Future of Automation
Future of Automation
(OP)
What are the current problems and limiting factors in robotics and automation? Where is the technology likely to be in 5-10 years? I mean this in the broad sense of anything from industrial robotic arms to driverless cars to embedded control systems.





RE: Future of Automation
Can it replace the pastor at my church? Can robotics and automation really give you forgiveness?
However, I think we already have driverless cars, at least from my drive this morning. Maybe it will help with that.
All of these technologies will replace some people, but will require people with much higher skill levels. However, I won't be tiping the robotic waitress (or what ever they are called).
There are also a few jobs that require adapidabilty, but not much skill, so the plumber might be safe (why do they charge so much, and still not have the parts I need).
I think 3D printing may have a bigger impact, as it would mean so many things don't need to be kept in inventory at the retail level.
RE: Future of Automation
Driver-less cars certainly has been receiving a large chuck of media attention. I think that is an important thing to consider, in that it is simply more sensational to see a car drive itself than see a robotic arm load parts.
Though, in the same sense that more plants are seeing the benefit of robots, the wider spread of applications are coming forth from word of mouth between clients. Meaning robots in more open environments like farming etc start springing up. I think that when these types of applications start getting more media coverage, others will start cluing in to how easy it is apply robots to improve work. It may start becoming more widespread.
RE: Future of Automation
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Future of Automation
Robotic fabrication of the kind I am used to actually increases the amount of labor involved because there is so much additional thinking and coordination required to get things right for the small production runs involved in architectural construction. When you are building in bricks and 2x4's, you can afford to be loosey goosey because the brick layer can fudge it on site to make it fit.
RE: Future of Automation
Been developing automated industrial machinery for around 3 years now and I feel one of the reasons why companies go with automation is to avoid operator errors and OH&S claims. Automation results in less operator interaction. Operators love to try ways of making life easier for themselves as it is quite a monotonous task for most industries. Lack of concentration can result in bad product or an injured operator, both which are not ideal.
One thing I've learnt is if you are automating a process you need to do it right. Doing in on the cheap is likely going to result more expenses on the long run!
RE: Future of Automation
I work in a job production environment. Recently we have bought large CNC grinding machines to automate parts of the job. Push a button and walk away. Sounds nice and simple up until chatter and spiralling started appearing in the work. Skilled machinists do this by touch and have their own rhythm.
There is also this. Don't underestimate what operators or foremen will do to sabotage a job out of ignorance to the machine or other.
RE: Future of Automation
The 3-d printing can also reduce shipping costs of large non-bulky items, and if applied at the retail location, can make keeping inventory for 100's of items go away.
You pay for an item, and the store prints it right there.
Could work in a simular way for metal items with some of the multi-function machines. Go to the parts store and order piston, insert a blank in the machine, and in a few you have the part you need.
Parts inventory can go from 100's of items to a few blanks.
We would only need factories for items with difficult assemblies, or fine crafts personship.
RE: Future of Automation
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Future of Automation
-> 3d printing is all about awesome design with low production runs. When you need two of something, not two million, and when they are special and intricate it makes sense. One of the more interesting things I saw was the Ex One system for 3d printing sand molds for metals casting. It totally eliminates the foundry pattern, and lets you do internal features which would be impossible with traditional methods.
RE: Future of Automation
30 yrs ago, e-beam, direct-write-on-wafer was supposed to revolutionize the semiconductor industry because you could arbitrarily write whatever you needed to make whatever chip you wanted, without the investment of $150k for the maskset (molds) for each chip. But, a 0.25 micron system would take 8 hours to write one layer of a 12 layer process, while conventional masking systems could crank through hundreds of wafers per HOUR. And, current lithographic processes are running 20 nm features, which are 1/10th the feature size of the e-beam machine, on 20-inch wafers, which are 25 times the area of the wafers that took 8 hrs on the e-beam machine.
TTFN

FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers
Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
There is a homework forum hosted by engineering.com: http://www.engineering.com/AskForum/aff/32.aspx
RE: Future of Automation
IRStuff: interesting history on the semiconductor side.
RE: Future of Automation
That said, same was probably claimed of the Wright flyer and little over a decade later scores of aeroplanes were playing a not insignificant role in the larget conflict the world had seen to that point.
There are very cool applications, and it is likely all the hype will lead to more folks thinking about it which will lead to more cool applications even with current limitations.
However, as some mention above there are a number of limitations with the current or foreseeable state of the art.
As the technology improves more applications will open up I'm sure but I suspect some of them may be a ways out, and require a bit more skill/care & attention... to use than the technician at Kinko's or similar will have for the foreseeable.
20" wafers IRstuff, sure you don't mean 17.7" (450 mm)? Or do we need to stretch our giant tool 13% more?
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Future of Automation
I expect to see more automation, and to see improved products and services. This is based on the retail people I see who all seem to think we can't do without them. And Amazon has gone a long ways to replace those people by selling items that are not stocked, inventoried, or sold in the local stores. And even selling items that are sold in local stores. What is actually happening is battle of local store, wait in line, if they have the item, vs order on-line and recieve it in a few days.
There's nothing that states automate me like 'welcome to walmart'.
RE: Future of Automation
-> Furniture would make some sense. If I have a spot in my living room 5'-6" wide, I don't want a 6ft or a 4ft wide shelf unit. My time is also valuable, and I don't want to hunt all over town looking for a shelf with the right dimensions.
RE: Future of Automation
TTFN

FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers
Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
There is a homework forum hosted by engineering.com: http://www.engineering.com/AskForum/aff/32.aspx
RE: Future of Automation
Suppose you have a piece of custom furniture printed, and it breaks, and someone gets hurt? Who pays? That's not worked out yet.
Can you expect retail labor to run and maintain a 3D printer? Note please that you can't get a key duplicated in a big box store until they find the one employee who is allowed to run the key duplicator.
... and those jobs are disappearing as fully automated key cutters appear.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Future of Automation
TTFN

FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers
Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
There is a homework forum hosted by engineering.com: http://www.engineering.com/AskForum/aff/32.aspx
RE: Future of Automation
http://www.minutekey.com
(not affiliated)
Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community..
To the Toolmaker, your nice little cartoon drawing of your glass looks cool, but your solid model sucks. Do you want me to fix it, or are you going to take all week to get it back to me so I can get some work done?
RE: Future of Automation
Believe it of not, in some countries they still have gas station attendants that pump the gas for you.
That key machine sort of reminds me of a simple CNC machine. You put in a blank, and a pattern, and it grinds the blank to match the pattern.
RE: Future of Automation
RE: Future of Automation
TTFN

FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers
Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
There is a homework forum hosted by engineering.com: http://www.engineering.com/AskForum/aff/32.aspx
RE: Future of Automation
RE: Future of Automation
Here's some advice for the next time you happen to be in Oregon; don't ever try to pump your own gas as you'll be in for a big surprise
It's against the law!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Future of Automation
Tracer mills have been around a lot longer than CNC and often does not even involve electrical/electronic controls. For years, Bridgeport sold multi-head, hydraulically controlled tracer mills like this one:
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Future of Automation
Fembots? Are you talking about the $6 million man type? Or something out of westworld?
There maybe something about the $10 limit and vending machines. But with credit card readers on new vending machines that might go away. After all what is the cost at one of those pizza vending machines?
A gas pump is a type of vending machine, and they have charged me $25 for gas before. Much better than facing the guy behind the counter (want a slerpy with that).
What ever happened with walking floor truck trailers?
RE: Future of Automation
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Future of Automation
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Future of Automation
Course, they have to thaw it first.
RE: Future of Automation
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Future of Automation
Bottom line is we will see some product changes to assist automation efforts. So we are likely to see higher prices for products that can't be automated.
RE: Future of Automation
I was talking Austin Powers type fembots. Women of high caliber.
RE: Future of Automation
But again, I conducted an Advisory Board survey asking members to rate their interest in course we would teach. Additive Manufacturing ranked dead last.
Glass's comment about low-precision made me think of an old 80's Gary Larson Far Side comic about "cow tools". It was a real head-scratcher when this cartoon first came out. A precursor, perhaps?
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3211/2347642183_912...
3D printing may be just what is needed to jump start the space exploration program.
TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering
www.bluetechnik.com
RE: Future of Automation
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
Ben Loosli
RE: Future of Automation
Fluff article: http://njmonthly.com/articles/jersey-living/fill-e...
RE: Future of Automation
that are selling the use of their 3D printers are marketing them as just that: Great ways to prototype your ideas.
The guy I talked to at the company said that the majority of their business came from people who had designed some sort of devise, or had had commissioned them to design a circuit board, and then needed
a casing to form the final product. They seemed to be happy using their 3D printer for that purpose only. Not really expanding the horizons of 3D printing but using whatever existing technology was out
to cater to people who want to quickly see their vision of a product, and iterate there forward.
From what I observed, I can visualize that this and similar applications are where 3D printing will take root for a good while. So it is already successful, the ease of access is great for the end user, but I don't see it growing away from such a market without a large leap in cost efficiency.
RE: Future of Automation
Strange how you can't pump your own gas in some places, but the proposal for electric car home charging might change that. Or not, where you might have to have an attendant come to your house and plug it in for you, and unplug it the next morning. Would they need to be from the union?
Can't help think 'press one for billing questions', as this automation is rarely useful.
RE: Future of Automation
BTW, the no-self-serve laws in Oregon and New Jersey have been on the books for more than 60 years.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Future of Automation
_________________________________________
NX8.0, Solidworks 2014, AutoCAD, Enovia V5
RE: Future of Automation
There is a news story about NASA proposing (or someone else, I am not sure) combining 3D printing(sort of) with a spider type of space craft to be able to build spacecraft webbing in space. I thought it an interesting twist. There was not much information on the material being spun.
There is also a story about the indy 500 going electric. I wonder if they are also going to add slots, and electric pickups to the track. Then add driverless cars and we can all watch what a 8 year old can do now.
RE: Future of Automation
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Future of Automation
I imagine that would make the fans of the sport blissfully pleased.
RE: Future of Automation
TTFN

FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers
Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
There is a homework forum hosted by engineering.com: http://www.engineering.com/AskForum/aff/32.aspx
RE: Future of Automation
http://www.fiaformulae.com/
http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/teams/andretti.aspx
http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/teams/dragon-racing....
This is the second season of Formula 1 running thier curremt version of Hybrid technology power packages.
http://www.formula1.com
http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/cha...
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
Ben Loosli