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December 2011www.marinelink.com 35simply through the reduced cost of legal fees, lost man-hours and medical bills.But Smith reports other benefits, as well. With shipyard inventory control long a headache especially in crampedU.S. yards with nowhere to expand, the need to efficiently stow materials where they can be quickly retrieved ? and more importantly ? found, during the building process has always been important. ?Big Arm,? reports Smith, eliminates the need for tracking controls such asRFID trackers by remembering where it put any lift, saving valuable time. And, its ability to numbly stack and place materi-als in compact areas can more than make up for inadequate apron space alongsidethe ship under construction.Separately, the use of robotics to per- form manual labor quickly and safely isincreasing, allowing professionals across a variety of industries to focus efforts on more strategic tasks. Last year, the industrial robotics mar- ket was $1.4 billion, compared to just $615 million in 1995. Raytheon?s new robotic system, de- signed to lift, move and handle heavy ob- jects in complex shipyard environments could well be a significant part of that growing equation. www.raytheon.com MR Dec.11 # 5 (34-41):MR Template 12/6/2011 2:40 PM Page 35