Robots Make the Coins Go 'Round, Down Under 126
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.'"
Re:Why don't they hire men? (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 [ninemsn.com.au]
Re:Why don't they hire men? (Score:5, 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.
Re:Hrmm (Score:4, Informative)
They're still surprisingly popular [wikipedia.org], 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.
Re:Hrmm (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Petrodollars (Score:3, Informative)
Well it's no longer rated funny :).
Maybe it's because most US people don't know that Iraq was considered an ally (or at least a useful tool) of the USA before Iraq invaded Kuwait.
The USA was amongst the many countries supplying Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war.
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=815&blz=1 [unobserver.com]
After the Iran-Iraq war was over, Saddam even spoke to the US ambassador and complained about Kuwait.
And the US ambassador (April Glaspie) said: "I think I understand this. I have lived here for years. I admire your extraordinary efforts to rebuild your country. I know you need funds. We understand that and our opinion is that you should have the opportunity to rebuild your country. But we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait.
I was in the American Embassy in Kuwait during the late 60's. The instruction we had during this period was that we should express no opinion on this issue and that the issue is not associated with America. James Baker has directed our official spokesmen to emphasize this instruction. We hope you can solve this problem using any suitable methods via Klibi or via President Mubarak. All that we hope is that these issues are solved quickly. With regard to all of this, can I ask you to see how the issue appears to us? "
http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/glaspie.html [montclair.edu]
After that discussion, how was Saddam to know that the USA would be against them in that war? Don't forget the US actually supported them in their war against Iran.
So the Iraq-Kuwait war began, and then the USA came and smacked Iraq.
And this is how the coins go round, out of your pockets and into certain people's pockets :).