Will Robots Take My Job Maintenance And Repair

In contempo years, drones and robots have fitted themselves into the broad range of technologies used to support maintenance teams. They find leaks, repair roads, monitor electricity grids, and mensurate building energy performance – in short, they take taken over tasks that were previously performed by flesh-and-blood technicians. Will maintenance jobs be among the starting time to fall victim to automation? Tin can machines cope with the many unexpected situations that arise on the ground? Do humans – the technician and the company that employs them – actually stand up to proceeds from handing over to robots, AI, and other democratic systems? The Agility Effect put these questions to Bilal Kaddouh, Research Young man at the University of Leeds, who specialises in autonomous systems and is inventing the maintenance of the future as part of the British Self-Repairing Cities programme. He is an experienced drone pilot and remains confident that both man and auto have an essential office to play.

Which maintenance activities may exist automated?

It is already possible to automate quite a few urban infrastructure maintenance activities and it will be possible to automate even more of them in the future. The question boils down to determining the benefit to exist derived from automation and whether the value that automation generates offsets its potential risks. Public perception of automation is also an important issue.

Take, for example, urban tree trimming. Technically, it would exist possible to utilize an autonomous robot fitted with cutting tools to do the job. But that won't happen, because at that place is a major take a chance of accident and, even disregarding accidents, it is probable that such utilise of automation would not be well received. The spontaneous response of the public at large would be fearfulness, even if safety were guaranteed.

Of course, other standard operations such as street cleaning and waste removal will chop-chop be automated. The first level of automation will probably be in water and road system operation.

What types of machines and automated systems can be used in infrastructure maintenance?

It depends on whether we are talking nigh robots or PLCs, which are quite different. Of class, an electricity grid fitted with sensors and continued switches could be considered a giant robot. But if we are thinking more than in terms of small, autonomous robots that can coil, crawl, climb, etc. these are mainly used to carry out inspections of infrastructure such as drinking water systems, sewers, underground facilities, etc. In about cases, these robots are attached to a cable.

Moving on to drones, there are semi-democratic devices – they are more often than not not 100 % autonomous, due to stringent flying regulations, which require a pilot. Drones are also used in routine inspections and in thermal mapping to measure the energy efficiency of buildings.

In maintenance as such, a large number of industrial machines such equally excavators, bulldozers, and trucks are of class equipped with augmented control systems. Operators use a large number of sensors to facilitate their piece of work. For case, some of the machines used to dig trenches in streets can automatically detect and locate the position of underground utility lines.

What are the benefits of automation?

1 of the main reasons to opt for automation is to reduce risks for technicians. Automation tin likewise amend the quality and efficiency of maintenance operations by cut maintenance time and cost while increasing precision.

But information technology should be pointed out that in many cases automation is introduced to improve processes. For example, 3D printing tin can at present be used to repair incipient cracks in pavements. This can be done with machines that automatically detect incipient cracks and repair them with a filler product. As a result, road maintenance can now be done preventively, before potholes form, instead of after such defects are reported, equally was previously the case. The introduction of technology brings a prototype shift, even in maintenance.

Accessibility is some other important point. Within the "Cocky-Repairing Cities" program, nosotros are developing robots that can admission the central parts of water networks. The idea here is to send robots with the ability to recharge themselves autonomously into pipes, and to leave them there, permanently, to conduct out inspection and repair. Unlike a robot working at the terminate of a cable, this system eliminates the need to open up a trench, access the pipage and transport the robot to perform an inspection and repair a leak if need be. The robot remains permanently in position.

Practise human beings still demand to "take over" when the situation calls for improvisation, since democratic systems can't improvise?

Yeah. Machines can comport out maintenance inspections autonomously, but they written report what they find and what they are doing to technicians, and human beings go on to take the decisions. If a robot detects a leak, for example, but is unable to find the source of it, it informs the technician, who then continues the investigation based on his own hypotheses, using his ain methods.

Is at that place a hazard that automation will cause know-how and noesis to exist lost when teams use autonomous systems?

I recollect at that place are two ways to looks at that issue. Knowledge and operational controlling remain the responsibility of the maintenance teams. I don't think we will ever reach a point where machines take care of the urban environment without anyone knowing what they are doing, where they are doing it, and why they are doing it. In that location will ever be command centres and human beings will always retain an overview and the ability to take decisions based on reports issued by the machines.

As to whether it is easier to transfer know-how from ane automobile to another than to transfer it from one homo being to another, and whether this will lead to a loss of the cognition of experienced technicians – we mustn't forget that human beings are good at documenting what they are doing and what they know. It has been a long time since essential secrets and know-how have depended on a single person!

And lastly, if y'all look at AI and motorcar learning systems that can suggest technical solutions that technicians would not have thought of – this would but be accepted and implemented if the AI system's line of reasoning is fully defined and understandable to a human.

What changes will automation mean for teams of technicians in terms of recruitment and training? Volition the maintenance technician take to transform themself into a data scientist, or alternatively will they only sit back and button buttons?

The first thing that comes to mind, in answer to that question, is an agricultural tractor – one of the recent, highly automated models used on large American farms. They are fitted with a variety of sensors and can move and reap by themselves. But they are driven by farmers, not engineers! The point is that the farmers have taken a preparation grade to understand the machines and learn how to use them. And I think the aforementioned applies in other sectors using specific automation technologies. One instance would be robots used in surgery. Nobody would suggest an engineer be stationed in the operating theatre to operate the robot. The surgeon – who has learned how to employ the robot – remains in charge.

Engineers are always conscientious to clearly define the intended user of a technology, in social club to adapt it to the user'south needs and give it more or less autonomy. Accept, for case, drones. Seven or 8 years ago, drones were operated 100 % manually. Today, to all appearances, nothing, or virtually zilch, has changed. Just a drone can pilot itself, and when you take control of information technology a large office of the functioning can be automated to substantially simplify the work of the pilot. As a result, information technology now takes only 2 hours of training to acquire how to operate a professional drone, and the number of users has substantially expanded.

Equally far equally maintenance is concerned, this means that the tools may be changing, but they are nevertheless but tools. And even if they do the lion'south share of the work, I would non say they are transforming their users into "button pushers". Remember that a lot of people piece of work on a computer and push buttons all mean solar day long. As well, remember that the technicians working in the control rooms at nuclear power plants are also pushing buttons. What counts is knowing which push to push and when to push it and why. That is where the skills come in. Past definition, in an automatic system, if there are buttons, information technology is because they are needed. If they weren't needed, their function would be an integral office of the PLC code.

Could the technician's equipment exist automated?

Yeah, apart from robots and PLCs, there are cases in which technology can directly back up maintenance technicians. For instance, exoskeletons could be useful when technicians are working on an oil well. This blazon of equipment boosts their capabilities and can exist helpful in cases where a robot cannot perform a task or access the equipment to exist worked on.

In the military sphere, the augmented reality caput-up vision in the helmet of an F35 fighter airplane pilot is a expert example of the "cyborg", equally opposed to "robot", arroyo and constitutes a symbiosis between homo and motorcar. In a more prosaic case, some cars are at present equipped with screens that enable the commuter to see "through" the motorcar via exterior cameras. This is also the idea behind the cameras used in some worksite cranes to reduce the risk of collision.

10/10/2019

Source: https://www.theagilityeffect.com/en/article/will-the-maintenance-technicians-job-be-reduced-to-supervising-robots-in-the-future/

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