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Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

newscientist.com

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Re: Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

#31

Post by andy_ppp »

jakejake wrote: post #21
grecy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally anecdotal - I've seen a lot of foreigners react in the same (but opposite) way when they come to the US. i.e. driving on major roads around NYC, visiting schools, looking at houses, etc. "Wow, it looks like it's half finished" "Everything is so dirty" "It's all covered in graffiti and falling down" etc., etc.

NYC is an awesome city, but you have to admit that walking around certain streets of NYC is not really a fair comparison to touring a top-of-the-line factory!

There's that quote about a first world country for the rich and a third world country for the poor...

Re: Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

#33

Post by frozenport »

prima-facie wrote: post #30

> it can lift objects with a mass of up to 30 kilograms. Shouldn't factory workers be able to do that anyway? Or even 60kg.

30 kilograms is 66 pounds. OSHA recommends a two-man lift for weights over 50 pounds : https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/electricalcontractors/mater...

Re: Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

#35

Post by gadders »

frozenport wrote: post #33
prima-facie wrote: post #30

> it can lift objects with a mass of up to 30 kilograms. Shouldn't factory workers be able to do that anyway? Or even 60kg.

30 kilograms is 66 pounds. OSHA recommends a two-man lift for weights over 50 pounds : https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/electricalcontractors/mater...

So any child above 5 years of age needs two parents to carry them?

Re: Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

#36

Post by gadders »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #29
bpodgursky wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that when you get up to 250kg you run into stability issues as much as strength issues. Even if you could lift it easily, it would be really tricky to hold it in a way that you won't tip over and drop it.

Yeah, it'd need to be combined with research going on atm with bipedal robots; they'd have to be able to keep themselves balanced.

Or just have really heavy "feet". That's what the big block of steel/concrete on the back of a forklift is for.

Re: Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

#37

Post by goldfeld »

gadders wrote: post #35
frozenport wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

30 kilograms is 66 pounds. OSHA recommends a two-man lift for weights over 50 pounds : https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/electricalcontractors/mater...

So any child above 5 years of age needs two parents to carry them?

Carrying your own offspring is not the same as being employed to carry weight all day (and not necessarily because you really like that profession.) The regulation is in place to protect the worker, be it from the employer or those who don't know any better from themselves.

Re: Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

#38

Post by sanoli »

prima-facie wrote: post #30

> it can lift objects with a mass of up to 30 kilograms. Shouldn't factory workers be able to do that anyway? Or even 60kg.

No. Try carrying 30 kilograms all the time, everyday. Unless you hire only weightlifters/football players to work your factory.

Re: Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

#39

Post by chrisbennet »

wwweston wrote: post #20
anigbrowl wrote: post #2

"At the time, most of the yards we toured were significantly more advanced in robotic welding than the US yards performing naval ship construction, and had been for a long time," Gene Mitchell, the retired US Navy officer who led the research told New Scientist. That's depressing. I don't know why many US industrial firms seem so slow to do their own training, but instead complain about a shortage of skilled workers.…

Businesses that don't effectively externalize costs are at a competitive disadvantage to those that do, right?

A very astute observation.

Re: Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

#40

Post by patio11 »

gk1 wrote: post #11
anigbrowl wrote: post #2

"At the time, most of the yards we toured were significantly more advanced in robotic welding than the US yards performing naval ship construction, and had been for a long time," Gene Mitchell, the retired US Navy officer who led the research told New Scientist. That's depressing. I don't know why many US industrial firms seem so slow to do their own training, but instead complain about a shortage of skilled workers.…

Commercial shipbuilding in the US has long sailed. The industry leaders are now Japan, South Korea, and China. Nobody in the US is even trying to keep up, because there's no way to compete with the cheap labor force and efficient yards of those countries. For the most part, the only ships still being built in the US are for the military.

You're right with regards to the claim that South Korea and China have lower labor costs. You're not right with regards to Japan.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ichcc.pdf

If you have better data, I'm happy to take a look at them, but in my limited association with high-tech Japanese manufacturing this was basically the canonical example of "Ridiculously untrue things the Americans believe about us."

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