MΣƬΛM◎Я₱Ḣ̴ 🔌

There’s an enormous amount of capital going into robotics companies that promise to fix American manufacturing by deploying robots into existing factories. I think we’re solving the wrong problem. When a new component comes in, someone has to figure out how to manufacture it. What machines to use, how to hold it, what tools are needed, how to inspect it, and what to change when things go wrong. After all that work, a robot can load the part into the machine and take it out when it’s finished. We’ve spent decades making machines faster and automating the physical work, but the thinking behind manufacturing remains almost entirely human. And now we’re spending enormous amounts of money automating some of the cheapest tasks in that process. Robotics has an important role to play, but deploying robots into factories designed decades ago won’t fundamentally change how manufacturing works. We should be building machines that can figure out what to do in the first place.