The Robots Among Us

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Robots are assisting humans in an expanding array of environments, from archaeological sites and disaster zones to sewers. The latest ones excel at gathering data, navigating confined spaces and difficult terrain, and working in warehouses.

Some can even run, skip and jump.

According to the World Economic Forum's latest Future of Jobs Report, automation is anticipated to be a net job creator across most sectors. While workplace robots are often linked with displacing human workers, in many instances globally, robots and associated technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) are augmenting human efforts across a spectrum of tasks.

This includes tackling high-risk, intricate jobs and performing work in locations inaccessible to humans.

While shippers and manufacturers want humanoid robots capable of lifting heavy loads and performing risky tasks, Boston Dynamics, the company that pioneered them, is placing its bets on robotic dogs and wheeled arms.

Spot, a four-legged dog-shaped robot, is being used by first responders and industrial users, with about 1,500 units deployed by Boston Dynamics customers conducting around 200,000 inspections per quarter.

Then there is Stretch, a wheeled warehouse robot capable of lifting up to 50 pounds and operating for up to 16 hours on a single charge. It outperforms current humanoid robots by lasting more than four times longer.

"Stretch is a very, very boring robot, but it's a robot that does one thing very, very well, which is to unload a container," Marc Theermann, chief strategy officer at Boston Dynamics, told Axios. "It's the most despised job in a warehouse."

Stretch, with an omnidirectional mobile base that has four independently controlled wheels, was launched in January 2023, was designed to efficiently handle warehouse tasks for shippers like Maersk, DHL, and Gap.

Spot, in contrast, can navigate stairs and rough terrain, with applications ranging from wildlife control on airport runways in Alaska to assisting first responders in certain crises.

Anheuser-Busch started using Spot in January to patrol and perform predictive maintenance on canning lines at breweries in St. Louis, Los Angeles, Houston, Jacksonville, and other cities. Spot performs 1,800 detailed inspections weekly over 10 packaging lines , which churn out more than 50,000 units of Stella Artois, Budweiser, and Corona beer every hour.

Within the initial half-year since its introduction, Spot has pinpointed close to 150 irregularities, dramatically slashing the typical timeframe for repairs from several months down to merely 13 days. Employing Spot for preemptive maintenance on the canning lines has significantly boosted operational efficiency and safeguarded the consistency and dependability of the brewery’s output.

"You walk with the robot through your factory — you teach it the route that you want it to walk — and the robot creates a digital twin of that environment," Theermann said.

However, the deployment of Spot by the New York Police Department in 2020 triggered a significant backlash, with public housing residents and others voicing concerns over privacy and police surveillance.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) criticized the use of the robotic dog as resembling a "robotic surveillance ground drone," prompting the early return of the lone police dog, nicknamed "Digidog."

The use of robots in policing has sparked a wave of concern that police around the country could increasingly use armed robots to inflict deadly force. In response, Boston Dynamics and five other companies signed an open letter against the weaponization of their general-purpose robots.

In February 2022, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it had tested robot patrol dogs on the US-Mexico border. The dogs, built by Ghost Robotics, were tested in a variety of roles, including outdoor sentry duty, inspections of train cars at railyards, and exploring residential buildings.

Carmakers Experiment With Humanoid Robots

Last month, Mercedes-Benz entered into an agreement with Apptronik to pilot the latter's Apollo humanoid robots in Mercedes-Benz manufacturing facilities. The deal will involve a trial to see if the Apollo humanoid robot can work alongside Mercedes’ employees on the factory floor.

The robot will bring vehicle parts to the production line for workers to assemble while delivering the totes of kitted parts later in the manufacturing process. The goal is to fill labor gaps in low-skill, repetitive, and physically demanding work, and to free up highly skilled team members on the line.

BMW is also exploring the use of humanoid robots in its manufacturing processes. California-based Figure has inked a deal with BMW to deploy its humanoid robot at the carmaker’s plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Run, Atlas, Run

While Mercedes and BMW (and others) are deploying humanoid robots, Boston Dynamics—acquired by Hyundai Motor three years ago— views its humanoid model called Atlas solely as an R&D platform. At least at this point.

Boston Dynamics has continuously improved Atlas since introducing it in 2013, enabling the robot to operate outdoors and indoors, showcasing its exceptional mobility, manipulation, and agility.

Atlas was originally designed for search and rescue tasks and has demonstrated a remarkable ability to navigate challenging environments, interact with objects, and showcase advanced mobility and manipulation skills. It can run, jump, do backflips, and even perform gymnastic routines with fluid movements and balance.

However, Boston Dynamics has not deployed Atlas for any real-world use and still considers it a research and development platform. Will that ever change? "Making smart decisions about how to move through the world ... will be essential for turning Atlas into a robot that can do meaningful work outside of the lab," its creators say.

Robots Should Enable Workers

According to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2023, nearly all technologies except humanoid robots and non-humanoid robots are projected to be net job creators over the next five years.

The increased productivity of robots has led to an increase in employment opportunities in the automotive industry. In the US automotive sector, the number of employees increased by 230,000 between 2010 and 2015, while in the German automotive sector, the number of robots in operation increased to more than 93,000 units in 2015, a rise of about 14,000 compared to 2010. In the same period, employment rose by about 93,000 jobs to 813,000 (2010-2015)

In a blog post for the Forum, automation expert Pascal Bornet writes that intelligent automation will enable workers to engage more in the creative aspects of their roles.

“It helps employees perform tasks more efficiently and effectively, while also granting them additional time to concentrate on what truly matters.”

Meat Companies Investing Billions into Robots

Meatpacking jobs are widely recognized as some of the toughest, bloodiest, and most hazardous positions in the workforce, with companies like Smithfield, Tyson Foods, and Cargill historically grappling with staffing challenges at slaughterhouses and processing plants.

Workers endure grueling conditions, standing for hours in cold environments, tasked with slicing livestock carcasses on fast-moving processing lines or handling heavy boxes of frozen meat.

Shortages in plant staff, which impede meat companies' ability to process farmers' livestock, can hinder sales and limit expansion opportunities. Attempts to attract workers through increased wages or signing bonuses can erode processors' profitability.

In response, meat companies are collectively investing billions of dollars in automating complex plant roles, a move aimed at enhancing staffing, improving safety, and reducing costs.

Industry leaders emphasize that automation is not intended to replace workers or result in layoffs. Instead, the objective is to transition employees to more skilled and harder-to-fill positions within the plants.

Tyson Foods' cutting-edge chicken processing facility in Danville, Va., which commenced operations in late 2023, exemplifies this trend towards automation-driven efficiency.

Compared to a similar older plant in Arkansas, the new Virginia facility produces 20 percent to 30 percent more chicken products with 250 fewer workers, part of Tyson's broader $1.3 billion initiative to automate processing and packaging operations.

The state-of-the-art plant in Virginia boasts the capacity to churn out roughly 4 million pounds of chicken products per week. Automated systems sort, pack, and palletize bags of nuggets while workers oversee the software orchestrating these operations.

The U.S. meat industry, generating over $200 billion in annual sales, faces mounting pressure to operate more efficiently amid increased operating costs, declining livestock herds, and fluctuating meat prices.

"Automation offers significant efficiencies and productivity gains," Tyson CEO Donnie King told The Wall Street Journal.

U.S. meat processors allocated approximately 5 percent of their capital investments toward advanced automation in 2023, a higher proportion than in previous years, according to the Boston Consulting Group.

Robot butchers capable of splitting hog carcasses or delicately slicing chicken breasts face limitations in the cold and often messy environments of meat plants. Fully autonomous processing operations remain distant goals, with carcass-scanning computers unable to match human proficiency in disassembling and deboning larger cattle and hog carcasses that vary in shape and size.

Transitioning hourly workers from the processing line to roles requiring advanced technical skills poses challenges for both meat companies and employees, according to industry officials. Tyson has announced its collaboration with a local community college near its new Virginia plant to establish a talent pipeline for skilled workers.

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