This Robot Will Carry Your Stuff and Follow You Everywhere

The Italian company behind the Vespa, Piaggio, has recently introduced “Gita,” a cargo robot. Designed by Boston-based internal startup Piaggio Fast Forward, its aim is to take the hassle out of lugging heavy items and doing mundane chores such as going to the grocery store.

Gita is a blue ball-shaped robot that features two wheels, a hard shell and a number of cameras and sensors. A human wears an electronic belt to guide it, but Gita can also roll autonomously in a pre-mapped area. As Gita follows its owner and gains exposure to various environments via its cameras and sensors, it creates a 3-D map of its surroundings using SLAM technology -- Simultaneous Localization and Mapping. ...

This Robot Will Carry Your Stuff and Follow You Everywhere



Cool product, right? I want one!

Robotic consumer products are big business - ranging from household robots to entertainment products to eldercare-assistive robots.

“The transportation and robotics industries tend to focus on optimizing tasks and displacing labor,” said Jeffrey Schnapp, CEO of Piaggio Fast Forward, in a press release. “We are developing products that augment and extend human capabilities, instead of simply seeking to replace them.”

Fact is though, industrial robot sales are growing even faster than consumer robotics. Long story short, robotics and automation are taking US jobs at the same time consumer robotics are making our lives easier by “augmenting and extending human capabilities.” Leaving most without the wherewithal to benefit.

Sales of industrial robotics skyrocketed in the USA between 2010 and 2015, mostly in the automotive and electronics industries. True, 230,000 new automotive jobs accompanied the automation. But don’t expect such increases to continue.

After losing traction in the manufacturing sector, China jumped into automation big time.

China, the World’s Automated Factory

…China’s decades-long manufacturing boom may be ending. In 2015, Chinese exports fell for the second time… Wages for China’s 277 million migrant workers rose 7.4% …the number of working-age people fell by a record 4.9 million…

…survey published in 2016… found that 25% of respondents have moved or are planning to shift capacity outside China. …to developing Asian countries, and another 40% to the US, Canada or Mexico.

To help deliver China from industrial decline, the Chinese leadership is betting on automation.

…In May of this year, news broke that …Foxconn had replaced 60,000 of its employees with robots at a facility …near Shanghai.

…(In July 2015 reports said) the Changying Precision Technology Company … replaced 590 of its 650 employees with robots. …productivity in the factory had increased three-fold with the added robots while the product defect rate had plunged. By July 2017, the company says it expects to have 1,000 robots at work controlling 80% of its processes.

…(dilemma) … the speed at which China needs to replace workers is likely to be faster than its ability to manage their deployment.

…If China does not automate production fast enough, it ultimately risks losing its prized status as the world’s factory. …automated manufacturing in the US and Europe is eroding China’s cost advantages.

…“China is prioritizing industrial robots because it has no choice. If it does not take action, the supply chain will leave.”

Deployment of robots soars 70 percent in Asia

Frankfurt, February 1st, 2017 - Asian industry´s uptake of industrial robots is accelerating: in just five years its operational stock rose 70 percent to 887,400 units, (2010-2015). In 2015 alone, annual sales of robots jumped 19 percent to 160,600 units, setting a new record for the fourth consecutive year. …

China is the biggest market for industrial robots in the world and takes 43 percent of all sales to Asia including Australia and New Zealand. It is followed by the Republic of Korea, with a share of 24 percent of regional sales, and Japan with 22 percent. That means 89 percent of robots sold in Asia and Australia went to these three countries in 2015.

China will remain the main driver of growth in the region and will expand its dominance.

By 2019, almost 40 percent of the global supply will be installed in China.

Like other nations, “the speed at which China needs to replace workers is likely to be faster than its ability to manage their deployment.”

Meaning robots are taking jobs previously done by humans - and what do you do with millions of unemployed, unemployable people?

There are only so many “creative” positions to be filled.




BACKGROUND

CONSUMER

The worldwide number of domestic household robots will rise to 31 million between 2016 and 2019. …

"Robotics in personal and domestic applications has experienced strong global growth with relatively few mass-market products: floor cleaning robots, lawn mowers and edutainment robots are dominating the market," says Joe Gemma, President of the International Federation of Robotics. "But the next generation of robots will have even greater capabilities and will open up new fields of application."

Robots as domestic helpers…

Entertainment robots…

Assistive robots for the handicapped and elderly…

Caring Patient Robot

…Caring Patient Robot is a kind intelligent robot with the sense of hearing, vision and smell. At the same time, it can lift, move and take care of the patients.

Eldercare-Assistive Robots Market… 2016-2026

Several countries across the world are either already facing or will face a demographic disaster in the near future. They will undergo severe socio-economic pressures due to a rapidly ageing population with not enough children being born to replace the workforce. This is particularly true in North America, Europe, Russia, South Korea & Japan. According to a government report compiled in Japan in 2012, 22% of the country is 65 or older and this is expected to rise to nearly 40% by 2060. In 2010, Japan had 30 million elderly individuals in old-age homes, but a serious dearth of caregivers to assist them.

....BACKGROUND cont'd next page

.BACKGROUND cont'd ...




INDUSTRIAL

2015-11-23. …some 1.5 million robots are in use in factories worldwide, with the total number poised to reach 2.3 million in the next three years.

…China still has a far lower ratio of robots to workers than other major economies -- just 36 per 10,000 manufacturing workers, versus 478 in the Republic of Korea, 315 in Japan, 292 in Germany and 164 in the United States.

2015 Sales Report. 248,000 industrial robots

…The worldwide sales of industrial robots achieved a new record number of 248,000 units in 2015. This represents a rise of 12 percent compared to the previous year (2014: 221,000 units). …The sales figures for industrial robots have increased almost four-fold since… (2009: 60,000 units). …By 2018, some 2.3 million units will be deployed on factory floors - more than twice as many as in 2009 (1.0 million).

…Growth in America proved even more dynamic, with sales increasing by 15 percent to a total of 37,000 units. The USA heads the list with 27,000 units sold (+3 percent). …

2016. US Industry - 135,000 new robots bring jobs back home

Frankfurt, 23 November 2016 - In the last six years, (2010-2015), the US industry has installed around 135,000 new industrial robots. The principal driver in this race to automate is the car industry.

…The industrial sector in the US continues to invest strongly in robotics and automation. …The main driver of this growth is the ongoing trend to automate production in order to strengthen the competitiveness of American industry globally, to keep manufacturing at home, and, in some cases, to bring back manufacturing that had previously been outsourced to other countries.

Sounds awesome - I bet someone tries to have sex with it though lol

Am I the only one who's first thought was, "cool, but um how does it deal with steps?"

I have something very similar that doesn't cost a years pay, has no trouble getting upstairs and goes where I go.

It's called a bag

Soon people will want an iToilet that wipes their butt for them too.

This way this thing looks, it reminds me of the Kugelpanzer

I want one now, purely because it looks like a mysterious German war machine

I would love one. I'm sure it will be hacked and stolen within the first month though.

Nice to have at the airport. But what is to stop it from following a cute female robot at the airport?

originally posted by: Ohanka
I have something very similar that doesn't cost a years pay, has no trouble getting upstairs and goes where I go.

It's called a bag

You mean the old bag carries your stuff? I have to carry stuff for my wife,

Hijacking and Pirating come to mind. Devices might make them secure.. but still they seem able to be at risk potentially

a reply to: soficrow


Aww. C'mon guys!

PLEASE! ...Read more than the headline!!!

originally posted by: soficrow
a reply to: soficrow


Aww. C'mon guys!

PLEASE! ...Read more than the headline!!!

I did. The same stuff is in most of your other recent threads.

originally posted by: Puppylove
Am I the only one who's first thought was, "cool, but um how does it deal with steps?"

I wondered that too. And how do you get it into and out of your car?
In my area you first need to drive to wherever you would want to carry things around.

a reply to: Ohanka

Building on a thesis is not "the same stuff."

One more gadget for people to hack and rip you off . Along with make people more fat and lazy .

originally posted by: VengefulGhost
One more gadget for people to hack and rip you off . Along with make people more fat and lazy .

Hmm. Tempted to write you off as an ego-centric snowflake, but won't. Off the top, potential beneficiaries include the disabled and elderly who would gain more independence. Moms trekking kids and toddlers through malls shopping would be able to hold their kids' hands, pay better attention to them and protect them.

For starters.

Many consumer robotics really do promise to improve lives and preserve independence. Which is becoming a major issue in most countries. Again...

Eldercare-Assistive Robots Market… 2016-2026

Several countries across the world are either already facing or will face a demographic disaster in the near future. They will undergo severe socio-economic pressures due to a rapidly ageing population with not enough children being born to replace the workforce. This is particularly true in North America, Europe, Russia, South Korea & Japan. According to a government report compiled in Japan in 2012, 22% of the country is 65 or older and this is expected to rise to nearly 40% by 2060. In 2010, Japan had 30 million elderly individuals in old-age homes, but a serious dearth of caregivers to assist them.

And again, what's most interesting to me is the disconnect between the (very real) utopian promise of robotics and automation and the harsh economic limitations facing us all.

a reply to: soficrow
Yes, the mall trips with my family were the first thing to come to mind. Just don't try to arrest me for murder when I decide I have had enough with its poor performance and destroy it with a good beating.

Something like this would hopefully cost just between $250-$500. I'll pick one up if its under 5 bills, otherwise I will get a used one. Maybe insurance can cover this for disabled people the same way like wheelchairs and scooters and stuff?? Its difficult to shop in a wheelchair when you have limited capabilities.

Good... Im sick of seeing "man purses". I already have one of those though, it can navigate steps and gets out of hte car by itself on shopping trips. I call it my 11 yr old AKA shopping pack mule. She does require food and the occasional FNAF, UT, or CP thingy though.

a reply to: Ohanka


Ummm...is that as in...old bag...




YouSir