During a study completed by researchers with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a surprising discovery showed that many smaller machine shops have almost no robots manufacturing their products.
Anna Waldman-Brown, a PhD student working on the research said she was surprised at the lack of robotic equipment and that the team even had a roboticist because they had been expecting them.
Nick Pinkston, CEO of Volition, a company that creates software used to automate factories, said one of the reasons for no robots in smaller factories is that they just don’t have the cash to take such risks.
The lack of robots in the factories is bad for the U.S. economy, with studies showing larger firms are more productive with higher wages, partially because of their ability to invest in new technology.
The small and medium businesses are the ones that make up the majority of the industry though, and they risk falling behind in technology, hurting the industry as well as those employed in the industry.
Studies also show that while there are far less robots in factories than MIT would have thought, the technology is spreading throughout the industry- just not at the speed MIT expected.
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