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Cities Stocks Weather Movies Coupons Travel Blogs Health Horoscope Maps ASIA EUROPE Classifieds Yellow PagesFor other uses, see robot (disambiguation).
ASIMO, a humanoid robot manufactured by Honda.
A robot is a mechanical or virtual, artificial agent. It is usually an electromechanical system, which, by its appearance or movements, conveys a sense that it has intent or agency of its own. The word robot can refer to both physical robots and virtual software agents, but the latter are usually referred to as bots to differentiate.Telecom glossary "bot". Alliance for Telecommunications Solutions (2001-02-28). Retrieved on 2007-09-05.
While there is still discussion about which machines qualify as robots,Your View: How would you define a robot?. CBC News (2007-07-16). Retrieved on 2007-09-05.What does "robot" mean to YOU?. Botmag forum (2006-08-26). Retrieved on 2007-09-05.What does \'robot\' mean to you. Botmag forum (2006-10-15). Retrieved on 2007-09-05. a typical robot will have several, though not necessarily all of the following properties:
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The last property (above), the appearance of agency, is important when people are considering whether to call a machine a robot, or just a machine. In general, the more a machine has the appearance of agency, the more it is considered a robot.
KITT is mentally anthropomorphic
Mental agency
For robotic engineers, the physical appearance of a machine is less important than the way its actions are controlled.Is THIS a robot?. RobotBuilder Forum (2007-02-03). Retrieved on 2007-09-06. The more the control system seems to have agency of its own, the more likely the machine is to be called a robot. An important feature of agency is the ability to make choices. So the more a machine could feasibly choose to do something different, the more agency it has. For example:
ASIMO is physically anthropomorphic
Physical agency
However, for many laymen, if a machine looks anthropomorphic or zoomorphic (e.g. ASIMO or Aibo), especially if it is limb-like (e.g. a simple robot arm), or has limbs, or can move around, it would be called a robot.
For example, even if the following examples used the same control architecture:
Interestingly, while a 3-axis CNC milling machine may have a very similar or identical control system to a robot arm, it is the arm which is almost always called a robot, while the CNC machine is usually just a machine. Having a limb can make all the difference. Having eyes too gives people a sense that a machine is aware (the eyes are the windows of the soul). However, simply being anthropomorphic is not sufficient for something to be called a robot. A robot must do something, whether it is useful work or not. So, for example, a rubber dog chew, shaped like ASIMO, would not be considered a robot.
A re-programmable multi-functional manipulator designed to move materials, parts, tools, or specialized devices through variable programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks.Lee, Dai Gil (2005). Axiomatic Design and Fabrication of Composite Structures. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195178777. Retrieved on 2007-10-22.and also recognizes four classes of robot:
In contrast, the Japanese Robot Association (JARA) recognizes as many as six classes:Bodur, Mehmet (2006), Computational Principles of Robotics, Course Notes, Department of Computer Engineering, Eastern Mediterranean University, pp. 2, <http://cmpe.emu.edu.tr/mbodur/COUR/CMPE528/CPR528C1.pdf>. Retrieved on 9 September 2007
Such variation makes it difficult to compare numbers of robots in different countries. Japan has so many robots partly because it counts more machines as robots. For this reason, the International Organisation for Standardisation gives a single definition to be used when counting the number of robots in each country.European Robotics Research Network International standard ISO 8373 defines a robot as "an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose, manipulator programmable in three or more axes, which may be either fixed in place or mobile for use in industrial automation applications."Definition of a robot (PDF). Dansk Robot Forening. Retrieved on 2007-09-10.
There is no one definition of robot which satisfies everyone, and many people have their own. Polk, Igor (2005-11-16). RoboNexus 2005 robot exhibition virtual tour. Robonexus Exhibition 2005. Retrieved on 2007-09-10. For example, Joseph Engelberger, a pioneer in industrial robotics, once remarked: "I can\'t define a robot, but I know one when I see one."Harris, Tom. How Robots Work. How Stuff Works. Retrieved on 2007-09-10.
The word robot was introduced to the public at large by Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum\'s Universal Robots), which premiered in 1920. The play begins in a factory that makes \'artificial people\' - they are called robots, but are closer to the modern idea of androids or even clones, creatures who can be mistaken for humans. They can plainly think for themselves, though they seem happy to serve. At issue is whether the "Robots" are being exploited and, if so, what follows? (see also Robots in literature for details of the play)
However, Karel Čapek himself was not the originator of the word; he wrote a short letter in reference to an article in the Oxford English Dictionary etymology in which he named his brother, painter and writer Josef Čapek, as its actual inventor.Zunt, Dominik. Who did actually invent the word "robot" and what does it mean?. The Karel Čapek website. Retrieved on 2007-09-11. In an article in the Czech journal Lidové noviny in 1933, he also explained that he had originally wanted to call the creatures laboři (from Latin labor, work). However, he did not like the word, seeing it as too artificial, and sought advice from his brother Josef, who suggested "roboti".
The word robot comes from the word robota meaning literally serf labor, and figuratively "drudgery" or "hard work" in Czech, Slovak and Polish. The origin of the word is the Old Church Slavonic rabota "servitude" ("work" in contemporary Bulgarian and Russian), which in turn comes from the Indo-European root *orbh-. Robot is cognate with the German word Arbeiter (worker).
Cadmus Sowing the Dragon\'s teeth, by Maxfield Parrish, 1908
The idea of artificial people dates at least as far back as the ancient legends of Cadmus, who sowed dragon teeth that turned into soldiers, and the myth of Pygmalion, whose statue of Galatea came to life. In Greek mythology, the deformed god of metalwork (Vulcan or Hephaestus) created mechanical servants, ranging from intelligent, golden handmaidens to more utilitarian three-legged tables that could move about under their own power, and the robot Talos defended Crete. Medieval Persian alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan included recipes for creating artificial snakes, scorpions, and humans in his coded Book of Stones. Jewish legend tells of the Golem, a clay creature animated by Kabbalistic magic. Similarly, in the Younger Edda, Norse mythology tells of a clay giant, Mökkurkálfi or Mistcalf, constructed to aid the troll Hrungnir in a duel with Thor, the God of Thunder.
In ancient China, a curious account on automata is found in the Lie Zi text, written in the 3rd century BC. Within it there is a description of a much earlier encounter between King Mu of Zhou (1023 BC-957 BC) and a mechanical engineer known as Yan Shi, an \'artificer\'. The latter proudly presented the king with a life-size, human-shaped figure of his mechanical handiwork.
The king stared at the figure in astonishment. It walked with rapid strides, moving its head up and down, so that anyone would have taken it for a live human being. The artificer touched its chin, and it began singing, perfectly in tune. He touched its hand, and it began posturing, keeping perfect time...As the performance was drawing to an end, the robot winked its eye and made advances to the ladies in attendance, whereupon the king became incensed and would have had Yen Shih [Yan Shi] executed on the spot had not the latter, in mortal fear, instantly taken the robot to pieces to let him see what it really was. And, indeed, it turned out to be only a construction of leather, wood, glue and lacquer, variously coloured white, black, red and blue. Examining it closely, the king found all the internal organs complete—liver, gall, heart, lungs, spleen, kidneys, stomach and intestines; and over these again, muscles, bones and limbs with their joints, skin, teeth and hair, all of them artificial...The king tried the effect of taking away the heart, and found that the mouth could no longer speak; he took away the liver and the eyes could no longer see; he took away the kidneys and the legs lost their power of locomotion. The king was delighted.Needham, Joseph (1991). Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 2, History of Scientific Thought. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521058007.
Concepts akin to a robot can be found as long ago as the 4th century BC, when the Greek mathematician Archytas of Tarentum postulated a mechanical bird he called "The Pigeon" which was propelled by steam. Yet another early automaton was the clepsydra, made in 250 BC by Ctesibius of Alexandria, a physicist and inventor from Ptolemaic Egypt.Currie, Adam (1999). The History of Robotics. Retrieved on 2007-09-10. Hero of Alexandria (10-70 AD) made numerous innovations in the field of automata, including one that allegedly could speak.
Al-Jazari (1136-1206), an Arab Muslim inventor during the Artuqid dynasty, designed and constructed a number of automatic machines, including kitchen appliances, musical automata powered by water, and the first programmable humanoid robot in 1206. Al-Jazari\'s robot was a boat with four automatic musicians that floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties. His mechanism had a programmable drum machine with pegs (cams) that bump into little levers that operate the percussion. The drummer could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns by moving the pegs to different locations.A 13th Century Programmable Robot. University of Sheffield (2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-11.
One of the first recorded designs of a humanoid robot was made by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) in around 1495. Da Vinci\'s notebooks, rediscovered in the 1950s, contain detailed drawings of a mechanical knight able to sit up, wave its arms and move its head and jaw. A Brief History of Robotics, MegaGiant Robotics, 2005. The design is likely to be based on his anatomical research recorded in the Vitruvian Man. It is not known whether he attempted to build the robot (see: Leonardo\'s robot).
An early automaton was created in 1738 by Jacques de Vaucanson, who created a mechanical duck that was able to eat and digest grain, flap its wings, and excrete.
The Japanese craftsman Hisashige Tanaka, known as "Japan\'s Edison," created an array of extremely complex mechanical toys, some of which were capable of serving tea, firing arrows drawn from a quiver, or even painting a Japanese kanji character. The landmark text Karakuri Zui (Illustrated Machinery) was published in 1796. (T. N. Hornyak, Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots [New York: Kodansha International, 2006])
In 1898 Nikola Tesla publicly demonstrated a radio-controlled (teleoperated) boat, similar to a modern ROV. Based on his patents U.S. Patent 613,809, U.S. Patent 723,188 and U.S. Patent 725,605 for "teleautomation", Tesla hoped to develop the wireless torpedo into a weapon system for the US Navy. (Cheney 1989) See also the PBS website article (with photos): Tesla - Master of Lightning
In the 1930s, Westinghouse Electric Corporation made a humanoid robot known as Elektro, exhibited at the 1939 and 1940 World\'s Fairs.
The first electronic autonomous robots were created by William Grey Walter of the Burden Neurological Institute at Bristol, England in 1948 and 1949. They were named Elmer and Elsie. These robots could sense light and contact with external objects, and use these stimuli to navigate. The Grey Walter Online Archive, Owen Holland; Accessed April 30, 2007
Unimate\'s PUMA arm
It wasn\'t until the second half of the twentieth century, when integrated circuits were invented, and computers began to double in power every two years according to Moore\'s Law, that it became possible to build robots as we imagine them. Until that time, automatons were the closest things to robots, and while they may have looked humanoid, and their movements were complex, they were not capable of the self-control and decision making that robots are today.
The first truly modern robot, digitally operated, programmable, and teachable, was invented by George Devol in 1954 and was ultimately called the Unimate. It is worth noting that not a single patent was cited against his original robotics patent (U.S. Patent 2,988,237). The first Unimate was personally sold by Devol to General Motors in 1960 and installed in 1961 in a plant in Trenton, New Jersey to lift hot pieces of metal from a die casting machine and stack them.
The first human to be killed by a robot was Robert Williams who died at a casting plant in Flat Rock, MI (January 25, 1979). Kiska, Tim. "Death on the job: Jury awards $10 million to heirs of man killed by robot at auto plant", Philadelphia Inquirer, 1983-08-11, pp. A10. Retrieved on 2007-09-11. (English)
A better known case is that of 37-year-old Kenji Urada, a Japanese factory worker, in 1981. Urada was performing routine maintenance on the robot, but neglected to shut it down properly, and was accidentally pushed into a grinding machine. "Trust me, I\'m a robot", The Economist, 2006-06-08. Retrieved on 2007-04-30. (English)
| Date | Significance | Robot Name | Inventor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Third century B.C. | Automata activated by clocks at preset times | Ctesibius of Alexandria | ||
| Third century B.C. | During a parade organized by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, a statue of Nysa could stand up by itself from a sitting position, pour libations of milk and sit down again. | Ctesibius of Alexandria? | ||
| First century A.D. | In two works (Pneumatica and Automata) Heron of Alexandria describes many machines and automata (mainly from previous sources) | Ctesibius of Alexandria, Philo of Byzantium, Heron of Alexandria | ||
| 1206 | First programmable humanoid robot | mechanical boat with four automatic musicians | Al-Jazari | |
| ~1495 | Early design of a humanoid robot | mechanical knight | Leonardo da Vinci | |
| 1738 | Early automaton, a mechanical duck that was able to eat grain, flap its wings, and excrete. | The Digesting Duck | Jacques de Vaucanson | |
| 1920 | Word robot coined. History (English). University Of Texas. Retrieved on 2007-11-16. | Josef Čapek | ||
| 1921 | The term "robot" used in a play called "R.U.R." or "Rossum\'s Universal Robots" | Karel Čapek | ||
| 1930s | Early humanoid robot. It was exhibited at the 1939 and 1940 World\'s Fairs | Elektro | Westinghouse Electric Corporation | |
| 1942 | The word robotics appears in the science fiction short story I, Robot.Kube-McDowell, Michael; Mike McQuay (1987). Isaac Asimov\'s Robot City 1. Byron Preiss Visual Publications, Inc. Retrieved on 2007-10-15. | Isaac Asimov | ||
| 1948 | Simple robots which exhibit biological like behaviours. Imitation of Life: A History of the First Robots | Elsie and Elmer | William Grey Walter | |
| 1954 | Patent submitted for first digitally controlled robot and first teachable robot, (U.S. Patent 2,988,237) | George Devol | ||
| 1956 | First robot company, Unimation, is founded by George Devol and Joseph Engelberger based on Devol\'s seminal patents; first commercial robot.Waurzyniak, Patrick (2006-07). "Masters of Manufacturing: Joseph F. Engelberger". Society Of Manufacturing Engineers 137 (1). | Unimate | George Devol | |
| 1956 | Phrase artificial intelligence is coined at a conference in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.Emeritus (2006). Annual Report: Profile of John McCarthy. Stanford Engineering , Stanford University. Retrieved on 2007-09-13. | Marvin Minsky and John McCarthy | ||
| 1961 | First industrial robot installed. | Unimate | ||
| 1963 | First Palletizing Robot. | Fuji Yusoki Kogyo | ||
| 1973 | First robot with six electromechanically driven axes, known as FAMULUS. | KUKA | ||
| 1975 | Programmable Universal Manipulation Arm (a Unimation product) | Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly | Victor Scheinman | |
| 1981 | Kenji Urada, a Japanese factory worker, is killed by a robot. (2007-01) "Robotics safety: avoid exchanging hazards". Industrial Accident Prevention Association 2 (1). | |||
| 2000 | A humanoid robot that can recognize human faces, see stereoscopically, walk and run on different types of ground (including stairs), and respond (in words and in actions) to English and Japanese commands. | ASIMO | Honda Corporation |
Robots can be placed into roughly two categories based on the type of job they do:
Pick and Place robot, Contact Systems C5 SeriesContact Systems Pick and Place robots. Retrieved on 2007-09-13.
Jobs which require speed, accuracy, reliability or endurance can be performed far better by a robot than a human. Hence many jobs in factories which were traditionally performed by people are now robotized. This has led to cheaper mass-produced goods, including automobiles and electronics. Robots have now been working in factories for more than fifty years, ever since the Unimate robot was installed to automatically remove hot metal from a die casting machine. Since then, factory automation in the form of large stationary manipulators has become the largest market for robots. The number of installed robots has grown faster and faster, and today there are more than 1 million robots in operation worldwide (Half of the robot population is located in Asia, 1/3 in Europe, and 16% in North America. Australasia and Africa each account for 1%.)World Robotics (2007-10-29). "Robots Today and Tomorrow: IFR Presents the 2007 World Robotics Statistics Survey". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-12-14..
German KUKA Industrial robots doing vehicle under body assembly
Some examples of factory robots:
The Roomba domestic vacuum cleaner robot does a menial job
There are many jobs which a human could perform better than a robot but for one reason or another the human either does not want to do it or cannot be present to do the job. The job may be too boring to bother with, for example domestic cleaning; or be too dangerous, for example exploring inside a volcanoDante II, list of published papers. The Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved on 2007-09-16.. These jobs are known as the "dull, dirty, and dangerous" jobs. Other jobs are physically inaccessible. For example, exploring another planet Mars Pathfinder Mission: Rover Sojourner. NASA (1997-07-08). Retrieved on 2007-09-19., cleaning the inside of a long pipe or performing laparoscopic surgery.Robot assisted surgery: da Vinci® Surgical System. Brown University Division of Biology and Medicine. Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
Brain, Marshall (2003). Robotic Nation. Retrieved on 2007-09-23., making them both affordable and sufficiently autonomous, robots are increasingly being seen in the home where they are taking on simple but unwanted jobs, such as vacuum cleaning, floor cleaning and lawn mowing. While they have been on the market for several years, 2006 saw an explosion in the number of domestic robots sold. By 2006, iRobot had sold more than 2 million vacuuming robots.iRobot Corp (2006-05-22). "Sales of iRobot Roomba Vacuuming Robot Surpass 2 Million Units". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-09-23. They tend to be relatively autonomous, usually only requiring a command to begin their job. They then proceed to go about their business in their own way. At such, they display a good deal of agency, and are considered intelligent robots.
A laparoscopic robotic surgery machine.
"Bookworm: Sign Of The Times", The Scotsman, 2005-10-29. Retrieved on 2007-09-23. At the other end of the spectrum, iRobot ConnectR robot is designed to be used by anyone to stay in touch with family or friends from far away. One robot in use today, Intouchhealth\'s RP-7 remote presence robot, is being used by doctors to communicate with patients, allowing the doctor to be anywhere in the world. This increases the number of patients a doctor can monitor.
Much of the research in robotics focuses not on specific industrial tasks, but on investigations into new types of robot, alternative ways to think about or design robots, and new ways to manufacture them. It is expected that these new types of robot will be able to solve real world problems when they are finally realized.
This difference has not been lost on robotic engineers at Tufts University, where professors Barry Trimmer and David Kaplan recently gained international attention for creating the world\'s first soft-bodied robot from silicone. Made operationally possible by soft actuators (air muscles, electroactive polymers, ferrofluids), Trimmer and Kaplan\'s SoftBot exhibits soft behaviours (fuzzy logic, neural networks).[1] Soft-bodied robots look, feel, and behave differently from traditional hard robots, and as such, their applications are less limited. Currently exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York City, Trimmer and Kaplan hope the SoftBot will help "spark revolutions in medicine, the military and even outer-space exploration." Kaplan believes that, among other medical applications, soft-bodied robots could replace tiny cameras that patients swallow to help diagnose diseases.http://media.www.tuftsdaily.com/media/storage/paper856/news/2008/03/03/News/Tufts.Science.Professors.Produce.Worlds.First.SoftBodied.Robot-3247464.shtml
A swarm of robots from the Open-source micro-robotic projectOpen-source micro-robotic project. Retrieved on 2007-10-28.
Although current robots are not believed to have developed to the stage where they pose any threat or danger to society,Jeanne Dietsch, CEO, MobileRobots Inc: Will Robots Ever Take Over The World? fears and concerns about robots have been repeatedly expressed in a wide range of books and films. The principal theme is the robots\' intelligence and ability to act could exceed that of humans, that they could develop a conscience and a motivation to take over or destroy the human race. (See The Terminator, Runaway, Robocop, The Replicators (Stargate), The Matrix, I, Robot) Robots could be dangerous if they were programmed to kill or if they are programmed to be so smart that they make their own software, build their own hardware to upgrade themselves or if they change their own source code.
Frankenstein (1818), often called the first science fiction novel, has become synonymous with the theme of a robot or monster advancing beyond its creator. Probably the best known author to have worked in this area is Isaac Asimov who placed robots and their interaction with society at the center of many of his works. Of particular interest are Asimov\'s Three Laws of Robotics. Currently, malicious programming or unsafe use of robots may be the biggest danger. Although industrial robots may be smaller and less powerful than other industrial machines, they are just as capable of inflicting severe injury on humans. However, since a robot can be programmed to move in different trajectories depending on its task, its movement can be unpredictable for a person standing in its reach. Therefore, most industrial robots operate inside a security fence which separates them from human workers. Manuel De Landa has theorized that humans are at a critical and significant juncture where humans have allowed robots, "smart missiles," and autonomous bombs equipped with artificial perception to make decisions about killing us. He believes this represents an important and dangerous trend where humans are transferring more of our cognitive structures into our machines.*Manuel de Landa, War in the Age of Intelligent Machines, New York: Zone Books, 1991, 280 pages, Hardcover, ISBN 0-942299-76-0; Paperback, ISBN 0-942299-75-2. Even without malicious programming, a robot, especially a future model moving freely in a human environment, is potentially dangerous because of its large moving masses, powerful actuators and unpredictably complex behavior. A robot falling on someone or just stepping on his foot by mistake could cause much more damage to the victim than a human being of the same size. Designing and programming robots to be intrinsically safe and to exhibit safe behavior in a human environment is one of the great challenges in robotics. Some theorists, such as Eliezer Yudkowsky, have suggested that developing a robot with a powerful conscience may be the most prudent course of action in this regard.
Robots have frequently appeared as characters in works of literature; the word robot comes from Karel Čapek\'s play R.U.R. (Rossum\'s Universal Robots), premiered in 1920. Isaac Asimov wrote many volumes of science fiction focusing on robots in numerous forms and guises, contributing greatly to reducing the Frankenstein complex, which dominated early works of fiction involving robots. His three laws of robotics have become particularly well known for codifying a simple set of behaviors for robots to remain at the service of their human creators.
The first reference in Western literature to mechanical servants appears in The Iliad of Homer. In Book XVIII, Hephaestus, god of fire, creates new armour for the hero Achilles. He is assisted b
