Robot (redirected from Robots)

robot or automaton (ôtäm`ətän') mechanical device designed to perform the work generally done by a human being. The Czech dramatist Karel Čapek popularized the expression [Czech,=compulsory labor] in his play R. U. R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), produced in Prague in 1921. Modern robotics has produced innumerable devices that replace human personnel, and the term robot is used to designate much of this machinery. It is used frequently in fiction, referring to a self-controlling machine shaped like a human being. While the concept has been the subject of stories since the golem of medieval times, it reached its greatest exposure in popular culture with the work of Isaac Asimov in the 1950s and the motion picture robots Robby in Forbidden Planet (1956) and C-3PO in Star Wars (1977).

Bibliography

See G. Wood, Edison's Eve: A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life (2002).

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robot

Any automatically operated machine that replaces human effort, though it may not look much like a human being or function in a humanlike manner. The term comes from the play R.U.R. by Karel Capek (1920). Major developments in microelectronics and computer technology since the 1960s have led to significant advances in robotics. Advanced, high-performance robots are used today in automobile manufacturing and aircraft assembly, and electronics firms use robotic devices together with other computerized instruments to sort or test finished products.

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robot

A stand-alone hybrid computer system that performs physical and computational activities. Capable of performing many different tasks, it is a multiple-motion device with one or more arms and joints. Robots can be similar in form to a human, but industrial robots do not resemble people at all.

The term is attributed to Czech dramatist Karel Capek in his 1921 play entitled "R.U.R. - Rossum's Universal Robots." Capek applied the Czech word "robota," which means "forced labor" or "servitude" to the mechanized people in the skit. Three years later, robots appeared in Fritz Lang's classic silent movie "Metropolis," and they have been with us ever since.

A Wide Variety of Applications
Robots are designed for many purposes. In manufacturing, they are used for welding, riveting, scraping and painting. They are also deployed for demolition, fire and bomb fighting, nuclear site inspection, industrial cleaning, laboratory use, medical surgery (see telepresence surgery), agriculture, forestry, office mail delivery as well as a myriad of other tasks. Increasingly, more artificial intelligence is being added. For example, some robots can identify objects in a pile, select the objects in the appropriate sequence and assemble them into a unit.

Analog and Digital
Robots use analog sensors for recognizing real-world objects and digital computers for their direction. Analog to digital converters convert temperature, motion, pressure, sound and images into binary code for the robot's computer. The computer directs the physical actions of the arms and joints by pulsing their motors. See AIBO.

Shakey the Robot

Developed in 1969 by the Stanford Research Institute, Shakey was the first fully mobile robot with artificial intelligence. Shakey is seven feet tall and was named after its rather unstable movements. (Image courtesy of The Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org.)

Huey, Dewey and Louie

Named after Donald Duck's famous nephews, robots at this Wayne, Michigan plant apply sealant to prevent possible water leakage into the car. Huey (top) seals the drip rails while Dewey (right) seals the interior weld seams. Louie is outside of the view of this picture. (Image courtesy of Ford Motor Company.)

Inspect Pipes from the Inside

Developed by SRI for Osaka Gas in Japan, this Magnetically Attached General Purpose Inspection Engine (MAGPIE) goes inside gas pipes and looks for leaks. This unit served as the prototype for multicar models that perform temporary repairs while capturing pictures. (Image courtesy of SRI International.)

Computers Making Computers

Robots, whose brains are nothing but chips, are making chips in this TI fabrication plant. (Image courtesy of Texas Instruments, Inc.)

How Small Can They Get?

By 2020, scientists at Rutgers University believe that nano-sized robots will be injected into the bloodstream and administer a drug directly to an infected cell. This robot has a carbon nanotube body, a biomolecular motor that propels it and peptide limbs to orient itself. For more information, see http://bionano.rutgers.edu/Mavroidis_Final_Report.pdf. (Image courtesy of the Bio-Nano Robotics team at Rutgers University: Constantinos Mavroidis, Martin L. Yarmush, Atul Dubey, Angela Thornton, Kevin Nikitczuk, Silvina Tomassone, Fotios Papadimitrakopoulos and Bernie Yurke.)

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robot

1. any automated machine programmed to perform specific mechanical functions in the manner of a man

2. not controlled by man; automatic

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robot [′rō‚bät]

(control systems)

A mechanical device that can be programmed to perform a variety of tasks of manipulation and locomotion under automatic control.

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1.	(robotics)	robot - A mechanical device for performing a task which might otherwise be done by a human, e.g. spraying paint on cars. See also cybernetics.
2.	(chat)	robot - An IRC or MUD user who is actually a program. On IRC, typically the robot provides some useful service. Examples are NickServ, which tries to prevent random users from adopting nicks already claimed by others, and MsgServ, which allows one to send asynchronous messages to be delivered when the recipient signs on. Also common are "annoybots", such as KissServ, which perform no useful function except to send cute messages to other people. Service robots are less common on MUDs; but some others, such as the "Julia" robot active in 1990--91, have been remarkably impressive Turing test experiments, able to pass as human for as long as ten or fifteen minutes of conversation.
3.	(World-Wide Web)	robot - spider.

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Robot 

a machine with anthropomorphic actions that partially or completely performs human and sometimes animal functions in interaction with the environment. The term “robot” was first introduced by K. Čapek in his play R. U. R. (1920), in which mechanical people were called robots.

With the development of robot technology, three types of robots evolved: robots with a fixed program of actions, robots controlled by a human operator, and robots with artificial intelligence; those of the last type operate purposefully without human intervention. Most modern robots of all three types are robot-manipulators, although there are also other types, for example, information robots and walking robots. It is possible to combine robots of the first and second types in a single unit by dividing the robot’s functions over time. It is also possible for a man to work jointly with the third type of robot, with the man acting in a supervisory capacity. The first robots—androids that imitated the movements and had the external appearance of humans—were used primarily for entertainment. Since the 1930’s, in connection with the automation of production, automatic robots have been used in industry along with traditional means of automating production processes, particularly in small-lot production and in shops with harmful working conditions (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Diagram of a robot-manipulator making a mechanical connection

An industrial robot-manipulator has one or several mechanical arms and a remote-control console or a built-in programmed control unit, or, more rarely, a computer. It can move objects weighing up to several tens of kilograms within the operating radius of its mechanical arms (up to 2 m) and can perform 200 to 1,000 movements an hour. Industrial robot-automatons are superior to the human being in speed and precision in performing uniform manual operations. The most common types of robots are robot-manipulators equipped with remote control and a mechanical arm mounted on a mobile or fixed base. The operator controls the movement of the arm while observing the arm either directly or on a television screen; in the latter case, the robot is equipped with a transmitting television camera. Robots are often provided with automatic learning systems. If such a robot is “shown” a sequence of operations, the control system records the sequence in the form of a control program and then exactly reproduces the sequence during work.

Robot-manipulators are used for work in relatively inaccessible places or under conditions that are dangerous or harmful for human beings, for example, in nuclear industry, where they have been used since the 1950’s. The 1960’s saw the appearance of various designs of robot-manipulators, used for a variety of purposes. They include controlled deepwater devices with mechanical arms used to obtain rock samples from the ocean floor, platforms that creep along the ocean floor carrying research equipment, and underwater bulldozers and drilling rigs.

In the late 1960’s there was a new trend in robot technology involving the development of decision-making robots. Such robots are equipped with sensors that receive information on the surroundings, a unit to process the information received (the artificial intelligence) consisting of a specialized computer with a set of programs, and actuating mechanisms (the motor system). The actions of decision-making robots have certain characteristics of human behavior. The sensors gather information about objects in the environment and about the properties and interactions of these objects. On the basis of these data, the artificial intelligence formulates a model of the environment and decides on the sequence of robot actions, which are carried out by the actuating mechanisms. By 1975 such decision-making robots had been tested in trial runs in industry.

REFERENCES

Chelovecheskie sposobnosti mashin. Moscow, 1971. (Translated from English.)
Kobrinskii, A. E. Votoni—roboty. Moscow, 1972.
Teoriia i ustroistvo manipuliatorov: Sb. st. Moscow, 1973.
Integral’nye roboty. Moscow, 1973. (Translated from English.)
Popov, E. P. Roboty-manipuliatory. Moscow, 1974.

L. N. STOLIAROV