UBTech’s Walker S1, officially unveiled on Monday, has already begun training in factories, including electric vehicle maker BYD
A Chinese robot maker has received over 500 orders from carmakers for an industrial humanoid robot, according to local media reports, in a development that may soon help ease China’s manufacturing labour shortage.
It works alongside other unmanned logistic vehicles and intelligent manufacturing management systems – reportedly the first in the world to do so – to automate large-scale operations.
Around 70 per cent of the workload in automated factories is currently handled by robotic arms, with the remainder performed by humans, said UBTech’s chief brand officer Tan Min in an interview with Beijing News’ Seashell Finance last month.
UBTech aims to replace about 20 per cent of the total workload with humanoid robots, leaving just 10 per cent for human workers, who will focus on collaboration and tool management, Tan added
The article says that 70% of the process is already automated with regular machines. They want humanoid robots for 10%. Like you, I don’t understand the specific reasons for wanting humanoid robots.
Sure, but at what loss of efficiency and additional cost? Certainly there is a breakeven point at which it would make more sense to build two different robots - where each is best at doing their singular role.
For example, would this design necessarily be improved if it had a anthropomorphic head and feet? Maybe, maybe not.
Despite China’s push, vocational education is still struggling with a shortage of staff and lack of respect
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Also from previous stories on Chinese factories how hard even brutal management is on workers. eg Suicides at Apple factories.
But it seems that working at the firm’s US operations is a grueling, brutal experience, and that’s making hiring new staff for its Arizona foundries difficult.
Some of the complaints include twelve-hour days, common weekend shifts, and a “brutal” work-life balance. One person wrote that they saw people sleep in the office for a month straight.
“TSMC is about obedience [and is] not ready for America,” one engineer wrote in January. There are also complaints about poor training, stress, heavy workloads, and a militaristic atmosphere.
Will this new robot venture put a spike into the Tesla robot?
Likely the Chinabot will be cheaper to produce.
Besides factories, robots could be helpful in aiding seniors. That might put a crimp into senior housing REITs. But on the up side many who cannot afford a senior home might be able to lease a robot.
If one can’t afford the additional rent for senior housing*, then why would one be able to afford the lease of a robot? It is fair to assume that the daily expense of a robot lease would be as much if not more than the additional rent one would pay.
*Note, senior housing is not defined but if one is referring to Assisted Living communities, we are are likely decades away from a single robot being able to replace all the amenities provided by Assisted Living.
Things like: Medication management Meals Housekeeping and laundry Personal care (i.e. help with getting dressed, eating, bathing, etc.)
If a robot could consistently and safely perform all those functions, I would imagine the lease would cost a few thousand a month.
[quote=“Hawkwin, post:9, topic:109508”] then why would one be able to afford the lease of a robot?
If a robot could consistently and safely perform all those functions, I would imagine the lease would cost a few thousand a month.[/quote]
Around here [southern New Mexico] senior retirement housing which provides meals and an emergency pull is $2,000/month.
I had to do a web search to find assisted living cost estimates.
$2946 to $ 8248 a month. Most states are clustered a smidge over $4,000 a month.
Once production is up and running in China I believe that option may be affordable.
Yes, it is expensive, but the opportunity cost is the difference between average rent and average senior retirement housing. It isn’t as if those seniors have $0 living expense otherwise.
Did the self-entry kiosk complain or show up late to work? Bold of you to assume that customer satisfaction plays into this.
Starbucks sales have been declining. Former CEO Howard Schultz pointed out that the in-store experience is the whole point of Starbucks and focusing on the app is killing it. Management responded by doubling down on the app.
I have maintained, for years, that the first things to go when the “JCs” want to make more profit, is quality control and customer service. Fortunately, the Wendy’s food is still quite good.
I posted a link a week or two back, that Starbuck’s new plan is to claim they are “premium”, so they can charge more.
The coffee chain is scaling back promotional offers through its mobile app to get customers to pay full price for its coffees and teas, the Wall Street Journal first reported Monday and confirmed by CNN. The move is part of new CEO Brian Niccol’s strategy to reposition Starbucks as a premium brand while also reducing the strain on employees, who get flooded with work when promotions are high.
Yeah, jacking up prices so high it significantly reduces traffic in the stores would be a way to “reduce strain on employees”, but I would suspect staffing will be cut, so the few that are left are just as “strained”, while the customers are required to pay more for the same stuff.
I wonder if the kiosk is so bad because most people choose to use the app instead? Is the app better? Probably is, because it can be updated at will and almost immediately at very low cost.
Of course, people who refuse to own a basic tool of modern society can’t use the app.
Regarding Starbucks, I think they are between a rock and a hard place right now. Their prices are already extremely high, and have been so for a number of years. Meanwhile rent, labor, insurance, etc costs have been rising relatively quickly. I don’t think they can raise their prices much higher at this point, a typical prepared (“handcrafted”) coffee is already well over $6. That’s the rock. Now, they’ve improved throughput quite a lot over the last 10 years using their app. The vast majority of people order on the app and then come in (or drive through) just to pick up their order. Improving throughput is one way they’ve dealt with all those increasing costs. Another way they’ve dealt with it is to remove many seating areas in some of their stores, and sometimes even shrink their footprint (lower rent and insurance) with fewer employees (lower labor cost). Now, if they want to shift back, at least somewhat, to the “in store” experience, that’ll increase the footprint, increase the number of employees, and slow overall service. That’s the hard place.
The humanoid robot can interface with an existing production lines without any modifications to the production line.
There was one self-driving truck company that found the 5-year lead time in changing any OEM electronics on a vehicle a real roadblock. By the time the unit had worked it’s way through the 5-year process, it was obsolete.
The solution was a mechanical self-driving unit that you bolted into the driver’s seat with pistons that operated the pedals and mechanical arms that turned the wheel and operated the gear shift. Eliminating the need to change anything on an off-the-self vehicle.
