasks as a two-armed person.
I’m still thinking whether to be excited about this great innovation or scared of its likely social consequences.
