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Mercedes is Trialing Humanoid Robots For 'Low Skill, Repetitive' Tasks (theverge.com) 33

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Mercedes-Benz is the latest automotive company to trial how humanoid robots could be used to automate "low skill, physically challenging, manual labor." From a report: On Friday, robotics company Apptronik announced it had entered into a commercial agreement with Mercedes to pilot how "highly advanced robotics" like Apollo -- Apptronik's 160-pound bipedal robot -- can be used in manufacturing. The news follows a similar pilot announced by BMW in January.

Apptronik says that Mercedes is exploring use cases like having Apollo inspect and deliver components to human production line workers. Neither company has disclosed any figures for the agreement or how many Apollo robots are being trialed. According to Apptronik, humanoid robots would allow vehicle manufacturers to start automating manufacturing tasks without having to redesign their existing facilities. The company says its approach instead "centers on automating some physically demanding, repetitive and dull tasks for which it is increasingly hard to find reliable workers."
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Mercedes is Trialing Humanoid Robots For 'Low Skill, Repetitive' Tasks More

Mercedes is Trialing Humanoid Robots For 'Low Skill, Repetitive' Tasks

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  • Good (Score:3)

    by kwelch007 ( 197081 ) on Friday March 15, 2024 @02:03PM (#64318289) Homepage

    Robots are ideal for low skill, repetitive, heavy lifting and dangerous jobs. That's where we should use them. I don't know that I see the benefit in making them human-shaped though...who cares what they look like if they help the humans with difficult tasks?

    • Some tasks are designed in such a way that a human form is best equipped to perform them. (Makes sense, given who designed the tasks.) This also means that tools, supplies, and even the task environment is often tailored to that human form. Abandoning that form can very much increase the costs of adopting the machine to replace it. (See also: The reason why most robots require purpose built workspaces that must be constantly kept in a particular order.)

      The other reason is the humans around these yet to be
    • Building a special robot for each niche is just too expensive. So if we're going with a standardized design, well, the world as we know it is built around the human form factor.

      Of course they won't stop making purpose-built designs when justified. Humanoids with a shovels will never replace huge bulldozers in a copper mine.

      • Seems to me that building a multi-purpose humanoid robot would be a LOT more expensive. Unless it can truly multi-purpose across many disciplines, I doubt there would be even close comparison in capital cost.

        • I agree, it's an idea that has always been there but it's never come to fruition. On the Jetsons they had a humanoid robot running a vacuum cleaner. In real life we have Roomba.
          • Except that Roomba isn't able to get to every spot like a humanoid robot with a vacuumcleaner can, and that humanoid robot can do more chores as only vacuum the floor, like really clean everything and cook and mind the pets or children.

    • The human hand, which in my opinion seems to be the most advanced generalized gripper configuration in nature, seems to be any ideal shape for many tasks. Here's like a test for robot hand ability I came up with .. I've tested that a 9 year old can do these easily:

      Task 1 - Somewhat easy:
      1. From a desk of scattered random trinkets identify a small eyeglasses screw (for example an eye screw . among other screws but none are close to the right size -- dont want it to be super difficult).
      2. Pick up the screw fr

      • You could also look at it from the other direction: many common tasks are designed to be performed using a pair of human hands.

    • I think you're going to find the vast majority of people still believe that if you don't work you don't eat.

      We are talking about massive amounts of jobs replacements with absolutely nothing on the horizon to replace those jobs. Seriously try it. List out all the things that the tens of millions of people who do menial labor are going to do for a living as robots and AI take over.

      We can't all the HVAC welders. Who's going to be able to afford to even buy a fancy HVAC system when we yank several millio

      • Taxes. Robots will make things so easy to manufacture and farm that the cost of goods will be forced to collapse .. because the cost of the robots themselves will collpase too. That means your welfare check can be used to buy a lot of stuff.

        • I love when people dream.

          That said, if robots do become ubiquitous (ala Asimov), then with the lack of jobs the population will fall because people won't be able to afford to live let alone have kids, thus taking care of global warming and dwindling resources.

          • Every culture, since ancient times, came up with ways to have free labor and it never meant humans were bored or fat. We never got to enjoy it, without human rights issues. We finally have a way to get it, and idiots are trying to ban it. you might be able to ban your neighbor from getting a robot. But good luck banning the Russians, Chinese, Saudis and whoever else.

    • we have already built all of our facilities to accommodate the human form. For example, door handles are placed such that 95% of people can reach them, and they are designed for use by human hands. Imagine the simple change we had to create for those wheelchair-bound people, how much those simple changes cost.

    • Robots are ideal for low skill, repetitive, heavy lifting

      Jerking off is low skill, repetitive, and (for me) requires heavy lifting. I don't think I'd trust a robot to do it for me.

      • Millions of simple devices are sold every year that do those tho. Entirely mechanical and automated.

        And if the robot looked like whoever/whatever you most desire... and could wake you up that way in the morning, you might accept it.

        Many retired people *prefer* robots to humans. The robots don't judge them, don't get tired, don't get irritable, don't steal things.

  • ...than the ABB robots we've been using since the 80s to assemble, weld and paint cars?

    • The difference is using an off-the-shelf robot and exploring how it can be helpful, vs custom designing a robot for a specific purpose (like welding and painting).
    • It would be a drop in replacement. Right now you kind of have to build your entire production line around those ABB robots because your production line was previously based around bipedal humans. These kind of robots could in theory just go right into your existing production line and could work side by side with humans doing the handful of tasks they can't.
  • ...they just found the new Mercedes CEO!
    • Yeah. You don't replace the king with a robot. If you look into it you're going to find that legacy admissions at ivy League schools lead into cushy jobs at management consulting firms that are where CEOs and the board of directors pick their candidates from. All of these are opportunities that you're born into.

      America has a ruling class as does the entire world but large swath of the world like to pretend that's not the case. It's like how Warren Buffett said there's a class war going on and his class i

  • The only reasonable role for a humanoid robot is "human-cyborg relations." So I can see this replacing receptionists, tour guides, warehouse foremen, even middle management... as well as infiltrating human resistance cells.

  • I thought we have been doing this for the last couple of centuries.

  • "Mercedes is Trialing Humanoid Robots For 'Low Skill, Repetitive' Tasksâ

    So... sexbots, then. Imagine, a sexbot that can go to the bathroom and clean itself up before getting dressed and going to the store for Cheetos and Mountain Dew.

  • Is "trialing" really a verb? Isn't there some other way to say this? One thing good about our coming AI overlords, they won't be using stupid words like "trialing" for a while. Until they start using /. to train on.
    • English allows for nouns being used as verbs, a process known as "verbing." Most of the time, it's used by lazy writers who can't be bothered to find out if there's already a verb to describe the action in question or Just Don't Care that the results are ugly. This seems to be a case where verbing works because the result is clear and reads smoothly.

      • This seems to be a case where verbing works because the result is clear and reads smoothly.

        Clearly not smoothly enough. The GP is not the only one who bristled at this " biznissing ."

  • Limited hand dexterity .. I see them causing more issues than they are worth. You need like 5 well paid humans per robot.

  • > "for which it is increasingly hard to find reliable workers"

    There's a solution to that you know... Pay more.

    • Why? We could hire people to dig all construction holes by bare hand, but it's cheaper to use tools, excavators, or explosives, so we don't. So why should companies hire people for back breaking, repetitive labor which robots can do instead? Lowers the cost, and therefore price floors for product too, so everyone benefits.
  • Thanks, Mercedes.

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