Robots in society

What you’ll learn

Where robots are used today
What benefits and problems they bring in each area

Industry

Industrial arms weld, paint and assemble cars and electronics. Collaborative robots (“cobots”) are smaller and designed to work safely next to people, for example handing parts to a worker. Benefits: precision, speed, no tiring. Concerns: job changes, cost for small businesses.

Warehouses and delivery

Fleets of mobile robots bring shelves to packers; sidewalk robots and drones deliver small parcels in some cities. Benefits: faster deliveries. Concerns: worker pace and monitoring, crowded pavements.

Healthcare

Surgical robots let surgeons make tiny, steady movements through small cuts; the surgeon is always in control. Robots also deliver supplies in hospitals and support rehabilitation exercises. Concerns: cost, training, and who is responsible if something fails.

Farming

Robots milk cows, pick fruit, weed fields with cameras (spraying less chemical) and drones survey crops. Benefits: fewer chemicals, help with labour shortages.

Homes

Robot vacuums and lawn mowers are common. Concerns: privacy (cameras and maps of homes) and data security.

Education and exploration

Robots like the ones in this course teach engineering and coding. Rovers, underwater robots and inspection robots go where it’s dangerous for people.

Case study: a robot vacuum

Sense: bump, cliff and sometimes lidar or camera sensors.
Benefit: saves time; helps people with limited mobility.
Question: its map of your home is data. Who stores it, and who can see it?

Case study: a surgical robot

What it does: turns the surgeon’s hand movements into smaller, tremor-free movements of instruments inside the patient.
Benefit: smaller cuts and often faster recovery.
Question: if a robot part fails during surgery, how is responsibility shared between the hospital, surgeon and manufacturer?