[HN Gopher] Amazon has patented a system that would put workers ...
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       Amazon has patented a system that would put workers in a cage, on
       top of a robot
        
       Author : type0
       Score  : 15 points
       Date   : 2021-10-26 21:34 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.seattletimes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.seattletimes.com)
        
       | goldenkey wrote:
       | Where's the built-in toilet? C'mon Amazon, where's the
       | innovation?!
        
       | AustinDev wrote:
       | This is one of the places the internet meme of 'Wagie Wagie get
       | back in your Cagie' original stemmed from, at least from what
       | I've seen. Given Amazon's treatment of workers I think the bleak
       | outlook isn't totally unwarranted.
        
       | pwnna wrote:
       | The cage design is probably objectively pretty bad (I don't want
       | to work in there), but the headline is a bit sensationalist. The
       | idea here is that Amazon has a bunch of robots running around in
       | a massive environment. Safe robot-human interaction in close
       | contact situations is still a research problem. This device is
       | obviously meant for the safety of the operator if a robotics
       | engineers looked at it. I know people don't really like big
       | companies and Amazon, but in this case I think the reporting is a
       | bit over the top. The intention of the system is not to enslave
       | humans. The technology is nowhere near there. If anything, we're
       | enslaved by them because they're constantly broken and we have to
       | go fix them by riding this cage of a robot!
       | 
       | > Here, the worker becomes a part of a machinic ballet, held
       | upright in a cage which dictates and constrains their movement.
       | 
       | The depiction here is way too sensationalist and eye-roll-
       | inducing. If we want to go there, how is this different from
       | let's say.. a car (or a self-driving car), or even the idea of
       | working for companies to sustain your daily life, especially in
       | person. In any case, I think we can all agree that a mobile
       | safety system like this should have some better industrial design
       | than that diagram.
        
         | danudey wrote:
         | Exactly this. This isn't some kind of roving solitary
         | confinement, it's a safe vehicle for human workers to travel
         | through automated automated-robot-only areas.
         | 
         | An Amazon exec posted about it on Twitter saying that they
         | scrapped this idea and replaced it with a vest with a sensor on
         | it that causes automated robots in the vicinity to stop moving
         | (creating a safe zone around the worker).
         | 
         | I hate Amazon more than most, but this invention is kinda cool,
         | and also probably not going to get used.
        
       | ab_testing wrote:
       | They are trying to be defensive about it - but I think it is a
       | good system . They are heading toward a future where warehouses
       | are fully automated and it is dangerous for a human to enter this
       | kind of auotmated warehouse . In that sense , it is not a bad
       | design to protect the human from the worker robots.
        
       | jrootabega wrote:
       | You know who else goes in cages? Divers, to protect them from
       | sharks.
        
       | shreyshnaccount wrote:
       | and the journalist would describe a crane as 'construction
       | companies lock workers in small box at great height, on top of
       | giant robot arm'
       | 
       | this type of sensationalist news is annoying at best and harmful
       | at worst
        
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       (page generated 2021-10-26 23:01 UTC)