Oh, I'm with you. Years ago I sent Arcimoto a $50 deposit for a "Mean Lean Machine". My $50 disappeared along with the project, and apperently along with anyone to answer emails asking for my deposit back.
I was thinking of starting a thread on this exact subject.
My sincerest condolences, man. I've heard the factories get better with time. 😉
The robotic welding cell appears operational in limited capacity on the production floor. But the video cuts back to a secondary prototype shop where there is still a lot of hand assembly and production tooling prove-out taking place. At this stage, it appears automation and material handling optimization still has a long way to go. Completed chassis on wheeled skids is a good start, but being hauled and towed by hand to the next station by factory workers just demonstrates they are in the very early stages. Just ask this worker how his back feels at the end of the day!
Kia and some other major OEMs already have some humanoid robots in their factories. I think from Figure and others. I'm in favor of anything that (1) improves quality, (2) reduces cost, and (3) frees humans from tedious and injury prone repetitive tasks.
When I was way younger, bought a new GTO. Soon figured my paycheck needed to be augmented so got a parttime job in a local factory. My job was to stand in front of this stamping machine, retrieve sheets (about 2ft sq) to place on the table. One hand would move this heavy metal die, the other guide the material, my foot would operate a pedal to slam onto the die cutting shoe heels. Pay was piece rate, cut more, make more. Likely violated numerous OSHA stuff today. Can’t say I miss that job, but I have wondered about that GTO.
Using humanoid robots is the dumbest way to add automation. I know you would think that it would be the most direct way to replace human workers, which is how everyone pictures it. But the most common failure point of robotic automation is where it needs to interact with another automated system. CNC machines will sometimes have robotic arms added on, and their weak point is always the communication with the machine. That's why machine manufacturers started integrating the robot control with the CNC control.
Good to see some QC in action, haha. Not sure what "LLR" stands for.
Deviation needed LLR?
Could be. It's likely referencing whatever dimension/feature is out of tolerance.
I'm pretty sure I recognize one clip (roughly 0:23-0:25) that previously appeared in the factory drone footage short in May.
They go into this argument all the time on the Moonshots podcast. Yes, there's a robot form for everything. There's a place in the factory for humanoid robots, but there's a bigger space for non-humanoid robots.
