The advantage to using robots is to increase productivity and decrease waste. Robots have a extremely high rate of repeatability. They don't have the individual characteristics of a human operator. Robotics takes human error out of the equation, not to mention that they never call in sick or ask for raises. Remember, robots are basically like computers in that they are stupid devices and still must be programed by the personel that they are replacing. Most companies see an immediate decrease in rejected manufactured parts.
Upsides:
no sickies:
repeat every thing exactly time after time after time
don't get weld flash ~ bad back or object to bad smells
lowish capital cost for long term or high volume runs
can work in the dark ~ (just like the rest of us mushrooms?)
can under take varied tasks if supervisory control system
Downsides:
can require extensive safety and protection systems ~ they don't say excuse me first
easy to confuse ~ just move the tool or the job
sometimes jigging for the job costs more than labour
don't forget inertia~ you want it to move quick from a to b then don't plan to hang real big weights on the end
not so easy to tune ~ its a brave bloke who mods the program on the hop
