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Work out which risky tasks a robot could take on

China's State Grid is sending robots up to live power lines while the operator stays on the ground. Work out which risky tasks in your own job a robot could take on.

By Alan Brown

Video cover: Robots now fix live 10,000-volt power lines

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⚡ Robots are now doing one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.

🤖 In China, State Grid is sending robots up to live 10,000-volt (10 kV) power lines, and fixing them while the power stays on.
🚚 A bucket truck lifts the robot to the line. The operator stands on the ground with a remote, watching through the robot's HD cameras.
🔧 The robot strips the insulation, lines up the parts and tightens the bolts, with no power cut for the homes nearby.
⏱️ In a January trial in Tianshui, it installed a set of grounding rings in about 25 minutes, against about 60 minutes for a manual crew: subsites.chinadaily.com.cn/gansu/2026-01/19/c_1155797.htm
🏔️ State Grid has since used them at almost 3,000 m altitude in Gansu: news.cri.cn/20260427/37f441e3-9751-408f-b616-0902f52455e1.html
🇮🇱 Israel Electric Corporation now uses a drone with a robotic arm to fit warning markers on high-voltage lines instead of helicopters: www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/article-896735

Context & limitations

These are early deployments and trials, not every line crew yet, and a person still controls the robot. But it takes people out of the danger zone, and the prompt below helps you see where the same shift could reach your work.

Do this yourself

Help me work out which parts of my job a robot or remote-controlled machine could take over first, starting with the most dangerous or physically demanding tasks. Context: in China, State Grid uses live-line robots on 10,000-volt distribution lines. A bucket truck lifts the robot to the line, an operator on the ground controls it with a remote and watches through its cameras, and the robot strips insulation, fits parts and tightens bolts without cutting power to nearby homes. Ask me one question at a time until you understand my work: 1. My job title and industry. 2. The tasks I do in a typical week, and roughly how much time each takes. 3. Which tasks are dangerous, tiring, dirty or repetitive. Then give me a table with, for each task: - Risk to me (high, medium or low) and why, in one sentence. - How likely a robot, drone or remote-controlled tool is to help with it in the next five years (likely, possible or unlikely), with one sentence of reasoning. - Whether a human would still need to supervise, plan or check the work. Finish with the two skills I should build so I'm the person operating or checking these machines, not the one replaced by them. Check current sources before naming any specific robot or company, and say clearly when something is a pilot or a company claim rather than a widely used product.

Robots are arriving first in the most dangerous parts of jobs, not the whole job. Breaking your own work into tasks and rating each for risk shows where help could land first and what skills stay valuable.

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