Canada (Commonwealth Union) – The possibility of robots taking over human jobs is a key concern as it could cause further economic hardship and questions remain as to how effective robots taking over human roles would be for consumers. The integration of robots however for more complicated and dangerous jobs is generally met with little resistance.
University of Calgary (UCalgary) architecture professor Alicia Nahmad hopes to introduce a robotic arm to take on more difficult tasks in the construction industry. The creativity usually witnessed on construction sites can take hours of intense repeating in certain activities. The possibility of a rentable mobile robots containing tools to take on the lengthy dull work, while providing extra time for workers to engage in more interesting activities and ideas inspired the robotic arm.
The ability to provide creative time for construction workers was the inspiration for MI Toolbox founder, Dr. Alicia Nahmad, who hopes a low repetitive construction industry will bring about a revitalized industry. “The idea is not about taking away jobs, it’s about taking away the boring, and bringing back the skill into the trade,” she said.
Professor Nahmad’s MI Toolboxvision was in the spotlight when it was featured at the Social Innovation Week at UCalgary which took place a few days back, as a mixture of activities hosted by faculties, accelerators, social enterprise, and others in UCalgary’s social innovation ecosystem and community. MI Toolbox is a single part of many UCalgary projects emphasizing on academic research solutions having positive social impacts, and Nahmad’s PhD in human-robot collaborative design encouraged a practicing architect to utilize her robotics and AI research to assist the construction industry.
MI Toolbox is defined as a “human-machine collaboration” combining together design, engineering and fabrication technologies with traditional craft, while looking into producing a mutual connection between the human body and digital tools.
