20 states increased their minimum wage this year. There continues to be talk about a national minimum wage hike. Labor organizations are agitating or $15.00 an hour. Have we reached the point where it’s cheaper to hire robots than humans? (Some) robots are cheaper Some robots are literally cheaper than human beings who do the… Read more »
When your Indramat motion control systems or servo motors need service or support, it usually feels like a crisis. Your facility is down for the count, and you probably can’t function at all till you get your motion control back up and running. Here are five tips to speed up the process. #1: Find the… Read more »
Indramat servo motors are known for their quality and durability. They have an anticipated life span of 10 years, but we often see Indrmat servo motors that are still going strong after two or three decades of service. These Servos offer the advantages of high positioning accuracy, high dynamic stiffness and low vibration. They are… Read more »
When we think about the possibility of robots taking over human jobs, we usually think of it from the human worker’s viewpoint. Will this cause problems for us? Will we lose our jobs? What will we do instead? It’s all about us. But if we want to be fair about the question, we have to… Read more »
Spot is truly a jack of all trades. Most recently, a Spot-like quadruped robot has been seen on the streets of Shanghai barking at people to stay indoors. COVID-19 ha shut down the city of Shanghai, with 26 million people on lockdown. 73,000 cases of the disease have been reported in the past month, and… Read more »
Manufacturing job growth has accelerated for the third straight month, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Companies added 38,000 jobs in March. This brings manufacturing jobs in the United States to just 1% lower than in February 2020, before the pandemic. Jobs in manufacturing now make up about 8% of… Read more »
Ancient Egyptian priests, we’re told, had statues of deities which they caused to move and speak. The statues chose the next ruler from the available heirs and prophesied. These robots in Ancient Egypt were more puppets than robots, even if they used hydraulics to move. But there is a place for robots in the story… Read more »
“The typical cost of a simple warehouse robot is little more than the annual salary for a worker,” Elaine Porteous recently wrote regarding e-commerce. “Decreasing human error and improving efficiency are the main reasons for using robots. Robotic technology can automate the handling, scanning, and loading of items into polybags or self-sealing mailer bags and… Read more »
Robots may be worthless at doing laundry and rubbish at walking on variable terrain, but there’s one task they keep getting suggested for, no matter how many times they disappoint: elder care. In multiple countries around the world, robots are being tried out for physical and emotional tasks involving taking care of old people. The… Read more »
A pessimist will always see the negative side of things. At times this can be a helpful trait, but it can also cause a lot of unnecessary grief. Glass half-empty types may refer to the H1-display on their Indramat drive as the error code display, for example. It’s important to recognize that those Indramat diagnostic… Read more »