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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.'"

17 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Hrmm by acehole · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Australian mint... where you can buy a $1 coin for $2 from a vending machine.

     

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    1. Re:Hrmm by fractoid · · Score: 3, Funny

      Sounds like a good business to me. Better than the thing in Portland where you put a nickel in the top and crank the handle and you get a squished flat nickel out the bottom.

      ...I wonder what I did with that nickel, anyway? That was like 7 years ago...

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    2. Re:Hrmm by twostix · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Worse is buying a $5 dollar silver coin for 35 reserve bank $1 coins where 5 years ago it cost 8 reserve bank $1 coins...

      Our money is becoming worthless.

    3. Re:Hrmm by TheLink · · Score: 4, Insightful

      BUT inflation aka printing money is a way for the Printer to tax the users of that currency.

      It's all part of the plan.

      You see the great thing for the USA is the rest of the world uses US dollars to buy and sell stuff like oil, and zillions of other commodities and products. Even amongst themselves. Because of that very many countries end up holding billions or even trillions of US dollars.

      So when the US Federal Reserve lends[1] its friends X trillion US dollars ( and they only need to pay back 'later' when convenient), it's actually a way of taxing everyone else.

      Now the US citizens should be happy if they get their share of the printed money as well, but if they don't they really should do something about it.

      In contrast when Mugabe in Zimbabwe prints money, only the people using Zimbabwe currency are hurt. Which means the rest of the world is mostly unaffected.

      [1] Or allegedly "lose track" of it :).

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXlxBeAvsB8

      http://www.graysonforcongress.com/newsitem.asp?NewsId=90

      http://www.graysonforcongress.com/newsitem.asp?NewsId=91

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    4. Re:Hrmm by BobisOnlyBob · · Score: 4, Informative

      They're still surprisingly popular, although they're usually in tourist spots and require two coins to be placed in: the penny/nickel to squish, and a token fee for operation. Utter ripoff, but nice memorabilia.

  2. Much more efficient than the old way by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 3, Funny

    Kangaroo pouches are only so big.

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  3. Re:Why don't they hire men? by MichaelSmith · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  4. Re:Why don't they hire men? by xquark · · Score: 5, Informative

    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

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  5. Re:Why don't they hire men? by superdana · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  6. Re:Why don't they hire men? by voss · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  7. Port of Hamburg by seifried · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You think that's interesting check out the port of Hamburg, shipping containers being zipped around on robotic trucks/lifts/etc.

    Terminal Automation

  8. MySQL password? by commlinx · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  9. Re:I don't believe a word of it... by twostix · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  10. Re:Why don't they hire men? by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm not trying to be misogynist here

    That doesn't mean you aren't succeeding.

    Do you really think that women are the only people kept up at night by babies?

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  11. Re:Good morning by pete-wilko · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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?

  12. Re:Good morning by QuantumG · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

     

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  13. Re:Why don't they hire men? by ebuck · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.