Using AI-Powered Robots Could Help Companies Achieve Their Staffing & Sustainability GoalsUsing AI-Powered Robots Could Help Companies Achieve Their Staffing & Sustainability Goals
Many tasks in a manufacturing environment are physically laborious and, because of that, companies sometimes have trouble finding workers to do them. These tasks also often consume a lot of energy. Could AI-driven robots come to the rescue?
January 16, 2025

At a Glance
- Satyandra Gupta of GrayMatter Robotics will present "AI-Powered Robots and Sustainability" at MD&M West 2025.
- Robots could be used for physically demanding tasks like polishing, sanding, buffing, and grinding.
- MD&M West will be held February 4-6, 2025.
Manufacturers can successfully use AI-powered robots to address labor problems while increasing sustainability, says Satyandra Gupta, cofounder and chief scientist at GrayMatter Robotics. In his upcoming presentation at MD&M West 2025, "AI-Powered Robots and Sustainability," Gupta will explore the notion that by using robotic and automation technologies, manufacturers are no longer constrained by human physiological strength.
“You can perform operations much faster, perhaps, and apply much higher force," he said in an interview with Design News. “So for many applications, it turns out that you can perform the process at a rate that actually consumes less energy.”
AI-powered robots can be especially useful in industries such as specialty vehicles, aircraft, boats, kitchen appliances, furniture, and sporting goods, he said, because a lot of these sectors employ physically demanding polishing, sanding, buffing, and grinding types of tasks. “People are doing it, but you're having significant labor problems because nobody wants to do that work,” Gupta said.
Also, he noted that surface finishing work also involves a large amount of consumables, such as sandpapers and that consumes significant energy.
“Once you have both of those characteristics, it turns out that deploying robots is an obvious solution because deploying robots overcomes your labor challenges and since you can reduce energy consumption and use less consumables, your cost becomes another justification for deploying robots,” he explained. “So that way you are able to address the labor problem. And you can lower costs, reducing scrap.”
Robots would not replace humans, but they are particularly useful for things like sanding large flat areas. Humans would still be used to do the touch ups or work with complex features. “You may also want humans to figure out the right processing conditions or quality assurance,” he said. “There are lots of things humans will continue to do, but AI-powered robots can be a great tool to amplify human productivity and remove the back-breaking challenging work.”
For companies that are thinking of incorporating AI-powered robots into their manufacturing, Gupta advised them to take it step by step. “You pick a process,” he said. “See what kind of results you get, and then you move up the ladder. And maybe you automate some other process where you believe this might be useful.”
He encouraged all engineers and manufacturing operations managers who might be thinking about how to modernize their manufacturing or how to address the challenges they are facing to attend his presentation.
Gupta said he hopes that his attendees will walk away from his session with different ideas about how to make manufacturing more sustainable. “Most of the time when people are thinking about how to make manufacturing more sustainable, they're not thinking robots,” he concluded. “I would like attendees to understand that deploying robots can contribute to sustainability and this can be used to justify investment in robotics.”
Gupta will present, “AI-Powered Robots and Sustainability,” on Tuesday, February 4, from 1:15 to 2 p.m. in Room 205AB at MD&M West 2025.
And to learn even more about sustainable manufacturing, be sure to check out sister show Sustainable Manufacturing Expo held February 4-5. Both events will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center.
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