The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 2

Pantagraph A 2 BloomingtonNormal, III. Sept. 1975 Industrial robots: Workers of tomorrow? 4 By Rick Pop A television crew was trying to coordinate lights, cameras, sound and reporter Pat O'Brien with the roomful of wildly gesturing machines. The crew's assignment was to get footage on the Fifth International Industrial Robot Symjx)sium last week at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago, and it was posing a challenge. Industrial robots are a far cry from the near-human machines envisioned decades ago by science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov, although "robotics," the term he coined for the study and development of robots, enjoys industrywide acceptance.

Instead, the robot is generally a single hydraulic "arm" with a claw attached to a flexible wrist. His thoughtless activity is directed by a minicomputer, and he is usually programmed by a human operator who leads the robot through his task once over lightly. His "memory" consists of a magnetic-tape cassette which plays the song of labor over and over again, translated for the machine into tiny electric impulses "Pick up the part. your arm and twist your wrist. down the part." The advanced robot can perform 16 different tasks before his tape recycles.

While the roomful of robot demonstrations may have been a Mecca, of sorts, for scientists from Oermany. Japan. Scandinavia, Great Britain and the Un 111 it -1 III 111 i i ited States, it was hardly the stuff from which dramatic broadcasts are made. Show stealer In fact, the closest thing to the hearts of late-night movie buffs was a three-foot toy christened "A-OK" by his creator, a Chicago tool and diemaker. A consistent shew stealer, the little fellow blinked lights, played music and waved his mechanical arms.

He was used by IIT's research institute to draw attention to their real-world contraption, which will be used by the Army in hazardous areas of ammunition manufacture. Undaunted, the television crew set up at a more staid exhibit and went to work. "While enjoying increasing use by industry, robots provide few practical advantages for the home," O'Brien smiled. "How many of you, for instance, would pay $8,625 for this?" A robot standing in the background extended his arm and swung over a cup of coffee, releasing it to O'Brien's waiting hand. As the lights flicked off, he drained the coffee and said, "Bet you anything I get a phone call from someone who wants to buy one.

sex object." "Did you get a release from the robot?" retorted one of the crew. Although taking on more human characteristics all the time, a robot does not yet require his permission to be photographed. He is deaf, dumb, blind and stupid, as his creators like to point out to allay the fears of the general public. What he will do is work around the clock under noisy, foul and dangerous conditions, performing the most mindless tasks imaginable without a whisper of a complaint. Reliable Chances are.

if vou now do something an industrial robot can do, he'll do it better, faster and more reliably. He never forgets, never tires, and has "A-OK" may have been the hit of the robot convention at Chicago's IIT last week, but in reality he is nothing more than a tool and diemaker's plaything. Expensive industrial robots were the name of the game as, above, television newsman Pat O'Brien demonstrates that they have little practical use in the home. Fifth annual symposium was attended by scientists from United States, Great Britain, Scandinavia, Germany and Japan. (Pantagraph photo) There are some jobs that are not meant for people." Traditional values of an honest day's work for an honest day's pay will have to change, he argued, as robots take over production of goods humans once made for themselves.

Work weeks will shorten and retirement will come sooner, he said, to spread available work around. One job where use for humans is already beginning to shrink is, ironically enough, the manufacture of parts for robots. According to Norman Heroux, manager of field services at Unimation's Danbury, headquarters, the contract for robot encoder die castings was awarded to a firm who handles the castings with robots. Although Unimation's present production capacity of 20 Unimate robots per month does not economically justify their use in Unimation factories, Heroux said, the possibility is definitely there' should demand pick up. It seems as though the thought of a computer-controlled factory, full of robots busily reproducing themselves, is more than just a fantasy.

v- f. iv- k. V- if i V. are not robots. The difference, according to experts who convened at IIT.

is flexibility an automated welder is useless scrap once its particular car model is obsolete, but a computerized rolxit can easily by reprog rammed to weld, spray-paint or unload parts for the new line. Just how much more than that he will be able to do is being determined in laboratories such as the Stanford He-search Institute in Menlo Park. where a team, led by scientist Charles Rosen, is working on a rolxit who will answer when talked to. "What you're seeing upstairs is just the entering wedge," he said. By hooking up robots to a more complex computer, and giving them vision and touch sensors, "you've got something that begins to approach what people do." While present-day robots are depen The government can pay out no more than the total sum earmarked by taxpayers who check off the campaign contribution box on their income tax returns.

Furthermore, more than $44 million will have to be set aside for those items that have first claim on the fund: S2 million each for the Democratic and Republican national conventions, and $20 million for each of the campaigns of the presidential nominees they select. The whole process begins Jan. 1. 1976. Federal Election Commission auditors Pantograph farm editor to speak at seminar The Daily Paragraph's farm editor.

Stanley Lantz, will speak at a seminar sponsored by the Mid-America Press Institute in St. Iouis, Oct. 17-18. Lantz will speak Oct. 18 on "Getting the Farm Business News for the Smaller Paper." Topic of the seminar is "Reporting the Local Economy.

Agriculture Business." The seminar will be at the Sheraton Airport Inn. us 1 HOURS MON. THRU FRI. 7 A.M. to 5:30 P.M.

SAT. to 12:00 i. 'it. -v a if i co -til if -111 i (cm 3f fmmQ perfect pacing. Someday, his brothers and sisters might take over your job.

Although this sounds more than a little frightening, roboticists don't view it that way. Instead, tlx'y say. robots will actually be doing the humans they replace a favor. "The place to use a rolxit is where the job is too easy for a man not too hard," said John Wallace, president of the robot-producing Prab Engineering Corp. The use of ro loots in industry poses no immediate threat to most American workers.

The world rolxit population totaled 3.400 in 1974. Wallace said, and his most optimistic (or is it pessimistic?) projection was 34,000 in 10 years. Many robot jobs, such as spot-welding Chevrolet Vega bodies on a General Motors assembly line in Ixordstown, Ohio, are also done by machines which million available for campaign payments during 1976, although about one-third of that is expected to come in from tax returns that won't be due until next April 15. By then, seven states will have held their presidential primary elections, and the campaign for White House nomination will be in its most hectic and expensive phase. At the moment, the Treasury's presidential campaign fund stands at $62,016,527, produced over the past three years by the optional, dollar-a-taxpayer checkoff system.

The law entitles every qualified presidential candidate to as much as $5 million in federal matching funds to help finance his bid for his party's nomination. "Whether there's enough money depends on how many candidates qualify," an election commission official said. Power project The Grand Rapids hydroelectric project began producing power for Manitoba, Canada, in 1964. We Specialize For better than the best, call Uses fits," said Joe Kngelberger, president of the world's largest manufacturer of industrial robots whose prices stall at 'Let's lace it. In any innovation, you get 5 per cent who skim off the cream and 15 per cent who get taken.

In the middle are a whole range of people who benefit to varying degrees. The people at the bottom of the heap in our country are. and will be, a lot better off than the man at. the bottom of the heap in Third World countries." In conversation with a Swedish attache, however, Stanford's Rosen spoke ol a 'new society" in which robots will (leriorm the drudgery humans once did, and turn out a better product to boot. "I can visualize factories with about a 10 per cent complement of people compared to today," Rosen said.

"Replacing bad jobs is a worthwhile thing. stretch Georgia, and Gov. George C.Wallace of Alabama, who has not announced his candidacy formally yet. Four other Democrats, former Sen. Fred R.

Harris, Sargent Shriver, former North Carolina Gov. Terry Sanford and Pennsylvania Gov. Milton Shapp. are declared presidential candidates. Sen.

Birch Bayh of Indiana is likely to enter the race soon. On the GOP side, former California Gov. Ronald Reagan, is expected to announce in November that he will run against President Ford. Under the law a qualified presidential candidate gets $250 in matching funds for every $250 contribution he receives. The law restricts presidential candidates to spending $20 million on the general election campaign and $10 million on campaigns seeking their party's nomination.

METZLER HOME a h. Matching campaign funds dent on a tightly omiioiied tlou ot work. Rosen's creations can pick a part out of a jumbled bin and. by waving it in Iront ut their cameras, orient it properly for the next step ol jiroiluetion. 'they will also he programmed hv spoken commands ol their oX'iators.

rather than Ix'inu plnsicalh led their job. Though technical discussions predominated, the etlert oi ail expanded robot labor force on lis human counterpart was not to be ignored primarily, il papers on the subject provide a clue, because ol the threat posed by unions. Thi' opinions ranged Irotn cavalier to utopic. with the cornerstone in all eases Ix'ing that increased production would provide a higher standard ol hung tor rich and poor alike. 'Production is an abxilute good The problem is how we screw up the bene may not are at which work now.

candidates trying to determine are entitled to the government matching hinds. According to current government estimates, once cost -ol -living increases are calculated, there probably will be $45 million to $47 million available lor payments to presidential primary candidates, assuming that the taxpayers match or increase the $314! million they earmarked for the campaign fund on income tax returns tiled this year. Any candidate who raises $3,000 in contributions ol $250 or less in each of 20 states is entitled to the aid to match later donations. Among Democrats who say they have qualified for the aid are announced candiates Sens. Henry M.

Jackson of Washington and Lloyd M. Bentsen of Texas. Rep. Moms K. I'dall of Arizona and former Gov.

Carter of JLtt 1EMOR.IAf OLR 1)1 DIC AT ED interest ours. Like your side during our SI Kl r'HONES 828 4573 3 ft FAST CLAIM SERVICE AUTO BROAD HOMEOWNERS POLICY HOME OO PACKAGE POLICIES BUSiNC SSj BROAD TARk INSURANCE "'M I LIFE-HEALTH-GROUP PC PLC CROP-HAIL COVERAGE CHOPS I AVIATION SPECIALISTS AiWCWAFT it YACHTS OUTBOARDS I CONTRACT PROBATE I OND5 WASHINGTON (AP) There may be a long line at the cashier's window when the government starts subsidizing presidential campaigners in January. Candidates who get there late could find the money running short. The Federal Election Commission estimates that there will be about $95 Paper a wa rded two firsts The Daily Paragraph's circulation department Tuesday was awarded two firsts by the Central States Circulation Managers Association for promotion efforts in the last six months. One award, for in-paper promotion, was for a series of three circulation advertisements that appeared in the Pantagraph in July.

The other award was for miscellaneous promotion materials those being used in a circulation contest among Pantagraph carriers. The Pantagraph competed with other newspapers, with circulations of 50,000 to 100,000, in a nine-state area. H.W. Stuart, circulation manager, and William. R.

Hertter, assistant circulation manager, received the awards in Lincolnshire. Your Life Insurance Mnn nam New York KENNETH SEITZ, CLU Ph. 452-7112 NEW YORK LIFE INS. 101 E. Vernon, Normoj ft mmm 97 STAFF is devoted to iuv trmtetl friend nn nt 'CF to you.

rnone oioouoo i CAPEN I N9URANCR Bloomington Ph. 829-1081 The Daily Pantagraph Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.

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