The future belongs to robots
Written by LOREN UNDSETH   

Dakota Putzke and Brad Pierson work with a robot in the Technology Education class at Sebeka High School. The robot is on loan to the school from Central Lakes College.  – Photo submitted


    Science and technology are advancing at a mind-boggling pace. Each new advancement in information technology, communications, biotechnology, and industrial technology shifts the direction of business and industry. Sebeka High School's technology instructor, Tom Cary, believes that understanding how these advancements are changing the way we live is a lesson his students need to learn if they are going to position themselves for successful careers.
    In the area of industry, the future belongs to robots, according to Cary. Not the human-like robots of "Star Wars" and other sci-fi movies, but the technological merging of mechanical power and software intelligence to produce machines (robots) that can take the place of human laborers.
    Cary approached Central Lakes College (CLC) in Staples about the possibility of "borrowing" one of their robots to introduce his technology students to basic robotics. CLC agreed that it was a good idea, and provided the school with a robot on loan until the end of the school year. Now Cary and his students are working together to learn how to program the robot to perform simple functions.
    Sebeka students are working with a robot small enough to fit on top of a table. They are experimenting with programming the robot to pick up an object and move it to a specified area and to do other robotic exercises. In the process, they are learning to integrate their mathematical, mechanical and computer skills to give their robot some "brain power."
    Larger robots are used in many modern industries, Cary said, especially the automotive industry. Today many vehicles are constructed using robots for 75% of the required tasks.
    Robotics is a highly advanced field that requires knowledge in math, computers and the mechanics of how a specific function is performed. For example, to program a robot to spray paint an automobile, the programmer must first possess the knowledge and skill to do that job before he can transfer the required knowledge to the robot’s software "brain." Mathematics and computer skills are needed to “speak the robot's language."
    Smaller robots are now being utilized in the medical field to conduct precision surgery. Two major medical advances, aided by surgical robots, have been remote surgery, where the doctor is not physically in the room with the patient, and minimally invasive surgery, which is advancing rapidly in the areas of heart and brain surgeries. NASA is also working to develop unmanned surgery for the day astronauts are sent into deep space.
    It is an exciting field and it's the future, Cary said. Some robots are small enough to sit on a tabletop and do repetitious labor. Others are massive machines with the brawn to lift and rotate automobiles. Robots can work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They don't require retirement plans or medical benefits. They are efficient and cost effective, and whether we like it or not, they are taking over many repetitious tasks that once offered good-paying employment for men and women.
    The workplace is changing. Today's high school student needs to understand this change, Cary stressed. It is the difference between an $11/hour job and one that offers higher pay and job security.
    Career options for today's high school student do not include working on an assembly line putting together automobiles, he said. Their careers lie in programming, maintaining and repairing the robots on those assembly lines and in factories, in the medical field, and everywhere else that robots are currently replacing manpower.
    He is excited that he has been given the opportunity to introduce robotics to his students. It is his belief that high school education must change with the advances in technology. This is just one more way that the Sebeka School faculty is working to advance education at the high school level.