Originally published at: Boston Dynamics' new robot for moving boxes looks like a mechatronic scorpion | Boing Boing
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Yeah, which really drives home the fact that this particular robot, while clearly more practical and probably much more profitable than their other offerings, just doesn’t have the personality that the other do. If it weren’t for the fact that Boston Dynamics was the company building it, I doubt it would be getting quite so much publicity. Not that it isn’t an important and consequential development though- it does seem like it could have a major impact on logistics for shipping and stuff.
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I’m waiting for the version that literally snaps a bullwhip at the human workers doing the work that the robots still can’t.
The current warehouse robots already set a punishing pace (with punitive surveillance keeping an eye on things), and algorithms do the same in more and more white-collar settings. Boston Dynamics might as well push the envelope here (they already have a built-in market in western China).
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Seems kinda obligatory
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They look friendly enough.
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But can it pee in a bottle?
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Jeez, the first thing people want to do with a new robot is try their fetishes on it!
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“let’see name name… atlas, big-dog, spot… unionbuster might be a tiny bit obvious”
(“nah, plenty of jobs programming and ‘robot wrangling’!” “So it replaces seven workers but will take seven workers to operate it?” “Uh, no, or what would be the point? but it gets nerds outta the coffee-shops, and that’s something”)
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Stretch is going to have back trouble if he/she/it doesn’t learn to lift from the knees instead of the…uh…whatever that limb is called.
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Optimal for Bill Gates’ mass microchip-injection facilities.
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Indeed. It’s not too different from the kind of robot arm that have been used in industry for decades now. If it had been developed by any other company it would probably have been written up in a few trade journals and that’s it.
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Those boxes are very obviously empty.
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I’m imaging a robot, that’s like an alien face hugger. Let’s call it a junk hugger. That just like how these robots can go to and set up their work space, it can latch on and insert the catheter. Now workers no longer need to waste time with pesky pee breaks. 
I was thinking they are full of one or more of these:
- Hopes and dreams
- Thoughts and prayers
- Bitcoin
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Just wear a stillsuit
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They are doing no such things. It is to easy to say that they are; but they can’t do anything like that; they are just programmed inanimate objects. They don’t drive any pace, they don’t order humans around, they don’t make decisions or think for themselves; they just do what their code has told them to do.
It is the soft, easily squished humans that are doing that. Something that must be kept in mind. It is not the robots setting the pace, it is the humans doing it; and those humans should keep in mind that they are squishy and delicate… and it is the humans who are responsible for the working conditions.
Don’t let Amazon hide behind robots for their lousy job environments. They can use robots to make things better for their employees, or they can use them to make the workspace worse for their employees. It is entirely up to them. And they have chosen what they have chosen.
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We saw one of these babies one early morning at our local Walmart. To my mind, stock-checking has got to be the most mind-numbing task ever; perfect job for a bot.
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They’re more than that. They’re robotic foremen, following management’s orders in overseeing the workers at a dangerous, counter-productive pace that human supervisors likely would not. They’re an integral part of the lousy job environment, and for the workers on the floor they are setting that punishing pace (and not only at Amazon):
Chuck is an autonomous robot trolley which leads a human picker through a warehouse from one shelf to the next. 6 River Systems, which sells or rents the robots to warehouse operators such as DHL, XPO Logistics and Office Depot, says the technology relieves strain on workers because they no longer have to push a trolley around. But Chuck also sets a relentless pace. “Research shows that when associates pace themselves they slow down,” its website explains. A 6 River Systems “business case” report says workers who set their own pace “travel only half as fast as when they follow Chuck [and] their speed without Chuck also fluctuates wildly.”
Amazon, which bought robotics company Kiva for $775m in 2012, is more ingenious. In its automated warehouses, robots bring the shelves to the pickers, who stand stationary instead of walking all day. That means no more blisters or wasted time between picks. The average worker picks roughly 100 items per hour if walking around, but more than 300 items an hour in the automated system, according to news reports.
It’s what Cory Doctorow calls a “reverse centaur” situation, and the pace increases injury rates:
It’s easy to say these robots are “just tools” (in the same way ammosexuals say that automatic rifles are “just tools”). Just remember that they’re are in the hands of the lords of capitalism and are designed primarily to serve their ends. “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”
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I agree stock-checking is pretty mind-numbing and ideal for a robot, but I was of the understanding that Walmart’s checkout system was already automatically updating the status of merchandise as it’s purchased. I guess maybe the robot is there because the numbers being off due to shrink is an issue.
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