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Comment by pj_mukh | Hacker News Reader

Super cool! You are additionally going to be saving a lot of workers from getting chronic back pains. I thought maybe y'all are going too slow, but after looking at some baggage handling videos, it seems like you're at a comparable speed already?

In deployment these things are probably going to be on some kind of cart system, I presume all your algorithms can handle small changes in the XY travel plane (i.e. the robots location w.r.t the end of the belt).

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Thanks! It's a really destructive job for workers' lower backs and elbow tendons. This actually puts into perspective the blended throughput rate - you can imagine loading a few bags really quickly, but moving 20kg bags for 10 minutes straight will slow you down. That said - we still have a lot of runway on speed for these mechanisms and are still running fairly conservatively as we shake out our software.

There are a few ways we plan to deploy (some fixed rails, some mobile). Since the carts we're loading aren't placed with much precision, even the fixed deployments need to do serious environmental perception / localization.

> You are additionally going to be saving a lot of workers from getting chronic back pains.

That'll probably be a big comfort to those who lose their jobs

That's not how this works. Most airports are looking to expand, they can keep the same staffing levels with a rapid expansion in throughput with these machines. (Assuming the unions allow it).

It's not as though this is a profession which people spend a decade learning to perform. And it's not 2009 any more, there is demand for labor throughout the economy. I think the benefit of getting people out of physically damaging work outweighs the pain of having to find a new job in this case

I don't follow how the existence of these robots is a benefit to the worker. A robot took their job, that does not mean another job was created out of thin air.

I'm not saying this isn't back breaking work, I'm just saying that your logic doesn't make sense.

Many people will be put out of a low-skilled manual job, but many better-paid jobs are created for robot salespeople, robot installers, training specialists, delivery drivers, maintenance technicians etc. Those who adapt to these new jobs will thrive.

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