WEBVTT - TechStuff Looks at Robots 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:09.160 It's ready, Are you didn't touch? With technology? With tech 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:17.680 stuff from how stuff flix dot com. Hello, agaan everyone, 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:20.360 and welcome to text stuff. My name is Chris Paulette 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:22.880 and I'm an editor at how Stuff works dot com. 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:26.840 Sitting across from me, as is typical of days like this, Yeah, 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:30.440 Friday's That would be senior writer Jonathan Strickland. I looked 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:34.199 at my notes and I didn't like them. Hey was 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:36.720 that a quote? What were you actually saying that? It's 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:41.480 it's both both ay quote and it's true excellent that 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:44.000 those are always the best, right, Yes they are. So 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.520 today we're going to talk a little bit about robots, 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:52.400 which we before we started recording, we were I was 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:56.520 talking about robots. He was insisting on saying robots, So 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:58.360 I didn't think you would actually do it in the episode. 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:01.080 Of course I'm going to do it the sod. My 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:03.760 goal is to alienate all of our listeners until no 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:06.560 one's left. Uh, and I'm doing quite well, I think. 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:10.319 Uh No, so robots if you prefer. We we wanted 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:13.679 to talk about this mainly because there was kind of 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.959 a cool story and and really cool video that came 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:19.959 out recently recently as the recording of this podcast. This 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:22.119 is a March twenty three if you're if you guys 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:24.160 at home or wondering, because you know, of course we 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:27.760 published these well after we've recorded them. But the story 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:32.560 was about a company called Kiva. Yes, Kiva Systems technically, 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:38.319 and Kiva Systems makes robots. They make a warehouse robot 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:44.960 system that's all about finding and retrieving inventory using potentially 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:48.560 more than the thousand robots if you were to have 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:50.920 a really complex system. Now, most of the systems they've 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:55.240 they've incorporated have been smaller than that, but the idea 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.240 is really cool. And the reason they're in the news 0:01:58.320 --> 0:01:59.640 right now is because, I mean, the company has been 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:04.320 around since two thousand three, in one form or another. 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:08.040 It started off as a with a different name, but anyway, 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:09.960 it's been around since two thousand three. The reason why 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:13.600 it's kind of hit the news recently is because another 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:17.360 company has acquired Keyva Systems. Yes, that would be Amazon 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:21.359 dot Com. Yes, for the princely sum of seven dred 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:27.640 and seventy five million dollars, so just under a billion um. 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:31.799 So yeah, this is a big news and you would think, oh, well, 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:34.400 that makes perfect sense that Amazon would go after something 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.600 like this, like they would at least employ a system 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:39.640 like this, if not actually go out and acquire it, 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:43.640 because I mean Amazon is all about warehouse management in 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:48.840 order to fulfill customer needs. So yeah, So the company 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:50.839 actually was started in two thousand three, as we said 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.880 a moment ago, by a guy named Mick mounts Um, 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:57.560 and he knows a lot about fulfillment. He actually kind 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:00.480 of learned the hard way by being part of a 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:04.120 company known as Webvan. So web Ban, for those who 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:08.079 don't remember, was an online service where you could actually 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:11.520 order groceries online and this company would go out and 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:14.160 fill the orders and deliver them to your door, so 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:15.919 that way you didn't have to go out to the 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:18.800 grocery store. And this this was one of those companies 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:24.200 that was was expanding very quickly just before the dot 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:27.160 com bubble burst and there was the big crash. So 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.760 if you've heard O our podcast about the dot com crash, 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:32.440 you probably heard us talk about web Ban. Part of 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:35.160 the problem they had was that the cost for their 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:39.960 system was greater than they had originally um projected, and 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:42.440 so they were not able to bring in enough revenue 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:44.560 to cover their costs and as a result that the 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:48.240 company itself collapsed. Yeah. Mr Mount seems to be one 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:52.160 of those people that learns from experience. Well, that seems 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:55.280 like a reasonably good thing to do. Yeah, that he 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:58.480 I think it kind of bugged him based on what 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:00.400 on the information that I've picked up up on on 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:03.120 doing the research and and he started thinking, you know what, 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:06.040 there's got to be a better way to handle UH 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.960 storage and fulfillment. So yeah, he has a very technical background. 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:12.800 Um you know, and uh, I believe as a matter 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:14.520 of fact, he's an m I T graduate, M I 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.960 T and Harvard Business School graduates, so he had he's 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:21.720 probably reasonably well equipped to handle this kind of technical 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:25.880 and the business background. He also partnered with two other people, uh, 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:32.200 Raphaelio Dondrea. Thanks there, Hoffey. It's hard for me to say. 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:37.560 Who was a engineering professor at Cornell and then at 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:41.640 e t H which is the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Yeah, 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:45.680 he had led Cornell to several UH tournament victories in 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:49.240 a in robotics competition. It's like the robo soccer games. Yeah. Yeah, 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.480 he he had actually helped design robots that were able 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:56.760 to uh to to accomplish goals in a very efficient way. 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:00.480 And so when Mounts was looking for potential folks too 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:06.040 to work with, Dendrea became one of the natural people 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:09.360 that he should see because of his his extensive experience 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:12.440 with the robotics. And then the third founder is Peter Wherman, 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:16.880 who is a multi agent systems expert and a former 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:22.960 professor of computer science with North Carolina State University. So, uh, 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:25.680 and I think they were friends first, they didn't. It 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:30.160 wasn't just one of those like personality. Yeah. So they 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:33.960 these these three men were combining their knowledge to try 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:38.520 and build out a system of robots that could fill 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:42.200 this need of being able to seek out inventory within 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:45.440 a warehouse, retrieve it and bring it back to someone 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:49.359 for packaging. So when you're filling an order for a customer, 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:51.680 you're working in a warehouse and you the order comes in. 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:54.400 A customer has asked for a particular kind of DDD player, 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:58.279 and that one DVD player is located on one shelf 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:01.680 in this massive warehouse. It takes a lot of time 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.840 for a human to track down which shelf it is, 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:08.160 walk to that section of the warehouse, retrieve it from 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:11.520 their walk back to the shipping department and ship that out. 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:13.800 So the idea here is that you would have a 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:16.560 robot system where as soon as an order comes in 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:18.599 and uh and a person is ready to ship it, 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:23.279 that person pushes a button, the robot zooms off exactly 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:27.040 to the point where the the item is lifts up 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:30.279 that entire shelf. Because the robots, if you were to 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.480 look at these things, they look kind of like room 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.560 buzz that are on steroids. You know. They're these sort 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:40.120 of sort of squarish robots that have rounded it rounded 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:44.120 corners um and they are they're low to the ground 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:47.360 and they run on wheels, and so when you look 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:49.160 at them, they don't you know, they're not humanoid or 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:51.960 anything like that. They what they do is they scoot 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:56.240 around on the floor underneath the shelves and then what 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:58.880 they have a little screw drive that comes up. It 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:02.120 lifts a platform up that lifts the shelves off the floor. 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:06.200 And in fact, the robot rotates in an opposite direction 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:08.320 of the screw at the same rate, so that the 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:13.680 platform remains from the shelf's perspective stationary, and just it 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:16.320 increases in height, but it does not rotate. Yeah. Now 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:18.040 if you if you think about it, this is this 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:21.440 is important because you have a vertical shelf. These are 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:26.640 essentially UM a rectangular prism going straight up. So the 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:31.080 base of the shelf is square and and is roughly 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:34.440 just larger than this robot. Um. But it goes up 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:36.840 and it's got stuff on it. Well, you know, if 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:40.200 you have things on the higher shelves but not necessarily 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:41.920 on the lower shelves, that's going to change the center 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:46.000 of gravity considerably. And if um, this this screw drive 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:50.720 didn't have that counter rotation, uh, it could cause the 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:54.120 shelf to topple or be unsteady. And the thing is UM. 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.200 When I first started getting interested in in the Kiva 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:00.440 story and was watching the videos, I was and that's 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.320 so cool watching the little bot outside spin like that. 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:06.520 It's really cute. UM. And then I realized that it's 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:09.960 being done for a very specific reason. And not only 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:13.120 is it cool looking, it's functional. Functional. Yeah. So it 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.480 lifts the shelf directly off the floor, and then it 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:20.640 will maneuver back to the person who has pushed the 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:23.920 button to fill this order. It then shines a laser 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:28.400 pointer essentially onto the particular item that needs to be 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:32.080 scanned and shipped, and so then the worker would pick 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:34.160 up that item, scan it, put it in a box, 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:36.319 and tape it up, and then it's ready to be 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:39.560 shipped out to the customer. UH. And then the robot 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:41.800 will take the shelf back to where it needs to be. 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:46.320 And meanwhile there's a computer system that's keeping track of 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:50.600 all of these movements. That's it's not just the movements 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:53.720 of the robots, but where the shelves are currently located, 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:57.079 what orders have gone out, and sort of an inventory 0:08:57.120 --> 0:09:01.360 control system. So you've got you've got multiple layers of 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:04.160 software here. You've got a certain layer of software that's 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:06.360 in the robot, you have a certain layer of software 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:10.240 that's in the workers station where they are filling out orders, 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.520 and then you have the overall system. You have layers 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:15.560 in there as well, and there's a lot of overlaps 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.960 so that robots don't need to know necessarily everything every 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.960 other robots doing, but the system does. And the reason 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:24.199 for that is if you've got hundreds of robots all 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:27.040 going through this warehouse filling out orders, then there's a 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:31.240 lot of potential for collisions, which would be a bad thing. 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:35.080 You don't want like, oh, there's this one robot carrying 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:37.640 a shelf full of snow globes, and as other robot 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:41.200 carrying a shelf full of DVDs, and as other robot 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:43.480 carrying a shelf full of paint guns, and the three 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:46.440 of them converge, and then you have a combo that 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:49.000 just doesn't work even in a Reese's Peanut Buttercup kind 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:51.439 of universe. So it's sort of like a robot in 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.600 a china shop. Yeah, it really is. So the system 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.760 has to keep track of where all the robots are, 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:01.280 and the robots have various ways of the hecting what 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:05.600 other robots are nearby, so that way they can all 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:09.880 move through and reach their goals without colliding with one another. 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:12.680 And it's actually, if you watch the videos, it's it's 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:16.800 captivating to see how these robots will move within fifteen 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.600 centimeters of one another, get so close to each other, 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:22.480 and yet they'll stop in enough time allow one to 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.160 go through and the next one will pass on, and 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:28.880 and you multiply that by a hundred, and it's just 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:32.200 phenomenal to see this kind of it's almost like it's 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:36.000 almost like a BF ballet. Well, um, One of the 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:39.880 things too, that the computer system is doing, um to 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:42.640 handle this is it's not just inventory control, it's traffic 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:45.680 control as well. But the bots also have a part 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:48.600 in this. Now. Um, if you haven't seen this yet 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.040 and you're going to go check out a video, you 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.000 might have this picture in your head of a lot 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:58.360 of robotic carried shelves running around willy nilly. Well, that's 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:01.079 not exactly the way it works. If you look at 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:05.040 the videos closely, or even if you don't, you could 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:08.000 see their patterns on the floor and you might say, 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:11.000 you know, well, you know, they kind of look like tracks, 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.280 but they're not tracks. Um, not in the sense of 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:19.120 a railroad sort of system or tracks that are embedded 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.960 in the floor. The robots must follow, right, which is 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:24.720 which is kind of interesting too, because you know, something 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:28.560 like that would dramatically increase the cost of installing a 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:32.400 system like this. Instead, Um, it's an optical system. It 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:37.680 basically has barcodes, if you will, in the different pathways 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:41.080 that are are you know, painted onto the floor or 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:43.120 however they are attached. I'm not sure exactly how they 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:47.160 are are imprinted on the floor. Um. Anyway, the the 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:51.880 robots have scanning system built into the bottoms of them, 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:56.120 so they know, uh, the the UM control system can 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:58.960 tell them what path to follow, you know, get on 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:02.480 track number two because there's another robot coming back this 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:04.559 way on track number one, and it tells it how 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:08.120 far to go over and exactly where to go. UM. 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:12.200 And it's also very cool to watch the human employees 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:17.760 engage with this system because UM unlike past inventory systems 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:21.320 where a worker would have to walk down rows of 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.600 shelves to retrieve a particular item or two if something 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:26.840 comes back to put the item back where it belongs, 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:30.280 the shelves come to them. So they are standing at 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:34.400 their workstation UM ready to package things up. And uh, 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:36.920 it's it's very actually, I don't know if you've watched 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:39.240 any of these videos, these particular videos, not just the 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:42.880 traffic stuff. UM. It's actually kind of creepy because the 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:45.960 the employee will take off a box and we'll scan 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:49.440 it with a little handheld laser scanner and put it 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:51.920 down on their station and the shelf will just drive 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:55.040 off and the next one will move over to the 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.000 shelf space at their station and wait for them to 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:01.040 scan the item that that belongs. UH. In the in 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:03.200 the package. So you know, the person will put in 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:05.439 the package and tape it up and put the label 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:08.280 on it and send it down that the conveyor to 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:11.960 shipping um and then you know, this next box comes out, 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:14.480 they'll scan it and the shelf drives off on its 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:17.320 own um. And the same thing too for returns. The 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:19.800 shelf drives out, they'll put they'll scan an item, put 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.880 it on the shelf, and the shelf drives off. It's 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:25.360 really kind of weird, but the employees that I saw 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:28.880 interviewed said it's much less taxing and they can get 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:32.760 far more work done because they're retrieving more items or 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:34.960 or putting more items back on the shelf, and they 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.000 don't have to do nearly as much work to achieve 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:40.680 that because the shelves themselves are doing the work. Yeah, 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:46.600 and currently the robots UM the regular production model can 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:52.160 carry up to four which is a thousand pounds. That's 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:53.440 a lot of weight. It's a lot of weight, but 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:56.319 it's still they're working. They have other prototype models that 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.000 can carry much more than that because depending on what 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:02.599 you're shipping around maybe like for example, a warehouse that 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.040 has lots of masonry in it, it's going to be 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:07.920 really lots of heavy palettes and shelves and stuff. You 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:10.160 would have to have a robot capable caring much more 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:14.400 than a thousand pounds in that case. These these robots 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:19.640 do increase efficiency. I saw some projections that suggested that 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.520 a factory that uses conveyor belts and and you know, 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:28.240 more conventional systems to get materials to the people who 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:31.880 need to ship them out, that it might take for 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:35.920 a typical warehouse something like seventy five workers to be 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:40.400 able to um to to carry out the orders a 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:42.160 certain number of orders in a certain amount of time, 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:44.680 but in using this system would be more like twenty five. 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:48.520 So you've just reduced the need of your workforce significantly 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:52.600 and by fifty people, which means savings for the company. 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:56.600 This also brings us to another discussion that always comes 0:14:56.680 --> 0:15:00.480 up when we talk about industrialization and autumns, Asian and 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:04.840 robots in particular, which is the concern that these systems 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:09.880 will replace human beings and reduce the need for human workers, 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:15.240 thus in a way contributing to the unemployment rate, which 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:17.560 is which is a legitimate concern. I mean there is 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:21.040 it is there is a legitimate concern that there are 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:24.760 certain systems involved that will reduce the need for people 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:27.520 to work and therefore more people will be out of work. Now, 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:31.120 this is a story that has been with us since 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:34.600 the dawn of the industrialization age. You've heard Chris talk 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:39.040 about the sabo that wooden shoes being thrown into a 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:43.120 loom in order to sabotage the loom, because these these 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:46.600 looms were somewhat you know, not automated in the sense 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:49.640 that we think about today, but they were following a program, 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:54.880 and we're reducing the needs of a skilled weaver so 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:58.200 that you know, you could have a semi unskilled worker 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.040 run this machine and they could produced the same sort 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:03.960 of quality of work that a skilled weaver could. That 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:09.240 raised concerns back in pre industrial Europe. Well that we've 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:13.360 seen that whole story unfold throughout the eras of of 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:17.680 industry and um there's been some people who say, sure, 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:20.680 it's going to take over those those manufacturing jobs, but 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:23.000 then they're gonna be more jobs opened up because you're 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:25.400 gonna have people who need to make the robots and 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:30.040 repair the robots, which is true, but it's not a 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:34.360 one to one. First of all, the skill set you 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:37.000 need to work on a factory floor, and the skill 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:39.560 set you need to maintain or build a robot are 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:43.600 dramatically different. Uh. It's not to say that someone can't 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:47.080 master both sets of skills, but it's just it's not 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:52.960 like it's automatically transferable. And secondly, you don't need as 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:56.680 many people building out or maintaining robots as you would 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:00.560 to maintain the number of people you need to maintain 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:04.200 or build the robots for a warehouse of robots, there's 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:06.840 fewer than the number of workers you would have if 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:09.960 there are no robots at all, right, for that same warehouse. 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:12.280 So no matter what, you still have people who are 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:15.560 not going to have work, at least not in that warehouse. 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:20.280 So what this really brings to light is that there 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:24.439 needs to be a focus in the education phase to 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:28.000 make sure that whatever education you are getting is going 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:31.760 to be uh something that is usable in the workforce, 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.440 because the skill sets that the workforce is looking for 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:39.240 may be dramatically different than what are being offered within 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:45.200 the education system. So the burden of responsibility falls on 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:49.200 not just the students, but the education system itself because 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:51.640 we have these education systems out there that are not 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:55.000 necessarily offering the same sort of courses that would be 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:57.720 useful to a person once they graduate to get a job. 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:00.480 And part of that is because the education system is 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:04.440 not terribly nimble. It's a it's an institution, and institutions 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:08.680 have a lot of of inertia gas and yet it's 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:11.439 really hard to get them to to respond quickly to 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:14.840 changing situations because that's just not in their nature. So 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:20.040 we do have this issue of robots potentially taking away 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:23.320 jobs and even jobs like not not just with the 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:26.640 KEYVA systems. I mean, that's one element, right, but this 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:31.119 goes across all all kinds of industries, not just warehouses. 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:36.000 We've seen other industries also affected by this UM. So 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:42.840 you've got that concern. Well, hopefully the ideal UM outcome 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:46.240 is that people will be able to start focusing on 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:51.280 the types of skills that robots really aren't designed to handle, 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:54.119 and that there will still be plenty of work to 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:56.600 go around. It's just that there has to be a 0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:59.680 new focus on the type of work that you can 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:04.360 pursue to. It really starts to hit people who may 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:07.920 not have a lot of formal education. Uh, they are 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:12.639 at the greatest disadvantage in that their jobs, depending on 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:15.119 what industry there and their jobs maybe one of the 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:20.160 jobs that are easily converted to robotics. Uh. And they 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.960 are not. They don't have a background in education where 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:28.760 they can easily switch gears. Uh. So we're probably gonna 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:35.439 see continued bouts of of uncertainty and and and doubt. 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:38.040 Might as well throw fear in there to get the 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:40.879 whole fund in there. And uh, there's probably gonna be 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:45.600 some some rocky, some rocky travels between now and when 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:49.560 we reach our idyllic civilization where the robots cater to 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:56.159 our every need and we don't even have money anymore. Okay. Well, also, 0:19:56.800 --> 0:20:00.159 you know, if you if you remember in the the 0:20:01.359 --> 0:20:05.040 on the documentary Rocky three, Uh, they do have a robot. 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:09.879 They buy a robot Rocky I forgot about. And the 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:12.720 uncle gets to play with a robot. It always brings 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:18.200 him a frosty beverage. Yes, anyway, I mean, yeah, they're 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:21.679 they're Kiva's um by far not the only company to 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:25.720 be building uh equipment like this, that's true. And one 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:29.000 of the uh, you know, I've seen several I'm fascinated 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:33.960 by industrial machinery type programs in there. Many on our 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:38.439 parent companies networks where they make stuff in store stuff, 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:40.480 and I just find it fascinating to see. But one 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:43.840 of the advantages of the Kiva system UH is that 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:46.480 it is able to store things in a far more 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:52.240 dense fashion UH, therefore making the most of warehouse space. UM. 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:55.560 And it does that on a on a horizontal plane. 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:58.520 Because really these shelves are built UH and they can 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:00.720 be configured in a number of it s, you know, 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:03.879 depending on what the customer needs. UM. But they the 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:06.440 shelves are all the same more or less for for 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:10.680 these robots UM. However, I have seen warehouses that are 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:14.560 very very tall and they have rigid shelving UM and 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:20.800 their robotic systems that can travel horizontally and then vertically 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:24.840 up to a bin that could be stories high UM 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:27.840 and lifts it off with a forklift. You know. They 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:30.960 have optical readers very much the same as that Cuba 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:34.280 systems do, where there are codes on the bins and 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:36.280 it can scan the code and say, okay, well the 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:40.280 beIN in a fourteen level six is the one that 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:41.960 I need. And it goes up and with the little 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:44.560 forklift it you know, pulls out the bin and moves 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:47.639 the parts down to the assembly line. UM, and I 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:52.200 find that completely fascinating, but really that that maximizes the 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:56.479 use of the human workers that are there. UM. So 0:21:56.800 --> 0:21:59.600 I think there is a trade off to be made, UM, 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:03.600 because these systems do and UH make the work a 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:07.680 lot less taxing for for those people, and it does 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:11.800 give them UH an opportunity to be more productive at 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:14.600 their jobs, which I think, at least for some people, 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:18.679 would be more more fulfilling. Also, the robots, especially in 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:22.160 the again in the Kiva systems, because you know, I've 0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:25.880 done primarily that research for this UH for this podcast, 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:29.960 that the systems are more quiet than the conveyor belt systems. 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:32.600 Some of the employees that they interviewed for one of 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:36.560 the news reports UM said that whereas before in the 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:39.600 conveyor areas they used to have to shout to make 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:43.160 themselves heard UM when they needed to, you know, talk 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:46.800 to one another, in the robotics room, they basically can 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:49.919 talk in a normal voice. UM. There are fewer injuries, 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:53.439 which also seems like it would be a boon for employees, 0:22:53.480 --> 0:22:56.159 but that, of course only applies so long as the 0:22:56.280 --> 0:22:59.600 robots don't develop sentients and decided to kill all humans 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:04.760 and they follow the laws of robotics, we should be 0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:09.600 pretty much all right, all right, um, and there's a um, 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:12.280 you know, better climate control to which is a cost savings. 0:23:12.320 --> 0:23:17.719 Hopefully they will pass the savings on to the workers. Well, here, 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:20.760 the thing is the efficiencies and the you know, as 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:24.960 you improve efficiencies, then ideally that means you can either 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:27.639 do one of two things. You keep prices the same 0:23:27.760 --> 0:23:31.560 and your profit margins go up, or you reduce prices 0:23:31.600 --> 0:23:36.440