Cashiers are being replace by machines now
"The Robot Reality: Service Jobs Are Next to Go"
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newworldafro
DeeperThanRapBiggerThanHH
Massive Robots Keep Docks Shipshape
Massive Robots Keep Docks Shipshape
Ports introduce automated cargo handling, as free-trade pacts drive flood of goods
By ERICA E. PHILLIPS
Updated March 27, 2016 2:56 p.m. ET
5 COMMENTS
At one of the busiest shipping terminals in the U.S., more than two dozen giant red robots wheeled cargo containers along the docks on a recent morning, handing the boxes off to another set of androids gliding along long rows of stacked containers before smoothly setting the boxes down in precise spots.
The tightly designed dance at TraPac LLC’s Los Angeles terminal offers a window on how global trade will move in the near future: using highly automated systems and machinery, with minimal human intervention, to handle the flood of goods that new free-trade agreements will push to the docks.
Many in the industry believe automation, which boosts terminal productivity and reliability while cutting labor costs, is critical to the ability of ports to cope with the surging trade volumes and the huge megaships that are beginning to arrive in the U.S. Analysts estimate the technology can reduce the amount of time ships spend in port and improve productivity by as much as 30%.
“We have to do it for productivity purposes, to stay relevant and to be able to service these large ships,” said Peter Stone, a member of TraPac’s board.
Yet the TraPac site is one of only four cargo terminals in the U.S. using the technology. That is fewer automated terminals than there are at the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands alone.
Supporters of robotic cargo handling are getting a new showcase this month with the phased-in opening of an automated terminal at the Port of Long Beach, next door to the Los Angeles port. At a cost of over $1 billion to complete and the capacity to handle 3.3 million 20-foot container units—nearly half of the entire port’s volume last year—the Orient Overseas (International) Ltd. site is a big bet on the future.
A successful operation in Long Beach could persuade other U.S. ports to follow, said Mark Sisson, a senior port planner with infrastructure-development group Aecom. “The industry at a global level is rushing hard into this technology,” he said. “That trend is only going to go in one direction. It’s just a question of timing.”
Experts in port-terminal infrastructure and operations say the U.S. has been slow to adopt the technology because of years of resistance by longshore labor unions. Some studies have shown robotic cargo handling can reduce the need for longshore labor by as much as 50%.
In 2002, the issue came to a head as West Coast port employers locked out workers during bitter contract talks, shutting down the Pacific ports for 11 days.
The West Coast’s International Longshore and Warehouse Union has since agreed to allow for automation technology in its contract, which the East Coast’s International Longshoremen’s Association contract also includes. But both labor unions still fight fiercely over the steps along the way to put the technology into use.
The president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s Local 13 in Los Angeles, Bobby Olvera Jr., said the union has been working to obtain “minimum manning standards” and training on automated terminals, to “ensure there’s a future for workers.”
The unions’ efforts, to keep as many longshore jobs as possible on automated operations, can lead to lengthy negotiations over which jobs require humans at the helm. Adding jobs raises the final operating costs, making it tougher to get a return on the hundreds of millions of dollars typically required for automated machinery and technology.
In the U.S., “You may not be able to achieve the cost savings as immediately as you do in other countries,” said John Martin of maritime consulting firm Martin Associates in Lancaster, Pa. “Hence, the decision to automate is much more stressful from the investors’ standpoint.”
Ports elsewhere have seen the investment pay off. APM Terminals, part of the A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S group, said its automated terminal in Rotterdam uses about half the labor needed at its conventional terminal at the same port.
In the U.S., the history of automation is choppy. APM Terminals developed the first semi-automated terminal in North America at a cost of $450 million in Portsmouth, Va., and opened it in 2007. After poor returns following the 2008-2009 recession, APM leased the facility back to the port authority and eventually sold it in 2014 to a private infrastructure-investment group.
The TraPac terminal in Los Angeles faced long delays in environmental permitting, as well as a ballooning budget. TraPac ran into labor-related setbacks in 2014 when ILWU members walked off the job for more than a month after several machinery collisions occurred in the automated area of the terminal.
Overall, TraPac’s automation will cost roughly $1 billion in public and private funds once the entire terminal is automated, and executives say they aren’t sure when the investment will pay off. “It’s very much a moving goal post,” said board member Mr. Stone. “It takes a long time to realize the return.”
Still, some workers find benefits as the technology takes hold. On a recent afternoon, 57-year-old crane operator Jesse Martinez lowered shipping containers the last few feet of their journey on to truck trailers, using a computer from an air-conditioned office building at TraPac.
It was far different from his old work sitting in the crane for hours at a time, navigating the machinery with heavy gears. “The bouncing around and leaning over is the part I don’t miss,” he said.
Massive Robots Keep Docks Shipshape
Ports introduce automated cargo handling, as free-trade pacts drive flood of goods
By ERICA E. PHILLIPS
Updated March 27, 2016 2:56 p.m. ET
5 COMMENTS
At one of the busiest shipping terminals in the U.S., more than two dozen giant red robots wheeled cargo containers along the docks on a recent morning, handing the boxes off to another set of androids gliding along long rows of stacked containers before smoothly setting the boxes down in precise spots.
The tightly designed dance at TraPac LLC’s Los Angeles terminal offers a window on how global trade will move in the near future: using highly automated systems and machinery, with minimal human intervention, to handle the flood of goods that new free-trade agreements will push to the docks.
Many in the industry believe automation, which boosts terminal productivity and reliability while cutting labor costs, is critical to the ability of ports to cope with the surging trade volumes and the huge megaships that are beginning to arrive in the U.S. Analysts estimate the technology can reduce the amount of time ships spend in port and improve productivity by as much as 30%.
“We have to do it for productivity purposes, to stay relevant and to be able to service these large ships,” said Peter Stone, a member of TraPac’s board.
Yet the TraPac site is one of only four cargo terminals in the U.S. using the technology. That is fewer automated terminals than there are at the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands alone.
Supporters of robotic cargo handling are getting a new showcase this month with the phased-in opening of an automated terminal at the Port of Long Beach, next door to the Los Angeles port. At a cost of over $1 billion to complete and the capacity to handle 3.3 million 20-foot container units—nearly half of the entire port’s volume last year—the Orient Overseas (International) Ltd. site is a big bet on the future.
A successful operation in Long Beach could persuade other U.S. ports to follow, said Mark Sisson, a senior port planner with infrastructure-development group Aecom. “The industry at a global level is rushing hard into this technology,” he said. “That trend is only going to go in one direction. It’s just a question of timing.”
Experts in port-terminal infrastructure and operations say the U.S. has been slow to adopt the technology because of years of resistance by longshore labor unions. Some studies have shown robotic cargo handling can reduce the need for longshore labor by as much as 50%.
In 2002, the issue came to a head as West Coast port employers locked out workers during bitter contract talks, shutting down the Pacific ports for 11 days.
The West Coast’s International Longshore and Warehouse Union has since agreed to allow for automation technology in its contract, which the East Coast’s International Longshoremen’s Association contract also includes. But both labor unions still fight fiercely over the steps along the way to put the technology into use.
The president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s Local 13 in Los Angeles, Bobby Olvera Jr., said the union has been working to obtain “minimum manning standards” and training on automated terminals, to “ensure there’s a future for workers.”
The unions’ efforts, to keep as many longshore jobs as possible on automated operations, can lead to lengthy negotiations over which jobs require humans at the helm. Adding jobs raises the final operating costs, making it tougher to get a return on the hundreds of millions of dollars typically required for automated machinery and technology.
In the U.S., “You may not be able to achieve the cost savings as immediately as you do in other countries,” said John Martin of maritime consulting firm Martin Associates in Lancaster, Pa. “Hence, the decision to automate is much more stressful from the investors’ standpoint.”
Ports elsewhere have seen the investment pay off. APM Terminals, part of the A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S group, said its automated terminal in Rotterdam uses about half the labor needed at its conventional terminal at the same port.
In the U.S., the history of automation is choppy. APM Terminals developed the first semi-automated terminal in North America at a cost of $450 million in Portsmouth, Va., and opened it in 2007. After poor returns following the 2008-2009 recession, APM leased the facility back to the port authority and eventually sold it in 2014 to a private infrastructure-investment group.
The TraPac terminal in Los Angeles faced long delays in environmental permitting, as well as a ballooning budget. TraPac ran into labor-related setbacks in 2014 when ILWU members walked off the job for more than a month after several machinery collisions occurred in the automated area of the terminal.
Overall, TraPac’s automation will cost roughly $1 billion in public and private funds once the entire terminal is automated, and executives say they aren’t sure when the investment will pay off. “It’s very much a moving goal post,” said board member Mr. Stone. “It takes a long time to realize the return.”
Still, some workers find benefits as the technology takes hold. On a recent afternoon, 57-year-old crane operator Jesse Martinez lowered shipping containers the last few feet of their journey on to truck trailers, using a computer from an air-conditioned office building at TraPac.
It was far different from his old work sitting in the crane for hours at a time, navigating the machinery with heavy gears. “The bouncing around and leaning over is the part I don’t miss,” he said.
newworldafro
DeeperThanRapBiggerThanHH
Driverless delivery robots could be hitting D.C. sidewalks soon [Video in the Link]
Dr. Gridlock
Driverless delivery robots could be hitting D.C. sidewalks soon
Comments 29
Michael Laris March 23
A brood of sidewalk drones could be rolling around the nation’s capital within a year, if a D.C. Council member has her way.
Executives from Starship Technologies, with roots in Estonia and London, say their goal is to unleash a platoon of “smart, friendly robots” that will ply sidewalks along with pedestrians to make local deliveries of groceries or small packages “almost free.” The company is led by Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis, and launched the effort in November.
Councilwoman Mary Cheh and company officials sought to make a splash by promising one of the squat vehicles on Wednesday would deliver legislation to the council authorizing self-driving delivery robots. The little white device, which looks like an ice chest rolling on six wagon wheels, did indeed scoot its way into Council Secretary Nyasha Smith’s office with the three-page bill in its compartment and reporters on its tail.
But it was guided there by a young Starship employee gripping a video game controller behind his back and trying to blend into the hubbub.
“Robotic delivery!” Cheh announced.
There were no chirpy little R2-D2 sounds, just the quiet churn of bureaucracy starting to roll as Smith stamped in the legislation. “I want it to speak with me. I want it to have a relationship with me!” Cheh said.
As does Allan Martinson, Starship’s chief operating officer, who saw some 6,000 firms as a venture capitalist before deciding to join the robotic delivery startup. This is no phantom product that will have fizzled in a year, he said.
“It’s a real, tangible, solid thing,” Martinson said. “You can engineer yourself out of any situation. That’s the philosophy of this company.”
Martinson said the robots began rolling autonomously last month through parts of London and Tallinn, Estonia’s capital, using proprietary digital maps and sophisticated software. They can also be guided over the web by an operator if they get stumped on their way. To make delivery cheap — from $1 to $3 dollars a trip, hopefully dropping to under $1, company executives said — engineers are trying to keep the hardware basic. That means no laser-pulsing LIDAR, an expensive surveying technology used in many driverless car prototypes.
“It’s basically a mobile phone on wheels,” Martinson said. Its low speed and weight — 4 miles per hour and 40-pounds max — also short-circuit safety concerns, he added. “It’s basically a rolling suitcase. If you go home and try to kill yourself with a suitcase, you’d have to be very inventive.”
Cheh (D-Ward 3) also authored the city’s autonomous vehicle legislation, which took effect in 2013 and allows driverless cars on city roads as long as a human is present and can take the controls. But other than when they cross the street, the delivery robots are designed to remain off the road.
There would be many advantages, Cheh said.
Foiling package pilferers is one. Using an app, “you can tell the little robot to come deliver your package now. You can ensure it’s not just sitting around on your porch for thieves to take.”
Powered by electricity – the company says they “consume less energy than most light bulbs” – there are also environmental upsides, said Cheh, who chairs the D.C. Council’s transportation and environment committee. The robots would head out from distribution centers and make deliveries within 30 minutes, executives said.
“It’s not trucks traveling into neighborhoods,” Cheh said.
She wasn’t sure legislation was even needed. But after Starship executives approached her about having Washington center-stage in a pilot, she decided to draft a bill to be sure.
The bill caps the machines’ speed at 10 miles per hour, and weight at 50 pounds, excluding cargo, and prevents them from rolling in the central business district, similar to how bike-riders aren’t allowed on sidewalks in some places, Cheh said.
In Washington in an age of terrorism, additional restrictions could be added as the bill gets a hearing in coming months, Cheh said.
One possibility would be banning them from going in and around sensitive sites, such as Capitol Hill or the White House.
“That’s something to think about. But why is that different if it’s a robot, rather than someone walking down the street with a backpack?” Cheh asked.
And to her, ground drones have fewer security implications than flying ones, which have been touted as a potential delivery breakthrough. There are some concerns an airborne delivery could potentially “go over the White House fence,” she said. But “this would stop at the fence. It seems so much more benign and easy to control.”
As for run-of-the-mill thieves and vandals, Martinson said he’s not worried. A hitchhiking robot was destroyed in Philadelphia last year, bumming out the Canadian researchers who built it. But Starship’s machines have 9 cameras, stream live video back to their base, and can easily call for police, or other, backup, Martinson said.
“We can send other robots in the area. They would come to help the robot in distress,” Martinson said.
So far, the instincts among the tens of thousands of people who have encountered the robots have not tended toward the destructive, he said. One person tried to feed it a banana.
Somewhat disappointingly, most people — more than 80 percent, company engineers have found — simply ignore them. No pictures, no nothing. “We were even insulted a little bit,” Martinson said.
Company executives say they plan to sell their delivery services to other businesses, and they are in discussions with some of them. They will charge a combination of monthly as well as per-mile or per-trip fees, Martinson said.
Three to six months of testing will begin in the southern United States and West Coast in April or May, Martinson said, with a couple robots in each city. He expects three to four weeks of testing in the District and elsewhere. Some pilot deliveries are possible in that period, but they expect to reach commercial scale next year, he said. The final three to five U.S. launch cities have yet to be chosen, and that will largely depend on where their business customers want to go first, Martinson said.
Cheh said the business model is up to them to figure out. But she’s ready.
“It’s so cutting edge, it’s so innovative, it’s so cute. People might want to have their books or whatever else delivered by the robot,” Cheh said. “I would.”
Chris McGraw, a District resident visiting the Wilson Building on Wednesday, happened across the robot (and its remote controller) returning from delivering cupcakes to offices of council members.
“I know they’re smart guys…I wish them success,” McGraw said. Still, “I hope it stands up to D.C. city streets. The wheels look a little flimsy to me.”
Dr. Gridlock
Driverless delivery robots could be hitting D.C. sidewalks soon
Comments 29
Michael Laris March 23
A brood of sidewalk drones could be rolling around the nation’s capital within a year, if a D.C. Council member has her way.
Executives from Starship Technologies, with roots in Estonia and London, say their goal is to unleash a platoon of “smart, friendly robots” that will ply sidewalks along with pedestrians to make local deliveries of groceries or small packages “almost free.” The company is led by Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis, and launched the effort in November.
Councilwoman Mary Cheh and company officials sought to make a splash by promising one of the squat vehicles on Wednesday would deliver legislation to the council authorizing self-driving delivery robots. The little white device, which looks like an ice chest rolling on six wagon wheels, did indeed scoot its way into Council Secretary Nyasha Smith’s office with the three-page bill in its compartment and reporters on its tail.
But it was guided there by a young Starship employee gripping a video game controller behind his back and trying to blend into the hubbub.
“Robotic delivery!” Cheh announced.
There were no chirpy little R2-D2 sounds, just the quiet churn of bureaucracy starting to roll as Smith stamped in the legislation. “I want it to speak with me. I want it to have a relationship with me!” Cheh said.
As does Allan Martinson, Starship’s chief operating officer, who saw some 6,000 firms as a venture capitalist before deciding to join the robotic delivery startup. This is no phantom product that will have fizzled in a year, he said.
“It’s a real, tangible, solid thing,” Martinson said. “You can engineer yourself out of any situation. That’s the philosophy of this company.”
Martinson said the robots began rolling autonomously last month through parts of London and Tallinn, Estonia’s capital, using proprietary digital maps and sophisticated software. They can also be guided over the web by an operator if they get stumped on their way. To make delivery cheap — from $1 to $3 dollars a trip, hopefully dropping to under $1, company executives said — engineers are trying to keep the hardware basic. That means no laser-pulsing LIDAR, an expensive surveying technology used in many driverless car prototypes.
“It’s basically a mobile phone on wheels,” Martinson said. Its low speed and weight — 4 miles per hour and 40-pounds max — also short-circuit safety concerns, he added. “It’s basically a rolling suitcase. If you go home and try to kill yourself with a suitcase, you’d have to be very inventive.”
Cheh (D-Ward 3) also authored the city’s autonomous vehicle legislation, which took effect in 2013 and allows driverless cars on city roads as long as a human is present and can take the controls. But other than when they cross the street, the delivery robots are designed to remain off the road.
There would be many advantages, Cheh said.
Foiling package pilferers is one. Using an app, “you can tell the little robot to come deliver your package now. You can ensure it’s not just sitting around on your porch for thieves to take.”
Powered by electricity – the company says they “consume less energy than most light bulbs” – there are also environmental upsides, said Cheh, who chairs the D.C. Council’s transportation and environment committee. The robots would head out from distribution centers and make deliveries within 30 minutes, executives said.
“It’s not trucks traveling into neighborhoods,” Cheh said.
She wasn’t sure legislation was even needed. But after Starship executives approached her about having Washington center-stage in a pilot, she decided to draft a bill to be sure.
The bill caps the machines’ speed at 10 miles per hour, and weight at 50 pounds, excluding cargo, and prevents them from rolling in the central business district, similar to how bike-riders aren’t allowed on sidewalks in some places, Cheh said.
In Washington in an age of terrorism, additional restrictions could be added as the bill gets a hearing in coming months, Cheh said.
One possibility would be banning them from going in and around sensitive sites, such as Capitol Hill or the White House.
“That’s something to think about. But why is that different if it’s a robot, rather than someone walking down the street with a backpack?” Cheh asked.
And to her, ground drones have fewer security implications than flying ones, which have been touted as a potential delivery breakthrough. There are some concerns an airborne delivery could potentially “go over the White House fence,” she said. But “this would stop at the fence. It seems so much more benign and easy to control.”
As for run-of-the-mill thieves and vandals, Martinson said he’s not worried. A hitchhiking robot was destroyed in Philadelphia last year, bumming out the Canadian researchers who built it. But Starship’s machines have 9 cameras, stream live video back to their base, and can easily call for police, or other, backup, Martinson said.
“We can send other robots in the area. They would come to help the robot in distress,” Martinson said.
So far, the instincts among the tens of thousands of people who have encountered the robots have not tended toward the destructive, he said. One person tried to feed it a banana.
Somewhat disappointingly, most people — more than 80 percent, company engineers have found — simply ignore them. No pictures, no nothing. “We were even insulted a little bit,” Martinson said.
Company executives say they plan to sell their delivery services to other businesses, and they are in discussions with some of them. They will charge a combination of monthly as well as per-mile or per-trip fees, Martinson said.
Three to six months of testing will begin in the southern United States and West Coast in April or May, Martinson said, with a couple robots in each city. He expects three to four weeks of testing in the District and elsewhere. Some pilot deliveries are possible in that period, but they expect to reach commercial scale next year, he said. The final three to five U.S. launch cities have yet to be chosen, and that will largely depend on where their business customers want to go first, Martinson said.
Cheh said the business model is up to them to figure out. But she’s ready.
“It’s so cutting edge, it’s so innovative, it’s so cute. People might want to have their books or whatever else delivered by the robot,” Cheh said. “I would.”
Chris McGraw, a District resident visiting the Wilson Building on Wednesday, happened across the robot (and its remote controller) returning from delivering cupcakes to offices of council members.
“I know they’re smart guys…I wish them success,” McGraw said. Still, “I hope it stands up to D.C. city streets. The wheels look a little flimsy to me.”
Last edited:
NotAnFBIagent
[redacted]
Automation is inevitable
The question is how do we respond to it so it doesn't collapse society
The question is how do we respond to it so it doesn't collapse society
newworldafro
DeeperThanRapBiggerThanHH
Robots manufacturing goods
Robotic ships
Robotic container ports
Robotic trucks that drive the goods to stores/restaurants
Robotic waiters
Getting crazier
Robotic ships
Robotic container ports
Robotic trucks that drive the goods to stores/restaurants
Robotic waiters
Getting crazier
emerald
Mother Earth
we're fukked.
Thats when you have a real civil war. The useless fighting for survival and willing to bring us back to the stone age to stay relevant in an overly efficient world.Then made into salvent green...... For us to eat....
newworldafro
DeeperThanRapBiggerThanHH
Then made into salvent green...... For us to eat....
Our food already.......................................is quasi food ...........
Red Shield
Global Domination
How people don't see this shyt.. I'll never know...
There won't be a basic income.. there will just be a shytload of surplus people.... dead
Cacs give business solutions to everything. What do they do with people that are useless in a corporation because of efficiency. Lay them off. What the hell do massive unemployed people do in a world that doesnt need them. Breed and eat engineered slop. No purpose. Dumb people are not going to make it in the future.
Hopefully all the robots we have around will create an industry to service all the new tech.