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Robots Make the Coins Go 'Round, Down Under
inkslinger77 writes "Computerworld has a cool slideshow of a Kuka Titan robot and a bunch of AGVs managing the circulation of coins at the Australian Mint. There's also a lengthier article where the head of the project talks about the main reason robots were employed. One of the reasons being that they radically reduce OH&S risk: 'We are finding that the AGVs are much safer and more reliable. Robots are never affected by having a bad night with the baby and falling asleep at the wheel. They are extremely accurate and they always do the same task in the same way.'"
The Australian mint... where you can buy a $1 coin for $2 from a vending machine.
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
I for one welcome our new money making robotic overlords
They are extremely accurate and they always do the same task in the same way.'"
"...just like computer programs."
*grin*
Why yes! I will indeed be here all week.
Kangaroo pouches are only so big.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Robots are never affected by having a bad night with the baby and falling asleep at the wheel.
I'm not trying to be misogynist here, but should women with very small kids be working? Isn't this exactly the type of thing we should expect the government to try to protect through programs designed to give women time off that they need after having a baby?
Its not just women who look after the baby you know.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Because some men tend to take "a lot" of coffee breaks in their cars, each time taking a shoe full of $1 and $2 coins with them....
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=107801
Arash Partow's Philosophy: Be a person who knows what they don't know, and not a person who doesn't know.
Would be easier for the mint and the rest of us to handle.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Robots also can't tell their neighbors about how much more money the government is printing.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
I'm not trying to be misogynist here
Well, you failed, but not because of your comments about work. You seem to be suggesting that when a baby wakes up in the middle of the night, it is beyond comprehension for the baby's father to get up and take care of it.
The quote is out of context, the article was referring to the safety of robots versus human driven forklifts,
the gender of the forklift driver is not an issue.
Yeah, wake me when robots can "Go Down".
I'm not trying not to be misogynistic here (it just comes naturally) but if you're the father of a young baby... you WILL be sleep deprived. Been there, done that.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Robots are never affected by having a bad night with the baby and falling asleep at the wheel. They are extremely accurate and they always do the same task in the same way.
Oh really? So, so...if the rest of the world could only take this brand new revolutionary idea from the Australian mint and apply these "robots" to all kinds of industrial tasks.... oh, wait they already do since about 50 years ago
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
You think that's interesting check out the port of Hamburg, shipping containers being zipped around on robotic trucks/lifts/etc.
Terminal Automation
Ahhh... I thought it was about the gender of the forklift. Now it all makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up!
I wonder if the Australian Federal Police (AFP) setup security for the mint?
Might try a blank root password and see about getting that robot to do a home delivery.
Across most of the people that I know that have had babies the woman still does 90% of the heavy lifting once the baby is born.
Despite what the cool inner city chattering classes like to believe traditional roles are still absolutely dominant in western society and really have hardly budged in the last 50 years except where financial necessity requires it. It's a tiny, tiny fraction of people (generally from the same cool inner city chattering class) that have bought into the strange ideology of suppressing and heaping scorn on a womans natural motherly instinct.
So yes while it's accurate to say that "Its not just women who look after the baby you know." for the most part for 90% of couples, it actually is the women who look after the baby and for most they wouldn't have it any other way.
I'll await the tidal wave of "but they don't know what they want because it's not what I say they should want you patronsing misogynist!!11" (without seeing the hypocrisy of course).
That doesn't mean you aren't succeeding.
Do you really think that women are the only people kept up at night by babies?
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
They're taking our jobs!
Or does anyone else think the Australian mint was modeled after a level in Doom? I'll bet if I shot one of those barrels it would take out any nearby imps.
It's a tiny, tiny fraction of people (generally from the same cool inner city chattering class) that have bought into the strange ideology of suppressing and heaping scorn on a womans natural motherly instinct.
What the fuck? Who, exactly, is "heaping scorn on a woman's natural motherly instincts"?
... and then they built the supercollider.
But which way will the coins circulate down under?
The problem is the subsequent bank money multiplication.
Deleted
It would be interesting to find out.
That slide show reminds me of the Newegg tour posted here some time ago.
"The only legitimate use of a computer is to play games." - Eugene Jarvis
Is that a genuine question??
Because if you've spent anytime on the Internet and haven't come across someone ranting against women who want to stay at home to raise their kids as being "pathetic" you're either living in a dreamworld or are one of those people.
I even dated a cool inner city girl who "couldn't stand mums and thier worthless contribution to society".
For women it's mostly borne out of a deep seated jealousy and inferiority, for men I don't know, trying to get into those womens pants by making the oldest play in the book?
I'm one of those people who hates seeing mums with their strollers everywhere as well. But for a different reason, they remind me how I still haven't gone odne a vassectomy and am sexually active ... it's very frustrating this prospect of losing one's whole future to something as silly as two halves of a genome accidentally making a new infinitely replicating (cancerous?) cell.
It's called a breast pump.
Because if you've spent anytime on the Internet and haven't come across someone ranting against women who want to stay at home to raise their kids as being "pathetic" you're either living in a dreamworld or are one of those people.
I've been on the internet since around 1990, and I've never heard such things. Perhaps you travel in bad circles? In any case, basing your general assessment of humans on random internet posters is a bad idea.
... and then they built the supercollider.
Why don't we all have a factory that produces money? I'm thinking of times when we can print and produce personal cash, or have an ATM do that for you. The basis would be our real savings or other assets, which would be transformed into legal tenders of our choice.
In a future world where everything is electronic it's a nice touch to have something tangible once in a while.
If they'd make the coins a reasonable size there wouldn't be all these OH&S problems.
Like another poster, I've been a very active internet user for more than ten years and I've never seen that rant. And yes, a substantial amount of that internet use was usenet so I've seen a lot of rants...
I guess that means I'm "living in a dreamworld" or "one of those people" then. Shrug.
they remind me how I still haven't gone odne a vassectomy and am sexually active ...
You're on slashdot. You do know RealDolls doesn't get pregnant, don't you?
2$ coin? You mean one of those brass, two faced chunk of pocket destruction?
> The difference being that the rest of the world is not REQUIRED to use dollars.
:).
It's actually rather hard for Japan, China and other countries to not use dollars.
Think about it: Saudi Arabia only sells oil in US dollars. Most of the OPEC sell oil in US dollars.
A while ago, Saddam "broke up" with the USA (they were such good friends before) and had Iraq sell oil in Euros. Then Iraq got "regime changed" and promptly went back to selling oil in US dollars.
The rulers of Saudi Arabia are still considered staunch allies of the USA. The US will support them and forgive them much, even if their country is a hotbed of terrorism and Islamic extremism.
FWIW, Iran started selling oil in Euros and Yen not that long ago, and has recently started a oil bourse to trade oil in other currencies. Maybe the US might help them change their minds.
Yes the rest of the world has an exist strategy. Most of them want to exist
It really doesn't make much difference. If the baby is crying at night (esp. if it sleeps in your room) they your night isn't going to be so great. Trust me! (father of an adorable but sleep-depriving 6 month old baby girl).
Even without the disrupted nights a baby is going to make you tired since there's no downtime. If mom is feeding and looking after the baby, then guess who's shopping, cooking, washing up and then looking after the baby while mom has a shower, does the laundry, etc, etc?!
Probably a very easy job.
http://despair.com/motivation.html
Cheers!
Sean
I'll be that guy. There's no reason for a woman to be a housewife in the western world.
Growing up we had a part-time housekeeper who worked 15 hours a week. I spent 12 hours a week at my grandparent's house before and after school. Cooking was less than 3 hours per week.
There's no way I can say it's reasonable to consider the sum of these tasks a full-time job with the conveniences we have now. I never found kids with stay-at-home mothers to be better behaved or better in school or anything like that.
If that's all a woman does, then I'll never be able to respect her.
What's an "OH&S risk"?
When will writers learn to spell out acronyms the first time they are used?
EXACTLY. My son is only 10 days old and I'm already getting a little loopy from sleep deprivation.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
That robot in picture 8 is seriously advanced. It seems to be a generic task model too.
Occupational health and safety.
Overall, the project has been very successful in meeting the objectives: reducing occupational health and safety (OH&S) issues, increasing security and increasing productivity.
Apparently, writers do know they should do that. It is once again the Slashdot editors who are illiterate. Or just plain lazy.
Hey... maybe we should have them replaced with robots?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Guess that somebody actually considering an off-the-shelf industrial robot newsworthy speaks volumes about the state of Australian society.
Australia suffers from a severe problem, where anything perceived as too 'clever' is distrusted and sneered at. Governments don't support industrial development (and indeed, the neoliberals and environmentalists try to actively sabotage it). If it isn't sport, and if it doesn't involve farming it or digging it out of the ground, it doesn't rate.
Much of the problem is knee-jerk anti-intellectualism, and another part of it is the credulity of the political class; they actually believe in neoliberalism, and think that Australia can only do farming and extractive industry.
This is the reason why Australians are so well-known as travellers; of a population of 21 million, about a million are abroad at any one time. Much of it is because neoliberals have turned Australia into a classic branch-office economy, and there are more opportunities overseas.
For what it's worth, in the United States there's the Family and Medical Leave Act, which permits a parent (woman or man) to take up to three months off for the birth (or adoption) of a child.
Unfortunately, it's not paid leave, unless your company is uncommonly generous. And because it is unpaid leave, most families cannot afford to take full advantage of it. All it really does is guarantee that you can take the time off and still have a job when you return.
Believe it or not, even this pittance concession to families was incredibly difficult to get passed back in the 90s. I desperately hope for the sort of family benefits common in many European countries. They are expensive, yes, but I feel that the improvement in family unity and child well-being, and the resulting benefit to society, are well worth the investment.
As to your initial point: should women with very small kids be working. Someone else already pointed out that it is not just women that take care of children. I myself took two months off after my wife went back to work. There were times, even after I went back to work, when I questioned whether I should be there. I wasn't bearing the brunt of day-to-day care for my child by that point, but I still had nights of interrupted sleep, unexpected emergencies, and other things that diminished my mental capacity and productivity.
So you actually want inefficiency? You think it is a good idea to let people do work that could also be done by machines? Let the machines do what they can do and let people do what they can't. Then society can accomplish a lot more.
Wait... what? Do you mean to say that you never got up at 3 AM to feed your children so your wife could get a good night's sleep? Never took the time to rock your kids to sleep after they woke up crying after a nightmare?
Do you really think you're doing his wife a favor by letting her "bravely embrace her motherly instinct in the face of the never ending assault on it" instead of actually, I don't know, pitching in and helping out with the kids and the housework so SHE can have a career too? What is she going to do if you get hit by a bus? She'll have to rejoin the workforce years behind her peers, you know. Worst case, she'll be stuck with no chance of promotion for most of her professional life.
You're right, you're a great guy for doing all that for her. [/sarcasm]
Get the fuck off /. and get to bed. My little one didn't sleep through the night for TWENTY MONTHS, and I wish I had paced myself better at the start. Granted, that's several standard deviations longer than usual, but you never know...
Wow. I work with kids on a regular basis and either you're a troll or you've never had experience with kids.
A good parent interacts with his or her young child ALL DAY, EVERY DAY. It's more than a full time job if you're doing it right. Childrens' minds need constant interaction for their minds to develop properly. It's how they learn to interact with other human beings and otherwise function in society. As children get older, their friends and classmates start to take some of the load off the parents, but that takes years. The first several years of a child's life are critical and the parents are the major influence.
When I eventually have kids, I will do everything possible to make sure either I or the mother is home for at least the first several years of their lives. Not that it's impossible for a child to be well-adjusted without a full-time parent, but it's certainly harder. I see it all the time; the ones with active parents are, almost across the board, more attentive and better behaved. They tend to get along with other children better, too.
To summarize: It's not necessarily the physical work (though there's more to that than you're acknowledging). It's the interaction with the child that's important.
The confidence of ignorance will always overcome the indecision of knowledge.
You're probably right. I think there will be at least as many opportunities to replace humans with robots based on ethical weakness as there are for our physical weakness.
A robot solder won't be prone to anger, fear and revenge when his robot buddy is killed.
And a robot postal worker won't be likely to go "postal" because he has a soul-numbing job.
They can't be bargained with. They can't be reasoned with. They don't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
When most of the jobs are held by robots because they are cheaper....
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
the real question is do they send them around clockwise or counter-clockwise?
ReaLemon is yummy
You don't lose your whole life, that's the militant feminist rant talking. Your life changes, that's all.
Then again, it changes every time there's a major event. Marriage, new job, car crash, theft, death of family member. I've heard a few women complain about losing their life to marriage. While I agree that you lose your former life, that doesn't mean you don't get a new one in return. People complain about losing their life to ailing family members. People complain a lot (human condition).
Death is the only item where you really lose your life. The rest is what you make out of it. For everyone that weeps a tear for the days of lesser responsibility, there's a person who would never go back to how it was. If you don't want to have a child, that's fine. If you want to not be bothered by someone else, then don't have a child, husband, family, etc. I'm not being facetious, not everyone is cut out to live like everyone else.
Likening a child to a cancer is just silly, unless I can call you, your parents, your bothers, and sisters cancers. In that case, you've mis-defined cancer; we all call that life.
The irony is that children are the only future which really will keep you in mind after you are gone. Eventually that won't last, but if you want a longer future than the one you will experience, you need to put your stamp on things that will outlast you.
Good. My wife is a teacher, and she can easily tell which children have a parent at home caring for the kids during the day. And, yes, it's usually the mother. Those kids are much more intelligent, much more civilized, and do much better at hearing instruction.
N.B.: Not all mothers, and relatively few fathers, are naturally adept at dealing with kids. It's something that one develops through practice. If you have any much younger siblings, you may already have a head start.
The first five years are the most important for parenting. It's important to always be supportive, but to still be fair. At times this can be difficult. Parents have a tendency to say "My child, may he always be right, but my child right or wrong." This is as big a mistake for a parent as it is for a patriot. You need to let your child know that you love it, but you must also adhere to fairness. These are orthogonal, so don't conflate them.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
SCV reportin' for duty!
Take off every Sig. For great justice.
"Eventually that won't last, but if you want a longer future than the one you will experience, you need to put your stamp on things that will outlast you."
Monument building.