UK workers are sabotaging and assaulting workplace robots in an attempt to stop them taking their jobs, finds study. But for some manual workers they have found their own ways of stopping the robots' rise to world domination - by confusing them. The study by De Montfort University in Leicester which looked into the use of robotics in healthcare concluded that UK workers are particularly apposed to the introduction of the intelligent machines into the work place. Compared to Norway where the study found co-working robots are often given affectionate names and welcomed. Jonathan Payne, Professor of Work, Employment and Skills, said: 'We heard stories of workers standing in the way of robots, and minor acts of sabotage - and not playing along with them.' Adding: 'The UK seems to have a problem with diffusion and take-up of technology.'

People harbour lingering fears about the impact of robots on their jobs and welfare, but machines in the workplace have produced benefits that researchers believe are likely to continue. But for that to happen, challenges such as earning workers' trust and improving safety and human-robot interaction must be overcome. In the EU, 72% of people are scared that technology could steal their jobs. With predictions that robots and automation could replace nearly half of jobs in developed countries, the concern is understandable. Workers are worried that they will be expected to work at a quicker pace when new technology, such as robots, is put in place, says Professor Anu-Hanna Anttila, head of research at the Finnish Industrial Union in Helsinki, who has studied factory workers' attitudes towards technology in the workplace.

Who are the workers forced to bear the costs of the increase in workplace robots? According to Acemoglu and Restrepo, men take about twice as big a hit in terms of lost jobs as women do. Although both sexes suffer wage losses when robots replace people, the size of the drop in employment for women was about half that of men. In political terms, the workers who experience the highest costs from industrial automation fit the crucial Trump voter demographic: white non-college voters, disproportionately male, whose support for the Republican nominee surged from 2012 to 2016 -- as shown in the accompanying graphic, which is based on data from the Pew Research Center. In 2016, less-educated whites sharply increased their support of the Republican candidate, while those with more education significantly reduced it.

The government must intervene to stop automation driving up wage inequality, a think tank has warned. The Institute for Public Policy Research said robots would not necessarily be bad for the economy. However, it warned lower-skilled jobs were much more likely to be phased out in the coming decades, and only higher-skilled workers would be able to command better wages. The government said it was committed to making automation work for everyone. According to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) - a centre-left think tank - automation could raise UK productivity growth by between 0.8 to 1.4% annually, and boost GDP by 10% by 2030.

Last week, Smartsheet, a work management platform, released Market Cube's study "State of Automation 2017," analyzing how people feel about automation in the workforce. The study emerges as the use of robots in many industries, including the manufacture of doors and windows, is increasing. According to the Door and Window Market Magazine, 79 percent of executives think that robots will become our co-workers by 2020. The study was based on 1,000 answers provided from information workers. The participants were asked if they were over the age of 18, whether they spend at least half of their day in front of a computer and if they use business software at work, among other questions.

Robots might not be stealing our jobs after all – at least, not if you're German. An analysis of more than 20 years of labour automation in Germany found no evidence that robots caused job losses in the country as a whole. Automation has changed the kinds of work people do, but hasn't taken jobs away permanently, says Jens Südekum at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. Although there are plenty of reports that predict future job losses caused by automation, Südekum's study is only the second to look at how many jobs robots have already taken from us. The first – a US study published earlier this year – painted a much gloomier picture.

The technology industry likes to talk about how automation is set to change the world. Chatbots present a new way of interacting with software, self-driving cars promise to reshape our cities, and the increasing capability of AI to handle ever more complex and "human" tasks could reshape our economy. But amid all the futurism, one thing gets lost: actual robots. London startup Automata Technologies is one of those hoping to reverse the trend. The company makes a tabletop robotic arm, which it hopes will democratise access to automation for every industry by costing a fraction of the tens of thousands of dollars a typical industrial robot costs today – under £5,000 up front, or under £500 a month for a "robotics as a service" package.

Think of a warehouse robot and a huge, cumbersome machine probably comes to mind. They're reliable, but difficult to reprogram if you're not a trained specialist. Rethink Robotics is trying to tackle the problem with Sawyer, a one-armed robot with a tablet for a face. A new software update called Intera 5 means it's now easier to program for new, custom tasks in the workplace. At its core is a "behavior engine" that can be visualised like a logic tree.