Will Robots Take Over The Construction Industry?
How often have we heard politicians promising to bring back manufacturing jobs to the USA? Maybe I am over thinking it, but unless you are making some very expensive items it is going to be a challenge to offer American workers minimum wage to stand on an assembly line and put key-chains and such together. Come to think about it, there are a few quite expensive items like all of Apple's products which sell for hundreds or tens of thousands of dollars and have low material cost. Those parts would be excellent pay workers a decent wage and to manufacture in America. Wait, when they could pay a few hundred dollars a month to do it overseas why manufacture here? And and so the problem continues.
As sales director for mill work facilities and Union store fixture I understand now more than ever important labor unions are to our work force. With many Americans working than we find many corporations cutting on shifts -hours so they are ineligible for health benefits. We are being a nation of part time workers, which is not likely to sustain us to raise families and live the American dream.
Thanks to Labor Unions which we're members of, there are a few safeguards for us.
We talk about the future of our kids and the brand new generation as it pertains to what sorts of jobs will be available to them and often sit around. Together with the world becoming smaller (thanks to the web) it also becomes more competitive and cost conscious.
Many production jobs have been replaced by computers and robots. 100 workers that are human can be replaced by a bottling plant to get a beverage firm using a series of stations that are robotic and just 2 human workers . More individuals jobless by technology. Robotics have been studied by many young college grads in the hopes to create a career in that area. Now, here is the kicker (and it really is real)... You'll find companies that are really designing robots building robots that are capable of!
Now let us get onto construction! Well, I felt the same way until I studied the robotics sector and discovered a startling new concept: Robotic construction workers!
Engineers supplied the robots with construction blueprints, and after that left them alone. The TERMES constructed the constructions by reacting to the other robots around them--with no additional instruction from humans and detecting.
Precisely the same building plan may be implemented by a dozen TERMES or a hundred of them, since Engineers function independently. Because their directives are so easy--put a brick down that fits in the building plan, where no one has placed one down- little processing ability is required by them. The prototype TERMES use assembled bricks to assemble towers, castles, and pyramids. The researchers say they could also handle simple jobs like laying sandbags down before floods.
Envision building sites where robotics replace human workers. Construction workers and carpenters can be displaced by the robots and also the sites demanding just minimum oversight.
While this technology is still in model, the truth is the fact that they've successfully created the beginning stages of its development. While those of us middle-aged carpenters may well not have to contend with R2D2 taking over our jobs, future generations may well have to take care of this new technology that may threaten their support.
My guidance to those up-and-comers in the industry....become a shop steward so you can see over the robot workers!
There is an interesting video put out by Harvard that shows these Termes in action: http://youtu.be/LFwk303p0zY
About the author: Martin Chase is National Sales Director at Store Force, Inc., leading Union store fixture installers providing clients with fixture and mill work installations around the country. Martin can be reached at 631-672-3150 or by email at: unioninstallers@gmail.com
