Market trends on Robotics for Logistics

The warehousing and logistics robot market is experiencing strong growth, with many prominent companies showing greater confidence in new robotics technologies that could yield a return on investment (ROI) in less time than it took a few years ago. [1]

The global Robotics market

The following graph, from the International Federation of Robotics and Boston Consulting Group [2] shows the market growth un billions of us$ for the main four sorts of robots:

Source. Boston Consulting Group [2]

• Military: Including UAV, UGV, UUV and task robots widely used for military applications.

• Industrial: Including applications for welding, assemble and material handling.

• Commercial: Including applications such as medical and surgical robots, logistics, agricultural robots, maintenance and construction robots.

• Personal: With applications as entertainment, cleaning, education and security robot.

The market of warehousing and logistics robotics

Tractica market intelligence firm forecasts that worldwide warehousing and logistics robot unit shipments will increase from 40,000 in 2016 to 620,000 units annually by 2021. The market intelligence firm estimates that global market revenue for the sector reached $1.9 billion in 2016, and anticipates that the market will continue to grow rapidly over the next several years, reaching a market value of $22.4 billion by the end of 2021. [3]

Source. Tractica [3]

IDTechEx research firm gives a different perspective on the growth of Warehousing and Logistics Robotics based on the investment on companies in this arena.

Source: IDTechEX [4]

This data shows the investment data for ground-based 25 start-ups focused on mobile robotics in warehouses/logistics.

Evidently, the interest has increased in recent years in mobile robotics targeting the warehouse/logistics area. Note that this figure excludes some major events: Does not count money spent internally by existing firms to launch such robots; Some start-ups are at seed stage with an undisclosed amount; it does not include acquisitions.

Some notable ones are Amazon's acquisition of Kiva for $775 in 2012, Omron's acquisition for Adept Mobile Robotics for $200m in 2016, and Uber's acquisition of Otto for $680m in 2016. Drone-based delivery robots are not included [4]

Forrester Research predicts a 10% year-on-year growth for online retail in Europe and the US. Online growth in Asia is even faster; for example by the year 2020 the online retail market in China is projected to be equal to that of France, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US combined.

This growth directly affects the requirement for logistics labor since online retail typically needs more labor per item sold than traditional brick-and-mortar retail. This is because, instead of moving merchandise to a retail store in bulk, the organization must pick and pack online purchases individually by hand. Freight and parcel handling labor goes up as well since these goods must be shipped as separate parcels to be delivered directly to consumers' homes. Added to this, the average weight of these shipments is increasing as consumers can now order large items such as white goods, building supplies, and even furniture online. [6]

Another interesting perspective is from the end customers preference in the B2C market. 

Source: McKinsey&Company [5]

McKinsey&Company conducted a survey of more than 4,700 respondents in China, Germany, and the United States. They used conjoint analysis to better understand consumers’ relative preferences for different delivery options, including their willingness to pay. Nearly 25 percent of consumers were willing to pay significant premiums for the privilege of same-day or instant delivery. This share is likely to increase, given that younger consumers are more inclined (just over 30 percent) to choose same-day and instant delivery over regular delivery. [5]

Therefore, to reduce the delivery time, automation is key, both inside the warehouse and in the last mile.

Conclusions

Logistics Industry is facing a difficult moment, were competitors are innovating very fast to improve the throughput of their operations while reducing costs and delivery time. To do this, the digitalization of the Supply Chain is key, including not only the usage of automated systems and robotics, but the integration with good WMS (Warehouse Management Systems) and the definition of clear procedures and protocols to follow in operations, were manpower and robotics solutions should coexist in a colaborative way.

The market for automated solutions is growing very fast. There are good tchnical solutions ther, but the Logistics Management should be brave enough to leave the traditional methods and enter the world of Automation and Digitalization, investing on proper solutions for them.

Apendix

For more information on automation solutions for the warehousing inductry, visit my previous post about it

Here there are some companies and products compiting in the market of robotics and automation for logistics, just for your reference:

• Knapp Open Shuttle
• Locus Robotics
• Swisslog CarryPick
• Fetch Robotics
• Amazon Robotics
• GreyOrange
• Omron Adept
• Scallog System
• Hi-tech Robotic Systemz
• CIM Corp
• Hitachi Racrew
• Bastian
• Vecna
• Aethon
• IAM Robotics
• PAL Robotics
• Robotnik
• Infinium Robotics
• Daifuku
• Logistex
• Seegrid
• Simbe Robotics
• 4D Retail Tech. Corp
• inVia
• MIR

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Reference

[1] Manoj Sahi. Research analyst from Tractica.
[2] Boston Consulting Group. The rise of the robotics. 2014
[3] SDC Executive. Warehousing and Logistics Robotics. 2017
[4] IDTechEX. Mobile warehouse and logistic robots. Oct. 2017
[5] McKinsey&Company. How customer demands are reshaping last-mile delivery. Oct. 2016
[6] DHL. Robotics in logistics. March 2016

Robotics & Automation are welcome to Singapore

Singapore is the country where I live. It is a small country in size (less than 6 million citizens) but big in initiatives to promote the Technology, Innovation, and Productivity.

Singapore has very special good conditions that make it really interesting for Robotics & Automation:

Government priority

This sector is so important to the Government, that this year the Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat unveiled a comprehensive package under the new Industry Transformation Programme (ITP) to stimulate growth for industries and firms [1]. It includes:

• Automation Support Package, to support companies to automate, drive productivity and scale up: S$400 million[2] grants over 3 years.
• National Robotics Programme: S$450 million grants over 3 years for the development and adoption of robots. These robots will be used in sectors such as healthcare, construction, manufacturing and logistics.
• Up to S$4 billion under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2020 Plan will be directed to industry-research collaboration. The Government will provide a top-up of S$1.5 billion to the National Research Fund during this year 2016 to support these initiatives.
• An existing Double Tax Deduction for Internationalization scheme has been extended up to 2020. IE Singapore is expected to support 35,000 to 40,000 companies to expand to markets overseas .
• The Government created a new portal to help companies find the suitable grant for their needs (https://www.businessgrants.gov.sg). Very helpful considering the amount of schemes and agencies managing grants (IE Singapore, SPRING, STB, Design Singapore,...)

Educational Institutions

Singapore has a very good reputation in terms of education. There are several technical universities (NTU, NUS, SUTD,...) really well prepared not only for education but also for R&D, acting as incubators and being able to work with companies for the success of product developments.

Language and Culture

Singapore is a country with a mix of ethnic groups (74.1% Chinese, 13.4% Malay, 9.2% Indian, 3.3% others) and four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin Chinese and Tamil, being English the common business language. A country open to the western cultures, being ranked as one of the less corrupted countries in the world [3], secure and reliable. Singapore is a perfect hub between Asia and the rest of the world.

Communications

Singapore is a major international transport hub in Asia, serving some of the busiest sea and air trade routes. Currently the world's second-busiest port in terms of total shipping tonnage, it also trans-ships a fifth of the world's shipping containers. There are also eight airports in the country.

These privileged conditions make the Country really suitable not only to market in Asia, but also to the entire World. The diversity of the official languages and cultures eases the relationship with China, India, Vietnam or Malaysia for manufacturing purpose at low prices, while the headquarters, design and trading could keep in the country, with the help of a Government with a good understanding of the priority of innovation in our actual world.

Reference:
[1] Industry Transformation Programme
[2] Singaporean Dollar (S$) exchange rate
[3] Corruption perception index

Automation in Warehousing Industry

I remember one of my early jobs when I worked for Honeywell as IT Director. We maintained those legacy Cobol applications, for Supply Chain, Finance, and Sales. Tailored made programs written to perfectly fit the Corporate way of working.

Also, I remember when the ERP concept showed up. A standard information system that, although could be parameterized / customized to some extent, required your organization to adapt to it, changing the way the organization used to work. In those days that seemed to be a bit annoying, but after a while, most of the companies realized that this was a better way to improve company results and reduce costs, than having to maintain fully customized applications and non-standard systems. 

For robotics, end-users will be forced to do the same to some extent. 

Yes, I know, we want a robot that solves our problems in our actual world (the Cobol concept), but the reality is that our world is complex, very complex for machines to do even simple tasks. We will need to standardize and adapt our world and our processes for the robots in order to help them be enough efficient, what will result in a better productivity at fewer costs (the ERP concept)

The warehousing industry is one of those industries that is experiencing a major transformation towards the automation. Thanks to this, we could nowadays buy something between more than 400 million products in Amazon [1] and get it in almost a day at home.

Companies like Amazon, as well as other major e-commerce and supply chain companies are transforming all their internal processes and their physical warehouses to incorporate automated systems, all of them connected to the heart of the warehouse: The Warehouse Management System (WMS)

Although there are several processes in a warehouse that could be automated, nowadays robotics and automation is offering better solutions mainly for storage&retrieval and for stock-taking. Let us explore these solutions:

Automated Storage & Retrieval Systems

An automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) consists of a variety of computer-controlled systems for automatically placing and retrieving loads from defined storage locations [2]. 

ASRS. Source: Logistex

Retrieval of items is accomplished by specifying the item type and quantity to be retrieved. The computer determines where in the storage area the item can be retrieved from and schedules the retrieval. It directs the proper automated storage and retrieval machine (SRM) to the location where the item is stored and directs the machine to deposit the item at a location where it is to be picked up.

To store items, the pallet or tray is placed at an input station for the system, the information for inventory is entered into a computer terminal and the ASRS system moves the load to the storage area, determines a suitable location for the item, and stores the load. As items are stored into or retrieved from the racks, the computer updates its inventory accordingly [3].

Companies like Daifuku or Logistex are offering these sort of systems.

Sometimes among conveyors and lifts, there are also automated guided vehicles (AGV) as part of the ASRS system. A well-known example of this sort of robots is the case of Amazon, using Kiva robots for moving pods with items all around the warehouse.

Kiva Robot. Source: Wired 

Other examples of AGV that are used in ASRS for moving cargo are autonomous forklifts (as those offered by Seegrid), able to move autonomously through the aisles with different navigation technologies, storing or retrieving pallets.

hmiShelf. Source: Fetch Robotics

Also interactive autonomous conveyors are used mainly in e-commerce industry, helping to locate and move products. Warehouse associates and robots work together to reduce travel time and maximize time-on-task. Workers work more, walk less. It makes for a better, happier work environment. Several companies offer this sort of solutions, like Locus Robotics or Fetch Robotics, with hmiShelf robot, which have a touchscreen (the human-machine interface, or hmi) to tell the robot when the load is complete and where to deliver the items.

All these sorts of AGVs use different navigation technologies, generally based on magnetic or visual line following techniques, computer vision, Laser Range Finder and Sonar technologies, and other positioning and inertial systems. The key of this systems is that their Mean Time between failures (MTBF) should be very low, in an industry that requires sometimes 24/7 service. 

Inventory Management

Stock-taking may be performed as an intensive annual end of fiscal year procedure (physical inventory) or may be done continuously by means of a cycle count. Cycle counts contrast with traditional physical inventory in that a full physical inventory may stop operation at a facility while all items are counted at one time. Cycle counts are less disruptive to daily operations, provide an ongoing measure of inventory accuracy and procedure execution, and can be tailored to focus on items with higher value, higher movement volume, or that are critical to business processes. Cycle counting should only be performed in facilities with a high degree of inventory accuracy (greater than 95%). The purpose of cycle counting is to verify the inventory accuracy and even though it is not an adequate procedure to be used to correct inventory errors, it is an adequate way to identify the root causes of inventory errors [4].

There are several options to do an automated stock-taking with robots, both with AGV and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) or more commonly named “Drones”.

The advantage of an AGV is that it could work for many continuous hours with no need to recharge, but normally could only do stock-taking of items located at low heights. The robots could use different techniques for items identification. The two most common are RFID technologies and Barcode technologies. The first one allows very fast readings of several items even being inside boxes. A RFID reader could do all readings at some distance from the items. The Barcode scanning requires a precise location of the barcode tag and reading them, so items inside of a box could not be identified. Therefore, RFID technology is recommended in e-commerce warehousing and retailing, while barcode tags are more adequate for box and pallets, and is a cheaper technology, as is based on printed paper.

There are several companies working on AGV/UGV robots for stock scanning, mainly for retail, like Simbe Robotics, 4D Retail Tech. Corp or Pal-Robotics with their Stockbot robot.

StockBot. Source: Pal-Robotics

In the case of big warehouses with cargo located at high racking levels, the stock taking is more complex. The traditional method requires people with scanners on Scissor Lifts moving through all the aisles, which requires time and prepared people. 

Using drones is an alternative to this way, either in a manual or in an autonomous way. The drone could embark the suitable sensors to read the tags (either RFID or Barcode) and send the information to the WMS for inventory update. About 95% of big warehouses use barcode tags as they are much cheaper that RFID tag, so here may be the big market.

Infinium Robotics at Singapore, the company where I work for as CTO, offers a solution for stock-taking based on drones. It is an autonomous solution, able to fly within GPS-denied environments, do stock-taking, update WMS database and recharge batteries when needed flying to docking stations. The solution is called Infinium Scan.

Source: Infinium Robotics

Wal-Mart announced in June that it plans to start using drones to handle stock-taking at one or more of its many warehouses starting next spring. A vice president with the firm said that a task of checking inventory levels that takes employees a month could be reduced down to a day by using drones.

But although there are many companies offering or working on automated solutions for the warehousing industry, one of the key questions we have to understand is: ¿Will your solution offer the ROI (or payback period) expected by the customer? Not always is a reduction in manpower cost what management looks for. All these solutions make supply chain companies more competitive, improve their quality service and therefore help them to get more or better customers, keen to pay more for a better service.

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References

[1] (2015) How Many Products Does Amazon Sell? ExportX. https://export-x.com/2015/12/11/how-many-products-does-amazon-sell-2015/

[2] "Material Handling Industry of America - Glossary". http://www.mhia.org/learning/glossary/a

[3] Wikipedia ASRS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_storage_and_retrieval_system

[4] Wikipedia Cycle Count: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycle_count

Drones + Energy efficiency > 2 hours flight time

There are two technologies that are highly fashionable nowadays: Drones and Energy efficiency (production, conservation, accumulation and clean energy). 

Actual drones, mainly those of multirotor type, use electric motors that need a huge amount of energy to keep the drone up in the air. We could say in very colloquial words that they use “Brute force” to “grasp” the air.  Up to now we have been using LiPo batteries for this purpose as they had the best energy density for its weight (about 200Wh/kg) compared to other batteries. But the reality is that drones with this sort of batteries are not able to fly more than one hour in the best cases, being 20 minutes the average flight time with payloads of 1 to 2kg. But is it enough? 

I remember some years ago, mobile phones had an autonomy of at least one week. Now if you get your phone working all day you are almost lucky. But this seems to be ok for us, by now. In the case of drone applications, there are a lot of applications that do not need more than half an hour flight sessions, but other actual and potential application would really benefit, if longer flight times could be reached, like Search & Rescue, Shipping/ Delivery, Precision Agriculture, Law-Enforcement and border patrol, Geographic Mapping, Search and Rescue/ Healthcare.

Fortunately, some light is seen at the horizon for flight times increase. There are several improvements in the Energy Efficiency fields that will help drones have access to better energy density sources. 

hybrid (petrol-electric)

A few months ago I visited Quaternium, a Spanish company that announced the development of a multirotor drone prototype, able to fly four hours using a hybrid (petrol-electric) technology. This month (June 2016) they have announced their product HYBRiX.20, a multirotor drone able to fly 4 hours (2hr. with 5 kg. payload). 

HYBRiX.20 drone from Quaternium

They use a petrol engine that produce electrical energy for the drone motors, using a battery as an energy buffer. The theory is simple, but the complex part is to get the correct equilibrium between several factors: Energy conversion efficiency, weight and distribution, vibrations and noise control, long term mechanical reliability (robustness) and battery optimization between other. But what is more important, they were able to jump from a prototype to a sellable product to the real market. 

From left to right: Jose Luis Cortes (founder & CTO Quaternium), Alejandro Alonso, and Alicia Fuentes (CEO) 

There are other companies, like Top Flight, a North American company, producing hybrid (petrol-electric) multirotor drones able to fly 2.5 hours with one gallon (3.8 litres) of gasoline. The solution is said to have an energy density of 1,500 Wh/kg, more than 7 times over LiPo batteries.

Hybrid drone from Top Flight

But hybrid (petrol-electric) is not the unique technology available for improving flight times, although it is possibly the most efficient at this time. 

Graphene batteries

Graphene can make batteries that are light, durable and suitable for high capacity energy storage, as well as shorten charging times. The Spanish company Graphenano recently introduced, together with its Chinese partner Chint, graphene polymer batteries. The company expect to have commercial batteries at the end of 2016. The batteries are said to have a density of 1,000 Wh/kg. Independent analyses by TÜV and Dekra show that the batteries are safe and are not prone to explosions like lithium batteries.

Hydrogen fuel cell

A hydrogen fuel cell technology uses compressed hydrogen and oxygen from the air to generate electricity. The hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water, but the electrons from the hydrogen could be used as power supply for a drone, with a battery buffer. The only exhaust from the fuel cell is water vapor and refueling with compressed hydrogen takes a few minutes compared to recharging a battery, so it is also a clean source of energy. 

There are several companies working on the application of this technology for prototype drones. 

In USA the company Intelligent Energy is working on a multirotor drone prototype that can fly for 2 hours. 

Hydrogen fuel cell drone from Intelligent Energy

In Singapore a consortium of Singaporean institutions and private sector companies including HES Energy Systems, ST Aerospace, DSO National Laboratories, and the Future Systems and Technology Directorate of Singapore’s Ministry of Defense, have worked jointly to achieve a record 6 hour endurance, 300km flight on the Skyblade 360 fixed wing UAV built in Singapore by ST Aerospace. The Skyblade 360 fuel cell system developed by HES and DSO is extremely lightweight in comparison to lithium batteries that typically power this sort of aircraft, and it is also extremely compact: its 1L fuel cartridge holds 1000Wh of usable energy.

Skyblade 360

It is nice to see we are getting alternatives to the "old" LiPo batteries for the drones market. This will open the space for a lot of possible real applications in a short time. The future is very promising.

Written by: Alejandro Alonso-Puig. HISPAROB Robotics Platform Vicepresident, Infinium Robotics CTO and Quark Robotics Partner.

Euroforum. Charla-Coloquio "Creatividad. Econobot y otros casos de creatividad personal"

Eurofoum Escorial, conocido entre otras cosas por ser el centro donde se celebran habitualmente los Cursos de Verano de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, ha organizado un programa de formación sobre creatividad e innovación para empresas denominado Crealia.

He tenido el honor de participar como instructor en este programa, impartiendo el 30 de Septiembre de 2008 una charla sobre Creatividad, con pinceladas de robótica titulada "Creatividad. Econobot y otros casos de creatividad personal"

Hacer clic AQUÍ para acceder a las slides de la charla.


La Innovación está de moda, está claro, pero la razón es obvia: La empresa que hoy no innova está avocada a morir.

Lecture at ExpoManagement 2008: "Enterprise Innovation"

I had the honour to give a lecture for second year at ExpoManagement, the most important Congress of Management in Spain.  This year the conference was titled "Enterprise Innovation". It was about Innovative factors that helps companies to grow its value. Based on some examples from the robotics world.

HERE you could see the slides I used. You will not find many written information in them, as in my lectures I usualy only show images at the screen, while I maintain the attention in my words. Each person have different ways of doing this. This is my method.

Lecture at ExpoManagement 2007: "Creativity, Innovation and Robotics"

I had the honour to give a lecture at ExpoManagement 2007, the most important Congress of Management in Spain.  This year the conference was titled "Creativity, Innovation and Robotics". 

National "ABC" newspaper. Article about Innovation. Spain

Daily national newspaper "ABC". Spain. Production: 277.000 daily units

Sunday suplement.

Title: "Especial Expomanagement"

Interview to Alejandro Alonso-Puig about Innovation.

Click on the picture to access the complete news article.

Día de Internet. Reflexión.

Hoy es el Día de Internet.

En una ocasión escuché en la radio un comentario en el Día Internacional de la Mujer Trabajadora. El autor del comentario decía que aparecen muchos “Día de..” como consecuencia de un problema, para refrescar las conciencias de la gente sobre ese problema y, mientras sigue existiendo ese  “Día de..“, significa que el problema persiste. En este caso se refería a la aún injusta desigualdad entre la valoración que se hace de hombres y mujeres en ciertos entornos laborales.

Pero lo cierto es que hay muchos  “Día de..“  que persisten y ya han pasado de ser un día para hacer toc toc en las conciencias, a ser un día en el que celebrar el éxito de que finalmente esas conciencias han cambiado las cosas a mejor.

“El Día de Internet pretende dar a conocer las posibilidades que ofrecen las nuevas tecnologías para mejorar el nivel de vida de los pueblos y de sus ciudadanos”, es por tanto un día de concienciación y sobretodo de acción, pero yo pienso que es también un día de celebración. Un día en que es bueno pensar en el fenómeno Internet. En cómo algo que hace 15 años conocía una minoría, hoy por hoy mueve toda una sociedad.

Un buen amigo tiene escrito en su firma de correo electrónico, bajo su nombre, una frase muy interesante: “Internet no es una red de ordenadores, es una red de personas“. Internet nos ha acercado de una manera tan espectacular, que a veces llega a asustar y maravillar a la vez. Hace unos días estaba en Second Life, charlando con una amiga que tengo en Australia. En el mundo virtual de Second Life yo estaba con ella, sentados en una fantástica playa charlando de ideas comunes. En el mundo real estábamos en lados opuestos del globo, sentados frente a nuestros ordenadores. Eso fue lo que yo le dije: “Es sorprendente cómo a través de este mundo virtual puedo sentirte tan cerca, cuando en el mundo real estás tan lejos“. Que enormes posibilidades nos brinda Internet para crear nuevas alternativas, nuevos enfoques, para acercarnos más y formar una unidad.

Internet ha cambiado nuestras vidas y seguirá haciéndolo, seguirá ayudándonos a estar más cerca y a hacer que no sea una red de personas y ordenadores, sino mucho más. ¿Sabías que hay modelos de telescopios para aficionados a la Astronomía con conexión a Internet?. Los controlas desde cualquier sitio y puedes ver imágenes a distancia sin problemas. Ojo, he dicho “cualquier sitio”, porque ¿dónde en el mundo no hay Internet?. Si no es por conexiones WIFI es por GPRS, UMTS, cable, satélite,..

De la misma manera que esos telescopios se conectan a Internet también lo hacen neveras, para hacer el pedido al supermercado del material que se está agotando, o cámaras de vigilancia, e incluso lavadoras, para avisar del final del ciclo de lavado y facilitar su programación y activación.

Internet nos conectará a todos, humanos y máquinas. Facilitará una fluida comunicación entre humanos, robots, dispositivos diversos, mundos virtuales, para formar un todo etéreo que ampliará nuestra mente a nuevas posibilidades de crecimiento y de creatividad. Nos llevará a un mundo que hoy no podríamos entender, igual que la mayoría de nuestros bisabuelos no podrían entender el fenómeno de Internet por mucho que se lo explicásemos. Los míos ni siquiera conocieron lo que era un coche…

Qué cambios, que evolución tan espectacular se está produciendo en el mundo de la tecnología. Lo siento como una gran ola que se está formando. Es el momento de no tener miedo al futuro, montarse en la tabla de surf y deslizarse al ritmo espectacular de la evolución socio-tecnológica que estamos creando.

Conferencia en el SEK y reflexiones

Ayer estuve dando una conferencia en el SEK en Barcelona, concretamente en la localidad de La Garriga, en las laderas del Montseny. Un lugar muy bonito.

La conferencia iba dirigida a un grupo de estudiantes de Bachillerato, con inquietudes por saber. Lo pasé realmente bien con ellos. Hablamos sobre lo que había y lo que venía en el mundo de la robótica. Sobre cómo yo a su edad tenía que calentar la leche en un cazo al fuego, evitar que se saliera la leche, pasarla al vaso, eso si, con el uso de un colador y luego, con un poco de suerte, que no estuviese tan caliente que me quemase los labios. Ahora uso un microondas. Ahora empieza a haber robots.

Igual que hasta hace unos pocos años no se había aun popularizado el uso de los móviles, Internet, los videojuegos en red, los ordenadores portátiles, etc, de igual manera es de esperar una evolución de la tecnología en la línea que se ha seguido, pero la línea que se ha seguido no es recta, sino exponencial. Eso da que pensar, ya que si hasta hace poco más de diez años no se usaba de forma popular Internet y ahora todo el mundo sabe lo que es youtube, el mail, el chat, Google, la Wikipedia, la compra de billetes de avión y reserva de hoteles y espectáculos on-line, los blogs, el SecondLife, el Meetic, los portales, Linked-in, Flikr, eBay y tantas otra aplicaciones de la red, sin las que ya no podemos vivir, si en solo diez años hemos creado todo este cambio social, qué será lo que haremos en los próximos diez años. Creo que si alguien del futuro, de tan solo diez o quince años adelante nos viniese a contar qué nos encontraremos, no podríamos creerle, igual que si le intentásemos contar nosotros a alguien hibernado de hace 15 años, que todos y digo TODOS, llevaríamos al menos un móvil (eso si, con cámara, 3G, juegos, mensajería instantánea, agenda, politonos o MP3, etc) en el bolsillo, o un ordenador miniatura (PDA), un GPS en el coche, aplicaciones web 2.0 por todas partes, robots en Marte, megaempresas nacidas de Internet, conexiones de banda ancha con tarifa plana en todas las casas, etc.  Esa persona se quedaría muy sorprendida del cambio. Claro que cuando yo era pequeño, pensaba (como muchos) que el año 2000 estaríamos todos viviendo en un mundo  futurista, con casas bajo el agua o en la luna y vistiendo trajes plateados :-)

Hace poco hablaba sobre estos temas mientras comía con Paco Ragageles, Presidente del Grupo Futura, organizador del Campus-Party (el mayor evento de entretenimiento en red del mundo) y las iniciativas sobre prevención del calentamiento global entre otras cosas. Él compartió conmigo una reflexión que realmente me hizo pensar. Me dijo que no creía en los Gurús, simplemente porque a la velocidad que cambian las cosas, nadie puede prever el futuro con claridad. Verdaderamente las cosas van a tal velocidad que quién podía prever hace tan solo cinco años, que podríamos descargar masivamente nada menos que vídeos a y desde Internet a alta velocidad y GRATIS. Es verdaderamente alucinante la evolución tecnológica a la que nos estamos enfrentando, el cambio constantemente acelerado al que la raza humana se enfrenta. El potencial creativo tan impresionante, imparable. Atrás quedaron aquellas frases de "Ya se ha inventado todo" porque cada año, casi diría que cada día, somos testigos reales o virtuales, que más da, de nuevas soluciones, nuevas posibilidades y nuevos campos de crecimiento personal y profesional del ser humano.

Y centrándonos en la Robótica, ¿Qué tendremos dentro de diez años?. Ni lo se. Lo que si se es que depende de nosotros, de nuestra implicación, de nuestra capacidad de adaptación, de nuestra creatividad, de nuestra capacidad de interactuar en este mundo global, de nuestra capacidad de estar abierto a nuevas alternativas, nuevas formas de ver las cosas. El mundo es nuestro, pero no se va a parar para que te bajes.

Durante la charla, que fue de divulgación sobre la robótica y no sobre toda esta reflexión, les puse un vídeo para ver un poco las aplicaciones de la robótica en diferentes aspectos de la vida (Ciencia ficción, robótica industrial, aplicaciones para el hogar, aplicaciones médicas y a la discapacidad, aplicaciones lúdicas, robótica espacial, bioinspirada, etc). El vídeo lo construí tomando partes de vídeos que conseguí GRATIS de youtube, así que lo aporto también gratuitamente para quien lo quiera utilizar.

Creatividad, Innovación y Robótica

Suplemento semanal "Executive Excellence" del periódico nacional "Cinco Días". España. Tirada: 15.000 ejemplares

Título: "Creatividad, Innovación y Robótica"

Artículo escrito por Alejandro Alonso Puig sobre el tema.

Hacer clic sobre la imagen para acceder a la noticia completa en formato PDF (1,2Mb)