Robots were first introduced to the readers in the chapters of science fiction novels but they soon emerged into the real world. With the growing interest from industries over the years to automate their systems and process for the enhancement of productivity, robots are present almost everywhere. Creating robots is not a major engineering challenge anymore as almost every school developing their student’s intellect to master them. As modern technologies like
artificial intelligence and robotics are advancing at a rapid pace, it is expected that these modern marvels have the potential to bring great benefits by delivering better products and services.
The year 2020 has affected people severely as coronavirus has coerced societies to change how they interact and it seems robots are increasingly filling this void over these months. Social distancing has become the new norm post-pandemic and robots are utilized in large numbers by businesses to perform menial tasks. They are being used for handling visitors at expos, exhibitions, and stadiums. Hospitality industries have invested largely in robots to
safeguard their guests and visitors from the disease. Robots can be seen delivering dishes to customers at restaurants with proper safety and customers are liking it. Covid-19 has brought an immense opportunity to the technology industry to deliver the next-generation experience for the customers.
The Covid-19 will have a tremendous impact on companies on how they do their businesses and will unfold several overlapping effects over the years. Each modern technology is based on algorithms and modern technology solutions have focused on delivering automation and analysis of simple computational tasks such as finance, IT, etc. Another thing that businesses are focusing on is the augmentation that is focused on the automation of repetitive tasks such as statistical analysis, information exchange, form filling, etc. The third thing, that modern robots will achieve is the automation of physical labor and manual dexterity. It is focused on delivering the problem-solving ability to robots in complex real-world situations.
Rapid advancement in software programming techniques has significant implications for how businesses will be structured in the future. Automation is driven by software programming to analyze, forecast, and find patterns of data. It has enhanced the ability of robots in terms of quality, speed, and accuracy. Customer demand is increasing with each passing year for intelligent robots that can perform specific tasks. Factory equipment is becoming increasingly digitized and can be easily adjusted automatically without human intervention.
Automation and robotics in the logistics industry have always focused on standardized processes that are pre-planned. But with the advancement of gripping technologies robotics is now being applied to non-standard environments. Earlier, it was utilized for only ‘goods-to- picker’ models but now it remains useful for capturing/holding individualized items, loading
the items in trucks/containers, etc.. The logistics industry is a highly competitive and capital intensive market but the utilization of robots is still very low. Enhancement in artificial intelligence has allowed the robots to work in a non-standardized environment. It has automated physical demanding and monotonous processes. It is expected that shipping and transport company will transform their businesses by transporting their containers not with ships but with drones. A host of start-up companies have emerged that rely on robots and drones to transport goods efficiently.
The use of robots in the healthcare sector has increased tremendously post the pandemic as they are increasingly used for the delivery of medicines and food to the patient. Covid-19 is a contagious disease and can spread from person to person. It spreads mainly through respiratory droplets of an infected person and can be transmitted to people in contact with the infected person. Doctors have a high risk as they have to treat multiple patients at any given time and can be easily infected. Robots are keeping doctors safe by assisting them and health care workers in hospitals. Robots are utilized across the healthcare sector such as in logistics, manufacturing, drug testing, patient treatment, special purpose machine design and care. The surgery of patients using robots is continuously expanding and they are increasingly utilized by families to assist elderly people in their day-to-day work. It is predicted that robots will have an immense impact on patient care and assisted living in the coming years.
Robots are changing the organizational and management structures and hence variable jobs and skills will be required in the future. As robots have a significant impact on productivity, business models, and traditional industries, there will be broader changes in the strategies by the management in how they hire their employees. It is still unclear whether automation will lead to unemployment and the destruction of jobs but it is sure that future jobs will require higher skills and higher pays. The robots are expected to take care of all the routine, monotonous jobs, and employees will be needed to focus on resolving bottlenecks and managing production flows. It also seems that remote working and work-from-home culture will prevail as companies will focus on remote operations.
Clearly, humans will remain a central aspect of automotive strategies for economic growth and improving productivity. The adoption of robots can lead to better-paid jobs, smoother supply chains, and increased customer satisfaction. It will have a tremendous impact on innovation and productivity. There are some issues regarding unemployment and disappearing jobs but that can be managed by skilling the workers as per the changing times for maintaining better cyber-physical-human-systems.