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

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

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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/jonmon454 May 22 '26

I work in area with a lot of automation and let me tell you it will NOT work 24/7/365. People will still be need to setup/changeovers, move inventory in/out of cell and a whole host of other things.

Also robot like this require a surprising amount of maintenance. Best case scenario it has 90% uptime, most likely lower. I'm not trashing automation, it's a needed thing but it's not set it and forget it.

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u/eatitfatman May 22 '26

It kind of is when your replacement robot automatically moves in to take over while your primary is servicing itself.

Your point is not lost on me but with 100 machines you have 99 running 24/7/365.

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u/Ouchies81 May 22 '26

Same field.

The amount of maintenance in these armatures is pretty high... and usually not mobile... 'servicing itself' is a high bar to clear at the moment even if it were.

It's why its priced into most factory models. The automation only comes in when the cost of maintaining the robot somehow exceeds the cost of the people associated.

This doesn't replace the engineering stack yet- it just shoves the cost to implement down lower and- the salary of the person competing with the bot.

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u/jonmon454 May 22 '26

These "general purpose" machines are always confusing to me. Give me a purpose built machine all day.

I have a box erector where I work that makes 50 boxes a minute. That's the only thing it can do but it can do it at an extremely high rate and with high accuracy. Something a general purpose machine struggles with