Manufacturing Subcommittee on Commerce

The Disrupter Series Manufacturing Subcommittee on Commerce

We are not yet living in a Jetsons' world where Rosie the Robot greets you when you get home. However, we are living in a world where you can ask Siri, Alexa, or Cortana any question and get a real-time, accurate, perhaps whimsical, response. Already advanced robotics are integrated into our economy with increasingly complex application, from manufacturing floors to surgical suites to fashion shows. Even technologies, like the Internet of things and drones, have leveraged advanced robotic technology. In the coming decades, more jobs will include some automation component. Thirty years ago, the dominant vision of robotics was of machines replacing human labor, taking over manufacturing tasks like welding and painting; now, researchers and firms tend to think of robots as collaborative tools to augment and improve human work. While robotics and AI innovations hold incredible promise, it's an open question whether the resulting technology products will be manufactured in the United States. Despite Federal annual investment of over $140 billion in science and technology, America's trade deficit in advanced technology products moved from a surplus in 2001 to a deficit of over $90 billion in 2015. To strengthen America's competitiveness in the age of advanced robotics and AI, we need to build the knowledge, skills, and infrastructure to anchor production domestically.