The Daily Collegian Thursday, March 8,1979-17
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DETROIT (AP) They don't take
coffee breaks or demand vacations.
Whey generally don't get sick. And they
are not inclined to file union grievances.
, "'They don't even see the problems that
most workers do. in their jobs even
though these are the dirtiest, most
Wing and least attractive in factories
-liut more and more they do "see" and
even "feel."
("This ever more popular darling of
American manufacturers is the in
dUStrial robot, a' mechanical• marvel
eldser to R2-D2 of "Star Wars" than
most people imagines He now numbers
About 3,000 in the United States, some
4:000 in Western Europe, and perhaps
30,000 in Japan, according to the Detroit-
based Robot Institute of America.
What he lacks in the personality bf his
Mdvie cousin, however, he more than
Makes up for with work from his
whirring land clicking tubes, hoses and
fingers.
I. "What comes out is of consistent
quality,", says Al Williams, midwest
regional manager for Unimation Inc. of
Danbury, Conn., the nation's largest
maker of industrial robots. "If a guy
leaves out a couple of welds, someone
gets a car with rattles. With the robot,
.oyou get an improved product."
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"One of the main things it does is it
doesn't get tired," adds Donald E. Hart,
head of the Computer Science Depart
ment at General Motors Research
laboratories.
Automakers are among the leaders in
developing robots. Ford Motor Co., for
example, has used robots since 1958,
when a device was introduced in one
plant to transfer hot parts. "It's a
deadly, ugly, dirty business there," says
Ford spokesman Ed Snyder. "The robot
was accepted by the workers and there
was no union objection."
Ford now has 236 robots employed in
such jobs as stamping, spray painting,
die• casting ."areas of worker
discontent," Ford says.
GM, meanwhile, has about 150 robots,
including 32 pioneering body welding
machines installed in 1970 at its Lord
stown, Ohio, assembly plant. Those are
known in the industry as "pick-and
place" repetitive action robots, carrying
price tags starting at $lO,OOO, says Don
Vincent, manager of the Robot Institute.
But research now, he says, is aimed at
$lOO,OOO sophisticated programmable
robots who have the ability to know what
they are touching and "see" what they
are doing through use of cameras.
"We think the idea of equipping robots
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with cameras and computers to give
them vision is going to open many new
avenues to increased productivity," said
Frank Daley, GM's director .of
manufacturing development.
GM was the first U.S. firm to use
computer vision, installing a system at
its Delco plant in Kokomo, Ind., nearly
two years ago. There, the SIGHT-I
system inspects circuits and positions
electrical test probes. Now, its second
generation brother, CONSIGHT, relies
on computerized vision to control all six
joints of a robot's hand.
"Our ultimate objective is to be able to
pick parts out of jumbled heaps in bins,"
says GM's Hart.
The world's largest carmaker also
points to the new technology as im
proving efficiency and thus generating
money for "unprecedented multi-billion
dollar outlays for new product
programs," says Alex C. Mair, vice
president of GM's technical staff.
GM touts its PUMA Programmable
Universal Machine for Assembly
robot as "the latest and probably the
most advanced robot on the world scene
today." Recently unveiled at the GM
Technical Center in suburban Warren,
PUMA also is capable of "seeing,"
although its first use will be sightless
The Trais
The United Auto Workers union has no
objection to their use, but the union's
skilled trades department, readying for
contract negotiations later this year,
recently approved resolutions for a
contractual ban on layoffs "if the in-
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work at a Delco plant in Rochester, N.Y.
PUMA will assist in assembly of small
electric motors by picking up a hot part
about 450 degrees positioning it,
adding a component and then placing the
part on a conveyor belt for further work.
A similar project is being developed
by Westinghouse Electric Corp. and the
National Science Foundation. The new
twist in the $l.B million experiment,
however, will enable the robot to change
and assemble different product styles or
adjust to variations in parts, according
to Richard Abraham of Westinghouse.
The reliability of the devices now in
the plants seems remarkable, con
sidering daily absenteeism in an auto
operation of up to 10 percent. Ford of
ficials say robots function 98 percent of
the time.
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troduction of a technological advance or
change results in reduction of the
workforce."
Robot backers contend no' one is being
eased out of a job, though GM's Daley
says "they may be shifted around
some."
Despite the continuing success,
Vincent at the Robot Institute said he
'believes the robot industry still is in the
pioneering stage. "More and more
applications are being made," he says.
"The aerospace industry soon is going to
drill 4,000 holes in a wing with robots."
Vincent tells one story about a poultry
firm looking for a robot to pluck
chickens. And he says he heard a bank
was interested in a robot for handling
money, apparently to eliminate thefts.
Regardless of their growing influence
in industry, most robots are not the thing
you'd want around the house. Without
proper sensing devices, they'd be run
ning into furniture and generally being
pests.
"It would be horrible," Vincent said
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Illustration by Della Hoke