Everyone knows that technology has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, but the robotics industry has been making huge strides right along with it. In fact, some strides have been so large that people like Farhad Manjoo wrote an article in Slate about the possibility of robots taking over professional jobs that typically take several years of schooling to prepare for.
So how far have robots really come, and how will their participation in various industries affect the work IT professionals have to do on a daily basis? Here’s a look at some industries seeing a growth in robotics use and an explanation as to the impact IT will feel down the road.
Construction
The construction industry, which literally forms the foundation of our society, is also beginning to see the potential for robotic use in the future. No, we’re not entrusting robots to build entire cities yet, but some robots in Paris are already impressing the people who’ve seen them put into eerily accurate action.
NPR reported on these small, helicopter-looking robots that zoomed through the air and placed bricks made of polystyrene foam in perfect position on top of the ones lying below them. They also managed to avoid collision with one another, as there were multiple robots operating at the same time. If you’re curious, take a look for yourself.
Health Care
The health care industry is no stranger to robotics — sometimes it seems like something robotic and amazingly useful for the medical field comes out every day. For a few years, some hospitals have been taking advantage of robots that help with tasks like delivering medicine so that nurses can have more time with their patients.
More recently, advanced robots have even gotten involved in training doctors and making incisions during surgeries, according to Information Week. Furthermore, robotic technology has been used to create devices like Patient Transfer Assist, which was created by Toyota to help caretakers lift and move their patients.
Space Exploration
When you think robots in space, the image of Rosie the Robot from The Jetsons might come to mind, or possibly the lovable robot Wall-E from the movie of the same title. But just last year, a real robot was sent to space, so all of these fiction movies and TV shows are starting to feel more real than ever.
In October, the first humanoid robot to ever go into space woke up on the International Space Station, according to Huffington Post. NASA says its name is Robonaut 2, and it was built by NASA as part of a joint project with GM with the goal of creating a robot that can help humans perform complex tasks. Yes, robot helpers. Welcome to the 21st century!
Manufacturing
The manufacturing industry is probably one of the most common workplaces associated with robotic help. Automation technology has become a vital part of automotive assembly plants over the last 25 years, according to the Library of Congress website, and typical assembly plants might have used hundreds of robots, even back in 2004.
There has been even more growth lately — in light of Foxconn’s announcement to build about a million industrial robots (which would almost double the number of that type of robot in the world). Robots are even going to become part of the aircraft assembly industry; According to ScienceDaily, Fraunhofer researchers have crafted a flexible assembly-line concept that uses robots similarly to how they work in car production.
Education
When you were growing up, could you imagine walking into a classroom and getting the opportunity to hang out with robots? Some children are already getting that opportunity, though admittedly they aren’t just hanging out—the robots are helping the kids learn and explore as they serve as education tools in the classroom.
For example, Lego’s Mindstorm teaches children how to program sensors and motion, according to CNET. A study was even done by Latitude (a media research company) in collaboration with the Lego Learning Institute that showed robotics could open new ways of learning for students by blurring the line between work and play.
What does this mean for IT?
With the growth of robotics used in several different industries, how will IT work morph to keep up with the trend? William Hurley, a practice executive from Idea, a technology solutions company, pointed out that some parts of IT work will remain the same — functional and systems testing will still have to be done, and many robots are made with Linux, which a lot of IT professionals are familiar with.
However, many custom libraries need to be built because while there are some libraries out there, they’re not all tied together and packaged nicely, so they’d have to be used for individual controllers in robots, Hurley said. There’s also new hardware that some IT professionals might not be used to working with, like different types of controllers or sensors.
Once some of the core libraries get developed, he said, more people will be able to use their creativity instead of having to work strictly on programming and maintenance. He likens it to when most people didn’t know how to code HTML and had to focus most of their time on coding. Eventually, once HTML was better understood, drag-and-drop interfaces were available, so people could harness their creative energy. A similar phenomenon is occurring and will continue to happen in regard to robotics.
“Just like anything,” he said, “the demand will drive the creation of better integrated systems.”
