Set up laboratory or field equipment
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This happens in the physical world, so software agents do not touch it. Automation here means robotics and machinery, which is a different market from the one mapped on this site, on a much slower clock.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 10 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Handling and Moving Objects (4.A.3.a.2) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 10 occupations that perform it.
- Design or build laboratory equipment needed for special research projects.
- Set up or maintain remote sensing data collection systems.
- Set up laboratory or field equipment as required for site testing.
- Set up, adjust, calibrate, clean, maintain, and troubleshoot laboratory and field equipment.
- Set up and conduct chemical experiments, tests, and analyses, using techniques such as chromatography, spectroscopy, physical or chemical separation techniques, or microscopy.
- Set up equipment or stations to monitor and collect pollutants from sites, such as smoke stacks, manufacturing plants, or mechanical equipment.
- Set up or direct set-up of instruments used to collect geological data.
- Set up equipment that automatically detects area radiation deviations and test detection equipment to ensure its accuracy.
- Prepare trucks and equipment necessary for the type of pumping service required.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Nothing on this site applies. Automation here is robotics and machinery, a different market on a much slower clock, and no software subscription moves it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
10 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Agricultural Technicians
- Biochemists and Biophysicists
- Biological Technicians
- Chemical Technicians
- Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health
- Geological Technicians, Except Hydrologic Technicians
- Nuclear Monitoring Technicians
- Nuclear Technicians
- Remote Sensing Scientists and Technologists
- Wellhead Pumpers
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Set up equipment”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.