World's Fastest Robot Versus the Wiimote

kkleiner writes "Adept's Quattro, a placement and sorting arm, took the title of fastest robot last year, but it was only recently during National Robotics Week that it met its most gruesome opponents: nerds with Wiimotes. Visitors tried to keep the Quattro from placing and sorting on a small mechanized platform by moving it using the Nintendo video controller. The bottom line is that when it comes to simplified and repetitive tasks there's really no beating robotic prowess."

So will manufacturing return?

[kg8484]

Whenever I see these reports, it makes me wonder about the implications on manufacturing. Someone in the US or Europe can't/won't compete with someone in China working 15 hour days in a sweatshop for 50 cents an hour, and so from the company's standpoint, it makes economic sense to move. But will the rise in robotics cause a return of manufacturing? You will still need some people working in the factory maintaining the robots and what-not, but it may be cheaper to manufacture things closer to their destination rather than manufacturing them in a developing country and shipping them.

Re:really impressive

[pz]

I wonder if one of the implicit advantages of a highly flexible, programmable robotic system like this, rather than special-purpose hardware, is manufacturing flexibility.

I know that chocolate manufacturers need to retool their lines quite frequenty (Valentine's Day, Easter, etc.), and imagine that's true for lots of industries. Many of the examples from the second video are food handling: a processing plant that handles frozen burgers one week might be making chicken nuggets or fish sticks the next.

Re:So will manufacturing return?

[The Angry Mick]

You can pay for a lot of coolie labor for the price of one good robot, and with far less up front investment.

And no unions, and no insurance . . .

Not saying its a good thing, but a lot of companies would gladly take a robot over a human any day, just to avoid these two.