The 'unboxing' video format, (essentially, a video of someone unboxing a new gadget like a computer or a smartphone and describing the contents and packaging), has enjoyed a run of popularity amongst the geeky set. I mean who doesn't want to watch a choppy video with bad sound and lighting of a random 15 year-old kid unpacking a new Xbox?
Yes, 'unboxing' videos are generally horrible, and it is with that horribleness in mind that I run the risk of alienating those readers that not only don't know or care about 'unboxing' but also are lacking my interest and fascination with advances in robotics.
Check the video below, (email and RSS subscribers will need to click through), of a team at MIT receiving and unboxing its Atlas robot (built by Boston Dynamics) to use in the DARPA Robotics Challenge. I will have a couple of (probably nonsensical) comments after the jump.
What is Atlas all about? Here is a small description from the Boston Dynamics site:
Atlas is a high mobility, humanoid robot designed to negotiate outdoor, rough terrain. Atlas can walk bipedally leaving the upper limbs free to lift, carry, and manipulate the environment. In extremely challenging terrain, Atlas is strong and coordinated enough to climb using hands and feet, to pick its way through congested spaces.
The team at MIT will develop software to control and command Atlas to perform various actions in a disaster response situation - think things like defusing bombs, looking through tornado damage, potentially working in toxic waste spills, that kind of thing.
Why should you as an HR/Talent pro care about something like Atlas, and its capability and potential?
Because like lots of other technologies, these kinds of advanced robotics applications might start in research universities or government labs, but the best ones almost always become a part of the workplace.
Because at some point you as an HR pro will get asked a question from the CEO something along the lines of, 'Can't we find a way to automate that, instead of opening another assembly plant?' or 'Can you get me a cost/benefit breakdown of buying 10 new Baxters vs. hiring 50 new assembly workers?'
Because at some point someone you work for is going to see an 'unboxing' video like the one above from MIT and think, (perhaps erroneously, perhaps not), that pushing advanced automation further and farther into the business is getting easier and easier - not unlike how easy it is to set up that new Xbox.
Maybe I am completely off-base on this, and the time when the average HR pro really needs to concern themself with this kind of thing is decades away.
Or maybe I'm not wrong, and sooner than not you will have to add a 'person type' in your HRIS for new employees named Baxter or Atlas.