Epic infographic from TradeMachines confirms global takeover by robots

Infographic: How industrial robots will improve our lives 

Vintage and pre-owned industrial equipment supplier TradeMachines has produced a massive infographic which provides insights about the impacts of industrial robots on our work life. 

Industry 4.0 marks the dawn of a new era for robotics, which are starting to be an integral part of factories, all over the world.

In recent years, robots sales have exponentially increased: in 2015, 1.8 million industrial robots were in operation; that is more than the whole population of Philadelphia. 

Nowadays, sectors like automotive build most of their working processes on automated systems, as evidenced by the Tesla Motors factory in Detroit where 160 robots work along with 3,000 human employees, for instance. No wonder why some see these technologies as a threat to employment.

TradeMachines, a search engine for used machinery, has created an infographic to address this issue, taking various factors into consideration:

• What are the impacts of industrial robots on factories?
• Does robotization necessarily go hand with hand with unemployment?

Even though some claim that industrial robots will undoubtedly replace 70 per cent of us by 2099, there’s of course more to see under this threatening surface.

If we step back in history, we notice that what is happening now already happened 200 and 150 years ago, during the first two Industrial Revolutions.

Although the 19th and 20th century are now considered as times of unprecedented progress, many workers were left behind and saw their activity evolving towards something completely new.

That’s exactly what is happening today: we are moving into the unknown. And the unknown is scary.

Instead, let’s try to focus on all the positive effects of roboticization, and not only on the wrong end: robots in factories increase productivity, and therefore, competitiveness. And a healthy company is a company that is most likely to encourage the local economy and to hire people.

TradeMachines also provides insights on the future of robotization, one of its main challenges being to provide a workplace in which robots and humans could work together. This trend finds in Baxter and Sawyer one of its best manifestation: these two robots were built to work side by side and to interact with workers.

For example, they will avoid you if you’re standing on their way!

Download PDF of infographic here.