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Unread 04-03-2009, 09:24
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Re: Peace, Love, and all that hippy stuff: robotics career outside the defense indust

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Line View Post
Of course, considering how this country has thrown it's manufacturing sector under the bus, I'm not sure those are positions where long-term employment is really a feasible goal.
I need to second Tom's remark here. Manufacturing is one of the largest purchasers of automated mechanized machinery. AKA robots. Less manufacturing = less need for machinery = less need for excited youthful robotics engineers.
This then leads you to the entertainment industry:
Toys, rides, dynamic fountains, signs....

The Auto Industry is gaining a ton of applications for CS and EE related engineering, but due to some poor decisions and a down turned economy, they can't afford the talent. You think your robot is cool, Check out active safety, adaptive cruise control, collision avoidance, vehicle to vehicle communication, vehicle to network communication, driver awareness, stability control, launch control, engine controllers, navigation systems, voice recognition, infotainment, and power electronics coupled with smart navigation to minimize fuel economy impact.

You may want to broaden your scope of what a "robot" is and think about what aspect of working on robotics you enjoy. For example, High speed Photo Printers are one of the most accurate computer controlled robotic manipulated devices out there. If you really enjoy electromechanical controls systems, look into that.

With the steadily decreasing cheapness and availability of GPS everywhere, there is some really cool stuff going on. Ever see the new batman movie? While not quite as invasive as that, Navigation networks are using the signals from cell phones to figure out real time traffic flow issues. This could lead to predictive modeling of traffic patterns for passenger navigation and help road crews do their work more safely.
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