4 ms·

Who builds the robots? Skynet?

sophacles 15y ago
People who enjoy building robots. They exist. There would probably be more of them if a lot of the parts of building robots (e.g. welding, machining, etc) were automated. It's like the old anti-open source argument "who is going to care about bugs in a hobby project?". It turns out a lot of hobbiests for one... not all but a lot do.
- TomOfTTB 15y ago
  Except the "old anti-open source argument" has proven to be largely true. At least 82% (roughly) of Linux development is corporate sponsored (it could be more since not all contributors disclose). Beyond that people who like building robots as a hobby probably aren't going to work very quickly or enjoy building the same robot over, and over, and over, and over again.
  - sophacles 15y ago
    Wait - you think someone is going to build a robot more than once? Why wouldn't a person design a robot to be created via fairly generic methods such as cnc, 3d printing, etc, at which point a large portion of the work can already be automated. Creating an assembler, from presumably fairly generic assembly machines would also probably be a small amount of work, but interesting. At this point it becomes fairly automatic. In case you aren't aware, most of the stuff I describe above is how people build factories right freaking now -- they take a lot of general purpose assembly machines and string them together in sequence. Some of the machines have special purpose, but only in high volume environments, and are supported by the general purpose ones.
    - TomOfTTB 15y ago
      I'm sorry but you're just wrong here. There's a lot robots can do but there are still people on most assembly lines because robots still aren't capable of precision (I know that sounds stupid but it's true). This is why companies like Foxconn still employ people. Now this might change in the near future (see Foxconn's recent talk about going robotic) but for the moment you still need people for most electronics work.
      - sophacles 15y ago
        Honest question: Is it that they aren't capable of precision, or aren't capable of precision cheaply? I mean, look at flexpickers, those are pretty precise, as are the robots that attach trace wires to chips in an IC package. Plenty of other precision tasks are done by robots as well such as screwing things together and various other tasks. I also am very curious to find out what people do at foxconn that can't be automated rather than can't be automated cheaply.

People who enjoy building robots. They exist. There would probably be more of them if a lot of the parts of building robots (e.g. welding, machining, etc) were automated. It's like the old anti-open source argument "who is going to care about bugs in a hobby project?". It turns out a lot of hobbiests for one... not all but a lot do.

TomOfTTB 15y ago
Except the "old anti-open source argument" has proven to be largely true. At least 82% (roughly) of Linux development is corporate sponsored (it could be more since not all contributors disclose). Beyond that people who like building robots as a hobby probably aren't going to work very quickly or enjoy building the same robot over, and over, and over, and over again.
- sophacles 15y ago
  Wait - you think someone is going to build a robot more than once? Why wouldn't a person design a robot to be created via fairly generic methods such as cnc, 3d printing, etc, at which point a large portion of the work can already be automated. Creating an assembler, from presumably fairly generic assembly machines would also probably be a small amount of work, but interesting. At this point it becomes fairly automatic. In case you aren't aware, most of the stuff I describe above is how people build factories right freaking now -- they take a lot of general purpose assembly machines and string them together in sequence. Some of the machines have special purpose, but only in high volume environments, and are supported by the general purpose ones.
  - TomOfTTB 15y ago
    I'm sorry but you're just wrong here. There's a lot robots can do but there are still people on most assembly lines because robots still aren't capable of precision (I know that sounds stupid but it's true). This is why companies like Foxconn still employ people. Now this might change in the near future (see Foxconn's recent talk about going robotic) but for the moment you still need people for most electronics work.
    - sophacles 15y ago
      Honest question: Is it that they aren't capable of precision, or aren't capable of precision cheaply? I mean, look at flexpickers, those are pretty precise, as are the robots that attach trace wires to chips in an IC package. Plenty of other precision tasks are done by robots as well such as screwing things together and various other tasks. I also am very curious to find out what people do at foxconn that can't be automated rather than can't be automated cheaply.