Ask the Experts
Published on: 09/16/2019
Last Reply on: 09/17/2019
Category: Assembly
Technology: AI, Robotics
My Name is Brian Jencks. I tutor students now in high school and get the question: “what should I do? And how should I do it?” I believe there is a future in robots that perform in hostile environments (collapsed buildings, nuclear waste sites, ocean depths, bomb threats, avalanches, outer space, burning buildings …). I can not find information on educational paths for such careers. Standard rap for engineers sure—but are there any specialized programs? (I am not asking about industrial robots—that ship has sailed.)
While industrial robots are the most common type of robot many manufacturers are also supplying robots for other fields such as medical, mobile robots, personal service robots, and other fields. The skill set for all of these has much in common, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, pneumatics, controls, and programming. Many colleges and universities have created "mechatronics" programs to cover the range of skills needed for robotics and other forms of automation. Yes they do cover industrial uses, but they also go beyond that.
Jim Cook from Stäubli Robotics | 09/17/2019
Hi Brian, There are lots and lots of opportunities in industrial robotics, collaborative robotics, autonomous robots and certainly in specialized niche industries such as security, service and emergency robots. There are lots of community colleges and universities across North America with programs on automation and robotics programming, machine vision, etc. Search on Google for technical robotics courses near you. Also consider reaching out to an automation integrator company (or robot mfg company) and asking where they hire their robot apprentices and co-op students. Good Luck, Jim Beretta www.customerattraction.com
Jim Beretta from Customer Attraction Marketing Consulting | 09/17/2019