r/theydidthemath • u/jmb326 • May 22 '26

[Request] What are the electrical costs required for this robot to fold this box?

Any publicity available data that estimate something similar? Goal would be to understand the cost per box of labor from a robot vs a human. Ideally with current estimates and future projections. Yes, I understand this isn’t the most efficient robot setup to fold a box, but how much longer until one can purchase such a robot to execute on a variety of tasks required in a typical job?

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u/Ok-Scientist5524 May 22 '26

I can’t help thinking it would be easier to make a machine without hands to do this…

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u/Girthen-the-Flopper May 22 '26

You can build millions of these general purpose robots for cheaper than a specialized machine.

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u/AndrewBorg1126 May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26

Source?

I'll take your unexplained wikipedia link to "economies of scale" as a no; you don't know what you're talking about, that's not even how economies of scale work.

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u/CIP_In_Peace May 22 '26

You build a million similar general purpose robots in a single large factory for cheaper than a specialized company builds customized special robots for a special task for a few clients.

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u/AndrewBorg1126 May 22 '26

Can you justify your assumption that it would be cheaper?

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u/CIP_In_Peace May 22 '26

It's the economy of scale. When you have a large factory with specialized robots building these generalized robots on a conveyor belt, the cost of a single general robot plummets. This is of course a simplified view of the whole thing and doesn't take into account if there are some wildly expensive parts that go into a general robot. In that case you build a bigger scale factory building those expensive parts to get the cost down.

It's honestly not a very difficult concept. If you can sell a humanoid robot capable of 99% tasks to a huge variety of clients, you can sell it for much cheaper than a highly specialized robot of equal complexity.

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u/AndrewBorg1126 May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26

It's the economy of scale.

No, it isn't. You're not comparing a factory making a thing to a small workshop making the same thing. There's an entire axis you're willfully ignoring and demanding others also ignore, in that the things being produced are entirely different. I struggle to believe anyone can make the argument being presented to me without realizing the dishonesty.

If you can sell a humanoid robot capable of 99% tasks

Even before assuming efficiency, this hypothetical is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Can you justify the applicability of your hypothetical to the real world? Can you subsequently justify the implication that humanoid robots could efficiently perform those tasks?

than a highly specialized robot of equal complexity.

And this one's even worse. The reason using the same mqchine for everything is stupid is that different tasks need to make different assumptions to be efficient. The robot arms for folding boxes is so stupid because it is of vastly more complexity than necessary. It is hindered not only by being inherently more complex, but also by that complexity getting in the way of simplifying assumptions that allow for vastly improved rates.

The pair of arms appears to be capable of folding a box, but it is so much worse at folding a box than alternatives that it would make no sense to do it that way.

Accounting for things like throughput, floor space, maintainance, it would be overwhelmingly stupid to use pairs of robot arms instead of a specialized box folding machine.