22 Time April 11, 2016

The View American Genius

ROBOTREVOLUTIONThese fields areamong the most

affected by robotics

SHIPPINGAmazon’s Kiva robots

help the firm fillorders by bringinggoods to human

workers

MILITARYThe U.S. Army hasused robots like

iRobot’s PackBot todispose of bombs

MEDICINEAetheon’s Tug robotdelivers supplieslike medicine andfresh linens within

hospitals

HOSPITALITYA new novelty hotelin Japan is staffedalmost entirely by

robots

TECHNOLOGY

Grappling with the rightrole for robots at workBy Alex Fitzpatrick

There are Two schools of ThoughT re-garding the coming impact of robots on workers:there are those who warn they will destroy jobsand those who hope new technology will boost theproductivity of workers without replacing them.

Melonee Wise is one of the optimists. The34-year-old CEO of San Jose, Calif.–based FetchRobotics is working on “collaborative robotics,”using machines to do things humans cannot.“Once we start seeing more service robots likewe make, people will be like, ‘These things arereally improving my life,’” she says.

Fetch, a nearly two-year-old startup, is de-veloping robots for warehouses. One model,called Freight, looks like a muscled version ofthe floor-sweeping Roomba made by industryleader iRobot. Freight carries a bin while fol-lowing human workers as they pick items offshelves, letting a machine do the lugging. An-other device nicknamed Fetch is a more ad-vanced robot with an arm that can grab itemsand work with Freight. Fetch Robotics, whichisn’t profitable yet but has raised $23 million inventure funding, has sold a small number of de-vices to customers for testing.

The roboTics indusTry is entering an uncer-tain chapter. Last year eager investors poured arecord $587 million into startups trying to bringrobots to manufacturing plants, hospitals andbattlefields, according to data firm CB Insights.Much of the potential for a new wave of robotshas come from advancements in so-called ma-chine learning, the software that bestows robotswith contextual intelligence. Some of that en-thusiasm has been muted recently, however, asthe business of selling robots hit snags. iRobotsaw its stock fall more than 10% in a single

February day after it predicted weaker-than-expected results for the coming year. In March,the Wall Street Journal reported that Google par-ent company Alphabet is seeking to sell BostonDynamics, maker of a bipedal walking robot thatlooks vaguely like the Terminator, because thefirm’s path to profitability is not clear.

Another looming question is robots’ rolein the workplace. Wise, a Chicago native whoholds a master’s degree in mechanical engi-neering from the University of Illinois, arguesthat Fetch’s bots will help warehouse workersavoid injury or strain, making them more pro-ductive in the long run. She compares robots toPCs, which caused consternation but ultimatelyboosted productivity as well as economic andjob growth. “Everyone keeps trying to make adistinction between a robot and a computer, butthey’re basically the same thing,” says Wise. “Arobot is a computer wrapped in plastic.”

noT everybody is convinced. “Technologyis going to get to the point where it’s going to takeover a lot of the routine, predictable-type jobs inthe economy,” says Martin Ford, author of TheRise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat ofa Jobless Future. That is already happening atcheckout lines, tollbooths, parking lots and ticketcounters. Ford and others argue that the combi-nation of robots and artificial intelligence rep-resents a different kind of revolution—one thatcould eventually come for white collar profes-sions. “That’s a lot of jobs [at stake],” he says.

Still, of the 10 private robotics firms that haveraised the most venture capital during the pastfive years, most focus on two fields that are firmlyin the augment-human-workers (not replace-them) camp: children’s toys and assistance forsurgeons. “Maybe in 30 or 40 years we will have50% of the jobs disappear,” says J.P. Gownder,vice president and principal analyst at researchfirm Forrester. “But I don’t see it happening inthe next 10.” •

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The Fetch robot picks items offwarehouse shelves, while theFreight robot carries them to

human workers for packaging

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