From the NY Times: At the Philips Electronics factory on the coast of China,
hundreds of workers use their hands and specialized tools to assemble electric
shavers. That is the old way. At a sister factory in the Dutch countryside, 128 robot arms
do the same work with yoga-like flexibility. Video cameras guide them through
feats well beyond the capability of the most dexterous human. One robot arm endlessly forms three perfect
bends in two connector wires and slips them into holes almost too small for the
eye to see. The arms work so fast that they must be enclosed in glass cages to
prevent the people supervising them from being injured. And they do it all
without a coffee break — three shifts a day, 365 days a year.
All told, the factory here has several dozen workers per
shift, about a tenth as many as the plant in the Chinese city of Zhuhai. This is the future. A new wave of robots, far
more adept than those now commonly used by automakers and other heavy manufacturers,
are replacing workers around the world…..
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