If you were once a U.S. steelworker, you know that your job was outsourced to Asia. Initially, simple manufacturing jobs were the first to be shipped overseas, then it was services job, and after than then knowledge jobs. But what about jobs that have historically been performed in the good old USA — or even jobs that required specialized skills and security clearances…you know like a fighter pilot? As you may or may not be aware, the rise of Unmanned Aerial Systems (also known as Drones) has caused military pilots to now have to worry about their profession going the route of the steelworker. However, military drones are still being tasked and “flown” by people. But, it begets the question: if military pilots have to worry about the outsourcing of their jobs to robots, are there truly any professions that are safe?!?

The answer may be found in a renowned DOD agency. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is making a full court press to take the next step and make fully autonomous robots that can take in billions of pieces of data a second, and then make flawless decisions on that information and, most importantly, take action on that information. Computers with advanced Artificial Intelligence programs, such as Deep Blue and Watson, have already humiliated the best and brightest minds in the world, but they are unable to act on any of the insights that they have. Robots are set to change all that. Initially robots will be set on simple tasks like picking fruit or serving fast food, but that is just the beginning. Jobs that can’t be sent overseas to cheap labor markets are set to become the domain of robots that don’t strike for higher wages or need bio-breaks.

When sending humans into disaster zones becomes too dangerous, dispatching robot responders may be on the horizon to assist with response and recovery efforts. This capability has already been evaluated via a contest sponsored by the DARPA where 24 robotics teams competed for $3.5 Mil. in June 2015 in Pomona, CA. Taking first place and the $2 million in prize money was Team Kaist of Daejeon, Republic of Korea, and its robot DRC-Hubo. Coming in second and taking home $1 million was Team IHMC Robotics of Pensacola, Fla., and its robot Running Man. The third place finisher, earning the $500,000 prize, was Tartan Rescue of Pittsburgh, and its robot CHIMP. After years of research and development, the DARPA challenge consisted of three increasingly demanding competitions over two years. According to the DARPA Robotics Challenge website DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar said, “This is the end of the DARPA Robotics Challenge but only the beginning of a future in which robots can work alongside people to reduce the toll of disasters.”

See more here from the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge website: http://www.theroboticschallenge.org/

The 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge involved eight tasks:

Driving a car

Getting out of the car

Opening and walking through a door

Opening a valve

Using a drill to cut a hole drawn onto a wall

Crossing a debris-filled terrain — either by clearing a path for itself or walking over the rubble

Climbing up steps

A mystery event, that will only be disclosed to the teams with no notice

These teams were also challenged to carry out a series of disaster-related tasks in the shortest time possible.

In the LA Times, Amina Khan says the challenge all stemmed from the 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan saying “The idea for this DARPA challenge grew out of the disaster at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, after a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011. At one point during the crisis, employees at the nuclear power plant needed to open some valves to release steam to avert an explosion, but could not get close enough, fast enough, because of the massive amounts of radiation.”

See more at: http://swtimes.com/business/rescue-robots-future-disaster-relief

For years, the military and even numerous police departments across the U.S. have used robots to assist with monitoring, screening and even disabling suspicious devices and packages. Police departments claim that these robots have saved the lives of countless officers when confronted with such dangerous situations. Bomb robots have in many ways completed a simple or fairly simple set of tasks- to detect and disarm an explosive or dangerous device. With the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge, today’s robots need to act more autonomously- where saving lives during a crisis would involve a number of various tasks, hurdles and challenges.

More on the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals

In watching the video of the challenge winner, it is incredible to see where robotics has gone and imagining the opportunities the future holds is both inspiring and frightening, unless you are a robot.

Here is a link to see the time lapsed video of the 2015 DARPA Challenge winner

While DARPA’s robotic challenge is aimed at advancing emerging technology and capabilities, it can be seen that robots responding to a disaster may be many years away. The robots entering the competition were large and heavy. Needing to be completely wireless, the batteries used were similarly large and heavy. In many cases, cranes were used to lift them or re-position them.

But if these early prototypes follow anything like Moore’s Law, they will rapidly be miniaturized, improved, and become cheaper. Failed designs will give way to breakthroughs that are undreamed of today. Initially the robots will specialize in repetitive tasks much like the robots in an automobile assembly line today, but with freedom of movement and advanced artificial intelligence. Others will take the place of extremely dangerous jobs such as astronaut. But don’t worry; your job will eventually get into the queue. And if you think that it doesn’t matter because you’ll be retired by then, take into consideration that robots don’t pay into the Social Security system. How about them apples?