ZÜRICH, Switzerland — When you think about being dominated by machines your imagination immediately goes to Terminator— robot-powered tanks firing lasers as they drive over piles of human skulls. The reality is much more mundane, which makes it almost worse.
Case in point: Gramazio Kohler Architects in partnership with ROB Technologies recently ran a demonstration of a robotic arm laying tile with all the deftness and precision you might expect from a computer. We’re usually tech-positive on CFile; we talk all kinds of sugar about CNC routing and printing with clay, even when the kneejerk luddites come out in force against it. We do this because we see tech as an extension of human creativity; it augments a spark that was already present in us.
Gramazio Kohler is different because their robot is aimed entirely at replacing human labor. I’m not reading that into the project. As you can see from the video we posted here, the firm is proud that this robot will replace skilled workers. They lead with it in a chart at the start of the video. They state that tiling is slow and labor intensive, is often of poor quality, relies on a shrinking labor pool and is strenuous.
Of those facts (and I doubt the shrinking labor pool one is even a fact; I know dozens of people my age who would kill for some strenuous, slow labor) they conveniently forget to mention that you don’t have to pay a robot, the robot doesn’t care if it works 60 hour weeks, the robot won’t join a union and the robot won’t ask for injury benefits if it breaks on the job.
Yes, we love tech at CFile, but not this. This is the cheap, shallow version of the robotic potter piece we ran a while back. The designers are not looking for better labor, they’re looking for labor they can better exploit. If I sound too cynical, it’s only because I love what we can accomplish with the aid of robots and computers. This very firm, in fact, made a robot-assisted sculpture that is unlike anything you’ve ever seen because it is literally impossible for human hands to do that work. But this? This is selling out and people will suffer because of it.
We can’t put the genie back in the bottle, I know. I also realize that sometime in the future there may be a new labor paradigm that can support both skilled workers and companies that use robots. It’s that gritty transitional period I’m afraid of; history shows we handle those very poorly, and only act once some sort of crisis has been reached.
Bill Rodgers is the Managing Editor of cfile.daily.
Do you love or loathe this use of contemporary ceramics? Let us know in the comments.
I need this Robotic tails lying machine in india. I want to import this machine
What is the cost of this machine
In the last 20 years, China has built more than half the world’s
new buildings, as we know each buildings and almost every rooms need
to lay tiles. A lot of construciton workers put a lot of effort into
it. Now the workers are old day by day, and the yong generations have
no willing to do construction works any more. So I think your “Auto
laying tiles roboter” can help a lot.
Tout ce qui peut soulager la pénibilité doit être soutenu , c’est être futuriste , il faudra des formations , pour des maîtres carreleurs, Les robots ont besoin des humains
Ils pourraient générer des économies et peut-être davantage
Comme pour bien des technologies qui nous paraissaient relever de la science-fiction avant de faire partie de la vie de tous les jours, nous nous habituerons graduellement ─ et peut-être plus vite qu’on le pense ─ à côtoyer des robots et à interagir avec eux.
Je préside un comité technique des revêtement dur sol et murs en Belgique c’est le CSTC , je suis partant pour promotionner ou synergie .Cordialement Michel De Bes
what is the cost of this machine?
Are there any estimates as to costs of this machine? Either in terms of renting or owning?
Hello us fois désolé us possible tou watching m’y machine toi contact mi YouTube machine à carreler.think
Nice machine! Just was looking for some automatic solutions for tiling. It doesn’t show how the machine moves along with tile path whenever the robotic hand cannot reach it. Does it move on its own wheels or it has to be moved by the tilers watching how the machine is doing their work? 🙂
Well,
Living in Arkansas and having to rely on tilers whose work has not stood up, I am inclined to do the work myself. It is indeed hard backbreaking work that I would gladly hand over to a robot. Finding nothing artistic or interesting about the repetitive boredom of precisely placing one tile down next to the other of the same size, color, and texture holds no appeal. I can only think it is a well paid profession, for I fear it holds no interest to the laborer. I do not think a robot can lay tile that is multi-cut with varying sizes and patterns-not now anyway. A tiler who can do that effectively is an artist. I do, however, fear you are correct in your sell-out assumption and there will be an “uneasy” adjustment of the workforce.
Hi Bill
Many Thanks for your interesting articles on C File
Ive recently been to see the new Pedro Almoldovar film Julieta. It has the most beautiful contemporary and tradititional Galician ceramics in quite a few of the scenes. I have been trying to find out more about their origin …is there any way that it is possible to find this out ?
Interested in importing a machine. Need further details and price.