Archive Report
Archive Report
Technological Advances
Repidly Growing Interest in Robotics
They don't call in sick, go on strike or take long lunch breaks. They can work efficiently for indefinite periods and never complain about salaries, demanding bosses or poor working conditions. “They” are industrial robots and experts see them as a way to boost this country's lagging productivity.1 Industrial robots do hazardous, difficult and monotonous jobs that most humans would prefer not to do and they do them more reliably and, in some cases, more cheaply. Analysts estimate that robots now in use in American factories have helped boost production by 10-90 percent.
It took the first American robot manufacturer 14 years to show a profit2 and other companies' earnings from robots are only now beginning to materialize. But the ...