Page 48 - Modern Robotics Building Versatile Macines

28 Modern Robotics

SOCIAL IMPACT: ROBOTS AND HUMAN LABOR

The growing use of industrial robots in the United States has inevita-
bly raised the question of what their impact will be on the jobs and
pay of human workers. Joseph Engelberger has always claimed that
robots have improved conditions for labor. In an interview with the
Trentonian, Engelberger recalled that “There was very little opposition
to robotics from American labor. It helped with working people that
the first robots were put to work doing hot, hazardous and dull labor.”
Engelberger has suggested that the appropriate response to people
losing their jobs to robots is retraining.
Workers have feared automation since the beginning of the indus-
trial age. (In the late 18th century, the British followers of Ned Lud—
the “Luddites”—broke into factories and destroyed machines.) This
fear is not unreasonable: If a person has limited skills and performs
repetitive work, his or her job description matches the strengths of
robots. Robots can perform this kind of work to a high degree of
consistency and, if necessary, can work three shifts a day. And while
robots do require maintenance, they do not get sick nor do they
require expensive health care. In some cases, robots may displace
human workers entirely, while in others the availability of robots
might depress the wages of human workers who have to compete
with them.
In a way, robotlike devices have already displaced many service
workers. Many people can fulfill their banking needs at an ATM and

Robots in Service

In 1980, Engelberger published Robotics in Practice. This book and
Robotics in Service (1989) became standard textbooks that defined
the growing robotics industry by translating Engelberger’s practical
experience into workable approaches. The two titles also marked
a shifting of Engelberger’s focus from industrial robots to service
robots—robots that function in workplaces such as warehouses or
hospitals.
In 1982, Unimation was acquired by Westinghouse. By then
Engelberger had founded Transitions Research Corporation, which