During the Covid-19 pandemic, many sectors saw robots taking over most of the work those humans could not do because of the fear of catching the virus. The robots did their tasks perfectly, and they continue to perform well, which leads to the question on many people’s lips. Are robots replacing every area of our working lives?
The pandemic may have many people believe that the answer to that question is yes. Robots will most likely take over most of our jobs in the near future because they are viably contributing to every industry today. Others might argue that it will take many more years for robots to replace humans. However, the advancement of technology and research robotics repeatedly provesthat robots are better at many of the jobs we hate, and eventhose we love.
Areas research robotics and robots perform better than humans do
1. Handling repetitive work
Doing the same task repeatedly becomes tedious and boring, leading to loss of interest and under production. Some people even say that repetitive work is harmful because it leads to negative behaviors, especially for applications that require continuous and 100% attention.
Such tasks leave one with no time to create any other activity to get rid of the boredom. However, robots carry out repetitive work with ease. They do not get bored and do not need any breaks, making them better than us in that field.
2. Better unwavering focus
It is hard to distract a robot while working unless you program it to respond to other events besides what it is doing. A robot dedicates all its attention to what it is doing, which leads to consistency. On the other hand, distressful working conditions, work gossip, visitors, or problems at home, distract a human worker easily, leading to lack of concentration and under production,
3. Extreme sensing abilities
Robots come with installed sensors that provide them with the ability to work better in unpredictable environments when integrated with the computing power needed to analyze data. They use highly sensitive microphones and cameras that allow them to see through walls and spot unusual happenings such as hidden leaks, hear sounds such as footsteps, detect harmful air quality, and other things that humans cannot see or hear.
4. Work with more speed and strength
Some of the reasons the construction and manufacturing industries use robots is because of their force-multiplying abilities. Unlike humans, robots quickly lift heavy objects, tighten bolts to their optimal torques repeatedly, and work continuously without taking any breaks. Even in less industrial settings, robots manage routine tasks such as collecting, processing, and delivering reports for routine data quickly and consistently.
Areas where humans are better than robots
1. Flexibility
Even though today’s robots are getting more flexible and with better learning, they still have a long way to go before they start responding to certain situations with the same resourcefulness as a human. Some unexpected problems that arise at work still need human intervention. If the robots were to tackle such unexpected cases, they would require new appropriate reprogramming, and they can only get that from humans.
2. Empathy
The ongoing robotics research in collaborative robots manufacturing companies is to build robots that can empathize with humans. Cobots can interact easily with humans, but they cannot empathize with them. A robot is nothing but a programmed machine that senses and exhibits a set of human behaviors. A robot lacks real empathy and cannot match complex human interactions.
3. Trust and acceptability
Robots are gradually becoming a part of our environments, and we have to learn to work and live alongside them. However, it might take some time before we trust machines fully to start discussing our problems with them. They cannot feel; they cannot empathize with what we might be going through, making it hard to treat a robot as anything else other than just a quasi-sentient machine.
Wrapping it up
We are at a point where we cannot do without robots in our lives. We need them for all the heavy, repetitive, and dangerous tasks. However, it will take many years for the robot to replace the human when it comes to trust, acceptability, flexibility, and empathy. Collaborative robots are doing a great job at acting almost human, but they are still machines overall. Both humans and robots need each other.
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