C&L_December 2017 (1)

Opinion
WWe
live in a time where technology is
the driving force of the constant evolution
of the world we know. Society has
advanced at a much faster rate in the
past century than any other known
point in time, and it seems to be only
gathering pace. Robotics will accelerate
this change, altering the workplace
we see now by taking over tasks traditionally
handled by humans and
completing them at a much faster and
more efficient rate. We are likely only
decades away from seeing some industries
dominated by robots, but which
sector will be first?
Industry has undergone huge
changes continuously since the days of
the industrial revolution. It continues
to do so, with the International Federation
of Robotics (IFR) stating "by 2019
more than 1.4 million new industrial
robots will be installed in factories
around the world". Considering the
IFR projections and the constant need
for producing more goods faster and
cheaper for an increasingly connected
and growing population, then it is
most likely that this is the first sector
that will see complete automation over
the next few decades. But is this so
surprising? Automation in factories
has been on the increase for a number
of years. How automation integrates
factories in the wider supply is an
interesting concept.
The concept of industry 4.0 involves
having automation, internet of things,
cloud computing, interoperability and
decentralised decision making. In other
words, the factory becomes 'smarter'
and efficient. Nevertheless, it is not only
the integration of robots in factories
that will change, but the whole notion
of logistics. Today after ordering goods
it takes a long time for them to arrive to
their final destination. This is essentially
because the production chain is disconnected
from the distribution chain
as goods are produced in disparate
locations. However, with high levels of
automation, production isn't an issue.
The main question is how to distribute
goods as quickly as possible. It is likely
that either factories will have to move
within closer proximity of their customers
thus decentralising their branches
or distribution will be made autonomous
in order to make it a more efficient
process. Overall this will shorten the
time between the ordering stage and
delivering stage, which will represent
big changes in economic terms.
Secondly, autonomous driving
vehicles are already revolutionising
our concept of transportation. One of
the main reason for their development
is safety. According to the Association
for Safe International Road Travel, 1.3
million people die in road accidents
every year. The phenomenon means
a complete rearrangement in the way
transportation takes place with the
"road travel" time gaining new meaning
in terms of global management and
productivity. Tasks that are repetitive
and dangerous are likely to resemble
the three Ds of robotics: dirty, dangerous
and dull. However, this is like to
be more evolution than revolution and
an iterative process that takes time. It
will mean a progressive introduction
of autonomy features in road vehicles
through the forms of autonomous parking,
braking assistance, pedestrians'
awareness, night vision, heat detection,
lane detection, road signs detection and
wheel and seats alarms, among others.
This is what you are going to see over
the next decades when buying or renting
cars, but don't expect driving autonomously
to arise suddenly. There is still
a long way to go in terms of vehicles,
infrastructures and maps. The phenomenon
is likely to open a set of new
opportunities in terms of car services
and geographical information systems
such as map purchases and updates.
Similarly, the notion of time management
is likely to change. We can use our
time to do other things while in autonomy
modes. Advertising and ecommerce
on vehicles is likely to take new routes
in terms of human productivity, leisure
or education.
In both examples, automation will be
using machine learning. The advantages
of processing high volumes of
information, finding patterns and
highlight flaws or new ways of thinking
are vast, especially in supervised
learning. The use of these systems
will mean "smarter business", more
competitiveness and better outcomes
for all stakeholders. However, because
the rooting of these systems is largely
dependent on "human common sense",
their adoption is likely to result in a
merger. Humans are tremendously
good at common sense and pondering;
computers are extremely good in
presenting facts, patterns, source data,
numbers, graphs, tables, metrics and
so on. So, what you are going to see is
not "robots taking over", but instead
the merging between human intelligence
and machine learning.
Lastly, areas such as critical thinking,
advising, customisations, arts, design,
dedicated customer service, empathy
and sympathy are not likely to be fully
integrated into robotics anytime soon.
In other words, robots can't takeover
where there is creativity, emotions,
social intelligence and human contact
involved. These are all human traits
difficult to generate and translate
through machines so roles and sectors
reliant on these skills are likely to be
safe from to robotic revolution for the
foreseeable future.
Interestingly the rise of robotics has
led to a new set of jobs that are safe from
robotic revolution for the foreseeable
future. As Voltaire said "work saves
us from three great evils: vice, boredom
and need". Despite the imminent
robotic revolution, it seems "work" will
continue, it is only the nature of "work"
that will change
–The author is member of IEEE Robotics
& Automation Society
December 2017 | CIO&LEADER
35