Robotics and AI are Growth Engines for Digital Economy

 

“Technology disrupts many jobs but it creates new jobs with more efficiency and consistency to become the lifeline for the economic growth of any country “

During Industry Revolution 4.0, the technology wave is moving much faster than predicted by many experts.  Fast strides in technological innovations, computer-controlled processes and rapid changes in climate/environment will continue to accelerate the change. Those who timely ride the technology wave are the winners/leaders and others will be onlookers regretting having missed the chance. Digital transformation and industrial automation are the keys to the economic growth of emerging economies. Countries like the USA, UK, China, South Korea, France, Germany, Sweden, Japan and  Canada have taken a big leap forward in introducing state-of-the-art technologies like AI and Embedded robotics in manufacturing, transportation, and healthcare areas.

India though 6th largest manufacturing country in the world has lagged behind in introducing Robotics and AI in its industries. However, during 2017–2018, India had taken a big leap forward to maximize the use of emerging technologies in manufacturing and ensure that the manufacturing sector contributes 25% to Indian GDP by 2022. The Government of India (GOI) has pledged on 23 May 2019 to make “New India” as one of the leading digital economies of the world.   In this plan, robotics has a versatile role to play in industries like toys, entertainment electronics, animated movies, space missions, healthcare/ surgical procedures, logistics/ transport, and military operations. Robots have a great role to play in chemical and nuclear plants where certain operations are hazardous for human beings. Robots are programmable electro-mechanical devices using embedded software. Robots can detect and easily reconfigure as per emerging situations. Robots have many applications in material handing in assembly-line (manufacturing and processing plants), warehouses, loading/unloading of railway wagons and cargo ships. Robots are forming part of homes, hospitals, restaurants, and hotels for housekeeping/cleaning floors/ equipment.

 In today’s fast-paced world, the edge belongs to the integration of Robotics and AI, to meet customer demands.  Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a new innovation to enhance productivity and operational efficiency. Robotics will assist in accelerating digital transformation for emerging economies.  Although robotics will take away many labour-intensive jobs, robotics will also create many new jobs but with new skill sets.  Robotics impact business practices and alliances

Need for Robots.  It is well recognized that Robots are no longer a threat to our jobs. Infect, robots and AI are integral to future economy and growth. Martin Ford, a bestselling author of “Rise of the Robots” had pointed out that most jobs can be broken down into a number of routine tasks which can be more efficiently done by robots. The robot with embedded Algorithms, sensors and controllers can perform tasks that are hazardous for human beings. Robots are already in use for healthcare services, housekeeping in hospitals, hotels, restaurants, assembly-line and quality testing in manufacturing /production facilities. Robots integrated with optics and lasers are already doing well in surgical procedures. Robots have consistent performance since they do not get tired. With embedded Algorithm and AI, Robots can even give company to lonely technocrats and elderly people. Robots have been used in animated movies since the late 1980s. Robots will soon be deployed as soldiers in demining or laying minefields and carrying out other operations in the battlefield..

Robot Composition.   A robot is an electro-mechanical machine equipped with microsensors, microcontrollers and software logic (Algorithm) to sense   events happening around it, quickly analyze the situation, make certain decisions and respond to the emerging  situation    However, the heart of the robot is software engineering related to the following areas:

·         Algorithm development and evaluation. The functionality of the robot is achieved through the embedded logic (Algorithm), which is developed by a team consisting of experts from Mechatronics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Operations Research (OR) and a particular industry. In addition, the team also has experts in the Analysis and Design of Algorithms (ADA) and Quality Testing. These activities provide a range of new jobs in related areas. 

·         Embedded Logic.  As human beings, we can instinctively sense a situation emerging around us and automatically respond to it. However, for robots, every decision to be made adds a layer of programming complexity. Detecting/sensing and dynamic decision making are built into conditional statements to be programmed and embedded in the microcontroller of the robot.

Robots Classification.  Larger size robots are already effectively deployed in many military / industry operations. Small size robots are being used for toys and entertainment, while micro robots are being used for surgical procedures or other precision tasks. Their broad classification by application is briefly given below:

·         Industrial Robots. In 1959, George Devol of General Motors, USA was the first to design the first Industrial Robot (Ultimate). This robot arm was used to manipulate hot die-cast parts in automobile manufacturing plants. With further progress, in automation, industrial robots are being used in the manufacturing assembly lines, packing and dispatch/storage, loading /unloading of cargo ships, movement and storage of goods in warehouses, transportation/shifting of stores, processing industries.

·         Collaborative Robots (Cobots). As the name suggests,  Cobots are Robots for working in collaboration with humans. Industrial robots have been developed to provide higher productivity in industries like automotive, aerospace, construction, transportation. Till 2010, industrial automation was dependent solely on industrial robots, which are rather too big, heavy, and expensive.  Consequently, Cobots have been developed at an affordable cost for Small-to-Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). The Cobots are easier to operate and maintain. Cobots can perform the same tasks as industrial robots, but with a smaller investment and much greater flexibility in terms of setup. However, industrial robots and Cobots have many similarities and are deployed based on functional requirements and cost benefits.  

·         Assembly Robots.  These are also called Assembly Robot Arm System (ARMS) consisting of the robotic arm, controllers, sensing systems end actuators. These robots can also perform part-assembly tasks that require human-robot collaboration. The robot can perform some of the basic assembly tasks, and move that assembly to a position on the assembly line where a human operator can finish the remaining assembly process.

·         Painting Robots. These are also known as spray robots and can be used for automatic painting or spraying on vehicles, walls or other surfaces.

·         Loading /unloading Robots. These can be part of the crane system used to loading /unloading of stores from a train wagon, truck or ship/boat.

·         Palletizing Robot. Palletizing robots are also called stacking robots. These robots are used in the dispatch section of a production/manufacturing unit. Palletizing can be roughly divided into three categories, Box palletizing, Woven bag palletizing and Bulk palletizing. The traditional palletizing machine consumes more power, occupies more space and provides irregular stacking. Palletizing robots do a much neater and faster stacking.

·          Consumer Services robots. These are used for automatic vacuum cleaning of house floors, lawn mowing or car washing at service stations.

·          Surgical  Robots.   Surgical robots are micro-robots that have wide applications in areas like surgery related to Brain, Heart, Eye, Urology, Orthopedic, Neurosurgery, Cardiovascular, Gynecology, Radiology, and Transplant. As surgical robots provide more precision, accuracy and consistency, these are in big demand,

·         Humanoid Robots.  It has been a big challenge to develop robots that give a woman like response. In countries like Japan where they have the great scare of a young workforce, these robots will be their personal secretary/ office assistants. Japanese also have “Buddy” robots with emotional expressions showing basic courtesy (please, thank you, love you, good morning, good night, bye-bye). These robots can provide company and chit-chat with lonely elderly people.  These robots can also provide physiotherapy services at your convenient place.

·         Playmate Robots. ”Buddy” robot is most amusing and friendly. It can play hide and seek like games with kids. Buddy is an emotional robot liked by the whole family. These robots are easily available from online stores of Amazon, Alli-Baba, Google. One can choose the right price and configuration. More details are available on   https://buddytherobot.com/

·         Hotel Room Service Robots. These robots are very efficient and courteous in receiving meal/snacks orders from a room and delivering the right meal, on time, to the right room and in a courteous manner.  In the future, many more services like reception desk manning, room cleaning and laundry are being added.

·         Restaurant table service.  In countries like Japan, robots dressed as human beings are common for visiting customer tables, taking orders and coming back with an ordered meal. They can clear the table and lay the table as well. They can also assist in the kitchen/ pantry.

·         Hospitals Room service. Robots are being used for collecting medicines as per prescriptions for various patients, drawing those from the medical store and efficiently delivering the right medicine to the right patient and at the right time. Similarly, robots can provide meals on time to patients in various inpatient wards. These robots can move to the service lift, enter and come out at the right floor and then reach the rightward / room to serve the right patient. In many modern hospitals, you can see these Robots moving about freely in the wards. Robots are also used for cleaning floors, corridors and picking up waste bins.

·         Robots in animated movies.  Robots have been used for thrilling scenes in animated movies since 1987.  Some popular animated movies are Robo-cop (1987), The Matrix (1999), Artificial Intelligence (2001), Robots (2005), Transformers (2007). Big Hero  (2014). Godzilla (2019) and show in on.

·         Toy Robots. A popular robot-like “Transformer” is children’s delight,  It has already captured 60 % of the robot toy industry. There are also robot toy cars that can quickly change to a walking robots carrying small weapons. These robots could be moving, turning, fighting and flying. Robot actions can be controlled manually with hand-held Infrared (IR) remote control or the robot can act in autonomous mode where instructions for various actions are pre-stored in the robot memory.

·         Spacecraft Robots.  These are autonomous robots which are reconfigurable /self-reconfigurable and modular robots. These robots have strict requirements for outside extreme environments, precise manoeuvrability, and efficient handling of special tools/ instruments. These are specially designed and programmed to carry out onboard maintenance, repair and other tasks outside the spacecraft body, It is very risky for the crew members to do repair tasks through spacewalk. Very special robots like “Opportunity”, “Curiosity” were launched to land on other planets like Mars and carry out scheduled exploration tasks. These robots could move on that terrain, take samples of soil, take pictures of the area around its landing site and send those to NASA for interpretation.

·         Military Robots.  In the military, robots offer an alternative to human soldiers for carrying out tasks like demining an area laying minefields or carrying out other operations like patrolling and terrain mapping in difficult areas.  During Jam 2022, China as displayed a 4 legged robot (yak Robot) doing patrolling in the difficult terrain of high altitude. The speed and security of data transmitted to and from the mobile robot are vital in military operations.  Therefore, transmission has to be secured both ways so that no one can interfere with the images/videos being picked up and transmitted by the robot to the military base station, which could be a few kilometres away

Benefits of  Robots. Robotics has given a big boost to the automation of various industries like the manufacturing of toys,   consumer goods, vehicles, material handling equipment, earthmoving machinery. Similarly, process control industries like oil refinery, cement, fertilizer, power generation, power grid management, milk plants, drinks industry, food processing, and many others are fast adopting robot technologies to stay ahead in this highly competitive and uncertain global market. Robots are now digital workforce filing gap of manpower Some common benefits of robots are briefly given below:

·         Reusability.  Operations of robots are programmable which allows their reusability and cost-saving.

·         Accuracy and precision.  There is minimum wastage of material as robots provide accuracy and precision while measuring, cutting and joining during various stages of manufacturing.

·         The repetitive operations.  Unlike humans, robots do not get bored or tired while doing repetitive operations. Robots can take away the burden of manual repetitive processes so that human experts can focus on other great things.

·         Cost Saving. In the long term, robots are cost-effective as compared to the human workforce. There is no monthly salary, expense claims, insurance and other perks like Employee Provident Fund (EPF), Dearness Allowances (DA), Transport Allowances, and Leave Travel Allowance (LTA), which the human workforce is entitled to.

·         Undertake hazardous jobs. Robots can perform jobs that are hazardous to human beings, say in chemical plants, fertilizer plants, cement plants, nuclear plants.

·         Underwater Operations. Robots can be successfully deployed for the deep underwater search of sunken ships/boats or bodies of crashed aircraft. Robots can also carry out underwater repairs of ships and boats.

·         Weather Proof. Robots do not get affected by climatic conditions and continue to perform consistently.

·         Productivity. Robots increase processing speed which increases productivity and profitability.

·         Flexibility. The robot-based process is programmable and flexible. It can easily scale up/down in real-time.

·         Consistency in performance. The robot does not get fatigued during the day/night operations. Its performance is consistent with Quality Control (QC) criteria and it does not deviate/degrade with time.

·         Maximize Availability. Robots don’t sleep and can work non-stop round the clock on all days (24 X 365).

·         Improve Business Process Compliance.  Robot performance is consistent and as per predefined business rules and  Quality Assurance (QA) criteria

·         Accelerate Digital Transformation. Robots are contributing significantly to building a digital economy. It is changing the way companies do business.

·         Facilitates Alliances and business partnerships.  The industrial process can be quantified and easily evaluated for compliance.

Skills required for Robotic jobs. There will be many robot related applications in manufacturing, processing, construction and transportation. There will be companies who will import robot kits and assemble those locally for selling in their own/other countries. There will be some who have collaboration with a foreign company to manufacture and export/ sell in the domestic market.  In addition, there will be great demand for robotics by government departments of  Defence, Space Agency, Infrastructure development, Agriculture, Construction of sea/airports. All these organizations need a highly skilled knowledge workforce. Professionals with the following skills will be in great demand:

·         Graduates in Mechatronics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE), mathematic/statistics./Operations Research.

·         Software Programming, in  C++, Python, Java.

·         Electronics and Communication.

·         Instrumentation and Control and microcontrollers.

·         Simulation and design optimization using software tools like Matlab, Lab-view.

·         Embedded software and microprocessors.

·         AI, Analysis and Design of Algorithm (ADA).

·         Machine Learning ( ML).

·         Quality testing and control.

Summary.  A number of experts and leading survey agencies have now recognized that robots will create more jobs than they take away. However, these jobs will need new skills and expertise in developing robots with embedded AI. There will be a great demand for experts in mechatronics, AI, ML, software programming and developing/testing algorithms. As per PwC, UK report, the integration of AI and robotics will displace up to 7 million jobs between 2017 and 2037. However, this will lead to a reduction in costs and increases in spending, which in turn could generate 7.2 million jobs – a net gain of 200,000 jobs.  Jobs in health care, scientific and technical services and hospitality are predicted to increase, while those in manufacturing, transport, storage, and public administration may decrease.

Automation seems to be less disruptive than it was feared 10 years ago. In 2013, a study from the University of Oxford suggested that around 50% of jobs in the US and 30% in the UK were at “high risk” of automation in the preceding years.  However, in 2018 this job loss has been lowered to 10 %  in the US and 12 % in the UK.  Besides the above inputs, robots have brought in high efficiency, increased productivity, consistency and quality control in the manufacturing sector.  Indeed Robots form a digital workforce for cost-cutting and enhancing efficiency in the manufacturing sector. Robots also form great assistance in the health care, construction and agriculture sectors.  Robots are also of great assistance in security service and military operations. It is recommended that young professionals in areas of mathematics, applied sciences, medical, mechanical engineering, computer science, IT and product designers should continuously upgrade their skills and stay aligned with emerging technologies like robotics.