teaching computers by hand....

Programming computers is usually a keyboard operation requiring an understanding of a programming language. A Hands-on learning group member posted a link to an article showing how computers involved in controlling robots, can be programmed by hand positioning of the robot's tool. The article, How to Coordinate Multiple Axis Movements for a Robotic Welder, includes the short video above, showing the hands-on programming in action and illustrates the work of Robotiq, a company that makes various kinds of hand-like grippers for the robotics industry.

This leaves me with a question for my readers. Guiding the robotic tool and arm by hand to sense various positions so the computer can guide replication of the process seems a far cry from actually having hand-skills and conveying those to a robot, or using those skills yourself to make something. And if you have hand skills, and take pleasure in making beautiful and useful objects with those skills, would you want to train a robot to take your place?

What the hands actually do (and that took us years to learn) is so much more complex than what  we are able to teach even the most complex robotic hands to do. And the ability to spew products easily and at low cost takes a toll on the environment while producing goods of ever decreasing value and meaning. Whereas objects that require skilled hands in their making are becoming rare.

Make, fix and create...