Question: Have you ever made robotic emplacements for people?

Conor McGinn answered on 9 Mar 2016:

No – my work is mostly in research. I work on solving problems that currently limit what robots can do and as such, the robots I design are usually not intended to be used by people on a regular basis. If my work proves successful only then will my technology/inventions be integrated onto a product that will be used by people.
I definitely think that what I am working on has the ability to replace people – most robots will do this ti some extent. Technology tends to do this – its not unique to robotics. This can be good and bad. Having robots creates jobs – people need to service them, program them, install them, train people to use them etc. These jobs are high skilled so it means that a country like Ireland where our population is highly qualified, would be really well suited for this industry. I think robotics has the possibility of creating many job opportunities in Ireland. We need to look closely at the jobs that they take. If the person being replaced is a slave/exploited worker in india – then is it really a bad thing? If they do a job that we haven’t got enough people to do, nursing for example, then that too is a good thing in my opinion. In cases where robots are simply cheaper, and thats the bottom line, then I think we need to do something to actively protect the workers whose jobs they are going to take. I think the government need to really step up here. We need to anticipate what jobs are most at risk and take steps to retrain people whose jobs will be at risk. We may not like it, robots will almost certainly cost alot of people their jobs in the future.