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!
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.
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.
You think that's interesting check out the port of Hamburg, shipping containers being zipped around on robotic trucks/lifts/etc.
Terminal Automation
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.
Given that (according to Bernanke) "printing" new money now consists of literally adding zeros to a banks balance digitally workers at the mint aren't going to notice anything until months or years later anyway.
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
So what's your point? The banner says 'news for nerds' - this is interesting stuff.
You know the modern web browser was invented 16 years ago - should we link to mosaic every time a story on FF/IE/Chrome/Safari/Opera comes up?
I laughed at those words for a different reason: it's the kind of nonsense you get from people who have never dealt with robotics before.
Although accurate, the indicated behaviour of robots is hardly a virtue. If a human kept doing the same task in the same way, regardless of the consequences, we'd call them stupid, and that's exactly what robots are.
I think von Braun said it best: Using robots is a lot like having a wife. She helps you solve the problems you wouldn't have had if you hadn't gotten married.
How we know is more important than what we know.
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.