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AUGMENTING HUMANS, NOT REPLACING THEM

At the advanced end of IoT-driven businesses are companies using robotics, drones, and autonomous vehicles to improve the efficiency of their businesses. All of these technologies are progressing quickly, moving from the prototype stage to actually driving industry change. But innovation isn’t the only thing these technological advances are driving.

They’re also driving insecurity and fear—particularly among those worried that robots might take their jobs. There is substance to that worry. A 2016 study from the World Economic Forum estimated that world’s fifteen leading countries will lose 5.1 million jobs in the next five years to workplace changes, including artificial intelligence and automation.

But what most people don’t understand is that robots, like humans, have certain strengths and weaknesses. Robots are good at simple, repeatable tasks that don’t require much dexterity. Humans thrive in creative fields and many manufacturing environments, where their ability to “reprogram themselves” at will allows them to adapt quickly to changes in the process or product. No such luck with robots.

As a result, companies are turning to cobots—robots that can work collaboratively with humans. Amazon uses cobots to scale its fulfillment center processes, relying on technology from Kiva Systems, a robotics company it bought for about $775 million in 2012.

In a traditional warehouse system, employees called pickers walk the floor, picking out items that need to be shipped. Kiva robots actually pick up and deliver the shelves that the picker needs to fulfill the order. Pickers, on the other hand, get to stay mostly put, focusing on fulfillment while the robot does all of the heavy lifting.

Kiva’s warehouse bots combine sophisticated sensors, computing power, algorithms, and mechanical design to help fulfill an average of thirty-five orders per second. And warehouse pickers aren’t alone—a study out of MIT found that robot-human teams are about 85 percent more effective than either working alone.¹⁸

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