Rise of the Robots

Rise of the Robots

Andrew Costagliola, Staff Writer

The world of robotics has taken great leaps in the past decades. Over the next few years, robots will continue to replace humans in the workforce rendering some jobs completely obsolete. From robo-dogs to robots that can build houses, there seems to be no limit to what they can do. With the continued rise of robots and artificial intelligence (AI), soon the workforce will be flooded with robots capable of performing all types of tasks. 

The field of robotics will explode in the coming decades as our understanding of artificial intelligence grows. One of the most well-known robotics companies BostonDynamics has officially put their robo-dog Spot for sale. The jobs Spot is capable of performing are construction, oil and gas facility maintenance and even public safety. Being equipped with an arm on top enables Spot to open doors and grasp objects. Robo-dogs like Spot are already in the workplace helping companies complete tasks more efficiently. 

Currently at MIT’s Center for Bits and Atom (CBA), they are working on assembly robots that can build large structures and objects from smaller pieces. Graduate student Benjamin Jennett started this project for his doctoral thesis work aiming toward making assembly of machinery like planes and rockets more effective. 

However, these little robots are not your typical builders. They work as a system with the structure they are building to help navigate and build more productively than your typical robot. Projects like this will help to pave the way into a better understanding of how robots can help with even the hardest tasks. 

The use of robots in the workforce will require more human-machine collaboration, this will be hard at first. However, it is a necessary step as the use of machines increases. 

In the future, robots and AI will be able to help in many different fields of work ranging from construction all the way to medicine. We are reaching a new age of robotics and AI that will help to guide a new perception of the world around us.