Hi everyone and welcome to This Is Robotics, Episode 24. Thanks for joining us. I’m Tom Green your guide and companion for today’s journey into our global robotics news podcast.

Our first story explores the reasons for Why Is There So Little Automation in America?

As sci-fi writer William Gibson once remarked:  “The future is already here but it’s not evenly distributed.” Well, much the same can be said for automation in America. 

Why is it that only 5 out of 50 U.S. states get 77% of all industrial robots? Those states are Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Kansas. While the remaining 45 states average 175 industrial robots apiece. 

 Those are definitely places that are "underautomated". Three recent reports explain why, and the whys are not good for America.

The reports also answer the question: Do robots take jobs? Yes, they do! For every one robot deployed in this 5-state region, 3.3 jobs are lost. The reports also tell us what happens to the health of those individuals who lose their jobs to an industrial robot. It can be unsurprisingly grim.

Death by Robots!

Facts: Yes, Robots Take Jobs and Lower Wages

This five-state region could well become a test zone—a laboratory, if you will—for America’s future in dealing with people, robots, artificial intelligence, job loss, retraining and reskilling. Perfect things in these 5 Robo Hubs, and then spread them out to the rest of the country.

We’ve been covering Korea’s robot $177 billion-dollar breakout all this year. See the links for Korea’s Major Growth Spurt in 2023 in our show notes. 

 Everything “robot” in Korea is getting max attention these days from the government, industry, and academia. Doosan is no exception. It’s going public and its cobots have an excellent shot at pushing themselves into being #1 worldwide. We take a look at Doosan and its upcoming IPO. 

And while we’re on the subject of cobots, what’s STILL up with them and their weaker-than-tepid sales? Arguably the most important technical advance in robotics in the last 50 years has got a problem: SALES! And it’s been a problem for a decade. We’ve got an answer or two as to why. Join us and see if you agree. 

As an added bonus, we are reprising in this podcast our episode clip and PDF download titled: The Problem with Cobots. It offers a nice perspective on cobots going forward and how Doosan could take the lead.

With Doosan’s new cobot venture, we may finally see cobot sales finally hit the mega-numbers that forecasters have been predicting for cobots for years.

 And finally, Agility Robotics is feeling very fertile these days and its new humanoid Digit is about to multiply. Join us for Agility’s shot at assembly-line humanoids. Maybe as many as 10,000 someday soon striding out soon out of the world’s first humanoid robot factory. A 70,000-square-foot-factory that Agility calls its RoboFab.

REPRISE: The Problem with Cobots

Hi folks, and welcome once again to This Is Robotics: Radio News, Episode #23

I’m Tom Green, your host and companion on this incredible journey called robotics.

For two years running now, we have been the #1 Robotics News Podcast worldwide…we’re up to over 100,000 fans, and you my dear folks put us at #1. Thank you very much.

And thanks for joining us today

It’s August, the harbinger of September,  and the 4th and final Quarter 4 for 2023. That year went fast! Maybe because it was such a rollicking year for GenAI converging with everything, especially robotics.

August observed National Kiss & Make Up Day. Did You? If not, and you’re still angry, indecisive, or ready to move on, we have a special segment that just may be of help. Sex Robots.

Could falling in love with a robot friend be such a bad thing?

Dr Helen Driscoll of the University of Sunderland says "The point is, people already fall in love with fictional characters, even if there is no chance to meet and interact with them." How many humans readily let go of their emotions and fall in love with a character in a movie? Plenty!

And we’ve also had an Astro sighting. You know Astro, Amazon’s $1600 diminutive home robot that rolled into our lives in 2021, and then disappeared. Seems Astro is now fueling up with GenAI, which Amazon has named Burnham. It won’t be around for a few years, says Amazon. Which for any other product would surely mean the kiss of death.

But, the entire category of home robots has also disappeared. What’s with that?

There’s a potential forecast looming that says home robots are looking at a marketplace of $16 billion. If they ever show up!

We love Coming to America stories, and our Orangewood Labs article is just such a tale of fresh ideas and hard work washing up on our shores. Just goes to show that immigrants come to the U.S. with more than their suitcases. 

Orangewood is about three Indian guys who are on a mission to democratize robotics for the small manufacturer, which is a segment in dire need of automation.

Okay, let's get on with the news.

This summer of 2023 is one to particularly remember for robotics. We’ll remember 2023 for a long time, even as it spawns two more equally amazing and remarkable years to come 2024 and 2025. Robotics technology and sales will thunder into the quarter-century mark of this millennium’s first 100 years. 

 Today’s podcast looks at three bellwether happenings for robotics here in 2023…and the carryover for them through 2025.

Of course, leader of the bellwether gang is generative AI or genAI that bull-rushed the world this spring sowing fear, chaos, glee, elation…and even adulation as it blindly fast changed most everything around us…and continues to do so. 

Then there was the rise of general-purpose robots and cobots. Oh my, these smart robots and cobots change everything and are the future of everything. Like Google and DeepMind’s RoboCat. 

 We’ll take a look at the RoboCat effect on robotics going forward. Plus, from a real-world look at smart robots in action, we’ll look at Lockheed’s use of smart robots. See how and why Lockheed got a 10x productivity bump. Are these smart critters the future? You bet.

Then another amazing happening in robotics: two countries, not just one, making a bid for greatness. In March there was Korea and its $177 billion dollar move into leadership in East Asia with all things AI and robotics. 

We profiled Korea in a multi-series article set in March and then featured Korea in the March edition of the This Is Robotics podcast.

Next up, is our second pick for greatness. India. India’s time has come. Not only for robotics and automation but as a country that has enabled the extraordinary ascent of India’s indigenous robotics technology. The intertwined future of India’s economics and its robotics technology.

As economist Tyler Cowen put it: “With Rishi Sunak as prime minister of the U.K., it is now impossible to deny what has been evident for some while: Indian talent is revolutionizing the Western world far more than had been expected 10 or 15 years ago.” 

 And finally, from Gutenberg to GenAI. Why is it that humans will always reign supreme? I found out at 39,000 feet over the Pacific on my way to Asia… in the pages of a book from 2014 by Steven Johnson called How We Got to Now. Mother Nature did things to us in both brain and body that make us supreme. Sorry AI.

 Article Set for Rise of Indian Robotics

Is Addverb Technologies the Big Bang of Indian Robotics?

Indian Robotics: Sometimes the Future Is Now

Can India Build a Homegrown, Indigenous Robot Industry to Rival China’s?

Top 10 Best Homegrown, Industrial Robot Builders in India