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Automation in agriculture and services

Automation will affect all industries manipulating physical objects. Consider agriculture. UC Davis built an automatic tomato harvested which revolutionized the industry to the extent that they had to develop a tomato tough enough to be harvested by the harvester. Work is progressing on machines to harvest oranges and other fruit. Construction will probably be automated more slowly than manufacturing. Manufacturing takes place in much more controlled conditions and the number of contingencies are fewer than in construction. Construction will be automated by creating modules in factories to be assembled on site. The handling of physical objects in the services is also being automated. Utilities such as electric power generation are similar to continuous process manufactured items and are highly automated. Computers have made possible the shipping of sealed standard sized containers. RR cars are also controlled by computers. Warehouses have been automated. At Federal Express, the sorting of packages is automated for overnight delivery.



norman@eco.utexas.edu
Thu Jun 8 16:37:44 CDT 1995