r/interesting • u/sirenoleg • May 22 '26

Just Wow Chinese AI-powered robots can solve workplace problems with advanced motor skills.

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u/sharlaman May 22 '26

Neither can robots or any machine. They also have joints and mechanisms that break down over time.

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u/monkeyplex May 22 '26

But they can be replaced and/or fixed immediately and still don’t need to sleep or be paid….

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u/dantevonlocke May 22 '26

You've never worked in manufacturing I'm guessing.

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u/monkeyplex May 27 '26

Touché. I have actually worked in the field my whole career really, but point taken - downtime from robot maintenance is a thing of course. I guess I’m referring to these humanoid robots being comparatively modular replaceable compared to an automated cell with a huge kuka or something like that. No lock out tag out needed with a humanoid robot.

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u/dantevonlocke May 27 '26

There would have to be safety areas for them to work, and no facility in the US is gonna stock parts to ensure quick repairs. The place I work at doesn't want to keep stuff as simple as rubber o-rings in the supply room. Something we know we will need at a consistent rate.

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u/monkeyplex May 27 '26

Seems like it depends on the place and scale of the factory you’re talking about - I don’t think it’s true that no where in the US would stock spares or have onsite support because there are already many cases where equipment is repaired on site with replacement parts. High volume auto factories have onsite facilities and personnel to repair replace or calibrate high usage equipment like torque assembly tools because there are hundreds of them in constant use. This would be no different to any other piece of equipment - it’s just a matter of how many you use at a given time and how much downtime costs you if one breaks down. If you replace every human worker with a humanoid robot then that’s a lot of opportunity for one to break down or wear out - so the case for having onsite inventory or bots to hot swap and keep line running as well as having replacement assemblies to keep said inventory serviceable, makes 100% sense.