n043  1221  06 Oct 80
 
BC-ROBOTS 2takes
(Newhouse 001)
By PATRICK YOUNG
Newhouse News Service
    PITTSBURGH - The factory of the future is being shaped here today.
And it belongs to robots.
    At Carnegie-Mellon University, researchers from the school's
Robotics Institute are installing a computer-controlled robot that
will operate two automated cutting machines and a laser measuring
device.
    The robot - actually a large metal arm - is designed to place and
precisely align a piece of metal in one cutting machine, which will
begin fabricating a blade for an electric turbine.
    Then the robot will remove the partially finished blade and place it
in the quality-control laser, whose light beam will ensure the blade
has been properly shaped. Finally, the robot will align the blade in
the second machine for further work and return it to the laser for
another inspection.
    All this without human intervention.
    It is, admittedly, a humble beginning to a grand dream. But from
such efforts may come huge factories run by a few humans and many
robots.
    The robots envisioned here are not the cute and cuddly androids of
''Star Wars.'' They are, however, extraordinarily sophisticated,
computerized machines.
    For example, researchers talk of the day when an engineer will be
able to design a part using a computer and video display tube. Then,
with a touch of a button, the design will be transferred to a robot.
The robot will fabricate the part, cutting, shaping, inspecting and
approving the final product before releasing it.
    ''A robot to us is sensing, thinking and acting,'' says Daniel Berg,
Carnegie-Mellon's dean of science. ''Our kind of robots can 'sense.'
They have the ability to acquire information from the environment.
With artificial intelligence, they can tell what has to be done next.
And then they act.''
    About 4,000 relatively simple robots are already at work in U.S.
factories - welding, spray painting, moving materials from one place
to another, even sorting parts. The Japanese use triple that number.
    ''The latest Japanese auto plants are essentially unmanned except by
engineers,'' says one scientist here.
    That helps explain why the United States is rushing into what has
been called ''the race for the robots.'' The machines are seen by
many business leaders as vital to increasing the productivity of
industry so American goods can meet and surpass foreign competitors
in world markets.
    They are also seen as the way to free workers from hazardous,
unhealthy or dirty jobs, such as underground mining.
    ''Our goal is to make intelligent robots that will improve the
quality of life,'' says Angel Jordan, dean of engineering.
    Yet widespread use of robots will have major social implications, as
well as technological and economic impact.
    Some people worry robots will sharply increase industrial
unemployment and worsen the quality of working life for those who
remain employed. One estimate sees robots replacing up to 75 percent
of the nation's factory workers.
    ''Robots are going to put people out of work,'' admits Robert Ayers,
professor of engineering and public policy. ''There are 8 million
machine operators in the manufacturing sector. In the next 30 or 40
years, robots will replace most of these people.''
    But Ayers and others argue that robots will actually increase the
total number of jobs available. Not automating will be worse, they
say, because productivity will continue to fall and with it, the
nation's ability to compete.
    ''You can measure the number of people who are unemployed because we
automated or look at the number of people who are unemployed because
we didn't automate,'' says Mark Fox, a computer scientist.
    ''If we automate, we increase our productivity, output and balance
of payments. True, some people will lose jobs, but they can move to
others. If we don't automate, everyone loses, including the country.''
    Berg sees another need for robots. The nation's population is aging
and the past two decades have seen a sharply declining birth rate.
    He says, ''Most thoughtful people in management, labor and
government sense that because of the declining birth rate, we are
really going to have a labor shortage by 1985.''
SG     (MORE)
    
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n044  1226  06 Oct 80
 
BC-ROBOTS 1stadd
(Newhouse 002)
Young - WASHINGTON X X X by 1985.''
    The new Robotics Institute is one of several research centers
developing robots for industrial use.
    It draws its experts primarily from the mechanical, electrical
engineering and computer sciences departments. Research includes
robots for space, coal mining, underwater oil-rig work and deep-sea
mining.
    But the major focus is the factory of the future. Westinghouse
Electric Corp. is backing the project with $1 million a year, for up
to five years.
    In industry today, certain plants are extremely flexible but not
very productive. Others, automated for mass production, tend to be
productive but inflexible.
    The aim is a group of machines that are highly productive and
flexible.
    Researchers envision rows of machines that fabricate parts, inspect
their own work, correct errors or reject unsuitable pieces, sort and
assemble the parts into the final products, and package them.
    Moreover, these robots will switch from making one item to another
without expensive and extensive retooling.
    ''One shouldn't expect to see a machine that changes from light
bulbs to Sherman tanks,'' says Paul Wright, assistant professor of
mechanical engineering. ''One should see a factory that can produce a
wide variety of products within the same family, and do this
rapidly.''
    But such a plant must await many technological developments. ''We
have to build the bridges between today and tomorrow,'' says Raj
Reddy, the institute's director.
    For example, the robots envisioned here must be able to ''see'' -
that is, use a computer program and a television camera to recognize
various items by their shapes. They also must be able to ''feel'' -
recognize by pressure gauges just how much pressure to apply to an
item. The pressure needed to grasp and lift an iron ball would crush
an egg.
    And there is the problem of integrating the robots and the
information they can provide managers into a smoothly running
operation.
    Working out all these problems will take time. But as solutions
come, they will find their way into factories and plants.
    ''We're talking with Westinghouse about getting some things into use
next year,'' Berg says.
SG     END YOUNG
 
    
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a051  0259  28 Nov 80
PM-Self-Destructing Robot,310
University Robot Runs Amok
    GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) - An experimental robot that ran amok in a
University of Florida laboratory and started bashing into lab
equipment will be rigged with a safety device before being allowed
back to work, a mchanical engineering graduate student says.
    Harvey Lipkin, 29, was at the controls when the robot began slamming
itself into a support stand before he could turn the device off.
    No one was near the five-foot-long, 70-pound robot during the
accident, which occurred a few weeks ago but was made public this
week, Lipkin said.
    ''We are going to install an elementary safety device so at least if
it rams into its stand, it will shut off,'' he said Thursday.
    ''This incident has pointed out to us the dramatic need for robotic
safety devices. As of now, there's really no way to prevent an injury
if there is a failure.''
    The $50,000 robot, which resembles a human arm, suffered a sheared
shoulder. The arm has since been repaired, but the robot won't be used
until the safety device is installed.
    The robotic arms are ''essentially very stupid devices'' and have no
real sensing ability, Lipkin explained.
    ''Like any mechanical device, they do malfunction. That's why safety
devices have to be built in,'' he said.
    Constructed for research purposes, it is similar to robots used in
manufacturing processes and for ''things where the human can be
replaced,'' Lipkin said.
    The robots are being studied for use in jobs that could be hazardous
to humans, such as the remote maintenance of nuclear reactors and
other work involving radioactive material, he said.
    The UF Center for Intellectual Machines and Robotics currently is
working on various methods of control and sensing, according to
Lipkin. The center is looking into proximity devices that would halt
the robot if it gets close to an object.
    
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n011  0754  28 Nov 80
 
BC-ROBOT
(ART EN ROUTE TO PICTURE CLIENTS)
(BizDay)
c. 1980 N.Y. Times News Service
     SCHENECTADY, N.Y. - Scores of robots methodically spot-welding car
frames or painting hoods are not to be found at the General Electric
Co.'s huge turbine manufacturing center here. There is only one robot
involved in production, and it moves hot slugs of metal in a forging
operation.
    But what goes on in the shop belies General Electric's actual
commitment to robotics, as the technology and manufacturing of robots
is known. For inside aging Building No. 10, one of two structures
that were standing when Thomas Edison acquired the property in 1886,
is a laboratory with 13 robots - a corporate testing ground for a
variety of manufacturing operations.
    The laboratory is considered the largest of its type in the country,
and one of the few that dabbles in robotics alone. The General Motors
Technical Center in Warren, Mich., for example, experiments with
about 10 robots at any one time, some built to G.M. specifications,
but it is a small part of the total activity of the research
facility, which employs 18,000 people.
    ''It is unique for one company to have so many different robots on
display in a laboratory,'' said Lori Mei, administrator of the Robot
Institute of America, a trade association of manufacturers,
distributors and users, referring to General Electric. ''Normally, a
company will buy one or two robots and use them for research and
development.''
    G.E. already uses 111 robots in production throughout its
manufacturing network, mostly for heavy industrial work in so-called
hostile environments, such as loading furnaces or spraying paint. It
expects to have 120 in use by the end of the year and 200 or so by
late 1981. General Motors leads in applying robots to manufacturing
with 250 industrial robots now working in G.M. plants and another 175
on order. But G.E.'s commitment to robotics is intensifying rapidly.
    The company's increasing use of robots represents a key element in a
campaign to improve productivity, which G.E. has said it wants to
increase by 6 percent a year. Along with growing emphasis on tight
inventory control, waste reduction, the maximization of plant
efficiency and other forms of computer-aided manufacturing, G.E. is
looking to robots to minimize operating costs and enhance its
competitive posture worldwide.
    The robot lab is used to demonstrate the machines to G.E. engineers
and to train them in their use, and occasionally they are leased to
other G.E. plants in what has been a successful ''rent-a-robot''
program. Five divisions have rented the robots since 1978, and four
have gone on to buy duplicate robots from the manufacturer.
    A satellite robot laboratory containing six units has been set up at
a G.E. plant in Bridgeport, Conn., near corporate headquarters in
Fairfield, and the Schenectady laboratory will be expanded to 4,000
square feet by the end of the year.
    Robots have no resemblance to the android-like creatures of ''Star
Wars'' and other science fiction movies. They vaguely resemble human
arms detached from their bodies, and they are designed to load and
unload die-cast machines, spray-paint, spot-weld and assemble parts.
What sets them apart from other automated machinery is that they are
''reprogrammable'' and easily retoolable for different functions.
    ''Industrial robots are not limited to one or two functions,'' said
Maurice Dunne, chief engineer of Unimation Inc. in Danbury, Conn., a
subsidiary of the Condec Corp. that is said to be the world's largest
robot manufacturer. ''With their versatility, you can use them for
one task this year and something else next year.''
    Robots are said to be more productive than human workers because
they can work longer hours more consistently, break down
infrequently, and they do not take coffee breaks. G.E., which spends
an average of $50,000 to $60,000 for a robot, said they cost about $5
an hour to operate and pay for themselves in two to four years.
    The Robot Institute said only 3,200 robots were in productive use in
U.S. industry, with auto makers and foundry-type operations by far
the biggest users. But costs have fallen sharply in recent years as
microprocessor technology has advanced, and analysts foresee the
possibility of robotics becoming a $2 billion-a-year domestic
industry by 1990.
    ''You can kind of see it already,'' said Laura Conigliaro, a
robotics and machine-tool analyst for Bache Halsey Stuart Shields.
''General Motors has said it will buy 1,800 more robots by 1984, and
more small companies are coming into the market. They are providing
their own impetus to growth, and they will push the bigger companies
to market more aggressively.''
    If such rapid growth does unfold, industry analysts do not foresee a
flood of pink slips for blue-collar workers. As the Bache analyst
said, the number of people entering the manufacturing work force is
declining rapidly, requiring more automation to pick up the slack.
    For its part, General Electric said it was ''technically possible,
but not economically feasible'' to replace half of its 37,000
assembly workers with robots. Sam Dolfi, manager of industrial
relations planning for G.E., said long lead times were required to
put robots in the workplace, giving the company ample time to find
new jobs for displaced workers.
    ''There's no question that robots will change the nature of the work
we do, but it should be a change for the better,'' he said. ''There's
a big difference between automating a boring, hazardous, repetitive
job and replacing somebody with a robot. Large numbers of employees
are not in danger of losing their jobs.''
    
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