Wednesday 28 January 2015

History Of Robotics



Hello, it’s just me a human, but guess what if it is robot to assist me and you. It’s just a feeling of technology that helps us to create an ability to control and adapt the natural environment and this technology arena does not go beyond of Robotics.

We will be discussing mostly about the scenario of the today’s world or The Robotic World. There’s this saying I saw once, it said : "You are a human who need the reason not a robot who need a decision."
The word robotics derived from the Slavic word 'robota' which means labour. Difficult to guess but it comes from a play called 'Rossum's Universal Robots' by writer 'Karl Capeck' of Czech Republic. Actually the word was firstly adopted by Oxford Dictionary because of Karl’s brother JosefCapeck, so he is basically original originator(make someone fool with this).
It is quite impossible to estimate the date of birth of robotics.Because it has some aspects of its origin from various
mythology and as we know history is boring.By the way historians are unable to derive the origin date of robotics.
It has a long past, so let me bring you from where our civilization started you may use Wikipedia if you want to be a historian. Little discussion kind of boring job- In 1927 the Maschinenmensch ("machine-human") gynoid humanoid robot (also called "Parody", "Futura", "Robotrix", or the "Maria impersonator"), was the first depiction of a robot ever to appear on film was played by German actress, Brigitte Helm in Fritz Lang's film Metropolis.
In 1928, one of the first humanoid robots was exhibited at the annual exhibition of the Model Engineers Society in London. Invented by W. H. Richards, the robot Eric's frame consisted of an aluminium body of armour with eleven electromagnets and one motor powered by a twelve-volt power source. The robot could move its hands and head and could be controlled through remote control or voice control.

Westinghouse Electric Corporation built Televox in 1926; it was a cardboard cutout connected to various devices which users could turn on and off. In 1939, the humanoid robot known as Elektro was debuted at the World's Fair. Seven feet tall (2.1 m) and weighing 265 pounds (120.2 kg), it could walk by voice command, speak about 700 words (using a 78-rpm record player), smoke cigarettes, blow up balloons, and move its head and arms. The body consisted of a steel gear, cam and motor skeleton covered by an aluminum skin. In 1928, Japan's first robot, Gakutensoku, was designed and constructed by biologist Makoto Nishimura. In 1942 the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov formulated his Three Laws of Robotics in his 1942 story "run around". By the way his law are adapted universally now with some changes brought upon in 2009 by IEEE which are following:-
IEEE laws- 1. A human may not deploy a robot without the human-robot work system meeting the highest legal and professional standards of safety and ethics. 2. A robot must respond to humans as appropriate for their roles. 3. A robot must be endowed with sufficient situated autonomy to protect its own existence as long as such protection provides smooth transfer of control which does not conflict with the First and Second Laws.
In 1948, Norbert Wiener formulated the principles of cybernetics, the basis of practical robotics. 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. The first digital and programmable robot was invented
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.
As strange as it might seem, there really is no standard definition for a robot. However, there are some essential characteristics that a robot must have and this might help you to decide what is andwhat is not a robot. It will also help you to decide what features you will need to build into a machine before it can count as a robot. A robot has these essential characteristics: 1.Sensing: First of all your robot would have to be able to sense its surroundings. It would do this in ways that are similar to the way that you sense your surroundings. Giving your robot sensors:-light sensors (eyes), touch and pressure sensors (hands), chemical sensors  (nose), hearing and sonar sensors  (ears), and taste sensors  (tongue) will give your robot awareness of its environment. 2.Movement: A robot needs to be able to move around its environment. Whether rolling on wheels, walking on legs or propelling by thrusters, a robot needs to be able to move. To count as a robot either the whole robot moves, like the Sojourner or just parts of the robot moves, like the Canada Arm. 3.Energy: A robot needs to be able to power itself. A robot might be solar powered, electrically powered or battery powered. The way your robot gets its energy will depend on what your robot needs to do. 4.Intelligence: A robot needs some kind of "smarts." This is where programming enters into the picture. A programmer is the person who gives the robot its 'smarts.' The robot will have to have some way to receive the program so that it knows what it is to do.

 Q:-What is that creates a difference in definition of robot?
Ans:-Well many scientists across the world have their own vision and they do not come to same meaning or definition of robot. Some differentiate with  Automata and  mechatronics (as in Disneyland) and now autonomous digital......


-Shubham Dixit
(Team Leader)

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