China Is spending Billions to Develop an Army of Robots

choi

Joshua Bateman, Why China Is Spending Billions to Develop an Army of Robots to Turbocharge Its Economy. CNBC, June 28, 2018.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/22/ ... ot-its-economy.html

My comment:
(a) The report is quite long. There is no need to read the rest, which is not new.
(b) "One example [of increasing use of robotics in China] is massive iPhone producer Foxconn, officially known as Hon Hai Precision Industry. Between 2012 and 2016, Foxconn's operating revenues increased slightly, but its headcount declined by almost one-third. More than 400,000 jobs were eliminated as tens of thousands of 'Foxbots,' factory robots, were deployed. Foxconn is targeting 30 percent automation by 2020"

I thought Foxconn CEO Terry Guo was telling tall tales about robotics -- mainly because I did not believe robotics could assemble small components into tiny electronic devices.  
(c) "Reportedly, profit per worker at Chinese auto firms in 2016 was $48,000. In South Korea, which has a much higher robot density, it was $152,000."

I do not like "reportedly." The reporter should cite sources. But the sentence is predictable, in part because automobiles produced in China are cheaper that those in South Korea.
(d) "Beijing-based Geelus Robotics develops logistics and warehousing applications"
(i) This is a typo; should be "Geek Plus."
(ii) Geek Plus's products looks similar to Kiva Systems's.

Kiva Systems was founded in 2003 and renamed Amazon Robotics when Amazon acquired Kiva in 2012. The headquarters remains in North Reading, Massachusetts (a town 15-mile air distance north of Boston..   
(iii) An Amazon robot bring a rack to a human picker who stays put.