With ever growing robotics technology garnering commercial success, The FedEx Institute of Technology is launching The Robotics Research Center. The new center will allow faculty, students, researchers and industrial and government sponsors to explore and research the field of robotics. It will also serve as a testing ground for homemade and FedEx funded inventions and other FedEx partners.
The Robotics Research Center will also be the first established by FIT since it opened in 2003.
The development of a robotic systems research center will become a major asset to The University of Memphis, especially with the rapid rise of technology, according to professors and faculty.
"Like the automobile and other disruptive technologies before it, robots will remake our world - the way we live, the design of our cities, the way we work and certainly in ways that are not foreseeable today," said Craig Grossman, an interim executive director at FIT. "The technological strides we and others in the field will make will bring robots into more and more areas of working and social lives. It will happen."
Grossman said FIT and its corporate partners will play a significant part in the process.
However, since iRobot's 1990 introduction of its first robot, Genghis, which is now at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, robotic systems have cautiously entered the market and could be seen as a threat to the work force. Other iRobot inventions have included "My Real Baby," a realistic toy doll released in 2000, and Roomba, an autonomous home floor vacuum cleaner released in 2002.
Robots could simply become a replacement for human workers and cause several people to lose their jobs in the future, said John Cicala, an instructor in marketing and supply chain management.
"It will have an impact on the work force," he said. "If they can hire a robot, why should they hire you?"
Robots also do not require bonus perks and benefits such as two-week vacations, overtime pay and sick leave, Cicala said.
However, although robots can pose a threat to the work force, such consequences are still scarce considering the long term approach, Cicala said.
"Somebody's going to have to run the robots and repair the robots. Robots are not going to be cheap," he said. "There will also be a higher initial outlay to purchase the robots."
Cicala said robotic system usage will gradually grow, but several professions like medicine and nursing will always be there just because of that personal touch.
"If I was in a hospital, I would rather have a smiling face," he said.
However, the continuing development in robotics technology is still important for the corporate world said David Ennis, senior international studies major.
"I see robots being able to revolutionize a lot of things," he said. "It's possible that robots could threaten jobs, but with that it will increase other opportunities for work."
Ennis said robotic systems will be a plus in business-oriented environments, but its advancement toward people's homes and personal lives could take a little longer.
"It's still too expensive. There's also a lot to be said in personal experience," he said. "However in the industrial and corporate worlds they would have a bigger role."
