I read an article today about the Kiva Robots. These “moving orange tortoises . . .scurry around warehouses and bring shelves of clothing, electronics, car parts—whatever a retailer sells—to specialized workspaces called packing stations”. From there humans pack up the items and put them into trucks. These robots actually seem smarter than humans. In their spare time, they will reorganize inventory based on work flow placing more high demand items in easier to reach places and lower demand items deeper in the back shelves.
As we saw at our site visit to Associated Grocers, the warehouse process can be incredibly efficient. I wonder what it would be like if the robots took over there.
I wonder how these robots will effect unemployment rates in the future. It seems that the blue collar work force has been dealt yet another blow.
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