Japanese robot installs drywall! I can dig it!!!

[_Philo Sofee]

https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/1/1792 ... nstruction

But remember, we are the chosen species. However, we need about 1,000,000 of these!

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

This scares the crap out of me. It's cool, it really is, but I feel threatened by it.

- Doc

[_Res Ipsa]

This scares the ____ out of me. It's cool, it really is, but I feel threatened by it.

- Doc

Me too. It’s cool if own the robot. Not so much if you’re the drywaller.

[_Doctor Steuss]

Based on the speed of the work, I'm guessing it's a union robot.

[_Water Dog]

Based on the speed of the work, I'm guessing it's a union robot.

[_ajax18]

This scares the ____ out of me. It's cool, it really is, but I feel threatened by it.

- Doc

Can it work faster and cheaper than a Mexican pumped full of cocaine?

[_Markk]

Based on the speed of the work, I'm guessing it's a union robot.

That's funny...

At 2 bucks a foot (high end) or 64 dollars a sheet, bought, hung and finished...I don't think we have much to worry about.

I would also think that the whole project would need to be new construction, and programed and built in almost perfect dimensions and "squareness." No way it could work in re-model or restoration were discovery is a daily given.

I wonder if the bot can reload the screw gun and fix the jambs, and most importantly set the screw perfectly for inspection and taping needs...can it unload the truck, stock and spread the dry wall, and measure and cut...or hold the drywall with it's head to the ceiling in order to free both hands to hold and screw it? There is no way this will work anytime soon.

I imagine that security would also be required in keeping the human worker from destroying the competition. I can imagine a bag of marbles on the floor would ruin it's day.

Pretty cool though in concept...I could see it being used in a controlled factory environment....for prefab wall units to be shipped and installed by real people.

[_EAllusion]

Pfft. Everyone knows mudding is the hard part of drywalling.

I think automation is great in principle and is the engine of improvements in standard of living. If a robot can do a manual task, this frees up labor to do other things and that is fundamentally good because it increases available products and services for people.

I know there are arguments that the next wave of automation improvements from A.I. / robots is going to happen so fast and consume so much of what the current labor force does that people aren't going to be able to handle such rapid displacement. That seems plausible. The productivity gains from automation also are only as good for society as their benefits are widely distributed. If it becomes simply a means for a few rich people to get richer, that's not good. But both those things to me seem to be political problems and unease about it is unease with politics rather than the underlying improvements in technology.

Really, though, it's a good thing that people aren't employed in hand crafting buggy whips.

[_Markk]

Pfft. Everyone knows mudding is the hard part of drywalling.

I think automation is great in principle and is the engine of improvements in standard of living. If a robot can do a manual task, this frees up labor to do other things and that is fundamentally good because it increases available products and services for people.

I know there are arguments that the next wave of automation improvements from A.I. / robots is going to happen so fast and consume so much of what the current labor force does that people aren't going to be able to handle such rapid displacement. That seems plausible. The productivity gains from automation also are only as good for society as their benefits are widely distributed. If it becomes simply a means for a few rich people to get richer, that's not good. But both those things to me seem to be political problems and unease about it is unease with politics rather than the underlying improvements in technology.

Really, though, it's a good thing that people aren't employed in hand crafting buggy whips.

Actually “muddling” is not harder...especially physically. Taping and texture (finish) starts with how the board is hung. It the hangers do not know what they are doing they won’t last long with a real drywall company. Taping and finishing drywall is certainly more of a art, but correct hanging is a must...but not easier by any means...hanging “white death” is not a trade one wants to do everyday.

When hanging drywall studs are bowed, out of square which demands shimming and angeling screws, or even adding scabs to preserve factory ends, butt to butt...which I doubt technology is close to yet...not to mention cutting around electrical and plumbing parts and around doors and window.

Bottom line if drywall is not hung properly, taping and finishing is very difficult to get right with most finishes especially levels 4 and 5.

I have no doubt you would think that if a machine could hang drywall it would free up a 15.00/20.00 and hour drywall hanger to do something like _________ (fill in the blank)

[_EAllusion]

Actually “muddling” is not harder...especially physically. Taping and texture (finish) starts with how the board is hung. It the hangers do not know what they are doing they won’t last long with a real drywall company. Taping and finishing drywall is certainly more of a art, but correct hanging is a must...but not easier by any means...hanging “white death” is not a trade one wants to do everyday.

I was being flippant, but it is true in the one summer I worked construction this was the hardest part of the job for me. Not in the sense of being physically demanding, but in a precision sense. It also is likely something harder to build a robot to do because it is more sensitive to smaller variations. Fine motor skills vs. gross motor skills, I imagine.

I have no doubt you would think that if a machine could hang drywall it would free up a 15.00/20.00 and hour drywall hanger to do something like _________ (fill in the blank)

Because I seem like the sort of person who would hold a standard economics view? Have you heard the phrase "creative destruction" before as it relates to capitalism? This is the sort of thing it is in reference to. A specific drywaller might not find a job as good as the one he had, but the labor supply he exists in will adjust and instead of drywallers, you'll have people doing other things. He might have to get a low paying service sector job, but other people won't follow in his footsteps. "Other things" is difficult to always know in advance. A person in 1960 watching the decline of coal mining jobs wouldn't necessarily know that computer programming was going to take off. But labor eventually finds equilibrium. Look at the jobs people were doing in 1918 vs. today. Do you think it's the same work? As things have automated, thus increasing productivity per capita, labor has been freed up to make and provide other things in addition to the fruits of automation. This is good.