Trib Live reports last month that 24 fourth graders at Sloan Elementary School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, used Hummingbird robotics kits to create automated dioramas. As part of a Carnegie Mellon University project combining STEM education with art, the students used materials to build a range of robots ranging from Iron Man to the Stay Puft Marshmallow. Today robotics kits like this can be found in thousands of classrooms around the world illustrating how robots are becoming a part of everyday life. Many people worry that robots will steal their jobs, but some of these children will grow up working alongside robots, or even working on them in some of the new career options that the robot revolution is creating. Here are some fields where robots are transforming the workplace in potentially positive ways.
Here are some fields where robots are transforming the workplace in positive ways.
Manufacturing Robotics
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, manufacturing is at the forefront of the robot revolution with 59% of companies in this industry segment already using some type of robot. While some are taking the place of humans, others called “collaborative robots” are safely working alongside humans, increasing productivity and making jobs easier.
Baxter, one of the first collaborative robots, features arms with seven degrees of freedom and an ability to sense force giving it a range of motion and dexterity comparable to those of humans. This makes Baxter flexible enough to use in a wide range of applications. Baxter learns by mimicking human trainers on the job. The robot’s programming adjusts to the workplace. This versatility enables Baxter to be integrated with other automated machinery in the workflow. These qualities make Baxter suitable for repetitive tasks, including loading and unloading, material handling, machine tending, and packaging. Robots like Baxter make workers’ jobs easier and safer, handling monotonous and high-risk tasks while working seamlessly side-by-side with humans. , which will improve workersâ€
jobs rather than replacing them, OTTO Motors argues. Manufacturing jobs will require humans who know how to work alongside robots, leading to a better-educated and higher-paid workforce. In addition to doing components of tasks that robots canâ€t do, manufacturing workers will get paid to supervise and maintain robots, performing tasks such as lubricating them, replacing
New manufacturing jobs will require humans to work alongside robots. That should lead to a better-educated and higher-paid workforce. In addition to participating with robots in completing tasks, manufacturing workers will also supervise and maintain them performing routine maintenance such as lubrication, replacing of O-rings, and electrical repairs. Educational programs, such as RAMTEC, are training the workers of the present and future to be prepared for these new types of manufacturing jobs.
Healthcare Robotics
Another field where robots are making jobs easier is healthcare. One of the most dramatic applications is robotic surgery. Robots such as Intuitive Systems, da Vinci surgical system received approval from the FDA in 2000. Today daVinci is used by surgeons to perform thousands of procedures. It is helping specialists to operate with clearer vision and greater precision than previously possible while making it surgery minimally invasive and safer for patients. Surgeons can use da Vinci to perform procedures remotely guiding the robot over a telecom link.
But robots are also helping healthcare professionals in other ways. For example, Robo Global reports hospital helper robots that deliver messages and samples within medical facilities, freeing up nurses and doctors to spend more time with patients. Other robots assist with elderly, autistic and paraplegic patients. At Georgia Tech specialized programs are being used to train healthcare professionals to work with robots. (See Robots to the Rescue for other biomedical robot systems and applications.)
Robot Operators and Robotics Technicians
Regardless of the job or industry, robots will require human supervision and maintenance creating new career opportunities for operators and technicians. Many robots will require supervision around the clock. If anything needs attention, a robot operator will step in. If a robot needs repair, a technician will have to be knowledgable about the intricacies of both the hardware and software.
Robot operators will require training in related areas of manufacturing, such as welding. According to PayScale, current hourly rates for this line of work average $13.79 U.S. Annual salaries top $47,000. Robot technicians average $18.55 per hour, with annual salaries of 67,000. Organizations such as Yushin University in Rhode Island, and George Brown College in Toronto, Ontario, are helping train robot operators and technicians for emerging career opportunities.
So where are robots and robotic devices making an impact on biomedicine in the second decade of the 21st century? And where are we going with this type of technology as the century unfolds?
We have already described implantable sensors and devices as well as intelligent prosthetics in a previous blog. In this discussion divided into 5 sections we will look at the following:
Surgical and Diagnostic Robotic Systems
In the last 20 years we have seen the evolution of remote presence technology giving doctors the ability to provide medical help to patients in remote areas of the world. These technologies have proven useful for creating virtual presence for interviewing, patient screening and diagnosis, and medical consultation. One such device is called RP-7, a robot that looks like it came right out of a sci-fi. RP stands for remote presence and gives physicians the ability to see and speak with patients and hospital staff. Through its interface the RP-7 gives a doctor the ability to use electronic stethoscopes, otoscopes and ultrasound and receive transmission of all medical data.
But diagnostic robotic tools like RP-7 are just the beginning. A number of robotic designers have built or are building surgical robots with dexterity that is equal to if not better than the best surgeon. These systems feature 3 or 4 arms, stereoscopic 3D imaging and dexterity that no human surgeon can match. Why is there such a growing interest in these types of devices? Because robotic surgeons increase accuracy, decrease operating times, lead to shorter hospital stays, and produce fewer complications.
Here is a quick history of some of these devices beginning in the 1990s and ending in 2012.
Aesop
Computer Motion, out of Santa Barbara, California, was the creator of Aesop a surgical-assist robot built in the 1990s. The acronym Aesop does not have Greek-authored roots but rather stands for Automated Endoscopic System for Optimal Positioning. Developed to assist surgeons for endoscopies, NASA hoped to use Aesop in space where its better than human dexterity made it highly useful for doing repairs. Aesop was voice-command controlled, much preferred over eye or head-tracking motion control for operating room procedures.
Zeus
This robotic device was a second generation successor to Aesop and was first demonstrated in laboratory studies in 1995. It allowed surgeons to do minimally invasive complex procedures through incisions smaller than the diameter of a pencil. The company that created Zeus eventually merged with the creator of the next system featured in this blog.
da Vinci
Intuitive Systems of Sunnyvale, California, after its merger with Computer Motion, developed a robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgical system called da Vinci(R). Pictured below this robot first received FDA approval in 2000. It features a surgical console with 3D high-resolution magnified viewing connected to 4 interactive highly flexible robotic arms that can be manipulated to perform operations.
Each robotic arm features EndoWrist instruments with a range of motion far greater than a human hand. For many surgeons hand tremors can be a career ending problem but with da Vinci tremors are dramatically lessened with the robotic arms providing enhanced dexterity.
Amadeus
Titan Medical, out of Toronto, Canada, is in the process of developing Amadeus(R), a robotic surgical system designed for remote access surgical procedures. Amadeus gives surgeons the ability to do procedures from anywhere, whether in the operating room or on the other side of the globe. Amadeus lets the surgeon feel the patient through touch feedback technology. Several models are under development with one specifically designed to perform surgery in confined spaces where a surgeon would find it impossible to access the patient.
The Near Future for Surgical Robots
Surgeons have two hands. When more are needed two or more surgeons get involved in an operation. Medical robots are not so limited and more arms means more tools can be brought to bear during a procedure with fewer surgeons needed to operate them. Robotic arms can feature touch feedback systems that provide tactile and pressure sensation to the surgical operator. Robotic arms can be generalists or specialists. One can control a 3D camera that can maneuver in the surgical site providing better than human vision while others can use multiple attached instruments to help a surgeon complete a procedure faster minimizing trauma to the patient. Robotic arms and fingers can be smaller than any human’s arms and fingers. Robotic surgeons can be autonomous entering a body, guided remotely to a surgical site, doing the repair and then exiting.
Are we there yet? Are we near the time when robots will do procedures autonomously without the presence of a surgeon? Not yet but ultimately that is where the technology is headed in the 21st century.
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