Yes, this is a programmer surfing on, or at least with the aid of, a robot. Consider the programmer’s salary. Now think of the cost to build and run the robot. You should now be wondering whether there is any justification of any kind for this use of human and machine resources.
There is a surfing robot which helps to track sharks for wildlife study and preservation and robot surfboards that map the ocean floor for Google, but this video is about a human being “surfing” to the motion of an industrial robot — robot surfing, rather than a surfing robot. (Check out the video of the surfing robot.)
The value of robot surfing
This may be an expensive sport, but we think there might be some value in it. Hundreds of thousands of people have now seen this video. Possibly the coolness of this escapade will inspire some young people to become engineers.
Right now, relatively few American high school grads have enough math and science background to study engineering, and only 17% actually go into engineering. Of those students, only about 18% are female. These numbers are a big improvement over the ones we saw 10 years ago, but it’s still possible to argue that we as a nation need to make industrial engineering more appealing to our young people.
We support, repair, and replace legacy motion control devices from Indramat, now Rexroth Bosch. We get calls from people whose first introduction to Indramat motion control is the experience of opening the cabinet and seeing the word “Indramat” on the component inside. Most of the people we talk with are younger than the Indramat servo motors, drives, and controls which cause them to call us for support. These young engineers — and those who are still in school now — are the future of industrial motion control in the U.S.
If robot surfing piques the interest of some young people and causes them to go into this field, it may be worth it.
Rexroth motion control support
If you need immediate support for your Rexroth motion control components — new or legacy — give us a call at (479) 422-0390.
We specialize in Rexroth electric industrial motion control. With decades of experience, we can get you up and running fast.