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Many of the robots in use today do jobs that are especially difficult for human workers. These are the types of jobs that require great strength or pose danger. For example, robots are particularly useful in the auto-manufacturing industry where parts of automobiles must be welded together. A welding tool used by a human worker weighs about 100 pounds or more and is difficult to handle. As mechanical supermen, robots maybe called upon to do components between workstations on a factory floor to carrying bags of cement.
Spray painting is another task suited to robots because robots do not need to breathe. Unlike human painters, they are unaffected by the poisonous fumes. Robots are better at this task, not because they are faster or cheaper than humans, but because they work in a place where humans cannot.
Third in the list of useful jobs for robots is the assembly of electronic parts. Robots shine at installing chips in printed circuit boards because of a capability that robots have that people don't. A robot, once properly programmed, will not put a chip in the wrong place. This automatic accuracy is particularly valuable in this kind of industry because locating and fixing mistakes is costly.
Earlier robots were usually blind are fitted with video cameras and other sensing devices that can detect heat, texture, size, and sound. These robots are used in space projects, nuclear reactor stations, and underwater exploration research. In their efforts to expand the range of robotic applications, researchers are looking beyond traditional designs to examine a variety of potential models from the biological world. The industrial arm is a classic example. Scientists have been able to model robots to imitate the vertebrate spine of a snake in order to paint the interior of automobiles. They have simulated the muscle structure and movement of an elephant's trunk in an attempt to create a robotic arm capable of lifting heavy objects. Scientists have also emulated the flexibility of an octopus where the tentacles can conform to the fragile objects of any shape and hold them with uniform, gentle pressure. A variation of this design can be used to handle animals, turn hospital patients in their beds, or lift a small child.
In the meantime, the robotics to change the kind of work that people do. The boring and dangerous jobs are now assumed by robots. By the turn of the century, more and more humans will be required for tasks that machines cannot do. There are some industrialists who hope that by the year 2000 all their employees will be knowledge workers, no longer standing on assembly lines but rather sitting at desks and computer terminals to deal with information. These changes are already under way, and their pace accelerates every year.
Timeline of Robots
A timeline of the history of mechanical men or robots
- ~270BC an ancient Greek engineer named Ctesibus made organs and water clocks with movable figures.
- 1818 - Mary Shelley wrote "Frankenstein" which was about a frightening artificial lifeform created by Dr. Frankenstein.
- 1921 - The term "robot" was first used in a play called "R.U.R." or "Rossum's Universal Robots" by the Czech writer Karel Capek. The plot was simple: man makes robot then robot kills man!
- 1941 - Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov first used the word "robotics" to describe the technology of robots and predicted the rise of a powerful robot industry.
- 1942 - Asimov wrote "Runaround", a story about robots which contained the "Three Laws of Robotics":
1) A robot may not injure a human, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey the orders it by human beings except where such orders would conflic with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict withe the First or Second Law.
- 1948 - "Cybernetics", an influence on artificial intelligence research was published by Norbert Wiener. British robotics pioneer William Grey Walter invented robots Elmer and Elsie that mimic lifelike behavior using very simple electronics.
- George Devol and Joe Engleberger invent the first programmable robot arm and coined the phrase Universal Automation for the first time.
- 1956 - George Devol and Joseph Engelberger formed the world's first robot company. Squee, the electronic robot squirrel invented.
- 1959 - Computer-assisted manufacturingg was demonstrated at the Servomechanisms Lab at MIT.
- 1961 - The first industrial robot was online in a General Motors automobile factory in New Jersey. It was called UNIMATE.
- 1963 - The first artificial robotic arm to be controlled by a computer was designed. The Rancho Arm was designed as a tool for the handicapped and it's six joints gave it the flexibility of a human arm.
- 1965 - DENDRAL was the first expert system or program designed to execute the accumulated knowledge of subject experts.
- 1968 - The octopus-like Tentacle Arm was developed by Marvin Minsky.
- 1969 - The Stanford Arm was the first electrically powered, computer-controlled robot arm.
- 1970 - Shakey was introduced as the first mobile robot controlled by artificial intellence. It was produced by SRI International.
- 1974 - A robotic arm (the Silver Arm) that performed small-parts assembly using feedback from touch and pressure sensors was designed.
- 1979 - The Standford Cart crossed a chair-filled room without human assistance. The cart had a tv camera mounted on a rail which took pictures from multiple angles and relayed them to a computer. The computer analyzed the distance between the cart and the obstacles.
More about a brief history of robotics
Source: Keith Boeckner, P. Charles Brown "Oxford English for Computing"
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