Report Card for Donald Trump

[David Horn]

Skipping the rest ...

(01-11-2017, 04:27 PM)SomeGuy Wrote:

David Horn Wrote:The PUMA was the first actual robot to be marginally useful, and just barely at that. That was 1983, as your own link indicates. I actually remember the early applications -- primarily fixed welding.

Now you're just making things up.  The first Unimation robots went out to GE in 1961, and the PUMA was made in 1978.  And yet the global number of manufacturing workers has not shrunk, has it?  The US numbers peaked in 1979, but plateaued for 20 years, and didn't start to tumble until 2000, which I maintain had much more to do with trade policy than it did automation.  It is presently increasing.  The global number of manufacturing workers didn't shrink during this period either.  In any event, the use of machines to boost human productivity in manufacturing has been going on for at least 200 years, ...

The Ultimate was a great prototype product, but it was still just that. True numerical control didn't exist, because the control circuitry to utilize and implement it needed processing and control technology that didn't exist at the time. By the time PUMA came to be, at least working level solutions to those problems were available. PUMA was still a programmable tool, but a much more powerful one.

FWIW, true robots will have the ability to adapt to the needs of the job, and do it on the fly. NASA has already demonstrated some early versions with the explorers on Mars. Self driving cars have similar challenges.