[ Disclaimer, I bought a 'Replicator' [1] from Makerbot so its the only one I've got 'first hand' knowledge ]<p>The 'hobby' ones are still very rough. Think Altair/IMSAI level of personal computer. The lack of a reasonable filler/support material (so that you can print 'voids' and later dissolve out the filler) means that a lot of obviously useful shapes are unprintable at the moment (horizontal tubes for example). But the writing is, as they say, on the wall. My instinct is that plastic printing will overtake injection molding for small run products in as few as 10 years.<p>The biggest challenge to robotics in the US market has been organized resistance. Ford had the most productive auto plant in the world, in Brazil, because it was mostly robotic. They tried, and failed, to get it built in the US. But the depth and length of this recession has changed the politics on that to the point where 'any' jobs trumps 'no' jobs, even if the 'any' comes with the uncomfortable reality that nobody in the new plant will be able to work without at least a solid high school diploma and 2 years of apprenticing. The 'high paying' jobs will require a four year degree in manufacturing technology.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.makerbot.com/docs/replicator/" rel="nofollow">http://www.makerbot.com/docs/replicator/</a>
>Google recently announced that its Nexus Q streaming media player would be made in the U.S., and this put pressure on Apple to start following suit.<p>So Tim Cook announces Apple's intention to do this at the end of May, and this is somehow "following suit" when Google hadn't even announced the Nexus Q yet (June 27)?<p>>We can only guess. Autodesk CEO Carl Bass says that just as we have created new, higher-paying jobs in every other industrial transition, we will create a new set of industries and professions in this one.<p>What are <i>average</i> humans capable of that robots aren't?
I've been saying this for a while. I think all manufacturing will turn local at some point, though it may take decades still. If I ran FedEx/Kinkos, I'd be researching all the best 3D printers and trying to pick winners and losers.
The US already has plenty of manufacturing, we make more stuff in the US right now than we ever have in the past. The thing is that we just use robots instead of people to do most of it - and 3D printing will only tend to continue this trend.
Surely if the robots are replacing people then they're not really creating jobs, just taking jobs away from the Chinese.
Sure there will be some people manning the robots, but isn't the whole point of using robots to cut down on the human workforce?<p>Even the robots aren't created in USA - some are Kuka robots from Germany.
I've seen a lot from the DIY companies and academic demos - what companies are designing this kind of production-quality cutting edge robotics and AI solutions though? I'd like to be a part of this future, but it seems like those jobs are in much shorter supply and harder to find.
I seem to remember hearing some argument about why it is hard to bring manufacturing back to the US, and it had to do with the supply chain in China being vastly shorter. I'm not sure how robotics would address that. Thoughts?
For those who aren't well read (grin) a very good read looking at a dystopian future where 3d printers have displaced manufacturing is Cory Doctorow's "Makers". The Creative Commons licensed book can be downloaded from his website, craphound.com, or purchased elsewhere.<p>I suspect it may be one of those near-prophetic works of science fiction that will amaze future generations - "How'd he see that coming?"
the kind of jobs that would be created would be to install and maintain these robots and machines, until someone figures a way to automate that as well
Does anyone know of any US based consumer electronics factories set up to take small-medium sized orders from small companies...say for kickstart campaign funded products like the Ouya?