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Topic 1 - Robotics

The document discusses robotics and automated systems, including defining robots and robotics, the uses and history of robots, intelligent robots, Asimov's Laws of Robotics, and early and modern robots.

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65 views

Topic 1 - Robotics

The document discusses robotics and automated systems, including defining robots and robotics, the uses and history of robots, intelligent robots, Asimov's Laws of Robotics, and early and modern robots.

Uploaded by

kvidiniotis99
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Robotics and Automated systems

Robotics

What is it?

It is the science of the use and study of robots.

What is a robot?

A robot is an automatically guided machine performing many tasks on its own e.g., they can
make cars and diffuse bombs. We all play with toy robots and vacuum cleaners can
automatically clean your house.

The use of robots


Robots have been made to perform tasks which are carried out by humans. Repetitive and
dangerous, precise or impossible for humans to undertake are being carried out by robots.
Robots will never get tired unlike humans or even tasks that humans cannot do e.g., working
in very high temperature conditions. If we put robots in these boring and repeated tasks, then
we have more time to spend doing more creative and less tedious tasks in the workforce.

Early and modern robots


The first robots performed very simple tasks such as the assembly line and are still used in
the manufacturing industries today. Modern robots have sensors that accept data from the
environment and are found in the area predominantly of artificial intelligence.

Intelligent robots have been designed by designers to copy the behaviour of humans and
thought processes e.g., vision, touch, hearing and smell. Intelligent robots can perform two
main things:

1. Get information from its surroundings.


2. Perform physical tasks.

Modern day robots have three characteristics:

1. Programmability: they can be programmed to carry out tasks like a computer


2. Mechanical capability: able to carry out tasks in the environment just the same way as
a machine does.
3. Flexibility: they can carry out many tasks by being reprogrammed or by responding to
external conditions.
The history of robots
Mechanical and computerised robots have existed for less than 50 years. But the idea of a
robotic human is a new innovation. Ancient Greeks would always speak of the idea of
mechanical helpers. Leonardo Da Vinci famous mathematician ‘Italian’ (of course what can I
say being an Italian myself-go the Italians). He was an artist and a designer and drew the
plans for a mechanical knight. This was to be used for entertainment to aid an ideal beat once
the handle was turned around.

Even in the 1920s Karel Capek who wrote a play R.U.R (Rossum’s universal robots). In this
play the R.U.R factory made mechanical devices called Robota (Czech for robot). In this play
these robots were unintelligent slaves and then later the scientists made these creatures show
and have emotion built into them. They turned evil and took over human civilisations. From
this time robots have become major stars in movies such as Star War, Lost in space and
Transformers.

Asimov’s Laws of Robotics


Isaac Asimov (1920-92) was the first person that made robots have characteristics to them
that respected humans. He wanted us to regard them as very important innovations. In 1942
he wrote a story about robots called the ‘Runaround’ which consisted of three laws of
robotics and then added a 4th law called the Zeroth Law.

● Zeroth law: A robot may not injure humanity or through inaction, allow humanity to
come to harm.
● First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or through inaction, allow a human
being to come to harm, unless this would violate the Zeroth Law.
● Second Law: A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where
such orders would conflict with the Zeroth law or First law.
● Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence if such protection does not conflict
with the Zeroth Law, First or second law.

The robot industry


The history of robots is quite new. While the ideas have been around for some time. The
construction and use of robots did not really begin until the mid-1950s.

● In 1956 the first robot company was created by George Devol and Joseph Engelberger

● Computer assisted manufacture (CAM) was shown at the Massachusetts Institute of


Technology.
● The first industrial robot called Unimate was introduced on the factory of General
Motors.
Homework questions

Questions:
1. Define the term robot?
2. Define the term Robotics?
3. Identify the purpose of the earliest robots?
4. Identify the component of modern robots that enables them to accept data from the
environment?
5. Name two characteristics of an intelligent robot?
6. Identify three main features of modern robots?
7. What was the name of the first industrial robot and in what year did it come online?
8. Scientists have a very different view of robots from science fiction readers and movie
goers. Explain these differences?

Answers:
1. A robot is an automatically guided machine able to perform tasks on its own.
2. Robotics is the science of the use and study of robots.
3. The early robots performed in the assembly line. Da Vinci’s design of the mechanical
knight showed that this was to be used for entertainment to help an ideal rhythm once
the handle was turned.
4. Modern robots accept data from the environment by using sensors found in the
artificial intelligence (AI) area.
5. Programmability: they can be programmed to carry out tasks like a computer.
Mechanical capability: able to carry out tasks in the environment just the same way
as a machine does.
6. Modern robots can copy the behaviours of humans through thought processes, get
information from their surrounding and perform physical tasks.
7. The first industrial robot was called Unimate and it came online in the mid 1950’s.
8. Scientists have a different view of robots than science fiction readers and movie
makers because they understand the skills needed to create a real robot such us the
artificial intelligence knowledge which is the theory and development of computer
systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, and
engineering needed to assemble a robot.

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