IFR says harnessing AI in robotics can make work better

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We’re in the midst of a decade of unprecedented transformation, driven in part by the global pandemic and geopolitical events that are fundamentally changing the way we manufacture and deliver goods, according to the International Federation of Robotics, or IFR.

That transformation is happening against the backdrop of global megatrends, including a shrinking global workforce, an increasing appetite for e-commerce, and a fundamental need for sustainability and resilience — including in supply chains.

All will continue to feed long-term demand for robotics and automation in manufacturing and logistics. These sectors want automation to be smarter, faster, more efficient, and, importantly, more accessible.

The use of artificial intelligence offers a tremendous opportunity for the robotics industry to respond to customer and societal needs.

AI itself is not new to robotics. Machine vision and learning have been built into robots for many years. Robots excel at tasks humans find difficult – strenuous, repetitive, dull, dirty, or dangerous.

AI can make robots better at fulfilling those tasks: more capable of learning; able to learn by experience, rather than programming; and able to work in dynamic environments or around people. It is rapidly changing what is possible.

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What does this mean in practice?

Independent studies have suggested that Japan may face a shortage of more than 11 million workers by 2040, as its population ages rapidly. Similar forecasts in the U.S. suggest more than 2.1 million manufacturing jobs there will be unfilled by 2030. And earlier this year, more than half of Germany’s companies said they were struggling to fill vacancies due to a lack of skilled workers, shared the IFR.

As well as losing key skills, those people available for work are increasingly rejecting intensive manual jobs. For many companies, there is an urgent need to bridge these labor gaps with intelligent robotics, and a growing number of AI-powered systems can do just that.

In manufacturing, vision AI has already enabled robots to both weld precisely and learn to spot microscopic defects faster and with more accuracy than any human.

And in warehousing and logistics — a sector whose growth is outstripping the labor supply, thanks to the explosion of e-commerce and online shopping — AI-enabled robots learn to recognize different objects and know how to pick and pack them at high speed.

Elsewhere, robots today use vision and machine learning to navigate autonomously without guidance to transport items efficiently around the factory or warehouse.

AI can even enhance maintenance in the production line. Using AI planning and programming software, designing the most efficient movement path for a robotic arm takes a fraction of the time of an engineer programming the same path manually. This can turn a 90-minute maintenance task into a 2-second adjustment.

More intelligent and efficient robots are also helping us address demands for sustainability through energy efficiency, waste reduction, and smaller operational footprints. Robots and AI offer companies the flexibility to respond to rapid changes in demand and remain competitive.

For example, precision painting technology in the automotive sector can reduce material waste by up to 60% and enhance sustainability by reducing energy and water use.

In food and beverage packaging, intelligent automation enables producers to adapt to recycled packaging and reduce the use of plastics.

Generative AI holds great promise for robotics, says IFR

The continued convergence of AI and robotics has huge potential, both for overcoming challenges of today and for opening up new opportunities for tomorrow, notes the IFR.

Ease of use and access to automation are more important than ever for more industries, segments, and geographies. Generative AI has the potential to be a game changer. It could make robots even more accessible for small and midsize businesses by making programming and coding faster and easier, lowering barriers even further for robots to be integrated and adapted to different environments.

Imagine being able to just speak to a robot, and it performs a new task straight away thanks to generative AI.

But to truly take advantage of this technology, we need to think and act more as an ecosystem. We need to encourage startups and early-stage businesses in new applications for AI. The IFR, industry, academia, and other parts of the whole value chain need to collaborate, co-invent, and educate.

We need to educate society about where robotics and AI can be beneficial and used without risk, to bridge the growing labor and skills gaps.

We need to educate today’s workforce in new skills, to continue to break the shackles of labor-intensive manual work and instead manage and share such tasks with intelligent robots.

And we need to educate tomorrow’s workforce about the possibilities of AI, to create new opportunities we haven’t even thought of yet.

Sensible and proportionate regulation – building guardrails, not walls – will help encourage this new wave of innovation, with AI as its foundation.

In the past 50 years of its development, AI has advanced robots’ ability to improve the efficiency of the tasks they already do, to take on new tasks, and to do those tasks in more places.

The new generation of AI is a powerful tool to help us continue this journey, to make work better – for individuals, for businesses and for the environment.

About the author

Marina Bill is the president of the International Federation of Robotics and the global head of marketing and sales at ABB Robotics. She has spent her career working in senior commercial and profit and loss leadership roles in the robotics and power industries.

Editor’s note: This article was syndicated from the IFR’s blog.