The number of industrial robots in Japan is actually dropping, whereas China is hockey-stick. (Source: UN report[0] released October 2016)[1] I visited two Chi

The number of industrial robots in Japan is actually dropping, whereas China is hockey-stick. (Source: UN report[0] released October 2016)[1] I visited two Chinese factories this week, one for injection-molded plastics and one for metal. Both were essentially collections of very expensive automated machinery such as 5-axis steel boring CNC controllers and high powered laser cutters, with a few gantries, finishing/packaging and storage areas. There were as many people on computers working with 3D models as there were standing on the factory floor. In the latter case, the primary interface was usually a keyboard and mouse or touchscreen. [0] http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/presspb2016d6_en.pdf http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/presspb2016d6_en.pd... (page 3, citing UNCTAD secretariat calculations, based on International Federation of Robotics, 2015, World Robotics 2015: Industrial Robots, available at http://www.ifr.org/industrial-robots/statistics/ http://www.ifr.org/industrial-robots/statistics/ (accessed 19 October 2016)) [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12991293 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12991293