Robot Competition Inspires Next Generation of Innovators

While manufacturing workers worry that robots will push them out of a job, others are leveraging robotics to get kids interested in engineering and technology careers.

Robots are beginning to get a bad rap. Stories of robots replacing people on the factory floor and in the warehouse are triggering fear and confusion among those worried about ending up in the unemployment line.  Between the processing power, mobility, and even the sensory capabilities of today’s robots, they are becoming more human-like. What have we done?

As Chris Chiappinelli points out in his recent blog, “Will Robots Make Humans Obsolete in Manufacturing?” robots are dexterous thinking machines that are becoming self-aware, adaptable, and can do just about anything we humans can. R2, the humanoid robot developed by NASA and General Motors, is a perfect example. R2 is very cool—but maybe too cool. Could it be that such innovations are squeezing traditional manufacturing workers off the payroll? I think that’s what Chiappinelli was alluding to when he asked, “What does this mean for you?”

I’m going to pick up where he left off:  It means that robots will replace humans on the assembly line, for sure. Maybe we should just accept that. But it also means they will help inspire a new generation of creative thinkers who will become tomorrow’s product innovators.

Barry Bluestone, dean of the School of Social Science, Urban Affairs, and Public Policy at Northeastern University said it best in a comment on the state of manufacturing in Massachusetts: “In manufacturing we have a Rodney Dangerfield problem. This sector gets no respect,” he said in an interview with WCVB-TV. Ain’t that the truth? What parent wishes for their son or daughter to be a factory worker? Rather, they send them off to college to groom them for more lucrative careers as doctors or lawyers.

So I say let the robots take over the assembly line. But to save manufacturing in America, we have to inspire our kids to be engineers and technology leaders—to be the power-thinkers in automotive, CPG, and life sciences, who will keep pushing the envelope in product innovation and in production processes.

To do that, we first must get kids interested in science and math. That’s where robots come in.

The non-profit organization For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), founded by inventor Dean Kamen, is leveraging LEGOs and motorized parts to ignite a passion for speeds and specs in kids ages 6 to 18. In FIRST competitions, teams build LEGO-based robots and tap into all aspects of engineering, such as critical thinking, communication, research, and, most of all, imagination.

The kids that participate in the FIRST Robotics competition also gain exposure to some of the most sophisticated CAD programs out there. Companies like PTC and Autodesk provide the design tools and training.

PTC, for example, offers free software, including its Creo Elements/Pro, Mathcad, and Windchill products to students and teachers, and provides hands-on workshops on the 3D design and collaboration technology.

One of PTC’s local partnerships with the public schools in Newton, MA, has already paid off, as the town’s high school FIRST team was named a 2011 Progressive Manufacturing 100 winner. Now, PTC is leveraging its global footprint to bring the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) program to India, China, and Eastern Europe.

Getting kids excited about engineering and opportunities in manufacturing is no small feat. It’s going to take a global village to point the younger generation in a new direction and to ensure that manufacturing gets the respect it deserves in the future. The FIRST program and its robot challenges seems to me to have the right formula for doing just that. This program makes science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) both fun and inspirational.

My hope is that today’s little robot-makers will be tomorrow’s big product innovators.

Managing Automation, March 7, 2011 via http://t.co/Ttqj2si