Foxconn's facilities will see the first major application of Google's robotics technologies, according to the Wall Street Journal. As the newspaper revealed, the collaboration began last year to automate a large part of the electronics assembly process with the help of the American company's robots.
Google's expansion into robotics was first revealed in an interview with the New York Times last December by Andy Rubin, the creator of Android. Rubin revealed that after stepping down as head of the company's smartphone and tablet operating system, he had taken over the company's robotics division.
In fact, the division already included seven software and hardware companies that the internet giant had acquired in complete secrecy. Acquisitions that continued in the time since then, as a few weeks later Google also acquired Boston Dynamics, the company that built Cheetah, the fastest robot in the world.
As the Wall Street Journal now reveals, Rubin found the first "customer" for the new division in 2013. This is because last year Google signed an agreement with Foxconn to develop robots that will take over the assembly of electronic products in the latter's facilities.
Foxconn is one of the world's largest electronics suppliers, manufacturing products for several multinational companies - including a large percentage of Apple's iPhones and iPads. Most of its factories are in China, employing around 1 million workers, and the company has been in the news several times for its oppressive conditions, extremely low wages and violations of (albeit not particularly strict) Chinese labor laws.
As early as December 2012, the company's CEO Terry Gou had stated that Foxconn planned to install 1 million robots in its factories within the next 10 years. The goal, as Gou said at the time, is for Foxconn to be able to manufacture even more complex products, to expand into other industries, as well as to improve working conditions.
Source: kathimerini.gr
