Automate to innovate

Don’t be neurotic about all things robotic. Automated systems are taking a mechanical hold of an industry faced with increasing production rate demands. Question is whether the aerospace industry is ready for the rise of the robots. Everyone loves a robot. As a young boy I was fascinated by the television sci-fi TV show, Lost in Space’s ‘Robby the Robot’ as he clicked and whirred ‘does not compute’ in a spaceship that fortunately for him, didn’t have too many stairs to contend with. With the Big Hero 6 and Ex Machina films set to join established movies like I, Robot and Terminator, the interest in automatons continues to pervade modern culture. On TV and the cinema screen ‘A’ list actors can be seen looking nervously over their shoulders – not so much fearing the giant mechanical hand menacingly about to grab them as the P45 dropping through their letterbox because the rise of the robots may render their services obsolete. And then there is the technological singularity. ‘The what?’ I hear you say. Well, scientists predict that the accelerating progress of technology will reach a point where artificial intelligence will exceed human intellectual capacity and take control of civilisation forever. Although this convergence of man and machine is some way off, the aerospace manufacturing industry - driven in part by an increasing demand for higher productivity and a need to automate composites manufacturing layup processes - is about to redraw the ‘evolution of man’ ape-to-homo erectus image by adding a robotic like swagger into the fourth industrial revolution, AKA, the Internet of Things. For now though, our industry is happy working with increasingly sophisticated industrial robots and systems that employ robot arms to perform a range of not entirely accurate, but nonetheless repeatable aircraft building processes, such as drilling, riveting, fastening and component inspection. But what productivity benefits can aerospace companies expect to enjoy from the successful implementation of robotics automation technology, and will it mean fewer jobs - or maybe more newer jobs? Mike Richardson, editor