What does the factory of the future look
like? Does it include autonomous robots?
Drones? Virtual reality? There's no way to
know for sure...
or is there? Professor Karthik Ramani of
Purdue University is joining forces with
manufacturers to build virtual factories
using augmented reality, so they can test
new labor-saving technologies in the
virtual world before installing them in
the real world. Is an autonomous robot
going to make a factory more productive?
With augmented reality, they can
physically simulate how workers will
interact with a robot, or any other new
technology. They can virtually experiment
with rearranging their shop floor to
maximize productivity. And if new
technologies are successful, they can use
augmented reality to train new workers.
In essence they can become pre-skilled
to work at their best, before they
ever set foot on the factory floor.
Thanks to a grant from the National
Science Foundation, Karthik Ramani's lab
at Purdue University is advancing the
future of work at the human-technology
frontier.
