Advantages:
- In many situations robots can increase productivity, efficiency, quality and consistency of products:
- Unlike humans, robots don’t get bored
- Until they wear out, they can do the same thing again and again
- They can be very accurate – to fractions of an inch (as is needed for example in manufacturing of microelectronics)
- Robots can work in environments which are unsafe for humans – in the nuclear or chemical industries for example
- Robots don’t have the same environmental requirements that humans do – such as lighting, air conditioning or noise protection
- Robots have some sensors/actuators which are more capable than humans
Disadvantages:
- Robots can only do what they are told to do – they can’t improvise
- This means that safety procedures are needed to protect humans and other robots
- Although robots can be superior to humans in some ways, they are less dextrous than humans, they don’t have such powerful brains, and cannot compete with a human’s ability to understand what they can see.
- Often robots are very costly – in terms of the initial cost, maintenance, the need for extra components and the need to be programmed to do the task.