Automation and collaborative robotics A Guide to the future of work - Matthews, Peter; Greenspan, Peter (Apress, 2020)
Understand the current and future research into technologies that underpin the increasing capabilities of automation technologies and their impact on the working world of the future.Rapid advances in automation and robotics technologies are often reported in the trade and general media, often relying on scary headlines such as "Jobs Lost to Robots." It is certainly true that work will change with the advent of smarter and faster automated workers; however, the scope and scale of the changes is still unknown. Automation may seem to be here already, but we are only at the early stages.Automation and Collaborative Robotics explores the output of current research projects that are improving the building blocks of an automated world. Research into collaborative robotics (cobotics) is merging digital, audio, and visual data to generate a commonly held view between cobots and their human collaborators. Low-power machine learning at the edge of the network can deliver decision making on cobots or to their manipulations. Topics covered in this book include:- Robotic process automation, chatbots, and their impact in the near future- The hype of automation and headlines leading to concerns over the future of work- Component technologies that are still in the research labs- Foundational technologies and collaboration that will enable many tasks to be automated with human workers being re-skilled and displaced rather than replacedYou will:- Be aware of the technologies currently being researched to improve or deliver automation- Understand the impact of robotics, other automation technologies, and the impact of AI on automation- Get an idea of how far we are from implementation of an automated future- Know what work will look like in the future with the deployment of these technologies
Part 1: Introduction; Chapter 1: Introduction to the Future of Work and Automation; The introduction sets out the context and contents of the book. It introduces automation and robotics as a technology and AI as a core technology in those areas. The authors are engaged in several research projects that will tackle some of these fundamental challenges. The research is then placed into the context of the future of work. The possible outcomes of each research project are placed in a spectrum of automation for the future. The changing nature of work in the future is outlined as a potential outcome of the changes that are thought inevitable with the increasing automation of existing tasks and jobs.
- The scene is set for the subsequent introductory chapter on the current thinking about the automation/human relationship and the changes that are likely to happen.; Chapter 2: Are Robots Replacing You?; There are many conflicting arguments about the impact of automation on the working population and even on the impact on government and individual’s economies. This chapter discusses some of the theories and predictions from commentators and analysts who have interesting and often different views of the next 10 or 20 years. There is no doubt that automation will be disruptive, displacing people from many tasks, but there is some doubt that it will be destructive, replacing people from many jobs and leaving a world with massive unemployment.
- The next section discusses the technology challenges that this changing world is influencing.; Part 2: Technology Challenges; Chapter 3: Rules that Don’t Work, Bots, and Chatbots; Although applications have long been available that endeavour to mimic a human response to enquiries or questions these applications take a considerable time to develop because of the need to map all of the conceivable responses to any question that can be posed. A recent advance in the automation of tasks is the development of the AI software robots or bots. These software robots, used most frequently in a support service capacity, mimic the style of an online or telephone conversation that would be expected from a person.
- There are complex AI decisions that drive the interaction between bot and human, but the most crucial development is the bot’s ability to learn and improve responses to their interlocutor.; Chapter 4: Robotic Process Automation; Many processes can be automated and have been in the past. Early IT based automation were in the area of automating simple ledger systems and process, initially in financial systems. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the most current methodology that can automate complex business processes. The combination of process analysis, process mining and AI tools that can learn is making an impact. The ability to develop fast and repeatable processes that deliver decisions is transforming the financial world. Insurance and Banking organisations are using RPA to personalise their products and it is becoming more difficult to tell if the voice, text or decision you get from an insurance application is from a human or a machine.