ABB FRIDA Concept Robot for Industrial Dual-Arm Assembly Applications
April 14th, 2011Foxconn assembly line workers make about $3480 per year, or $34,800 over a decade. How much will one of those ABB FRIDA robots (and associated systems) cost? My guess is that Foxconn could pay two human factory workers for a decade for less than the cost of one of those robots. Eventually, though, a single robot will do the work of some number of humans, and then the set-up costs will make more sense for a firm like Foxconn.
Bonuses: The robots won’t require dormitories or cafeterias, and they won’t commit suicide by jumping out the factory windows, like some of Foxconn’s human workers did. Hmm. Maybe being able to take down the suicide prevention nets from the factory buildings could be part of ABB’s marketing pitch!
I don’t know what will become of the landless peasants at that point… (Maybe it will become the army’s problem.)
While I do see the Rise of the Machines reality grinding slowly into existence, I think China’s non-trivial food issues will hit the fan long before the robot overlords appear on the scene.
Via: Engadget:
Don’t be fooled by the “concept” label that ABB has affixed to its new robot. There can be only one logical conclusion to this endeavor: FRIDA and its ilk will one day replace the millions of young Chinese workers assembling our gadgets. It’s no coincidence that this uniquely agile, dual-arm robot is compact enough to “fit into spaces ergonomically designed for human workers” and can be carried around “easily” to begin work with a minimum of installation requirements.
I instantly thought of an exchange between plant worker and corporate boss in Ghost in the Shell.
“I’ll report you to the labor union!!”
“‘Labor union’? With our new unmanned factory, we won’t need one of those for the next three hundred years.”
For a comic book writer, Shirow was remarkably prescient in a lot of ways. Especially about how increasingly advanced computer nano and biotech would mostly be used by police states to control an increasingly destitute urban underclass. Though he puts a more heroic spin on it.
Don’t forget the robot will also work 24 hours a day, without errors, without complaining…