The hottest sewbot robot technology will realize a

Sewbot robot technology will realize the automation of garment making instead of manual garment making

in a huge factory workshop, Kiran Kumari, dressed in purple and gold saris, sat in front of brother sewing machine, surrounded by dozens of garment workers. With a skillful wave of her arm, she picked up a piece of cloth from a bundle of cloth beside her, put a white decorative sheet on it, and quickly operated under the machine needle. This is just one of about 400 collars that Kumari sewed for Polo Ralph Lauren's jacket during the 8-hour working hours. It takes a few minutes to complete a collar, and Kumari's monthly salary is about $100

she and about 4800 other garment workers are scattered in three matrix garment factories south of Delhi. They are a small part of the cheap labor force that many developing countries hope to promote the country to prosperity. This is especially true in South Asia, where the population is growing rapidly and wages are still low. The World Bank estimates that in the next 20 years, one to 1.2 million new workers will enter the labor market every month in the region alone, adding a total of 240million workers

however, in Atlanta, 8000 miles away, a robot company is working on developing machines that may make Kumari unemployed forever. Sewbot robot technology, developed by software automation, aims to automate the whole garment making process

it still takes many years for this technology to achieve low cost and reliability that can replace manpower. For example, Kumari earns about $1200 a year. The company will not say how much the sewbot robot will cost, but industry insiders do need to be patient to adjust and control various processing conditions, saying the price is as high as hundreds of thousands of dollars. But as automation has swept through mature industries, experts warn that it is only a matter of time before this technology destroys the economic model of a large part of the developing world

considering the extent to which the economic plan of South Asia depends on undertaking international manufacturing business (China has become too expensive for such business), the region faces particularly high risks. Policymakers in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are talking about reaping demographic dividends because their populations are growing rapidly and their average wages are still only about a quarter of China's level

however, economists began to ask how much dividends these young, cheap, potentially unstable labor forces can enjoy as robots gradually become competent for the heavy physical labor they rely on to make a living? Other regions such as Southeast Asia (another clothing manufacturing hub) and sub Saharan Africa may also feel this impact

robots and artificial intelligence are the next industrial revolution. If Pahle India only buys the current Pahle India foundation, Rajiv Kumar, the founder and economist, said that they will be more disruptive than the previous industrial revolution steam, electricity, assembly lines or computers, because they will not only replace the routine, but also replace complex brain functions. It is worrying that the so-called demographic dividend will become a demographic nightmare

some strange things have happened in Asia, Latin America and parts of sub Saharan Africa. Although many countries have been growing strongly, the proportion of manufacturing jobs has hardly increased since the 1980s, and even began to decline in some countries, much earlier than economists expected

it is understood that in 2015, Dani Rodrik, an economist at Harvard University, proposed the concept of premature deindustrialization. He observed that, compared with the development process of western countries, many developing countries turned to the economic model of service owners for the common technical difficulties in the use of graphene based heavy-duty anticorrosion coatings to promote industrial revolution and economic growth at a much earlier stage of development. He said that technological change played a big role in it, and warned that this trend could have serious consequences for economic growth and political stability in these regions. Manufacturing has traditionally absorbed a large number of unskilled labor, he wrote, warning that the trend of deindustrialization may not be a good thing for liberal democracy

Roderick's findings help explain a study conducted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Development Programme shortly after the financial crisis. The report found that between 2003 and 2009, employment growth in South Asia was only one third of the overall economic growth. Experts warned that the region was experiencing jobless growth

since then, the pace of technological change has accelerated, and some industries have even lost jobs. Indian IT service companies, which have flourished over the past 30 years, have begun to give way to automatic cloud computing systems. Infosys and Tata consulting services, the two largest companies in the industry, have both cut jobs this year. At the same time, at Hyundai Automobile factory in Chennai, 400 robots have replaced humans in a large part of the production process

the CEO of a large Indian technology company (he asked not to be named) said that if the bosses were not worried about the consequences of massive layoffs, the layoffs would be greater. We conducted an audit and found that we could replace half of our employees with AI, he said. But for the social shock wave of doing so, we would really do so

clothing industry is the fist industry of these economies. Bangladesh is particularly dependent on the garment industry, which accounts for 82% of the country's exports, and 2.5% of the country's population is engaged in garment manufacturing. According to the data of the clean clothes campaign, which strives for better working conditions for garment workers, a total of about 27million people are employed in the garment industry in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan

another reason is that, surprisingly, the clothing industry has proved to be less susceptible to automation. Since the advent of automatic sewing machines in the 19th century, the process of making a T-shirt has hardly changed. T-shirts are usually made of cotton, which is a light and thin material that is easy to curl, making it difficult for robots to pick up and move accurately. Behind Kumari's handy fast sewing behavior, there are a series of small processes and decisions, which are so complex that it is difficult for the most skilled software engineers to copy

there are four processes to make a garment. Gautam Nair, general manager of matrix clothing, said that he picked up the cloth, aligned it, sewed it and put it aside. In these processes, only sewing has been automated at present, and sewing machines have appeared long ago. Other parts of the production process are completed manually, which is still faster and cheaper

this situation may be about to change. In an old factory in Atlanta, a group of technicians from software automation typed in computer code on the touch screen to try to improve the sewbot robot. In order to solve the problem of sewing thin cloth, they installed cameras that can act as eyes for this robot, just as engineers have done for autonomous vehicle. These cameras can capture the cloth in stitching, analyze the image, and guide the movement of the manipulator accordingly

this technology attracted Wal Mart's attention. Wal Mart, the world's largest retailer, gave the company $2million as part of an automated jeans production project. In September last year, sewbot robot achieved a breakthrough by successfully sewing an outer seam onto a pair of jeans. Next year, the company plans to use sewbot robots to produce T-shirts. Currently, 97% of T-shirts are produced outside the United States

palaniswamy Rajan, CEO of software automation, explained the business necessity behind the development of such technologies, even if clothing companies have a large number of cheap labor to use

if you are Macy's department store and want 100000 pieces of this style of clothing, you must order from China 9 to 12 months in advance. He said that if the place of origin is closer to the consumer, you can place an order for 10000 pieces and deliver them within one month, and then you can see whether some designs will sell better than others

Wal Mart is not the only large retailer that focuses on automated garment manufacturing. In April this year, Amazon applied for a patent to develop an on-demand sewing machine that can automatically produce clothes after receiving orders. However, it is not only rapid technological changes that stimulate American enterprises, but also political realities. The election of Donald Trump as US president and his US priority trade policy commitments have prompted enterprises to consider how to move jobs back to the United States

there is no doubt that our work will be very different in the future. Doug mcmillon, CEO of Wal Mart, recently told employees that robots, drones and algorithms will complete some of the work we had to do in the past. Some people are afraid of the consequences of these changes. I don't think we need to be afraid that the secret of our success will always be our employees

policymakers in developing countries are also aware of these trends. Some of them believe that as long as the government has a good grasp of policies, there is still time to create a manufacturing boom in South Asia

Arvind Subramanian, the chief economic adviser of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has studied the problem of premature deindustrialization. Sitting in a large office in the Finance Ministry building in New Delhi, he said: Yes, robots have begun to cut soft fabrics. But I don't know whether this is something we should worry about in the next 9 or 10 years or more realistically in the next 20 years

sabramania said that combining good training, well arranged free trade agreements and labor market reforms can create manufacturing jobs before robots become mature and cheap enough to replace workers. If he is wrong, the social impact will be huge. Kumar of Pahle India foundation warned that this may be a nightmare, because all educated and ambitious young people will lose their jobs due to this kind of automation

the widespread use of robots has raised concerns about large-scale unemployment. Others believe that these countries should take stop loss actions and focus on the service industry instead. In 2015, URI Dadush, a senior researcher at OCP Policy Centre, a Moroccan think tank, wrote that the importance of manufacturing as a lever for development was declining. He believes that countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh should focus on transforming themselves into industries such as tourism, transportation or finance