Robots In Every Building?
It's closer than you think. (An article from AutomatedBuildings.com, February 2009)
robots in every building
Robots in every building? "Not in my lifetime," you may be thinking. Still, how many people, ten years ago, would have guessed that by 2009 your average electrician would be pulling CAT6 cable for VOIP lines? Or that your mom would be downloading grandchildrens' photos to her home PC? Or that WiFi connectivity would be a requirement in every new commercial space of consequence? Companies that keep pace with accelerating technological change grab market before stragglers even realize their core business has stepped sideways. Now, forces are converging similarly to pull mobile robots into facilities. These forces include:
Building Information Model (BIM) requirements
Supplying data for LEED documentation
Staffing problems
Management & maintenance costs
High liability risks
Increasing security demands
Believe it or not, mobile robots – combined with that WiFi connectivity mentioned earlier – lie at the center of solutions to all these issues. Mobile robots, by the way, are the ones that drive around by themselves and talk, not the industrial arms used to build automobiles.(read the rest of this article at the AutomatedBuildings.com website)