Robotics
Automated and Emerging Technologies · 4 question types
Exam Frequency Analysis
Past paper frequency (2018 to 2024)
This topic accounts for approximately 3% of your exam marks.
Advantages/disadvantages of using robots in industry are the typical question format.
Many of these have appeared in the application-specific tables above; here is the general view.
Advantages
| Advantage | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Safety | Robots can do dangerous jobs (bomb disposal, deep-sea inspection, radioactive cleanup, factory welding) that would put humans at serious risk |
| Repeatability and precision | A robot performs the same action with the same accuracy every time; ideal for assembly, surgery and laboratory tasks |
| 24/7 operation | Robots do not need breaks, sleep, food, holidays or pay |
| Productivity | Tasks are completed faster, with less rework and fewer mistakes |
| Strength | Robots can lift heavy loads humans could not safely handle |
| Working in extreme environments | Robots can operate at very high or low temperatures, in vacuum, underwater, or in space |
| Frees humans for higher-value work | Routine tasks are automated; humans can focus on tasks needing creativity or judgement |
Disadvantages
| Disadvantage | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| High upfront cost | Designing, buying and installing robots is expensive; ROI may take years |
| Ongoing maintenance | Robots need regular service, software updates and occasional repair |
| Job displacement | Roles disappear when their tasks are automated; workers may need re-training |
| Inflexibility | Most robots only handle the situations they have been programmed for; novel scenarios may baffle them |
| Cyber-security risk | Networked robots can be hacked; consequences range from production downtime to physical harm |
| Lack of human judgement | Robots cannot weigh ethical considerations or react to unusual situations the way a person can |
| Safety risks to humans nearby | Industrial robots are powerful; collisions with workers can cause injury, so they often need cages or careful safety zones |
| De-skilling of the workforce | If a robot does the skilled work, fewer humans learn the trade; the skills may be lost over generations |
Explaining a drawback of using robots or automated systems
What comes up: The exam asks you to explain one (or more) drawbacks/disadvantages of a company or farmer using robots or automated systems, typically for 2–3 marks per point (one mark for naming the drawback, one for a linked explanation).
Write: Name the drawback and immediately expand it. For example: high set-up/installation cost — the business must spend a large amount of money upfront to purchase, install and configure the equipment before it sees any return. Or: deskilling of the workforce — workers no longer practise the tasks the robot now performs, so if the equipment breaks, fewer people have the skills to carry out that work manually.
Watch out: Stating the drawback alone (e.g. "it is expensive") earns only one mark. The second mark requires a clear consequence or reason that explains why this is a problem for the specific context given in the question.
Ethical and legal questions
Robotics, combined with artificial intelligence (topic 17), raises a set of harder questions that go beyond simple pros and cons:
- Accountability: if a robot makes a decision that injures someone, who is responsible: the manufacturer, the programmer, the operator, or the owner?
- Safety: how do we test a robot's behaviour exhaustively to prove it is safe before deploying it?
- Algorithmic bias: if a smart robot was trained on data that contained bias, it can repeat or amplify that bias in its decisions.
- Legal liability: existing laws were written for human actors; rules for autonomous machines are still being developed.
- Employment: as more jobs are automated, society has to decide how to support workers whose roles disappear.
These are open questions; they appear in exam answers about the impact of robotics, not as questions with one right answer.