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In the USSR industrial robots (automatic manipulators) are considered to be one of the most important means of achieving complex industrial automation. They provide a means for human emancipation from dangerous, hard and boring labour and solution to the problem of the more efficient use of labour resources. At present the programs for development, production and application of industrial robots are being implemented in the Soviet Union on the basis of a state integrated 5‐year plan covering the key branches of industry and involving the Academy of Sciences and Higher Educational Institutions. A second similar program will be completed by 1980. It is based on the principle of central state unification of the major components of robots, a series of standard sizes and consequently the development of robot‐equipped standard technological complexes. Simultaneously, research is being carried on in the development of the next generation of robot devices. Some other aspects of the problem are also being investigated including the development of methods for evaluating the economic efficiency of robot application as well as social aspects and training of personnel.

The robot has passed through a development period, and is now entering an era in which robots are being utilised by industry in production. In Japan, about 1500 robots are used on production lines and more than 50 robot makers are supplying their products to the market. Many users have completed trials with industrial robots, and have reached the situation in which repeat orders are being sent to robot manufacturers as a potential way of improving productivity. Many of the robot makers have completed the initial development of their products, and in future will be promoting their sales to reap the benefits of these developments.

Japan is the world's leading user of industrial robots and its industrial robot association is a most active robot trade association. They publish regular statistics, this article by JIRA's executive director presents the figures and outlines the impact of robots up to the end of 1980.

Japanese production of industrial robots amounted to US$34 million in 1973 (hereafter, calculate 1 US$ = Yens 270,‐). For the last couple of years, the demand stayed weak because of the slow down of industrial investment. However, the advancement of robot technology, the improvement cost‐performance of robots, and the active investment on the improvement of productivity and labour welfare in industries caused to increase the production of industrial robots up to $48 million in 1976 and will assure the future expansion of the robot market. (See Fig.1, Fig.2).

The study aims to investigate the impact of industrial robot application on corporate labor cost stickiness and labor investment efficiency in China.

Using the textual analysis to construct firm-level industrial robot application indicators in China, we implement the methodology in Anderson et al. (2003) and Banker and Byzalov (2014) to estimate cost stickiness.

We argue that the industrial robot uses in China would increase firms’ labor adjustment costs by increasing the employment scale and upgrading the employment structure (i.e. by employing more high-skilled and high-educated labor). Consistent with our expectation through the channel of labor adjustment costs, the use of robotics increases firms’ labor cost stickiness. We further find that the positive impact is more significant among labor-intensive industries, and among state-owned enterprises with lower labor adjustment flexibility. We also find that industrial robot uses do not decrease the labor cost stickiness even when robots are more likely to substitute labor. Finally, we find that industrial robot uses significantly facilitate more efficient hiring practices by mitigating overinvestment in labor (i.e. over-hiring).

Against the backdrop of intelligent manufacturing worldwide, our study sheds new insight into the effects of new technologies on corporate labor cost behavior in developing countries. We contribute to scant studies examining how robotics, AI adoption or other automation technologies (e.g. specialized machinery, software, etc.) affect corporate cost behavior.

This paper reports a few results of an ongoing research project that aims to explore ways to command an industrial robot using the human voice. This feature can be interesting with several industrial, laboratory and clean‐room applications, where a close cooperation between robots and humans is desirable.

A demonstration is presented using two industrial robots and a personal computer (PC) equipped with a sound board and a headset microphone. The demonstration was coded using the Microsoft Visual Basic and C#.NET 2003 and associated with two simple robot applications: one capable of picking‐and‐placing objects and going to predefined positions, and the other capable of performing a simple linear weld on a work‐piece. The speech recognition grammar is specified using the grammar builder from the Microsoft Speech SDK 5.1. The paper also introduces the concepts of text‐to‐speech translation and voice recognition, and shows how these features can be used with applications built using the Microsoft.NET framework.

Two simple examples designed to operate with a state‐of‐the‐art industrial robot manipulator are then built to demonstrate the applicability to laboratory and industrial applications. The paper is very detailed in showing implementation aspects enabling the reader to explore immediately from the presented concepts and tools. Namely, the connection between the PC and the robot is explained in detail since it was built using a RPC socket mechanism completely developed from the scratch.

Finally, the paper discusses application to industrial cases where close cooperation between humans and robots is necessary.

The presented code and examples, along with the fairly interesting and reliable results, indicate clearly that the technology is suitable for industrial utilization.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a robot-assisted assembly system (RAAS) for the installation of a variety of small components in the aircraft assembly system. The RAAS is designed to improve the assembly accuracy and increase the productive efficiency.

The RAAS is a closed-loop feedback system, which is integrated with a laser tracking system and an industrial robot system. The laser tracking system is used to evaluate the deviations of the position and orientation of the small component and the industrial robot system is used to locate and re-align the small component according to the deviations.

The RAAS has exhibited considerable accuracy improvement and acceptable assembly efficiency in aircraft assembly project. With the RAAS, the maximum position deviation of the component is reduced to 0.069 mm and the maximum orientation deviation is reduced to 0.013°.

The RAAS is applied successfully in one of the aircraft final assembly projects in southwest China.

By integrating the laser tracking system, the RAAS is constructed as a closed-loop feedback system of both the position and orientation of the component. With the RAAS, the installation a variety of small components can be dealt with by a single industrial robot.

In 1970 only two manufacturers existed in the United States, namely the American Machine and Foundry (AMF) Versatran and the Unimation, Inc. Unimate. These robots, still in the forefront today, were just emerging and gaining acceptance in 1970, with approximately 200 industrial robots at work in the U.S., and an amassed 600,000 hours on the job, a negligible amount considering that the total U.S.blue collar work force puts in 200 million hours each day. However more than seventeen types of robots are now available in the U.S. at least twelve of which are manufactured in this country. They range from minirobots with payloads of only a few ounces and reaches of less than a foot to the larger universal robots which can handle payloads of up to 150 lbs., reach 3 ½ ft., and move at speeds up to 3 ft./sec. Recent additions to the U.S. arsenal are the Burch Control robot with a payload capacity of 6000 lbs. Industrial robots are easily reprogrammable, operatorless handling devices that can perform simple, repetitive jobs that require few alternative actions and minimum communications with the work environment. They are well suited to handling parts that are red hot or feezing cold, and they can function in corrosive, noxious or extremely dusty atmospheres that would be injurious to human beings. Passage in the United States of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 has provided strong impetus for the use of industrial robots. As discussed in a recent article in Assembly Engineering Magazine (Ref.1), the Act currently states that a human being cannot place his hands within punch press dies to load or remove parts, and it is imminent that OSHA standards will be extended to cover other fabricating and assembly machines, such as staking presses, spot welding machines, riveting machines, holding and clamping equipment, electron component Inserting equipment, and automatic screwdriving machines. In many cases the cost and time to retool an existing operation to conform to the standards will be prohibitive compared to the cost and time required to purchase and program an industrial robot to perform the potentially dangerous operations.

Robots are widely used in industrial manufacturing and service industries around the world. However, most of the previous studies on industrial robots use data at the national or industry level in the context of developed countries. This study examines the impact of imported industrial robots on firm innovation at the firm level in China.

Drawing on a large dataset of more than three million records in China, including non-publicly traded small and medium firms, the authors adopt a difference-in-differences method to investigate the impact and channels of industrial robots on firm innovation.

The authors find that the application of industrial robots increases firm innovation. Two possible channels are identified through which robots promote innovation: alleviation of financial constraints and the improvement of human capital. Further analysis shows that the effect of robots on innovation is more pronounced for firms that are highly dependent on external financing, belong to high-tech industries, import high-end robots, have insufficient supply of skilled labor and private firms (non-SOEs). The authors also find that industrial robots increase the firms' innovation quality and the marginal contribution of innovation to firms' total factor productivity.

This study provides big data evidence of the unintended positive consequences of industrial robots on firm innovation. The results are helpful to clarify the controversy of industrial robots. It also has important implications for government industrial policy making, firm innovation and human resource management.

This study aims to investigate whether the increasing robot adoption will affect employment rate and wages to contribute to the economic cycle and sustainable development in the world.

The authors introduce a two-way fixed effect model and ordinary least-squares (OLS) model to evaluate the influence based on relevant data of the eighteen countries with the largest robot stocks and robot densities in the world from 2006 to 2019 to test the influences and do the robustness test and endogeneity test by using empirical models.

The authors’ research findings suggest that increasing robot adoption can cause strong negative impacts on employment for both males and females in these economies. Second, the effect of robots on reducing job opportunities has penetrated different industries. It means that this negative impact of robots is comprehensive for the industry. Third, robot adoption can have a strong positive influence on wages and increase workers' incomes.

The limitations of the study are that the influence of industrial intelligence technologies on the circular economy is diversities in different countries. Thus, this study should consider the development levels of different economies to do additional confirmatory studies.

This study makes out the correlations between industrial robots and the employment market from the circular economy perspective. The result proves the existence of this influence relationship, and the authors propose some suggestions to promote sustainable economic development.

This paper addresses the activity of industrial intelligence technologies in the labor market. The employment market is an important part of the circular economy, and it will benefit social development if the government provides appropriate guidance for social investment and industrial layout.

This study is one of the few studies which considered the impact of industrial robots on employment and wages from the perspective of different industries, and this is very important for the circular economy in the world. The results of this paper provide an instructive reference for government policymakers and other countries to stabilize the labor market and optimize human resources for sustainable economic development.