WI Foxconn plant could be robotized; report

Yes I saw the story about Foxconn planning to open a North American headquarters in downtown Milwaukee. The company says it hopes to have about 870 business support jobs in Wisconsin by 2022.

And I also saw this report today with a Wisconsin angle about the company's plans for using artificial intelligence and robots in its facilities:

Foxconn Details Five-Year Investment Plan For AI Development

Foxconn has been working on ways to fully automate its production lines for quite some time now, with around 60,000 of its factory workers being replaced by robots in mid-2016. 

Its new plant in Wisconsin which is currently under construction was also reported to be fully powered by robots once operational, so it remains to be seen how effectively Foxconn could combine the concept of automation with AI applications designed to support smart manufacturing.

Regardless, Foxconn is still increasing its presence in the global market in multiple ways and the firm just recently acquired a new office building in Milwaukee which will reportedly be used as its U.S. headquarters. 

That highlighted link takes you to a prior story, which notes:

The company already has ten fully automated production lines, including an all-in-one PC and LCD monitor lines, specifically at the Chongqing factory in western China. 

The company also uses 40,000 “Foxbots” across the business, these being an industrial robot design that Foxconn has developed and manufactured in house... 

Foxconn has the manufacturing capacity to build another 10,000 Foxbots a year and this means the company will be able to rapidly expand its automated process...the company does not expect industrial robot equipment to completely replace workers – because humans are more flexible and adaptable, and are readily able to switch from one task to another. Robots currently need to be reprogrammed for different duties. 

A generic industrial robot: