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ASIMO (2000) at the Expo 2005,a humanoid robot

Articulated welding robots used ina factory

RobotFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A robot is a mechanical or virtual artificial agent, usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by a computer program or electroniccircuitry. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or remotelycontrolled[citation needed] and range from humanoids such as ASIMO andTOPIO to nano robots, 'swarm' robots, and industrial robots. By mimickinga lifelike appearance or automating movements, a robot may convey a senseof intelligence or thought of its own. The branch of technology that deals withrobots is called robotics.

Machinery was initially used for repetitive functions, such as lifting water andgrinding grain. With technological advances more complex machines weredeveloped, such as those invented by Hero of Alexandria in the 1st centuryAD, and the automata of Al-Jazari in the 12th century AD. The robots made

by such inventors were more for the purpose of entertainment than for

performing work.

As mechanical techniques developed through the Industrial age, morepractical applications were proposed by Nikola Tesla, who in 1898designed a radio-controlled boat. Electronics evolved into the driving forceof development with the advent of the first electronic autonomous robotscreated by William Grey Walter in Bristol, England in 1948. The first digitaland programmable robot was invented by George Devol in 1954 and wasnamed the Unimate. It was sold to General Motors in 1961 where it wasused 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.[1]

Robots have replaced humans[citation needed] in the assistance of performingthose repetitive and dangerous tasks which humans prefer not to do, or areunable to do due to size limitations, or even those such as in outer space orat the bottom of the seawhere humans could not survive the extremeenvironments.

There are concerns about the increasing use of robots and their role in society. Robots are blamed for risingunemployment as they replace workers in some functions. The use of robots in military combat raises ethical

concerns. The possibility of robot autonomy and potential repercussions has been addressed in fiction and may berealistic concern in the future.

Contents

1 Overview1.1 Defining characteristics

2 History
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot 2

2.1 Ancient beginnings2.2 Early modern developments2.3 Modern developments

3 Etymology4 Modern robots

4.1 Mobile robot4.2 Industrial robots (manipulating)

4.3 Service robot4.4 Modular robot4.5 Collaborative robots

5 Robots in society5.1 Regional perspectives5.2 Autonomy and ethical questions5.3 Military robots5.4 Relationship to unemployment

6 Contemporary uses6.1 General-purpose autonomous robots

6.2 Factory robots6.3 Dirty, dangerous, dull or inaccessible tasks6.4 Military robots6.5 Mining robots6.6 Schools6.7 Healthcare6.8 Research robots6.9 Entertainment

7 Future development

7.1 Technological trends7.2 Technological development7.3 Reading robot

8 Robots in popular culture8.1 Literature8.2 Problems depicted in popular culture

9 See also10 References11 Further reading12 External links

Overview

The word robotcan refer to both physical robots and virtual software agents, but the latter are usually referred toas bots.[2] There is no consensus on which machines qualify as robots but there is general agreement amongexperts, and the public, that robots tend to do some or all of the following: move around, operate a mechanicallimb, sense and manipulate their environment, and exhibit intelligent behavior especially behavior which mimicshumans or other animals.
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There is no one definition ofrobotthat satisfies everyone and many people have their own.[3] For example JosephEngelberger, a pioneer in industrial robotics, once remarked: "I can't define a robot, but I know one when I seeone."[4] According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica a robot is "any automatically operated machine that replaceshuman effort, though it may not resemble human beings in appearance or perform functions in a humanlike mannerMerriam-Webster describes a robot as a "machine that looks like a human being and performs various complexacts (as walking or talking) of a human being", or a "device that automatically performs complicated often repetitivtasks", or a "mechanism guided by automatic controls".[5]

The various types of robots

KITT (a fictitious robot) is mentallyanthropomorphic

ASIMO is physically anthropomorphic

Defining characteristics

While there is no single correct definition ofrobot,[6] a typical robot will have several, or possibly all, of thefollowing characteristics.

It is an electric machine which has some ability to interact with physical objects and to be given electronicprogramming to do a specific task or to do a whole range of tasks or actions. It may also have some ability toperceive and absorb data on physical objects, or on its local physical environment, or to process data, or torespond to various stimuli. This is in contrast to a simple mechanical device such as a gear or a hydraulic press orany other item which has no processing ability and which does tasks through purely mechanical processes andmotion.[citation needed]

Mental agency
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For robotic engineers, the physical appearance of a machine is less important than the way its actions arecontrolled. The more the control system seems to have agency of its own, the more likely the machine is to becalled a robot. An important feature of agency is the ability to make choices. Higher-level cognitive functions,though, are not necessary, as shown by ant robots.[citation needed]

A clockwork car is never considered a robot.[citation needed]

A mechanical device that is able to perform some preset motions but is unable to adapt (an automaton) is

rarely considered a robot.[citation needed]

A remotely operated vehicle is sometimes considered a robot (or telerobot). [7]

A car with an onboard computer, like Bigtrak, which could drive in a programmable sequence, might be

called a robot.[citation needed]

A self-controlled car which could sense its environment and make driving decisions based on thisinformation, such as the 1990s driverless cars of Ernst Dickmanns or the entries in the DARPA Grand

Challenge, would quite likely be called a robot.[citation needed]

A sentient car, like the fictional KITT, which can make decisions, navigate freely and converse fluently with

human, is usually considered a robot.[citation needed]

Physical agency

However, for many laymen, if a machine appears able to control its arms or limbs, and especially if it appearsanthropomorphic or zoomorphic (e.g. ASIMO or Aibo), it would be called a robot.[citation needed]

A player piano is rarely characterized as a robot.[8]

A CNC milling machine is very occasionally characterized as a robot.[citation needed]

A factory automation arm is almost always characterized as an industrial robot.[citation needed]

An autonomous wheeled or tracked device, such as a self-guided rover or self-guided vehicle, is almost

always characterized as a mobile robot or service robot.[citation needed]

A zoomorphic mechanical toy, like Roboraptor, is usually characterized as a robot.[9]

A mechanical humanoid, like ASIMO, is almost always characterized as a robot, usually as a service

robot.[citation needed]

Even for a 3-axis CNC milling machine using the same control system as a robot arm, it is the arm which is almostalways called a robot, while the CNC machine is usually just a machine. Having eyes can also make a difference inwhether a machine is called a robot, since humans instinctively connect eyes with sentience. However, simply beinanthropomorphic is not a sufficient criterion for something to be called a robot. A robot must do something; aninanimate object shaped like ASIMO would not be considered a robot.[citation needed]

History

Main article: History of robots

The idea of automata originates in the mythologies of many cultures around the world. Engineers and inventors fromancient civilizations, including Ancient China,[10] Ancient Greece, and Ptolemaic Egypt,[11] attempted to build self-operating machines, some resembling animals and humans. Early descriptions of automata include the artificial
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doves of Archytas,[12] the artificial birds of Mozi and Lu Ban,[13] a "speaking" automaton by Hero of Alexandria, washstand automaton by Philo of Byzantium, and a human automaton described in the Lie Zi.[10]

Timeline of robot and automata development

Date SignificanceRobot

nameInventor

1st

centuryAD andearlier

Descriptions of over a hundred machines and automata, including afire engine, wind organ, coin-operated machine, and steam-poweredaeliopile, inPneumatica andAutomata by Heron

Ctesibius, Philo,Heron, and others

1206 Early programmable automataRobot

band[14]Al-Jazari

c. 1495 Designs for a humanoid robotMechanicalknight

Leonardo da Vinc

1738 Mechanical duck that was able to eat, flap its wings, and excreteDigesting

Duck

Jacques de

Vaucanson19thcentury

Japanese mechanical toys that served tea, fired arrows, and paintedKarakuri

toysHisashige Tanaka

(c.1860)

Remotely (mechanical) steered clockwork fire ship(Coastal

fireship)Unknown/GiovanLuppis

Early1870s

Remotely controlled torpedos by John Ericsson (pneumatic), JohnLouis Lay (electric wire guided), and Victor von Scheliha (electric

wire guided)[15](torpedo)

John Ericsson,John Louis Lay,Victor vonScheliha

1898Tesla demonstrates the first radio controlled (wireless) vessel(torpedo)

(torpedo) Nikola Tesla

1921 First fictional automata called "robots" appear in the playR.U.R.Rossum'sUniversalRobots

Karel apek

1928Humanoid robot, based on a suit of armor with electrical actuators,exhibited at the annual exhibition of the Model Engineers Society inLondon

Eric W. H. Richards

1930sRemotely controlled humanoid robot exhibited at the 1939 and 1940World's Fairs

ElektroWestinghouseElectricCorporation

1948 Simple robots exhibiting biological behaviors[16]Elsie andElmer

William GreyWalter

1956First commercial robot, from the Unimation company founded by

George Devol and Joseph Engelberger, based on Devol's patents[17]Unimate George Devol

1961 First installed industrial robot Unimate George Devol
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1963 First palletizing robot[18] Palletizer Fuji Yusoki Kogy

1973 First robot with six electromechanically driven axes[19][20] Famulus KUKA Robotics

1976 Programmable universal manipulation arm, a Unimation product PUMA Victor Scheinman

Ancient beginnings

Many ancient mythologies include artificial people, such as the mechanical servants built by the Greek godHephaestus[21] (Vulcan to the Romans), the clay golems of Jewish legend and clay giants of Norse legend, andGalatea, the mythical statue of Pygmalion that came to life. Since circa 400 BC, myths of Crete include Talos, aman of bronze who guarded the Cretan island of Europa from pirates.

In ancient Greece, the Greek engineer Ctesibius (c. 270 BC) "applied a knowledge of pneumatics and hydraulics tproduce the first organ and water clocks with moving figures."[22][23] In the 4th century BC, the Greekmathematician Archytas of Tarentum postulated a mechanical steam-operated bird he called "The Pigeon". Hero oAlexandria (1070 AD), a Greek mathematician and inventor, created numerous user-configurable automateddevices, and described machines powered by air pressure, steam and water.[24]

In ancient China, the 3rd century text of theLie Zi describes an account of humanoid automata, involving a muchearlier encounter between Chinese emperor King Mu of Zhou and a mechanical engineer known as Yan Shi, an'artificer'. Yan Shi proudly presented the king with a life-size, human-shaped figure of his mechanical 'handiwork'made of leather, wood, and artificial organs.[10] There are also accounts of flying automata in theHan Fei Zi andother texts, which attributes the 5th century BC Mohist philosopher Mozi and his contemporary Lu Ban with theinvention of artificial wooden birds (ma yuan) that could successfully fly.[13] In 1066, the Chinese inventor Su Son

built a water clock in the form of a tower which featured mechanical figurines which chimed the hours.

The beginning of automata is associated with the invention of early Su Song's astronomical clock tower featured

mechanical figurines that chimed the hours.[14][25][26] His mechanism had a programmable drum machine with peg(cams) that bumped into little levers that operated percussion instruments. The drummer could be made to playdifferent rhythms and different drum patterns by moving the pegs to different locations.[26]

Washstand automaton reconstruction,as described by Philo of Byzantium

(Greece, 3rd century BC).

Al-Jazari's toy boat, musical automata
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Tea-serving karakuri with mechanism.(National Museum of Nature and

Science, Tokyo).

Su Song's astronomical clock towershowing the mechanical figurines

which chimed the hours.

Early modern developments

In Renaissance Italy, Leonardo da Vinci (14521519) sketched plans for a humanoid robot around 1495. DaVinci's notebooks, rediscovered in the 1950s, contained detailed drawings of a mechanical knight now known asLeonardo's robot, able to sit up, wave its arms and move its head and jaw. [27] The design was probably based onanatomical research recorded in his Vitruvian Man. It is not known whether he attempted to build it.

In Japan, complex animal and human automata were built between the 17th to 19th centuries, with many describein the 18th centuryKarakuri zui (Illustrated Machinery, 1796). One such automaton was the karakuri ningy, amechanized puppet.[28] Different variations of the karakuri existed: theButai karakuri, which were used in theatrtheZashiki karakuri, which were small and used in homes, and theDashi karakuri which were used in religiousfestivals, where the puppets were used to perform reenactments of traditional myths and legends.

In France, between 1738 and 1739, Jacques de Vaucanson exhibited several life-sized automatons: a flute player

a pipe player and a duck. The mechanical duck could flap its wings, crane its neck, and swallow food from theexhibitor's hand, and it gave the illusion of digesting its food by excreting matter stored in a hidden compartment. [2

Modern developments

The Japanese craftsman Hisashige Tanaka (17991881), known as "Japan's Edison" or "Karakuri Giemon",created an array of extremely complex mechanical toys, some of which served tea, fired arrows drawn from aquiver, and even painted a Japanese kanji character.[30]

A remotely operated vehicles were demonstrated in the late 19th in the form of several types of remotely controlletorpedos. The early 1870s saw remotely controlled torpedos by John Ericsson (pneumatic), John Louis Lay(electric wire guided), and Victor von Scheliha (electric wire guided).[15] In 1898 Nikola Tesla publiclydemonstrated a "wireless" radio-controlled torpedo that he hoped sell to the US Navy.[31][32]

In 1926, Westinghouse Electric Corporation created Televox, the first robot put to useful work. They followedTelevox with a number of other simple robots, including one called Rastus, made in the crude image of a black manIn the 1930s, they created a humanoid robot known as Elektro for exhibition purposes, including the 1939 and1940 World's Fairs.[33][34] In 1928, Japan's first robot, Gakutensoku, was designed and constructed by biologist
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A scene from Karel apek's 1920 playR.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots),showing three robots

Makoto Nishimura. The first electronic autonomous robots with complex behaviour were created by William GreyWalter of the Burden Neurological Institute at Bristol, England in 1948 and 1949. They were named Elmerand

Elsie. These robots could sense light and contact with external objects, and use these stimuli to navigate.[35]

The first truly modern robot, digitally operated and programmable, was invented by George Devol in 1954 and waultimately called the Unimate. Devol sold the first Unimate to General Motors in 1960, and it was installed in 1961in a plant in Trenton, New Jersey to lift hot pieces of metal from a die casting machine and stack them.[36] Devols

patent for the first digitally operated programmable robotic arm represents the foundation of the modern roboticsindustry.[37]

Commercial and industrial robots are now in widespread use performing jobs more cheaply or with greateraccuracy and reliability than humans. They are also employed for jobs which are too dirty, dangerous or dull to besuitable for humans. Robots are widely used in manufacturing, assembly and packing, transport, earth and spaceexploration, surgery, weaponry, laboratory research, and mass production of consumer and industrial goods.[38]

Etymology

See also: Glossary of robotics

The word robotwas introduced to the public by the Czechinterwar writer Karel apek in his playR.U.R. (Rossum'sUniversal Robots), published in 1920.[39] The play begins in afactory that makes artificial people called robots, though they arecloser to the modern ideas of androids, creatures who can bemistaken for humans. They can plainly think for themselves, thoughthey seem happy to serve. At issue is whether the robots are beingexploited and the consequences of their treatment.

Karel apek himself did not coin the word. He wrote a shortletter in reference to an etymology in the Oxford English

Dictionary in which he named his brother, the painter and writerJosef apek, as its actual originator.[39]

In an article in the Czech journalLidov noviny in 1933, he explained that he had originally wanted to call thecreatures laboi ("workers", from Latin labor). However, he did not like the word, and sought advice from his

brother Josef, who suggested "roboti". The word robota means literally "corve", "serf labor", and figuratively"drudgery" or "hard work" in Czech and also (more general) "work", "labor" in many Slavic languages (e.g.:

Bulgarian, Russian, Slovak, Polish, Macedonian, Ukrainian, archaic Czech). Traditionally the robota was the worperiod a serf (corve) had to give for his lord, typically 6 months of the year. The origin of the word is the OldChurch Slavonic (Old Bulgarian) rabota "servitude" ("work" in contemporary Bulgarian and Russian), which in turcomes from the Indo-European root *orbh-.Robotis cognate with the German wordArbeiter(worker).[40][41]

The word robotics, used to describe this field of study,[42] was coined by the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.Asimov created the "Three Laws of Robotics" which are a recurring theme in his books. These have since beenused by many others to define laws used in fact and fiction. Introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround" theLaws state the following:
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A laparoscopic roboticsurgery machine

1. A robot may not harm a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come toharm.

2. A robot must obey a human being, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the

First or Second Law.

Modern robots

Mobile robot

Main articles: Mobile robot and Automated guided vehicle

Mobile robots have the capability to move around in their environment and arenot fixed to one physical location. An example of a mobile robot that is incommon use today is the automated guided vehicle orautomatic guidedvehicle (AGV). An AGV is a mobile robot that follows markers or wires in thefloor, or uses vision or lasers. AGVs are discussed later in this

article.[citation needed]

Mobile robots are also found in industry, military and security environments.They also appear as consumer products, for entertainment or to perform certaintasks like vacuum cleaning. Mobile robots are the focus of a great deal of currentresearch and almost every major university has one or more labs that focus onmobile robot research.[citation needed]

Modern robots are usually used in tightly controlled environments such as onassembly lines because they have difficulty responding to unexpected interference. Because of this most humans

rarely encounter robots. However domestic robots for cleaning and maintenance are increasingly common in andaround homes in developed countries. Robots can also be found in military applications. [citation needed]

Industrial robots (manipulating)

Main articles: Industrial robot and Manipulator

Industrial robots usually consist of a jointed arm (multi-linked manipulator) and an end effector that is attached to afixed surface. One of the most common type of end effector is a gripper assembly.

The International Organization for Standardization gives a definition of a manipulating industrial robot in ISO 8373

"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."[43]

This definition is used by the International Federation of Robotics, the European Robotics Research Network(EURON) and many national standards committees.[44]

Service robot
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A Pick and Place robot in afactory

Main article: Service robot

Most commonly industrial robots are fixed robotic arms and manipulators usedprimarily for production and distribution of goods. The term "service robot" isless well-defined. The International Federation of Robotics has proposed atentative definition, "A service robot is a robot which operates semi- or fullyautonomously to perform services useful to the well-being of humans andequipment, excluding manufacturing operations."[45]

Modular robot

Modular robots are a new breed of robots that are designed to increase theutilization of the robots by modularizing the robots. The functionality andeffectiveness of a modular robot is easier to increase compared to conventionalrobots. These robots are composed of a single type of identical, several differentidentical module types, or similarly shaped modules, which vary in size. Theirarchitectural structure allows hyper-redundancy for modular robots, as they can be designed with more than 8degrees of freedom (DOF). Creating the programming, inverse kinematics and dynamics for modular robots ismore complex than with traditional robots. Modular robots may be composed of L-shaped modules, cubicmodules, and U and H-shaped modules. ANAT technology, an early modular robotic technology patented byRobotics Design Inc., allows the creation of modular robots from U and H shaped modules that connect in a chainand are used to form heterogeneous and homogenous modular robot systems. These ANAT robots can bedesigned with n DOF as each module is a complete motorized robotic system that folds relatively to the moduleconnected before and after it in its chain, and therefore a single module allows one degree of freedom. The moremodules that are connected to one another, the more degrees of freedom it will have. L-shaped modules can also

be designed in a chain, and must become increasingly smaller as the size of the chain increases, as payloadsattached to the end of the chain place a greater strain on modules that are further from the base. ANAT H-shapedmodules do not suffer from this problem, as their design allows a modular robot to distribute pressure and impactsevenly amongst other attached modules, and therefore payload-carrying capacity does not decrease as the length othe arm increases. Modular robots can be manually or self-reconfigured to form a different robot, that may performdifferent applications. Because modular robots of the same architecture type are composed of modules thatcompose different modular robots, a snake-arm robot can combine with another to form a dual or quadra-armrobot, or can split into several mobile robots, and mobile robots can split into multiple smaller ones, or combinewith others into a larger or different one. This allows a single modular robot the ability to be fully specialized in asingle task, as well as the capacity to be specialized to perform multiple different tasks.

Modular robotic technology is currently being applied in hybrid transportation,[46] industrial automation,[47] ductcleaning[48] and handling. Many research centres and universities have also studied this technology, and havedeveloped prototypes.

Collaborative robots

A collaborative robotorCobotis a robot that can safely and effectively interact with human workers inperformance of simple industrial tasks. Baxter, introduced on September 18, 2012, a product of Rethink Roboticwhose principal was Rodney Brooks, was an industrial robot selling for about $20,000 which was designed tosafely interact with neighboring human workers and be programmable for the performance of simple tasks. The
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TOPIO, a humanoid robot, playedping pong at Tokyo InternationalRobot Exhibition (IREX)

2009.[50][51]

robot stops if its movement encounters a human in the way of its robotic arm and has a prominent off switch whichits human partner can push if necessary. The product, intended for sale to small business, was touted as the roboticanalogue of the personal computer. Costs were projected to be the equivalent of a worker making $4 an hour.[49]

Robots in society

Roughly half of all the robots in the world are in Asia, 32% in Europe, and

16% in North America, 1% in Australasia and 1% in Africa. [52] 40% of allthe robots in the world are in Japan,[53] making Japan the country with thehighest number of robots.

Regional perspectives

In Japan and other Asian countries, ideas of future robots have been mainlypositive, and the start of the pro-robotic society there is thought to bepossibly due to the famous 'Astro Boy'. Asian societies such as Japan, andmore recently in South Korea and China, believe robots to be more equal tohumans, having them care for old people, play with or teach children, orreplace pets etc.[54] The general view in Asian cultures is that the morerobots advance, the better.

"This is the opening of an era in which human beings and robots can co-exist," says Japanese firm Mitsubishi abouone of the many humanistic robots in Japan.[55] South Korea aims to put a robot in every house there by 2015-2020.[56][57]

Western societies are more likely to be against, or even fear the development of robotics, through much mediaoutput in movies and literature that they will replace humans. Some believe that the West regards robots as a 'threa

to the future of humans, partly due to religious beliefs about the role of humans and society. [58][59] Obviously, thesboundaries are not clear, but there is a significant difference between the two cultural viewpoints.

Autonomy and ethical questions

Main articles: Roboethics and Ethics of artificial intelligence

As robots have become more advanced and sophisticated, experts and academics have increasingly explored thequestions of what ethics might govern robots' behavior,[61] and whether robots might be able to claim any kind of

social, cultural, ethical or legal rights.[62]

One scientific team has said that it is possible that a robot brain will existby 2019.[63] Others predict robot intelligence breakthroughs by 2050.[64] Recent advances have made roboticbehavior more sophisticated.[65] The social impact of intelligent robots is subject of a 2010 documentary film callePlug & Pray.[66]

Vernor Vinge has suggested that a moment may come when computers and robots are smarter than humans. Hecalls this "the Singularity".[67] He suggests that it may be somewhat or possibly very dangerous for humans. [68] Thiis discussed by a philosophy called Singularitarianism.
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An android, or robot designed toresemble a human, can appearcomforting to some people and

disturbing to others[60]

In 2009, experts attended a conference hosted by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence(AAAI) to discuss whether computers and robots might be able to acquire any autonomy, and how much theseabilities might pose a threat or hazard. They noted that some robots have acquired various forms of semi-autonomincluding being able to find power sources on their own and being able to independently choose targets to attackwith weapons. They also noted that some computer viruses can evade elimination and have achieved "cockroachintelligence." They noted that self-awareness as depicted in science-fiction is probably unlikely, but that there wereother potential hazards and pitfalls.[67] Various media sources and scientific groups have noted separate trends indiffering areas which might together result in greater robotic functionalities and autonomy, and which pose someinherent concerns.[69][70][71]

Military robots

Some experts and academics have questioned the use of robots formilitary combat, especially when such robots are given some degree ofautonomous functions.[72] There are also concerns about technologywhich might allow some armed robots to be controlled mainly by otherrobots.[73] The US Navy has funded a report which indicates that, as

military robots become more complex, there should be greater attentionto implications of their ability to make autonomous decisions.[74][75] Oneresearcher states that autonomous robots might be more humane, as theycould make decisions more effectively. However, other experts questionthis.[76]

One robot in particular, the EATR, has generated public concerns [77]

over its fuel source, as it can continually refuel itself using organicsubstances.[78] Although the engine for the EATR is designed to run on

biomass and vegetation[79] specifically selected by its sensors, which it

can find on battlefields or other local environments, the project has statedthat chicken fat can also be used.[80]

Manuel De Landa has noted that "smart missiles" and autonomousbombs equipped with artificial perception can be considered robots, asthey make some of their decisions autonomously. He believes thisrepresents an important and dangerous trend in which humans arehanding over important decisions to machines.[81]

Relationship to unemployment

Main article: Technological unemployment

A recent example of human replacement involves Taiwanese technology company Foxconn who, in July 2011,announced a three-year plan to replace workers with more robots. At present the company uses ten-thousandrobots but will increase them to a million robots over a three-year period. [82]

Service robots of different varieties including medical robots, underwater robots, surveillance robots, demolitionrobots and other types of robots that carry out a multitude of jobs are gaining in numbers. Service robots areeveryday tools for mankind. They can clean floors, mow lawns and guard homes and will also assist old and
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A general-purpose roboacts as a guide duringthe day and a securityguard at night

handicapped people, do some surgeries, inspect pipes and sites that are hazardous to people, fight fires and defusbombs.[83]

Contemporary uses

See also: List of robots

At present, there are two main types of robots, based on their use: general-purposeautonomous robots and dedicated robots.

Robots can be classified by their specificity of purpose. A robot might be designed toperform one particular task extremely well, or a range of tasks less well. Of course, allrobots by their nature can be re-programmed to behave differently, but some arelimited by their physical form. For example, a factory robot arm can perform jobssuch as cutting, welding, gluing, or acting as a fairground ride, while a pick-and-placerobot can only populate printed circuit boards.

General-purpose autonomous robots

Main article: Autonomous robot

General-purpose autonomous robots can perform a variety of functionsindependently. General-purpose autonomous robots typically can navigateindependently in known spaces, handle their own re-charging needs, interface withelectronic doors and elevators and perform other basic tasks. Like computers,general-purpose robots can link with networks, software and accessories thatincrease their usefulness. They may recognize people or objects, talk, provide

companionship, monitor environmental quality, respond to alarms, pick up supplies and perform other useful tasksGeneral-purpose robots may perform a variety of functions simultaneously or they may take on different roles atdifferent times of day. Some such robots try to mimic human beings and may even resemble people in appearancethis type of robot is called a humanoid robot. Humanoid robots are still in a very limited stage, as no humanoidrobot, can, as yet, actually navigate around a room that it has never been in. Thus humanoid robots are really quitelimited, despite their intelligent behaviors in their well-known environments.

Factory robots

Car production

Over the last three decades, automobile factories have become dominated by robots. A typical factory containshundreds of industrial robots working on fully automated production lines, with one robot for every ten humanworkers. On an automated production line, a vehicle chassis on a conveyor is welded, glued, painted and finallyassembled at a sequence of robot stations.

Packaging

Industrial robots are also used extensively for palletizing and packaging of manufactured goods, for example forrapidly taking drink cartons from the end of a conveyor belt and placing them into boxes, or for loading andunloading machining centers.
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An intelligent AGV drops-offgoods without needing linesor beacons in the workspace

Electronics

Mass-produced printed circuit boards (PCBs) are almost exclusively manufactured by pick-and-place robots,typically with SCARA manipulators, which remove tiny electronic components from strips or trays, and place themon to PCBs with great accuracy.[84] Such robots can place hundreds of thousands of components per hour, farout-performing a human in speed, accuracy, and reliability.[85]

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs)

Mobile robots, following markers or wires in the floor, or using vision[86] orlasers, are used to transport goods around large facilities, such as warehouses,container ports, or hospitals.[87]

Early AGV-Style Robots

Limited to tasks that could be accurately defined and had to be performedthe same way every time. Very little feedback or intelligence was required,and the robots needed only the most basic exteroceptors (sensors). The

limitations of these AGVs are that their paths are not easily altered andthey cannot alter their paths if obstacles block them. If one AGV breaksdown, it may stop the entire operation.

Interim AGV-Technologies

Developed to deploy triangulation from beacons or bar code grids forscanning on the floor or ceiling. In most factories, triangulation systemstend to require moderate to high maintenance, such as daily cleaning of all

beacons or bar codes. Also, if a tall pallet or large vehicle blocks beacons

or a bar code is marred, AGVs may become lost. Often such AGVs are designed to be used in human-freeenvironments.

Intelligent AGVs (i-AGVs)

Such as SmartLoader,[88] SpeciMinder,[89] ADAM,[90] Tug[91] Eskorta,[92] and MT 400 with Motivity[93]

are designed for people-friendly workspaces. They navigate by recognizing natural features. 3D scanners orother means of sensing the environment in two or three dimensions help to eliminate cumulative errors indead-reckoning calculations of the AGV's current position. Some AGVs can create maps of theirenvironment using scanning lasers with simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) and use those mapsto navigate in real time with other path planning and obstacle avoidance algorithms. They are able to operatin complex environments and perform non-repetitive and non-sequential tasks such as transporting

photomasks in a semiconductor lab, specimens in hospitals and goods in warehouses. For dynamic areas,such as warehouses full of pallets, AGVs require additional strategies using three-dimensional sensors suchas time-of-flight or stereovision cameras.

Dirty, dangerous, dull or inaccessible tasks
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A U.S. Marine Corps technicianprepares to use a telerobot to detonata buried improvised explosive devicenear Camp Fallujah, Iraq

The Roomba domestic vacuumcleaner robot does a single, menial job

There are many jobs which humans would rather leave to robots. The job may be boring, such as domesticcleaning, or dangerous, such as exploring inside a volcano.[94] Other jobs are physically inaccessible, such asexploring another planet,[95] cleaning the inside of a long pipe, or performing laparoscopic surgery.[96]

Space probes

Almost every unmanned space probe ever launched was a robot. [97][98] Some were launched in the 1960s withvery limited abilities, but their ability to fly and land (in the case of Luna 9) is an indication of their status as a robotThis includes the Voyager probes and the Galileo probes, and others.

Telerobots

Teleoperated robots, or telerobots are devices remotely operated from adistance by a human operator rather than following a predeterminedsequence of movements. They are used when a human cannot be presenton site to perform a job because it is dangerous, far away, orinaccessible. The robot may be in another room or another country, ormay be on a very different scale to the operator. For instance, a

laparoscopic surgery robot allows the surgeon to work inside a humanpatient on a relatively small scale compared to open surgery, significantlyshortening recovery time.[96] They can also be used to avoid exposingworkers to the hazardous and tight spaces such as in duct cleaning.When disabling a bomb, the operator sends a small robot to disable it.Several authors have been using a device called the Longpen to sign

books remotely.[99] Teleoperated robot aircraft, like the PredatorUnmanned Aerial Vehicle, are increasingly being used by the military.These pilotless drones can search terrain and fire on targets.[100][101]

Hundreds of robots such as iRobot's Packbot and the Foster-Miller TALON are being used in Iraq andAfghanistan by the U.S. military to defuse roadside bombs or improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in an activityknown as explosive ordnance disposal (EOD).[102]

Automated fruit harvesting machines

Used to pick fruit on orchards at a cost lower than that of human pickers.

Domestic robots

Domestic robots are simple robots dedicated to a single task work in

home use. They are used in simple but unwanted jobs, such as vacuumcleaning and floor washing, and lawn mowing.

Military robots

Main article: Military robots

Military robots include the SWORDS robot which is currently used inground-based combat. It can use a variety of weapons and there is somediscussion of giving it some degree of autonomy in battleground
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situations.[103][104][105]

Unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs), which are an upgraded form of UAVs, can do a wide variety ofmissions, including combat. UCAVs are being designed such as the Mantis UCAV which would have the ability tofly themselves, to pick their own course and target, and to make most decisions on their own.[106] The BAETaranis is a UCAV built by Great Britain which can fly across continents without a pilot and has new means toavoid detection.[107] Flight trials are expected to begin in 2011.[108][109]

The AAAI has studied this topic in depth[61] and its president has commissioned a study to look at this issue.[110]

Some have suggested a need to build "Friendly AI", meaning that the advances which are already occurring with Ashould also include an effort to make AI intrinsically friendly and humane.[111] Several such measures reportedlyalready exist, with robot-heavy countries such as Japan and South Korea[56] having begun to pass regulationsrequiring robots to be equipped with safety systems, and possibly sets of 'laws' akin to Asimov's Three Laws ofRobotics.[112][113] An official report was issued in 2009 by the Japanese government's Robot Industry PolicyCommittee.[114] Chinese officials and researchers have issued a report suggesting a set of ethical rules, and a set onew legal guidelines referred to as "Robot Legal Studies."[115] Some concern has been expressed over a possible

occurrence of robots telling apparent falsehoods.[116]

Mining robots

Mining robots are designed to help counteract a number of challenges currently facing the mining industry, includinskills shortages, improving productivity from declining ore grades, and achieving environmental targets. Due to thehazardous nature of mining, in particular underground mining, the prevalence of autonomous, semi-autonomous, antele-operated robots has greatly increased in recent times. A number of vehicle manufacturers provide autonomoutrains, trucks and loaders that will load material, transport it on the mine site to its destination, and unload withoutrequiring human intervention. One of the worlds largest mining corporations, Rio Tinto, has recently expanded its

autonomous vehicle fleet to the worlds largest, consisting of 150 autonomous Komatsu trucks, operating in WesteAustralia.[117]

Drilling, longwall and rockbreaking machines are now also available as autonomous robots.[118] The Atlas CopcoRig Control System can autonomously execute a drilling plan on a drilling rig, moving the rig into position usingGPS, set up the drill rig and drill down to specified depths. [119] Similarly, the Transmin Rocklogic system canautomatically plan a path to position a rockbreaker at a selected destination.[120] These systems greatly enhance thsafety and efficiency of mining operations.

Schools

From the 1980s, robots such as turtles were used in schools and programmed using the Logo language. [121][122]

Robotics at school in the 21st century has three main applications, Robotic kits, Virtual tutors, and teacher'sassistants.

Robot kits

Robotic kits like Lego Mindstorms, BIOLOID, OLLO from ROBOTIS, or BotBrain Educational Robots can helchildren to learn about mathematics, physics, programming, and electronics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotis_Bioloidhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindstorms_NXThttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_kithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-observerreporter_games_learning-122http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-gainesvillesun_turtle-121http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_(robot)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-120http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transmin&action=edit&redlink=1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-119http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drilling_righttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Copcohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-118http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockbreakerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longwall_mininghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-117http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Australiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komatsu_Limitedhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Tinto_Grouphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loader_(equipment)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_mininghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-116http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-China_report-115http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-114http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-113http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-112http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Roboticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-SKrobot-56http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-111http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_AIhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-110http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-AAAI_ethics-61http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_for_the_Advancement_of_Artificial_Intelligencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-109http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-108http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-Sky_News-107http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAE_Taranishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-106http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis_UCAVhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UAVshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_combat_air_vehicleshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-105http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-104http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#cite_note-103


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The Care-Providing Robot FRIEND.(Photo: IAT)

Robot competitions

Robotics have also been introduced into the lives of elementary and high school students with the company FIRST(For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). The organization is the foundation for the FIRSTRobotics Competition, FIRST LEGO League, Junior FIRST LEGO League, and FIRST Tech Challengecompetitions.

Virtual tutors

Virtual tutors are some kind of embodied agent that helps children to do their homework, for example, on peer topeer basis.

Teacher assistants

Robots as teacher assistants let children to be more assertive during the class and get more motivated. South Koreis the first country deploying a program to have a robot in each school.[citation needed]

Healthcare

Robots in healthcare have two main functions. Those which assist an individual, such as a sufferer of a disease likeMultiple Sclerosis, and those which aid in the overall systems such as pharmacies and hospitals.

Home automation for the elderly and disabled

Further information: Disability robot

Robots have developed over time from simple basic robotic assistants,such as the Handy 1,[123] through to semi-autonomous robots, such as

FRIEND which can assist the elderly and disabled with common tasks.The population is aging in many countries, especially Japan, meaning thatthere are increasing numbers of elderly people to care for, but relativelyfewer young people to care for them.[124][125] Humans make the bestcarers, but where they are unavailable, robots are gradually beingintroduced.[126]

FRIEND is a semi-autonomous robot designed to support disabled andelderly people in their daily life activities, like preparing and serving ameal. FRIEND make it possible for patients who are paraplegic, havemuscle diseases or serious paralysis (due to strokes etc.), to performtasks without help from other people like therapists or nursing staff.

Pharmacies

Main article: Pharmacy automation

Script Pro manufactures a robot designed to help pharmacies fill prescriptions that consist of oral solids ormedications in pill form. The pharmacist or pharmacy technician enters the prescription information into itsinformation system. The system, upon determining whether or not the drug is in the robot, will send the information
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A microfabricated electrostaticgripper holding some silicon

nanowires.[127]

to the robot for filling. The robot has 3 different size vials to fill determined by the size of the pill. The robottechnician, user, or pharmacist determines the needed size of the vial based on the tablet when the robot is stockedOnce the vial is filled it is brought up to a conveyor belt that delivers it to a holder that spins the vial and attaches th

patient label. Afterwards it is set on another conveyor that delivers the patients medication vial to a slot labeledwith the patient's name on an LED read out. The pharmacist or technician then checks the contents of the vial toensure its the correct drug for the correct patient and then seals the vials and sends it out front to be picked up.The robot is a very time efficient device that the pharmacy depends on to fill prescriptions.

McKessons Robot RX is another healthcare robotics product that helps pharmacies dispense thousands ofmedications daily with little or no errors. The robot can be ten feet wide and thirty feet long and can hold hundredsof different kinds of medications and thousands of doses. The pharmacy saves many resources like staff membersthat are otherwise unavailable in a resource scarce industry. It uses an electromechanical head coupled with a

pneumatic system to capture each dose and deliver it to its either stocked or dispensed location. The head movesalong a single axis while it rotates 180 degrees to pull the medications. During this process it uses barcodetechnology to verify its pulling the correct drug. It then delivers the drug to a patient specific bin on a conveyor belOnce the bin is filled with all of the drugs that a particular patient needs and that the robot stocks, the bin is thenreleased and returned out on the conveyor belt to a technician waiting to load it into a cart for delivery to the floor

Research robots

See also: Robotics Robot Research

While most robots today are installed in factories or homes, performing labour or life saving jobs, many new typesof robot are being developed in laboratories around the world. Much of the research in robotics focuses not onspecific industrial tasks, but on investigations into new types of robot, alternative ways to think about or designrobots, and new ways to manufacture them. It is expected that these new types of robot will be able to solve realworld problems when they are finally realized.[citation needed]

Nanorobots

Further information: Nanorobotics

Nanorobotics is the emerging technology field of creating machines orrobots whose components are at or close to the microscopic scale of ananometer (109 meters). Also known as "nanobots" or "nanites", theywould be constructed from molecular machines. So far, researchers havemostly produced only parts of these complex systems, such as bearings,sensors, and synthetic molecular motors, but functioning robots have also

been made such as the entrants to the Nanobot Robocup contest.[128]Researchers also hope to be able to create entire robots as small asviruses or bacteria, which could perform tasks on a tiny scale. Possibleapplications include micro surgery (on the level of individual cells), utilityfog,[129] manufacturing, weaponry and cleaning.[130] Some people have suggested that if there were nanobotswhich could reproduce, the earth would turn into "grey goo", while others argue that this hypothetical outcome isnonsense.[131][132]

Reconfigurable Robots
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A swarm of robots from the open-source micro-robotic project

Main article: Self-reconfiguring modular robot

A few researchers have investigated the possibility of creating robots which can alter their physical form to suit aparticular task,[133] like the fictional T-1000. Real robots are nowhere near that sophisticated however, and mostlyconsist of a small number of cube shaped units, which can move relative to their neighbours. Algorithms have beendesigned in case any such robots become a reality.[134]

Soft Robots

Robots with silicone bodies and flexible actuators (air muscles, electroactive polymers, and ferrofluids), controlledusing fuzzy logic and neural networks, look and feel different from robots with rigid skeletons, and can havedifferent behaviors.[135]

Swarm robots

Main article: Swarm robotics

Inspired by colonies of insects such as ants and bees, researchers are

modeling the behavior of swarms of thousands of tiny robots whichtogether perform a useful task, such as finding something hidden,cleaning, or spying. Each robot is quite simple, but the emergent behaviorof the swarm is more complex. The whole set of robots can beconsidered as one single distributed system, in the same way an antcolony can be considered a superorganism, exhibiting swarm intelligence.The largest swarms so far created include the iRobot swarm, theSRI/MobileRobots CentiBots project[136] and the Open-source Micro-robotic Project swarm, which are being used to research collective

behaviors.[137][138] Swarms are also more resistant to failure. Whereas

one large robot may fail and ruin a mission, a swarm can continue even ifseveral robots fail. This could make them attractive for space exploration missions, where failure is normallyextremely costly.[139]

Haptic interface robots

Further information: Haptic technology

Robotics also has application in the design of virtual reality interfaces. Specialized robots are in widespread use inthe haptic research community. These robots, called "haptic interfaces," allow touch-enabled user interaction with

real and virtual environments. Robotic forces allow simulating the mechanical properties of "virtual" objects, whichusers can experience through their sense of touch.[140]

Entertainment

Poledancing robots

Some robots are used for entertainment and as a demonstration of the newest technology. This nimble automoton a perfect example of this process. Being the main attractions at Ce-BIT, the worlds biggest IT trade fair inHanover, Germany.[141]
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Future development

Further information: Future of robotics

Technological trends

Various techniques have emerged to develop the science of robotics and robots. One method is evolutionary

robotics, in which a number of differing robots are submitted to tests. Those which perform best are used as amodel to create a subsequent "generation" of robots. Another method is developmental robotics, which trackschanges and development within a single robot in the areas of problem-solving and other functions.

Technological development

Overall trends

Japan hopes to have full-scale commercialization of service robots by 2025. Much technological research in Japanis led by Japanese government agencies, particularly the Trade Ministry.[142]

As robots become more advanced, eventually there may be a standard computer operating system designed mainlfor robots. Robot Operating System is an open-source set of programs being developed at Stanford University, thMassachusetts Institute of Technology and the Technical University of Munich, Germany, among others. ROS

provides ways to program a robot's navigation and limbs regardless of the specific hardware involved. It alsoprovides high-level commands for items like image recognition and even opening doors. When ROS boots up on robot's computer, it would obtain data on attributes such as the length and movement of robots' limbs. It wouldrelay this data to higher-level algorithms. Microsoft is also developing a "Windows for robots" system with itsRobotics Developer Studio, which has been available since 2007.[143]

New functions and abilities

The Caterpillar Company is making a dump truck which can drive itself without any human operator.[144]

Many future applications of robotics seem obvious to people, even though they are well beyond the capabilities ofrobots available at the time of the prediction.[145][146] As early as 1982 people were confident that someday robowould:[147] 1. clean parts by removing molding flash 2. spray paint automobiles with absolutely no human presence3. pack things in boxesfor example, orient and nest chocolate candies in candy boxes 4. make electrical cableharness 5. load trucks with boxesa packing problem 6. handle soft goods, such as garments and shoes 7. shearsheep 8. prosthesis 9. cook fast food and work in other service industries 10. household robot.

Generally such predictions are overly optimistic in timescale.

Reading robot

A literate or 'reading robot' named Marge has intelligence that comes from software. She can read newspapers,find and correct misspelled words, learn about banks like Barclays, and understand that some restaurants are bett

places to eat than others.[148]
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Robots in popular culture

Literature

Main article: Robots in literature

See also: List of fictional robots and androids

Robotic characters, androids (artificial men/women) or gynoids (artificial women), and cyborgs (also "bionicmen/women", or humans with significant mechanical enhancements) have become a staple of science fiction.

The first reference in Western literature to mechanical servants appears in Homer'sIliad. In Book XVIII,Hephaestus, god of fire, creates new armor for the hero Achilles, assisted by robots.[149] According to the Rieutranslation, "Golden maidservants h

robot - wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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