Automated and Emerging Technologies · 4 question types
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.
| 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 |
| 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 |
Robotics, combined with artificial intelligence (topic 17), raises a set of harder questions that go beyond simple pros and cons:
These are open questions; they appear in exam answers about the impact of robotics, not as questions with one right answer.