When it comes to robots, reality still lags science fiction. But the confluence of several advanced technologies is bringing the age of robotics ever nearer. Today's robots are smaller, cheaper, more practical and cost-effective and are chalking up major gains in the automation world.
Robot evolution
There are about 1 million industrial robots globally, with almost half that number in Japan and just 15% in the United States. In spite of its low-cost labour image, China is rapidly adopting robotics systems to increase competitiveness. Within the next few years, the views and definitions of robotics will change to include other forms of mechanised intelligence and industrial robotics will advance rapidly.
A couple of decades ago, 90% of industrial robots were used in car manufacturing. Today, less than 50% are in automobile plants, with the rest spread out among other factories, laboratories, warehouses, energy plants, hospitals and many other industries. US, automotive manufacturing companies continue to utilise and develop intelligent robotics to provide significant new strategic options.
With rapidly increasing processing power and advanced intelligence, robots are dramatically increasing their potential as flexible automation tools. Robotic technology is converging with a wide variety of complementary technologies - machine vision, force sensing (touch), speech recognition and advanced mechanics.
The biggest change in industrial robots is that they will evolve into a broader variety of structures and mechanisms. In many cases, configurations that evolve into new automation systems will not be immediately recognisable as robots. For example, robots that automate semiconductor manufacturing already look quite different from those used in automotive plants.
The day will come when there are more programmable tooling kinds of robots than all of the traditional robots that exist in the world today. There is an enormous change on the horizon; the potential is significant, because robots offer not only improved cost-effectiveness, but also advantages and operations that have never been possible before.
Bots with Microsoft genes
Microsoft software is now headed into robots. Microsoft Robotics Studio was recently unveiled, a software development tool that has as much growth potential as DOS in the early PC market.
The robotics market seems to mirror the PC days of the late 1970s. Everyone was developing with proprietary software on different microprocessor platforms. Then came the IBM PC with Microsoft's DOS (which could just as easily have been Digital Research's C/PM). The rest is history.
With robotics today, the hardware is fragmented, with little standardisation. There are lots of companies that want to develop products, but just do not have the tools. Microsoft is hoping that they will use their Robotics Studio.
Building a robot these days is as much a programming exercise as a nuts-and-bolts hardware project. The problem is that every new robot, even those built by industrial robot manufacturers, requires its own specialised software and programming tools. If there was a single, widely used tool for robot programming, code could be re-used on different robots, and robot builders could concentrate on advanced features rather than re-inventing infrastructure.
Microsoft's Robotics Studio runs on Windows XP and includes several components: a programming environment for writing and debugging software that is similar to Visual Studio, the main tool for writing Windows software; a 'runtime' environment that functions as a mini-operating system for robots, executing code people write using the programming tool; and a simulator that allows users to build virtual models of robots and test how their software behaves without having to build actual hardware.
If you are into robots, you need to play with (free) Robotics Studio.
“This was the biggest breakthrough of all. Vast wodges of complex computer code governing robot behaviour in all possible contingencies could be replaced very simply. All that robots needed was the capacity to be either bored or happy, and a few conditions that needed to be satisfied in order to bring those states about. They would then work the rest out for themselves.” – Douglas Adams.
Jim Pinto is an industry analyst and commentator, writer, technology futurist and angel investor. His popular e-mail newsletter, JimPinto.com eNews, is widely read (with direct circulation of about 7000 and web-readership of two to three times that number). His areas of interest are technology futures, marketing and business strategies for a fast-changing environment, and industrial automation with a slant towards technology trends.
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