Summary Of 'The Robot Invasion' By Charlie Gillis

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“The Robot Invasion” is written by Charlie Gillis in 2012. Gillis gives informed information of the present state of robotics and how it can affect us in the future. Presently scientists have been working on small robots that could soon perform tasks humans could forego. “Andrew Vardy posted footage on YouTube of toy-sized robots he’d modified to sort plastic pucks randomly placed on a surface” (Gillis, as cited in McWhorter, 2014, p 478). Vardy’s experiment is one of many experiments that could bring us closer to a future where robots are apart of our daily lives. Another example of small robots would be quadrotors. “Quadrotors teams can be seen doing light shows, navigating obstacle courses and ferrying around a submachine gun” (p 479). Kiva Systems makes and sells an automated warehousing system where hundreds of robots move merchandise from storage to shipping bay. “The system is said to triple distribution productivity, and had been adopted by a host of big-box …show more content…

Gillis is arguing that in the future robotics could impact the workforce. One main point he used was the progress scientist are with small robots that could help companies with warehousing. Another point was the future of android-style robots like Baxter that still needs software upgrades to fully help companies. This topic is important because it could one day change how the world operates. Today robotics are simple machines and need manual input to operate. I would define the author’s tone as informative. He started the article reminding us how the world viewed robotics in past. He then continues to tell us the progress of small robots that move objects from place to another. Gillis gives examples of quad-rotors and automated warehouse systems that help improve productivity for companies. Another example of his informative tone was Baxter and the future of android-style that’s not quite ready to be used in the

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