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Siemens Now Commands An Army Of Spider Robots (dailydot.com)
An anonymous reader quotes this article about Siemens' army of autonomous spider robots -- each one the size of a microwave, communicating with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to create "a collaborative mind":
It's expensive to build an automated factory, and even more pricey to repurpose one. German manufacturing giant Siemens wants that to change, and they've developed an army of robot spiders to make it happen. Utilizing what Siemens calls "mobile manufacturing", researchers in Princeton, New Jersey have built prototype spider-bots that work together to 3D print structures and parts in real time.
Siemens hopes to build even larger spider robots than can weld cars.
Siemens hopes to build even larger spider robots than can weld cars.
It is time to start looking for something else . . . oh, those jobs are gone too. . .
On the flip side, the manufacturers would be able to support products that have long been discontinued since building replacement part batches wouldn't require massive retooling
Yes, just like when new medicines come out, everyone can easily afford them, and we're all healthy.
Oh wait, forgot we live in a society based on making money. The rich will get your future, everyone else will get fucked.
Anyone who has worked with products from prototype through commercial production knows that purpose built tooling will always produce better throughput at lower unit cost given a sufficient level of demand.
That last part is the issue. Take automotive manufacturing for example. The BMW i3 is made out of expensive materials. The BOM cost for an i3 is a lot higher than most other vehicles. But in terms of vehicles with such a small production run, the cost per vehicle for the program is very low. Why? Because they have come up with such a highly automated production system. TL;DW: (The same production line could make a different vehicle with extremely limited re-tooling, and using composites means that there's no expensive dies.)
Who the hell wants to buy a product that can become abandoned by the manufacturer the instant something potentially better comes along?
There's a whole market of those people. On one hand, we call them early adopters. On the other hand, we call them the wealthy. Take supercars for example. They are basically rolling nightmares as far as maintenance is concerned, or at least they were until VW/Audi got involved in producing them and forced everyone else to up their game substantially... which seems ironic as VAG autos are not known for being highly maintainable, and which essentially proves just how dire the situation was previously. Lamborghini wiring used to look like something made by a hobbyist in a shed, that's shockingly hilarious. Yuk yuk.
Unless something is done to reverse trends in economics, the wealthy will continue to concentrate wealth to themselves and people will be finding ways to convince them to part with it. One trend has been for the ongoing creation of more super-luxury items, and (again returning to the automotive examples) there have been a handful of new super/hypercar manufacturers springing up to sell them ultra-expensive automobiles with bespoke interior. Loopholes permit these ultra-luxury vehicles to be sold without crash testing; forget about Lamborghinis, or even the R8, the A8 isn't even crash tested! So, there's an example in production of goods where people will want them to be made by variable tooling.
However, the place I really see spider robot welders being useful is not in building cars, but in building buildings. Eliminating the need for humans to clamber about a structure under construction has obvious advantages.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"