[ksec]

>They were never fast enough or reliable enough to be competitive with the minimum wage labour that they would have displaced

This probably sums up well. Human are extremely adaptable. To point if we are measured as 100 then no Robot is even 1.

There is a whole reason why even Foxconn gave up using Foxconn Robot, some task are just insanely easier and cheaper for a human to do it. They’re not easily automatable and even if we could the cost benefits doesn't make any sense.

So instead of having human plugging in DIMM RAM or M.2 SSD, now they are all soldered on the logic board using machines with automation.

[ethbr0]

More specifically, humans have an incredible high adaptability:cost ratio.

There aren't many businesses where precision:cost or volume:time are more important than labor costs.

[iamstupidsimple]

That may be true today, but it might not last forever. Labor cost in 1st world nations is skyrocketing (due to cost of living mainly) compared to poorer nations, and there may come a time when robotics becomes relatively competitive. Especially when those cheap labor countries start having the same effect.

[mikepurvis]

I think a lot of that comes in the form of partial and adaptive automation, though— like self-checkout at the grocery store, where it's "automation", but only in the sense that the self-checkout console enabled outsourcing the pick and place part of the work onto the consumer.

Or elsewhere in the thread, the example of moving a previously-modular computer part onto the logic board, so that it can be soldered on rather than needing to be installed later in the assembly process.

Companies like Rethink weren't in this world— they were trying to build a manipulator (Baxter) which was a drop-in replacement for a person doing pick and place work. Which has a certain appeal, if it works ("no need to retool anything; just buy it and put it to work!"), but it puts you up against the direct price comparison of just having a human continue to do that job.

[ethbr0]

I've worked in software automation for about a decade now, and that's been my learned wisdom too.

Don't try and boil the ocean: see what COTS is available, adapt your process to be able to leverage that, plug it in, and move on to the next project

As commentor above noted, volumes have to approach obscene to justify a moderate+ amount of custom, one-off implementation work.

[ksec]

Well, while cost are high in first world country, labours are mostly limited to services sector.

In manufacturing most of these labour are still in Asia. And the cost / productivity is still insanely cheap. It isn't just the cost of the Robot itself, but to program a new task which requires software testing and engineers. So the cost barrier is still so far apart. Foxconn make hundreds of millions of smartphone every year. You would have thought saving $10 per phone would have net them a few billions extra profits. And yet their employment rate has remained largely the same.

If and If, US and Tech managed to do this ( there is nothing even remotely close in the next 10 years, but let say somehow there is for the sake of argument ), this will be the largest reset of manufacturing and likely be Industrial Revolution 3.0.

[mikepurvis]

> program a new task which requires software testing and engineers

To be fair, Rethink did understand this part, and part of their pitch was that it was supposed to be easy to teach their robots tasks with a kind of observe/repeat flow; here's a video from way back in 2012 showing where they were trying to go with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXOkWuSCkRI

They're not the only ones either, UR has also placed a heavy emphasis on safety and ease of task training, though unlike Rethink, I don't believe their systems come with any built-in sensing, so it really is limited to just mindlessly repeating exactly what you show it: https://www.universal-robots.com/academy/

[yunohn]

> Especially when those cheap labor countries start having the same effect.

You missed the comment’s pivotal point. As developing countries, well, develop, higher labor prices will affect the entire supply chain. It’s a Good Thing (TM), and that’s why we’ll need better robotics in that future.