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That actually brings up an interesting concept that never occurred to me. We could get automation of complex tasks far earlier than I had thought. We're at thi

That actually brings up an interesting concept that never occurred to me. We could get automation of complex tasks far earlier than I had thought. We're at this divide where we're getting capable with our understanding of motion and mechanics, but intelligently figuring things out is a massive roadblock. What if, as you say, we make very dumb robots where their interaction with the world has been entirely laid out by humans. Ie, a humanoid robot making toast seems difficult. Yet if we give it the exact dimensions of the room, rf sensors for locations of shelving, cabinets, bread, etc, it seems possible with our current tech that the robot could be programmed to handle dynamic environments as long as the inputs were laid out ahead of time. There's limited value in something like toast making, defining the inputs would be a hassle. Yet, for house building, or factory automation, if every piece, shape, location and dimension was known it seems a fleet of robots could build a house with quickness and ease, no "intelligence" needed. Humans would need to lay a foundation to a spec of dimensions, but then the bots could go nuts. Neat!

DougWebb 8y ago
What you're describing sounds like the way pre-fab homes are built. A computer model is created which specifies every part, and that gets sent to the factory floor where all of the wood is picked, cut, and assembled into pre-fabbed shipable components. As much work is done in the factory as possible while keeping all of the parts flat so they're easy to stack onto a truck. The cutting is all done by CNC machines, the assembly is all done using jigs and much of it could be done by assembly-line-style robots, moving stuff around can be done by simple robots as well. The components get stacked on a truck by humans running machines, but the stacking order is pre-determined by the computer model, so this can potentially be automated by an oversized version of common manufacturing machines. The truck is driven to the job site by a human, but that might one day be done with an autonomous vehicle. The final step is assembly on-site, which is done by humans running big machines. This is potentially the only part where humans need to be heavily involved, to make sure everything goes correctly together and to do the fine adjustments and small details.

DougWebb 8y ago

What you're describing sounds like the way pre-fab homes are built. A computer model is created which specifies every part, and that gets sent to the factory floor where all of the wood is picked, cut, and assembled into pre-fabbed shipable components. As much work is done in the factory as possible while keeping all of the parts flat so they're easy to stack onto a truck. The cutting is all done by CNC machines, the assembly is all done using jigs and much of it could be done by assembly-line-style robots, moving stuff around can be done by simple robots as well. The components get stacked on a truck by humans running machines, but the stacking order is pre-determined by the computer model, so this can potentially be automated by an oversized version of common manufacturing machines. The truck is driven to the job site by a human, but that might one day be done with an autonomous vehicle. The final step is assembly on-site, which is done by humans running big machines. This is potentially the only part where humans need to be heavily involved, to make sure everything goes correctly together and to do the fine adjustments and small details.