Design software to control robotic systems for applications, such as military defense or manufacturing.

“Design software to control robotic systems for applications, such as military defense or manufacturing.” is a core task performed by Robotics Engineers. Among the occupation's 24 rated tasks, workers place it 15th by importance (#10 most important). About 80% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Design computer or information systems or applications. in Thinking Creatively

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E1. Direct exposure — a language model could plausibly cut the time to do this task by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 1.00. Automation potential label: T2.

How AI is actually used on this kind of task

The Anthropic Economic Index observes how people actually use AI on tasks like this one across millions of real conversations.

• 0.017% share of AI-use records mapped to this task
• 28% of that use is work-related
• Most common interaction: task iteration
• Average autonomy of the AI: 3.9 (1–5; higher = more autonomous)
• 64% of interactions still needed a human in the loop

Observed AI use describes people choosing to use AI as a tool on this kind of task today. It is augmentation and assistance, not a measure of jobs replaced.

Working with AI vs. handing it off

Of the AI conversations mapped to this task, the split between people working alongside AI and people delegating the task to it.

How people interact with AI on this task

Other tasks in this occupation

• Review or approve designs, calculations, or cost estimates. · importance 4.1
• Process or interpret signals or sensor data. · importance 4.0
• Debug robotics programs. · importance 3.9
• Build, configure, or test robots or robotic applications. · importance 3.9
• Create back-ups of robot programs or parameters. · importance 3.9
• Provide technical support for robotic systems. · importance 3.8
• Design end-of-arm tooling. · importance 3.8
• Design robotic systems, such as automatic vehicle control, autonomous vehicles, advanced displays, advanced sensing, robotic platforms, computer vision, or telematics systems. · importance 3.8
• Supervise technologists, technicians, or other engineers. · importance 3.8
• Conduct research on robotic technology to create new robotic systems or system capabilities. · importance 3.7
• Investigate mechanical failures or unexpected maintenance problems. · importance 3.7
• Integrate robotics with peripherals, such as welders, controllers, or other equipment. · importance 3.7
• Install, calibrate, operate, or maintain robots. · importance 3.7
• Evaluate robotic systems or prototypes. · importance 3.7

See all tasks on the Robotics Engineers page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-16528,
  title  = {Design software to control robotic systems for applications, such as military defense or manufacturing.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-16528}
}