Robots have been doing tough jobs for over half a century, mostly in the automotive sector, but they’ve probably had a bigger impact in Hollywood movies than on factory floors.

That’s about to change.

Today’s robots can see better, think faster, adapt to changing situations, and work with a gentler touch. Some of them are no longer bolted to the factory floor, and they’re moving beyond automotive manufacturing. They’re also getting cheaper.

These improvements are helping to drive demand. In fact, we expect the global industrial robot population to double to about four million by 2020, changing the competitive landscape in dozens of fields — from underground mining to consumer goods and aerospace manufacturing. Robots will allow more manufacturers to produce locally and raise productivity with a knowledge-based workforce.

These changes have profound implications for millions of laborers around the world and thousands of companies. Manufacturing footprints are likely to change substantially, and new business models will emerge to help innovators tap new opportunities and disrupt industries.

Three powerful trends are spurring the rise of the machines.

1. They’re much cheaper. As technology has advanced and robot production has scaled up, costs have fallen by about 50% since 1990 — while U.S. labor costs have risen 80%. In China, manufacturing wages have risen five-fold just since 2008 as employers have chased workers eager to switch jobs for better pay.

Not surprisingly, Chinese companies are automating at an accelerating rate. Foxconn, which employs more than a million workers in mainland China, plans to automate 70% of its assembly work within the next three years. Before then, the nation should account for more than half of worldwide robot sales, according to the International Federation of Robotics.

2. They’re smarter and more autonomous. Advances in artificial intelligence and sensor technologies are giving robots the power to cope with task-to-task variability. Flex Track robots now crawl around airframes on their own, “seeing” exactly where to drill without human intervention.

Far more advanced sensors, and the computer power needed to analyze the data flowing from those sensors, will allow robots to take on complex, delicate tasks, such as cutting gemstones, that previously required highly skilled craftspeople.

Insight Center The Future of Operations Sponsored by GE Corporate The technologies and trends shaping tomorrow’s businesses.

Advances in automated guided-vehicle technology are giving robots the mobility needed for underground mining, warehouse navigation and parts delivery in manufacturing plants — just the beginning of what will be possible in the next 10 years.

The data generated in these activities will travel along the digital thread to help designers, engineers, and managers understand the drivers of quality, process time, flow, and inventory in real time. Companies that can harness this data, will improve their products and processes faster than competitors.

3. Safer, gentler machines are integrating with the workforce. Advanced safety systems are making it possible for people and robots to work side by side, complementing each other’s strengths. Robots can now detect the proximity of operators and adapt their speed, force, and range of motion to prevent collisions, making it far easier to assign tasks to robots in otherwise manual assembly lines.

While today’s general-purpose robots can control their movements to within a tenth of a millimeter, new assembly robots will be accurate to within two hundredths of a millimeter with high dexterity. Their vision and force-sensing abilities will allow them to participate in increasingly delicate handling and assembly tasks, such as those required for sophisticated electronic devices. One robot manufacturer says its machines can already thread a needle.

They’re also getting more coordinated. With controllers that can simultaneously drive dozens of axes, multiple robots can work together on the same task.

At one car company, collaborative robots now work side by side with people to assemble doors. The robots apply water seals exactly the same way every time with far less variability than human workers can manage, preventing leaks that could damage the doors’ costly mechanical and electrical systems, which the humans install. At a jet manufacturer, twin-armed humanoid robots turn on multiple axes and combine vision and artificial intelligence to locate each work piece and adapt to its specific condition.

Industry leaders are already capturing value. A multinational company struggled for years to coordinate the flow of multiple products and steam pressures among the units of a fertilizer operation, resulting in an estimated 10% in lost revenues. Engineers installed sensors at each step in the process and an artificial intelligence and machine learning system to track and adjust changes in flows across units. Efficiency improvements have cut the revenue losses by three-quarters so far, in effect boosting revenue by 7% to 8%.

A mining company now uses tele-remote and semi-autonomous underground load-haul dumpers controlled from the surface. Production variability has declined, and with fewer people underground, safety, productivity and labor utilization have improved. Overall equipment effectiveness has also risen, and automated guidance systems mean fewer collisions and less damage to equipment.

A packaged goods manufacturer raised productivity by installing 22 automated guided vehicles to deliver materials to and from the line. A small team can now oversee the work of the vehicles, provide quality control, collect and organize data from the product and process, and drive problem-solving efforts for continuous improvement. This transformation of a human role — from forklift driver to analyst, from cog to contributor — reflects one of robots’ most meaningful contributions to the labor force.

Implications for the workforce. Yes, robots will replace some people who now perform manual work. But they will also require companies large and small to employ thousands of workers with skills in analytics, programming, system integration, and interaction design. Ambitious workers — especially those with access to training — will gain new perspectives and new opportunities to contribute.

Robots can do some things better and faster than we can, but they’ll never completely replace human perspectives or judgment. They’ll just do more of the math, pound more of the rivets and thread more of the needles, sometimes on their own and sometimes with a member of the frontline team.