I think it is fair to say that all of us know that the automotive industry is changing and those changes will adversely affect Michigan’s economy.  If GM, Ford and Chrysler decide to close, or they decide to drastically change the way they do business (i.e. they slim down to approximately 1/5th of their current business), Michigan will definitely feel an impact since about 5.1% (265,000 people) of its labor force are directly involved with automotive manufacturer (not a supplier) in 2005. Given that this may happen in the near future, it would be prudent for Michigan to find other technologies which can be used to employ its citizens and keep Michigan completive in the Global Market?  If so, what technology should that be?  I would like to suggest that Robotics is one technology that has the potential to impact the economy of Michigan on nearly the same scale as the automotive industry has.  I will present a number of arguments to support this claim throughout the remainder of this article.
     The success of the automobile started with Henry Ford and the conception of the assembly line.  This made the manufacture of autos cheap enough, enabling the middle class to afford one and, at the same time, getting everyone to want one as well, thus creating a huge market.  At the same time, Ford was also offering high wages for those who would work in the plants building these cars.  Now let’s apply these same things to robots.  If robots were to be built in large numbers on assembly lines then their unit price would be driven downward as well.  The novelty of having a robot do your dishes or walk your dog, I think, would be more then enough for people to want one especially since these are the types of chores people don’t want to do anyway.  The skills it will take to design robots that can be built on assembly lines and allow that line to build multiple type of robots (much like auto plants build multiple styles of vehicle), will most definitely demand high wages.  
     In order to fill such a high tech industry, education and skill levels of the Michigan worker will need to increase.  Robotics are very complex and diverse in their technology requiring competent engineers and technicians to conceive and manufacture these machines.  Pneumatics, Micro Processing, Mathematical Algorithms for the emulation of intelligence and many more areas of science and engineering all need to come together to create one working robot.  However, is that much different from the automobile.  Cars today have far more computing power then the first computers that brought the US to the forefront of space exploration.  Hydraulic brakes, Fuel efficiency Algorithms, Pollution reducing devices and other technologies are also incorporated in modern Automobiles.  Furthermore, many of our economic leaders are telling us that the skill level of the average US employee will need to expand to allow the US to compete in a global economy.  Shifting Michigan’s attention from automotive to robotic seems to me would be a solution that solves many of the problems faced by most states in the union.
     Some might be thinking “Yes but what about the assembly jobs the automotive industry offers.  Where will they be in Michigan in a robotic future?” and that would be a fair question.  The answer, I feel, is that robots need to be assembled just like cars and trucks do.  Currently, most industrial robots have 3 main pieces and 6 joints.  There is a base and two sections which form the arm.  These pieces have to be made separately and then jointed together by the joints of the robot.  Gear boxes need to be assembled, wiring has be installed to the motors and external devices, nuts and bolts have to be placed and tightened on top of other peripheral operations that go into the assembly of one industrial robot.  When industrial robots give way to residential robots and personal robots, their will be more assembly required proportional to the varying applications and complexity of these machines.  Assembly positions within robotics companies may not be a plentiful as they are within the automotive industry, but they will certainly not disappear.
     As I am sure most of you have realized, this article has not been a comprehensive study of how Michigan may go from an automotive state to a robotic state in a certain amount of time.  The article is based on my thoughts and ideas as a young robotics engineer with a mind eager to embrace its imagination and what may be possible.  Although the thoughts and ideas presented here are by no means impossible, they not exactly likely to occur overnight.  However, they can occur and if we, as the engineering community, open our minds to the possibility that it is possible to use robotics technology, not only to improve the economic position of Michigan, but also to improve the quality of our lives much like other technologies have, then maybe we have a future that is worth looking forward to.

     Anyone interested in learning more about robotics and how they may be used to affect changes like those described in this article.  Please feel free to contact Chapter 14 Robotics and Automation chair, Robert Sealy at 248-894-2364 or robert.sealy@ieee.org