Robotics Enabling the Workforce

TL;DR

This paper discusses how robotics can enhance the U.S. workforce by combining human skills with automation, emphasizing the need for research, education, and investment to maximize economic and societal benefits.

Contribution

It highlights the importance of research and development in robotics to effectively complement human workers and boost economic growth and resilience.

Findings

Robotics can significantly increase productivity and economic output.

Investments in robotics research and workforce education are crucial.

Collaborative human-robot teams can drive innovation and prosperity.

Abstract

Robotics has the potential to magnify the skilled workforce of the nation by complementing our workforce with automation: teams of people and robots will be able to do more than either could alone. The economic engine of the U.S. runs on the productivity of our people. The rise of automation offers new opportunities to enhance the work of our citizens and drive the innovation and prosperity of our industries. Most critically, we need research to understand how future robot technologies can best complement our workforce to get the best of both human and automated labor in a collaborative team. Investments made in robotics research and workforce development will lead to increased GDP, an increased export-import ratio, a growing middle class of skilled workers, and a U.S.-based supply chain that can withstand global pandemics and other disruptions. In order to make the United States a leader in robotics, we need to invest in basic research, technology development, K-16 education, and lifelong learning.