The KUKA factory was one of the most interesting places I have ever seen, but I wasn’t expecting it to be. When I heard we were touring a factory that made the robots that made cars, I was initially pretty skeptical as to just how interesting it would be. Regardless, we all hopped into the streetcars and made our way to the KUKA factory, which, shortly thereafter, amazed me.
We were first greeted by an extremely polite man who made us feel welcome immediately. He showed us an AI model that KUKA had been working on to streamline efficiency, which was already impressive. We then went to hear a short presentation on KUKA and what they do as a company. Everything that was discussed I found really interesting, from the way that KUKA robots are ordered, to all the colors they can be ordered in.
To break things up, we were then taken to a small on-site cafe where we could all get coffee or water and a small pastry complementary of KUKA. This broke up the information session quite well and helped us to all recharge before we sat back down to have a Q&A with one of KUKA’s workers. In this Q&A, we were able to ask whatever we wanted and learn about the company. I asked if there was an approval process for ordering these robots, or if anyone with enough money could buy one. I was interested to discover that there is a long approval process to purchase from KUKA, which brought me a little relief; for as much good as these robots can do, they could equally do just as much bad.
After our Q&A was over, we made our way into 2 separate parts of KUKA for a tour. First, we looked at the KUKA college. This was where students were learning how to utilize and program KUKA robots to their full potential. While I was in this part of the tour, I was even able to touch and utilize a small robot, which was very cool!
After touring the college, we looked around the factory itself to see just how these robots were made. One would think that a company making robots would utilize robots quite a bit, but I was shocked to discover that much of the construction process was human labor-dependent. Seeing the meticulous process of KUKA robot construction had me in awe. I never expected the tour to be just as cool as it was, and I was very happy to have been able to see what makes KUKA tick.