MARION, Ohio—A new worker is charming the staff at Whirlpool Corp.’s plant here: a robot called Chappy. Employees at the dryer factory say they have taken a shine to one-armed, programmable robots that have assumed some repetitive tasks, working in concert with their human colleagues. One, nicknamed after a worker whose rote duties it has inherited, snaps photographs to scan for defects. “If...
One armed, programmable robots are being used in tandem with human workers at manufacturers including Whirlpool, GM and Boeing, taking over repetitive tasks. Production companies are more frequently using “collaborative robots”, machines that are aware enough of their surroundings to stop if humans bump into them. Economists are concerned that the US factory industry will lose jobs to automation. The rise of automation has been a boon for some workers.