Fruit-picking robots closer to reality
Fruit-picking robots closer to reality making an end run around the illegal labor market in California. Add to that improvements in the robot mowers and the trend continues.
In all seriousness, automation of cheap labor has been the norm for centuries and will only continue apace.
Update:
Reader Alan Coffey asks: "Did they imply that the fruit picking robots would actually have an impact on the illegal situation anytime soon? The other major areas of illegal employment are janatorial, agriculture (livestock), landscaping and construction. See any automation posibilities there?"
No there was no implication that the robots would have any sort of impact on illegal labor markets. Given that they won't be ready for deployment for another 10 years or so, we can similarly assume the cost will be (initially) high which narrows the market further. However, like everything else the cost will eventually come down and be available on a mass scale. Any effect on labor markets is a long way off if at all.
Taking the others, the levels of automation available vary. Mopping floors is much simpler to automate than cleaning a toilet bowl and emptying waste baskets. Animal husbandry is another matter. I'm unfamiliar with the work involved so I can't speculate on how it could be automated. Dairy farmers have always led the industry as far as automation goes. Milking machines have been in use for decades. Without them, we'd never be able to meet the level of demand. Construction generally relies on streamlining and technique improvement. Automation usually leads to a decrease in labor required but not an elimination. Earth moving equipment created huge offsets in labor requirements. The finishing work like drywall and spackle is less likely to be automated due to the precision required for the work and creating a robot to do that work isn't likely to yield returns on investment.
In all seriousness, automation of cheap labor has been the norm for centuries and will only continue apace.
Update:
Reader Alan Coffey asks: "Did they imply that the fruit picking robots would actually have an impact on the illegal situation anytime soon? The other major areas of illegal employment are janatorial, agriculture (livestock), landscaping and construction. See any automation posibilities there?"
No there was no implication that the robots would have any sort of impact on illegal labor markets. Given that they won't be ready for deployment for another 10 years or so, we can similarly assume the cost will be (initially) high which narrows the market further. However, like everything else the cost will eventually come down and be available on a mass scale. Any effect on labor markets is a long way off if at all.
Taking the others, the levels of automation available vary. Mopping floors is much simpler to automate than cleaning a toilet bowl and emptying waste baskets. Animal husbandry is another matter. I'm unfamiliar with the work involved so I can't speculate on how it could be automated. Dairy farmers have always led the industry as far as automation goes. Milking machines have been in use for decades. Without them, we'd never be able to meet the level of demand. Construction generally relies on streamlining and technique improvement. Automation usually leads to a decrease in labor required but not an elimination. Earth moving equipment created huge offsets in labor requirements. The finishing work like drywall and spackle is less likely to be automated due to the precision required for the work and creating a robot to do that work isn't likely to yield returns on investment.
Comments
The same thing is happening in the area of more expensive labor. Programming is being outsources (similar increase in productivity for jobs that are mobile) and programming languages are getting more powerful. This allows one high level programmer to manage the creation of millions of lines of code. This cuts out the lower level programmer.
Can we get more productivity from government? No. Outsourcing government jobs is the only way.
Did they imply that the fruit picking robots would actually have an impact on the illegal situation anytime soon? The other major areas of illegal employment are janatorial, agriculture (livestock), landscaping and construction. See any automation posibilities there?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070629/ap_on_hi_te/armed_robots