The Positive Use of Robots and Automation Processes in Work Environments and Daily Tasks

by
Lucas Prates Martins

Research Paper
Ms. Barbara Blanco
10 Aug. 2015

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Outline
I.

Introduction
Hook
Background Information
Thesis statement: Automation technology such as robots should be used for jobs
that require repetitive, hazardous and low-skill work that do not require
creativity to be solved.

Body one: Arguments

II.

Repetitive Tasks
A) Avoid repetitive strain syndrome in humans.
Source: Why use a robot? (D. Sands)
B) Have more leisure time.
Source: AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs. (Aaron Smith and Janna
Anderson)

III.

Hazardous Activities
A) Avoid serious injuries in humans
Source: Why use a robot? (D. Sands)
B) Use for De-Mining
Source: Using Robots in Hazardous Environments: Landmine Detection,
De-Mining and Other Applications. (Baudoind and Habib)

IV.

Non-creative Processes
A) Replace humans in less attractive (low-skilled) jobs
B) Work at activities that just require logic and objectivity

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Body Two: Counterarguments
V.

Robots destroys jobs

A) Rapid technological change has been destroying jobs faster than it is creating
them
Source: How Technology Is Destroying Jobs (David Rotman)

VI.

Robots are replacing humans

A) Everything that can be automated will be automated
Source: Views from Those Who Expect AI and Robotics to Displace More
Jobs than They Create by 2025 (Aaron Smith and Janna Anderson)

Body Three: Refutations

VII.

Technology creates new jobs

A) Throughout history, technology has been a job creator - not a job destroyer
Source: AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs (Aaron Smith and Janna
Anderson)

VIII.

Robots will not replace humans in everything

A) There are certain jobs that only humans have the capacity to do
Source: AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs (Aaron Smith and Janna
Anderson)

IX.

Conclusion
Restate thesis
Summary
Final comment

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The Positive Use of Robots and Automation Processes in Work Environments and Daily Tasks
Some experts say that technology is destroying our jobs. However, the advances in
automation technology can be really helpful in many applications. Robots, for example, are
basically an integration of mechanics, electronics and software, and they are one of the products
made with this automation technology. These versatile machines can carry out instructions of
any kind of intelligent system, such as a computer. The advances in automation technology,
especially in what concerns the appliance of Robots in industries and serial production processes,
are really positive and are changing the way the economy and the job environments and can be
used for various proposes and different applications. Whereas in order to save labor and reduce
cost, they are essentially used to eliminate a human operator, especially in application when
the human is bad for the product, or vive-versa and hazardous tasks that can cause any kind of
injurie to human. In this way, the use of robots can be really interesting to replace humans
especially in dirty, hazardous and dull tasks, once these kind of activities can be harmful to
human beings, causing physical and even physiological issues. Therefore, automation technology
robots should be used for jobs that require repetitive, hazardous and low-skill work that not
require creativity to be solved.
Repetitive tasks as any kind of serial production in an assembly line, for example, can
cause repetitive strain syndrome in humans. Hal Varian, chief economist for Google, says that,
displace more jobs means eliminate dull, repetitive, and unpleasant work. Robots of various
forms will result in less work, but the conventional work week will decrease, so there will be the
same number of jobs (adjusted for demographics, of course). This is what has been going on for
the last 300 years (Smith 1). So, using a robot for this kind of task is good for production and
saves the employees from dull work. Furthermore, the use of automation process can provide

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more leisure time to people in their daily activities, once a human saves its time to do more
important, creative and recreational tasks, no needing to be involved with boring repetitive
activities, like wishing dishes or cleaning the house.
Robots and automation processes have important applications in hazardous tasks as well.
In his book, Baudoind scores some specific tasks that can be managed by automation process.
Activities such as the mine-clearance of large agricultural areas and detection tasks in very dense
and dangerous areas (woody areas, mountains etc.) could be entrusted to mechanical mine
disposal systems and robotized sensor-carriers (Baudoind 6). This means that, especially when
conducting military activities, injuries to human soldiers can be avoided if a Robot Soldier is
used instead.
A third important application of a robot is at non-creative processes by replacing humans
in less attractive (low-skilled) jobs, as gluing, spraying (glue or paint), trimming and de-burring.
A machine can also work in tasks that are constant, but also logical and analytical, such as
laboratory routines, assembly, testing and gouging (Sands, pr. 6). These kinds of tasks must be
objective, and should not require any kind of subjective response or interpretation from the
operator. In that way, an automation process can easily solve all of these non-creative jobs and
even better than a human operator, improving productivity, effectiveness and efficiency by
avoiding misinterpretations and waste of resources.
Even with these arguments, some groups of specialist looks to be against the use of
robots and automation process. The professor Brynjolfsson from the MIT Sloan School of
Management and his collaborator McAfee believe that rapid technological change has been
destroying jobs faster than it is creating them, contributing with social issues in the United States
and, possibly, in other technologically advanced countries (Destroying Jobs par. 2). So, there is

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a concern about the fact that that the robots (and the technology in general) may be destroying
our jobs very fast. Is means that, being a robot capable to do more than task at the same time, is
destroying more than one job at the same time.
Another concern about this topic is the fact that the robot may be also replacing humans
very fast. Robert Cannon, an Internet Law and Policy Expert says that everything that can be
automated will be automated (qtd. in Smith 5). These statements try to demonstrate that in
somehow, these technological advances are not in control. Looks like that all processes in regular
daily lives and in industries will be basically operated by machines, and, by this thinking, the
humans will be completely replaced my robots.
However, something is wrong with these counterarguments. Are those advances in
automation process are, in fact, negative? Cant a robot creation be controlled? Are humans
in fact totally replaceable? Actually not. Throughout the centuries, the society always developed
technological advances. Since the Industrial Revolution, for example, the work environment has
been finding ways to make humans and machines work together, improving productivity and, in
fact, creating new jobs. Many researches has shown that actually there is no evidence that
advances in automation technology are simply destroying our jobs. In their article, Smith and
Anderson shows by a canvassing with experts that 52% of them expect that technology will not
displace more jobs than it creates by 2025 (Smith 1). Guy Michaels and Georg Graetz, from the
London School of Economics analyzed the impact of the use of robots in industry and they
concluded that these robots are replacing some low-skill jobs, but especially creating new ones
for other works and increasing the productivity of the factories. According to Michaels, there
was no evidence that the robots ware, in fact, reducing the total employment (Own the Robots?

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par. 16). So, thats means that there is no needed to be scared about the use of machines. That
proves that the technology can, actually, improve employment opportunities all the time.
There is no reason to think in robots absolutely replacing humans. There are many
activities in what humans are required and that cannot be automated. A robot can make logical
and objective tasks, but is hard to an AI (Artificial Intelligence) to effective create new things
and develop innovative solutions. This happens because the machine is limited by its processing
power. A machine will hardly achieve the complexity and the unpredictable actions of a human
mind and the complex nature of social dynamics, once it would probably require an infinite
processing capacity. A logical machine cannot deal with ambiguities, random aspects of physical
cause and effect, it can basically learn just by repetition and analyzing well defined results, as
a dog would do, for example. Pamela Rutledge, PhD and director of the Media Psychology
Research Center, responded,
There will be many things that machines cant do, such as services that require
thinking, creativity, synthesizing, problem-solving, and innovation. Advances in
AI and robotics allow people to cognitively offload repetitive tasks and invest
their attention and energy in things where humans can make a difference. (qtd. in
Smith 1)
This give enforces the fact that there are some jobs that just humans has the capability to do. A
machine may not ever be able to compose a song, build a new invention, develop a new theory
and even be able to have feelings. In what concerns about the possibly domination of the
machines, it is important to know that machine is assembled and basically programmed by a
human. The engineer will build the parameters for the robot, deciding the routines and subroutines. Therefore, it is quite impossible to a robot just turn itself against the mankind (like in

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sci-fi books and movies) and even develop feelings like regret, sadness, revenge and hanger, due
to the fact that logic parameters of a robot are limited by their own construction and AI.
In conclusion, it is clear that the advances in automation technology are positive and the
use of robots to work on repetitive, hazardous and non-creative tasks is possible and should be
highly stimulated. The robots are replacing humans in some dull and low-skilled jobs, and this
reality is not bad due to the fact that the use of robot helps to make a better use of resources,
takes humans safe from injuries and improving the way we work. Historically, technology has
been helping the society to create new jobs and innovative solutions in solving problems and
increasing the scientific development of other new advanced technologies. It is possible to
control the use of robots (once their activities are limited by their own construction that is logical
and precise, being difficult to a machine to simply replace a human being in every kind of
activities). Finally, a robot will never reach the amazing end complex level of reasoning that the
human mind has, and it is good, once we are not supposed to use robots to make them humans
like us, but, in fact, a useful way to help us in a positive way which contributes to our
productivity and well-living.

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Works Cited
Baudoind, Y. and Maki K. Habib. Using Robots in Hazardous Environments: Landmine
Detection, De-Mining and Other Applications. Woodhead Publishing, 2011. Print.
Rotman, David. "How Technology Is Destroying Jobs." MIT Technology Review.12 Jun. 2013.
Web. 24 Jul. 2015. <http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/515926/howtechnology-is-destroying-jobs/>.
Rotman, David. "Who Will Own the Robots?" MIT Technology Review. 2015. Web. 24 Jul.
2015. <http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/538401/who-will-own-therobots/>.
Sands, D. "Why Use a Robot?" ST Robotics. 1997. Web. 24 Jul. 2015.
<http://www.strobotics.com/whyrobot.htm>.
Smith, Aaron and Janna Anderson. "AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs." PewResearch Center.
6 Aug. 2014. Web. 24 Jul. 2015. <http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/08/06/future-ofjobs/>.