Robots

I heard an interesting piece on the BBC News this week about the introduction of robots in a Scottish hospital.  The report started out by explaining that “A new hospital being built at Larbert in Stirlingshire will be the first in the UK to use a fleet of robots to transport goods and equipment.  Well my this took me roaring back to when I was working at IBM.  During the mid 1980’s as I recall it was decided to introduce a range of industrial robots perform a range of manufacturing tasks and even a fully automated warehouse.   But by far the most useless of all this robots was the one that looked exactly like the one featured in this BBC report on the robots that are going to do almost everything except operate on the people who one day will be admitted there.

However, what I recall most about our robot at IBM was that whenever I came across it there seemed to be some problem with the thing.  I would turn a corner and find it lurking and stationary in the middle of the gangway on which was the yellow “track” that the glorified train was supposed to follow.  Usually a hapless storeman or “Line Analyst” as some stockmen were called was dispatched to “re-boot” the thing, that is to say press a large red button on it and hope that it detected its track on the ground again and set off to where ever it was going to shudder to a stop and be unloaded by the “Line Analyst” who was supposed to be waiting for the parts to restock the manufacturing line. 

I suspect that it was not the cleaners who had damaged the guidance track when polishing the floors, although it may have been a contribution, but more likely the “Line Analyst” who could have grabbed his trolley, gone to the stores and restocked in half the time!

This is what I thought these robots would look like

But this is what they actually look like!

Err, the one on the right it the robot!

I feel relieved that it’s unlikely that I will be admitted to this new Scottish hospital so do not have to worry if my medication arrives “untouched by human hand”, or my meal or even a robotic nurse.  I didn’t trust the things back then in the dark days of the Mid 80’s when clearly IBM was way ahead of the robotics games.

So just where did David Stark, a director of the architectural company Keppie Design really  get the idea?  I bet he was an young industrial engineer at IBM Havant back in the 80’s or if not, he knew someone that was!!

PS: Remember this!

Three Laws of Robotics