Robot
A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be constructed to evoke human form, but most robots are task-performing machines, designed with an emphasis on stark functionality, rather than expressive aesthetics.
Robots can be autonomous or semi-autonomous and range from humanoids such as Honda's Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility and TOSY's TOSY Ping Pong Playing Robot to industrial robots, medical operating robots, patient assist robots, dog therapy robots, collectively programmed swarm robots, UAV drones such as General Atomics MQ-1 Predator, and even microscopic nanorobots. By mimicking a lifelike appearance or automating movements, a robot may convey a sense of intelligence or thought of its own. Autonomous things are expected to proliferate in the future, with home robotics and the autonomous car as some of the main drivers.
The branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, and application of robots, as well as computer systems for their control, sensory feedback, and information processing is robotics. These technologies deal with automated machines that can take the place of humans in dangerous environments or manufacturing processes, or resemble humans in appearance, behavior, or cognition. Many of today's robots are inspired by nature contributing to the field of bio-inspired robotics. These robots have also created a newer branch of robotics: soft robotics.
From the time of ancient civilization, there have been many accounts of user-configurable automated devices and even automata, resembling humans and other animals, such as animatronics, designed primarily as entertainment. As mechanical techniques developed through the Industrial age, there appeared more practical applications such as automated machines, remote control and wireless remote-control.
The term comes from a Slavic root, robot-, with meanings associated with labor. The word "robot" was first used to denote a fictional humanoid in a 1920 Czech-language play R.U.R. by Karel Čapek, though it was Karel's brother Josef Čapek who was the word's true inventor. Electronics evolved into the driving force of development with the advent of the first electronic autonomous robots created by William Grey Walter in Bristol, England, in 1948, as well as Computer Numerical Control machine tools in the late 1940s by John T. Parsons and Frank L. Stulen.
The first commercial, digital and programmable robot was built by George Devol in 1954 and was named the Unimate. It was sold to General Motors in 1961, where it was used to lift pieces of hot metal from die casting machines at the Inland Fisher Guide Plant in the West Trenton section of Ewing Township, New Jersey.
Robots have replaced humans in performing repetitive and dangerous tasks which humans prefer not to do, or are unable to do because of size limitations, or which take place in extreme environments such as outer space or the bottom of the sea. There are concerns about the increasing use of robots and their role in society. Robots are blamed for rising technological unemployment as they replace workers in increasing number of functions. The use of robots in military combat raises ethical concerns. The possibilities of robot autonomy and potential repercussions have been addressed in fiction and may be a realistic concern in the future.
Summary
There is no consensus on which machines qualify as robots but there is general agreement among experts, and the public, that robots tend to possess some or all of the following abilities and functions: accept electronic programming, process data or physical perceptions electronically, operate autonomously to some degree, move around, operate physical parts of itself or physical processes, sense and manipulate their environment, and exhibit intelligent behavior, especially behavior which mimics humans or other animals.The word robot can refer to both physical robots and virtual software agents, but the latter are usually referred to as bots. Related to the concept of a robot is the field of synthetic biology, which studies entities whose nature is more comparable to living things than to machines.
Simpler automated machines are called automatons, like animatronics, often made to resemble humans or animals. Humanoid robots that resemble humans esthetically, possibly even organically, are called androids, while android can be shortened to droid, referring to robots with a broader likeness. On the other hand, a human that is augmented with artificial machines is called a cyborg, which is a particular type of transhuman.
History
Early beginnings
Many ancient cultures described artificial people in their writings. Examples from Greek mythology include Galatea, Talos, and the mechanical servants built by the Greek god Hephaestus.Giants made of stone or clay are found in Jewish and Norse mythology.
Greek engineers
During classical antiquity, Greek engineers contributed many innovations. For example, in the 4th century BCE, Archytas described a steam-operated mechanical bird he called "The Pigeon", while Ctesibius improved the clepsydra and produced the first hydraulus several decades later.Philo of Byzantium described a washstand automaton. Hero of Alexandria created numerous user-configurable automated devices and described machines powered by pneumatics, hydraulics, and steam, even including a "speaking" automaton.
Greek engineers also built the Antikythera mechanism — the oldest known example of an analog computer — during this period.
Chinese texts
Ancient Chinese texts described automata, some of which were capable of flight. For example, the Han Feizi reports that 5th century BCE Mohist philosopher Mozi and his contemporary Lu Ban built artificial wooden birds that could fly. The Liezi describes humanoid automata.In 1066, Chinese inventor Su Song built a water clock in the form of a tower that featured mechanical figurines that chimed the hours. His mechanism had a programmable drum machine with pegs that bumped into little levers that operated percussion instruments. The drummer could be programmed to play different drum patterns by moving the pegs to different locations.
Indian automata
11th century texts of Buddhist mythology also describe automata. Examples include the Samarangana Sutradhara, a treatise by Bhoja which includes a chapter about the construction of mechanical automata, including mechanical bees and birds, fountains shaped like humans and animals, and male and female dolls that refilled oil lamps, danced, played instruments, and re-enacted scenes from Hindu mythology. The Lokapannatti is an 11th-12th century Buddhist cosmological text that tells of how the Buddha's relics were protected by mechanical robots until they were disarmed by King Ashoka.Mesopotamia
was a 13th-century polymath who built several automated devices driven by hydropower, including peacocks, automatic gates, and water clocks.Among al-Jazari's humanoid automata was a waitress that could serve drinks. The drink was stored in a reservoir tank, from where it would drip into a bucket and then a cup, after which the waitress would appear out of an automatic door to serve the drink.
Al-Jazari also invented a hand washing automaton that incorporated a flush mechanism similar to that used in modern flush toilets. The automaton stood next to a basin filled with water. When the user pulled a lever, the water would drain, and the automaton would refill the basin.
England
In 1377, the coronation of Richard II of England featured an automaton angel.Italy
Around 1495, Leonardo da Vinci sketched plans for a mechanical humanoid robot that was able to sit up, wave its arms and move its head and jaw. The design was probably based on anatomical research recorded in his Vitruvian Man. Da Vinci may have been influenced by the automata of al-Jazari.Japan
In Japan, complex automata were built between the 17th to 19th centuries, with many described in the 1796 Karakuri zui. One such automaton was the karakuri ningyō.Different variations of the karakuri existed: the butai karakuri, which were used in theatre, the zashiki karakuri, which were small and used in homes, and the dashi karakuri which were used in religious festivals, where the puppets were used to perform reenactments of traditional myths and legends.
France
In France, between 1738 and 1739, Jacques de Vaucanson exhibited several automatons: a flute player, a pipe player and a duck. The duck could flap its wings, crane its neck, swallow food from the exhibitor's hand, and it gave the illusion of digesting its food by excreting matter stored in a hidden compartment.Switzerland
In 1774, about 30 years later, in Switzerland, Pierre Jaquet-Droz made several mechanical figures that could write and play music. Several of these devices still exist and work.Remote-controlled systems
were demonstrated in the late 19th century in the form of several types of remotely controlled torpedoes. The early 1870s saw remotely controlled torpedoes by John Ericsson, John Louis Lay, and Victor von Scheliha.The Brennan torpedo, invented by Louis Brennan in 1877, was powered by two contra-rotating propellers that were spun by rapidly pulling out wires from drums wound inside the torpedo. Differential speed on the wires connected to the shore station allowed the torpedo to be guided to its target, making it "the world's first practical guided missile". In 1897 the British inventor Ernest Wilson was granted a patent for a torpedo remotely controlled by "Hertzian" waves and in 1898 Nikola Tesla publicly demonstrated a wireless-controlled torpedo that he hoped to sell to the US Navy.
In 1903, the Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo demonstrated a radio control system called Telekino at the Paris Academy of Sciences, which he wanted to use to control an airship of his own design. He obtained several patents for the system in other countries. Unlike previous 'on/off' techniques, Torres established a method for controlling any mechanical or electrical device with different states of operation. The Telekino remotely controlled a tricycle in 1904, considered the first case of an unmanned ground vehicle, and an electric boat with a crew in 1906, which was controlled at a distance over 2 km.
Archibald Low, known as the "father of radio guidance systems" for his pioneering work on guided rockets and planes during the First World War. In 1917, he demonstrated a remote controlled aircraft to the Royal Flying Corps and in the same year built the first wire-guided rocket.