Kadir Gunaydin

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THE APPLICATION OF ROBOTICS AND IMPACT OF ROBOTICS

IN SOCIETY

Kadir GUNAYDIN

Department of Aerospace Engineering

Queen Mary, University of London

Abstract A robot may be considered as a machine that integrated electronics with built-in intelligence,

called artificial intelligence. A robot takes places in human life as an elementary imitation of

a human being to perform a particular task which has been developing gradually.

Various disciplines of Science, Technology and Engineering are involved in building an

efficient and suitable robot for a specific and flexible applications; thus making the field of

robotics a highly interdisciplinary area.

On the other hand, today in this dynamic world, operators need more comfort facilities and

safety while running the operation. Due to globalization and fast routine life they needs

to have more effective tools to complete their work within a short time through reducing

the effect of human factors. Thus with these considerations, the manufacturing

Companies now are trying to provide some special technologies and development in new

machines in order to increase efficiency and long life performance of machines in the view

of manufactures.

This study presents a short introduction to the basics of robotics in the context of usage. It

gives an overview on robotic history, social impacts with the field robotics.

Keywords: Robots, artificial intelligence, science, engineering, manufacture

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INTRODUCTION

Robots have always taken place as a fascinating technology in our mind. With their various

applications in several fields which directly affect human life, they have become a common

and necessary part in daily routine life. The main objective of improving robot technology is

to ease work and increase quality of living.

In the 1950s the term ‘robot’ got prominence way back when Karl Capek in his play

Rossum’s Universal Robots denoted the existence of a greater being that had

intelligence similar to that of human beings. Although robots come in several forms and have

usage in several fields defining a Robot becomes that much hard.

For the term Robot, there are many definitions. Some of them are: “Force through

intelligence”. “An full or half automatic device that achieves roles normally ascribed to

humans or a machine in the form of an alike human”. The most accepted definition of a

Robot declared by the Robotics Institute of America in 1979 is that: “A robot is a

reprogrammable multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, Parts, tools or

specialized devices through variable programmed motions for the Performance of a

variety of tasks”. Robotics is a type of branch which involves with the study and

usages of Robots.

The main objective of Robotics is to imitate natural world as closely as possible. Moreover

the robot performs operations according to program instructions or decides on basis of

artificial intelligence. It is defined as, “A robot is a reprogrammable multifunctional

manipulation designed to move material, parts, or specialized devices though variable

programmed motions for the performance of variety of tasks”.

Robotics is a relatively new area of engineering (about approximately 50 years old)

which need to be developed to fulfil demands and is finding many applications in different

areas. In time robotics has come a long way due to growing developments in the discipline of

mechatronics and mathematic modelling.

In time seen simple iron piece becomes that could do small movements such as just a few

inches, nowadays they have capable of jumping from high rise buildings, detecting

landmines, performing complicated operations, and troubleshooting.

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I. EVOLUTION OF ROBOT

The origins of the field of robotics have come from a science fiction. In 1920s the term robot

was derived from the English translation of a fantasy play written in Czechoslovakia. [1]

This play was written by dramatist Karel Capek (1890-1938). In his play RUR (Rosum's

Universal Robots), Capek created automat characters which having a human outlook and

capable of human feeling and substituted human workers with them [2].

The first known functioning robot was created as an android that played the flute by Jacques

de Vaucanson in the 1738 [3]. In recent time, improvement of numerical control and

telecheric gives acceleration to the development of robotics. Numerical control, involves the

control of action of a machine tool by means of numbers, was improved for machine tools in

the 1940s and early 1950s. In time robots take place in daily routine life by the development

of needed technologies for robots [1].

II. CLASSIFICATION OF ROBOTS BY OPERATION ENVIRONMENT

Stationary Robots: Robotic arms, computerized machine tools, and most other Industrial

Robots which are fixed in one place can be thought in this category. The most commonly

used configurations of the industrial robots are; articulated robot arms, cylindrical coordinate

robot arms, scara robot arms and cartesian coordinate robot arms.

Ground Robots: As it can be concluded from the term these robots operate on ground

surfaces on earth or another planet. The sub categorization of those can be made by their

drive train as wheels, tracks or legs.

Aerial Robots: These robots are unmanned aerial vehicles likes robotic planes and

helicopters.

Microgravity Robots: These robots are designed to operate in low gravity environments like

Earth's orbit.

Underwater Robots: The robots which are designed to operate underwater and great depth.

[1,2,3 ]

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III. APPLICATION OF ROBOTICS

Robots usage provides a large area of application due to it reduces the costs and makes it

possible to automate the production. Thus, robot applications go up from day to day

especially in developed countries such as Germany, USA, and Japan etc. In the nineties, the

countries were listed as follows according their robot population: Japan, USA, Germany,

France, Italy, UK, Sweden, etc [4].

Currently, robotic technology is used in space and ocean exploration (taking images and

collecting information), industrial tasks (welding), military and police tasks (destroying

mines, collecting information, or spying), and entertainment (from toys to television) [2].

a. Entertainment Applications Development in robotics technology is described through example applications of

entertainment robots and user-guided approaches. Essentially, majority of examples

implement intelligent agents in entertainment and edutainment [5]. Entertainment is the latter

introduced new field of robotics which is intended to make humans enjoy their lives from a

various kinds of viewpoints rather different from industrial applications. Moreover robot

edutainment can be defined as a combined area of the two aspects in robotics which can be

expressed as a an example is robot competition in which the students can be motivated to

create their own robots, and make matches with them enjoying the process to beat opponents.

Robocup is the most known competition in this case which was once designed as a research

project but by the time it has new branches such as RoboCup-Rescue, RoboCup Jr, and so on

[6].

Robotics has passed to human lives from industry domain as home-helpers or, more recently

entertainment robots. Entertainment robot, so-called E-robot, is a kind of personal robot that

is created to help human beings in their routine lives. It is the one of the most paramount

foremost applications in the 21st century. It can be used in several different fields such as

amusement arcades, exhibition halls, parties, sports events, or even homes. First AIBO3 was

seen in the selves in 1999 and it was the only beginning of this new developed trend. Also the

biped E-robots, means it has two leg, such as ASIMO,4 SDR-3X,5 and SDR-4X,6 QRIO7 are

the typical examples of this kind of products.

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Figure 1. Sony-built Aibos are programmed by Veloso’s students to play soccer in teams of

three fully autonomous robots [7] Robotics has passed to human lives from industry domain as home-helpers or, more recently

entertainment robots. Entertainment robot, so-called E-robot, is a kind of personal robot that

is created to help human beings in their routine lives. It is the one of the most paramount

foremost applications in the 21st century. It can be used in several different fields such as

amusement arcades, exhibition halls, parties, sports events, or even homes. First AIBO3 was

seen in the selves in 1999 and it was the only beginning of this new developed trend. Also the

biped E-robots, means it has two leg, such as ASIMO,4 SDR-3X,5 and SDR-4X,6 QRIO7 are

the typical examples of this kind of products.

In the future, E-robots will be used more often in art, dance, movie and other types of

performances for instance play than has been until now. Face, speech recognition, and

sophisticated behaviour control will be more necessary for theses E-robots to provide the

capability of such high performance to serve human beings in a high quality. Nevertheless,

E-robots have to interact with more variables compared to industrial robots because of the

highly dynamic and uncertain environment of the E-robots respect to designing the cognitive,

motion, speech, behaviour models and embedding them into one robot. They are not a simple

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design task as it includes machine learning, scene analysis, data fusion, context analysis, and

high-level programming, etc. [8].

b. Industry Applications

Companies are seeking means to increase their competitive advantages in the arena of the

today’s competitive market environment in order to stay in business. Toyota outpaced

General Motors and became the number one in the automotive industry in the USA in early

2007. It was a remarkable achievement. Therefore Toyota Production System (TPS) has been

recognized. Under this technology which made whole world’s automotive companies

admired, lay down automation technology [9].

Figure 2. Robot System for Automation Industry

[ http://davidthach.edublogs.org ]

Industrial robots, designed and used for running operations in a minimum time as possible,

same results in same operations and accurately have a long heritage in manufacturing and

assembling industry respect to static environments and large number of operations. By the

increasing trend of improving safety and efficiency in the oil and gas industry which have

considerable hazards and necessity of reducing environmental effect of hazardousness

recommend the usage of industrial robotics. Also new developments in remotely-controlled

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industrial robotics could enable maintenance, inspection and repairs in regions which are

dangerous for humans to work. This new application makes easier some difficulties in

comparison to past. Although if this application is not adapted precisely to dynamic

environments, does not provide rich human-robot interaction and are not suitable for end-

users to program. In addition, the oil and gas context have a work environment in a harsh

conditions so that if robots are exposed this conditions and extreme weather or other

conditions which affects the robot systems, they can be fail. Therefore robot systems need to

be protected for use alongside explosive hydrocarbons. As it is introduced the case of trust,

stability and accountability come to the fore as suitable as how the robots fit into

organisational structures. As robots have so little autonomy, human operators use their time

attending to robots instead of being busy with their tasks. Vice versa, if robots are more

autonomous than needed, situational awareness of plant activity is decreased. Balance must

be arranged considering the level of autonomy which changes by the specifications of the

task, the realistic capabilities of the automation, and the need to actively engage human

operators in a constructive fashion. Also these cases relevant to what form the interface takes

for remote or co-located robot control besides how information and activity is represented for

remote operators [10].

c. Medical Applications

Robotic systems for surgery are computer-integrated surgery (CIS) systems first, and

“medical robots” second. That means, the robot is one element of a large system which is

designed to help surgeon to perform a surgical procedure. Medical robots can be classified in

many ways: by manipulatordesign (e.g., kinematics, actuation); by level of autonomy (e.g.,

preprogrammed versus teleoperation versus constrained cooperative control), by targeted

anatomy or technique (e.g., cardiac, intravascular, percutaneous, laparoscopic,

microsurgical); intended operating environment etc. [11].

In recent decade, medical robots have taken a paramount place. There are several applications

such as; neurosurgery, orthopaedics, urology, laparoscopic surgery. Commercial products

include Robodoc, Aesop, Caspar, da Vinci and others. Safety is the most important issue in

designing a medical robot but conventional safety methods and intensities for industrial robot

are not enough for medical robots.

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Figure 3. Surgical Robotic System

[http://www.designworldonline.com]

In recent decade, medical robots have taken a paramount place. There are several applications

such as; neurosurgery, orthopaedics, urology, laparoscopic surgery. Commercial products

include Robodoc, Aesop, Caspar, da Vinci and others. Safety is the most important issue in

designing a medical robot but conventional safety methods and intensities for industrial robot

are not enough for medical robots. For instance, industrial robots should be isolated in a cell

with safety interlocks but on contrary surgical robots need direct contact with the patient and

surgeon. So that isolation is an important variable for designing robots and will limit their

capability and applications. Basically it shows that medical and industrial robots have huge

differences in the case of isolation and other cases such as operating targets and working

environments. Medical robots are used for medical issues for patients and concern human

life. Medical robots’ safety issues are more stringent, dedicated and critical in comparison to

other fields.

It is known that medical robots have to have sensibility and accurate so that these

specification must be controlled by some standards. Still there are currently no specific

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standards for medical robots but several standards can be used as references such as EN 755

(ISO 10218) is a standard safety guideline for industrial robots. Nevertheless this standard

does not fulfil enough information to design a medical robot and more specific systematic

guidelines are needed [12].

d. Military Applications

During the past 30 years the field of robotics has changed dramatically. George Devol

developed the first programmable articulated arms for industrial automation and Joseph

Engleberger made into commercial products in the 1960s and 1970s but sill mobile robots did

not gather enough attention until 1970s and 1980s. In 1950, W. Grey Walter, a physiologist,

developed the first true mobile robots named Elmer and Elsie. These attractive wheeled

machines had many features which also contemporary robots have. Such as (photocells for

seeking light and bumpers for obstacle detection), a motor drive and built-in behaviors that

enabled them to seek (or avoid) light, wander, avoid obstacles and recharge their batteries.

However their structure was reactive that mean a response produced without any thinking.

That development was carried out at Stanford Research Laboratories in 1969 and this

production was called Shakey. In this machine, one of the earliest application of artificial

intelligence was used which has known as the Stanford Research Institute Problem Solver

(STRIPS). The sensors were not directly coupled to the drive motors but provided inputs to a

‘thinking’ layer. On the other hand since those early developments, there have been major

strides in mobile robots due to made by new materials, faster, smaller and cheaper computers

(Moore’s law) and major advances in software [13].

Fig. 4. Military ground vehicle: The Crusher (Courtesy of US Army) [13]

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Nowadays, robots can move on every terrain such as on land, in the water, in the air, and in

space. Terrestrial mobility uses legs, treads, and wheels as well as snake-like locomotion and

hopping to move. Flying robots use propellers, jet engines, and wings. Underwater robots

generally look like submarines, fish, eels, or even lobsters. Some vehicles have ability to

move in more than one terrain have been built.

Military robotic vehicles have been designed using all the modes of movement abilities and

making use of the new software. Military robots have major applications in surveillance,

reconnaissance, location and destruction of mines and IEDs, as well as for offense or attack.

Figure 5. Military Ground Carrying vehicle: The Big Dog (Courtesy of US Army) [14]

The latter class of vehicles is equipped with remote human controlled weapons. However

there are some controversial issues about military robots respect to ethical issues which arise

from their use. Much of the concern with military robotics is tied to this lethality. In the case

of ethical issues some of the more innocuous machines are omitted for instance the Army’s

Big Dog, a four legged robot capable of carrying several hundred pounds of cargo over

irregular terrain. It is the milestone for carrying robots; it can even move on ice and never

falls over, if it is not applied force more than its weight. If at some future time such ‘carry

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robots’ are equipped with weapons, they may need to be considered from an ethical point of

view [14].

e. Space Applications

In recent years, interest in space robotics and in space activities have grown dramatically

especially in planetary exploration. Missions to Mars and the return to the Moon are being

planned, and in this case there is need to some specific robotic systems which capable of

autonomously and independently executing commanded tasks, in a same manner capable of

actively interacting and cooperating with the astronauts, to the objective of assisting them

during the execution of specific operations. In this trend, European Space Agency (ESA) and

Thales Alenia Space Company conducted a project called the Eurobot Ground Prototype

(EGP) project. The aim of this project was development and tests such autonomous and

cooperative capabilities on a mobile manipulator system. Also a test background, a fully

representative of a real space exploration scenario, is prepared to check the robotics system

[15].

Figure 6. Leda Spacecraft configuration [15]

In 1960s and the late 1970s, the first Moon surface explorations were conducted. For renewed

phase of Moon exploration some revolutionary approaches expected in technology for

spacecraft, instruments, sensors, processors, computers. Robotic technology has a key role in

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such a renewed exploration among the new technologies. Robotics have paramount

importance in all phase of a Moon Programme, including the following most likely

application classes:

Figure 7. EGP working set up in Leiden

-Exploration, essentially geochemical and geophysical measurements, imaging, and

environmental monitoring, involving e.g. picking and placing instruments. tools and lunar

surface samples, drilling of soil, burying scientific instruments, lunar surface elevation

mapping, etc.

-Facility construction, e. g. assembly and positioning of masts, antennas and solar arrays,

building a dust and meteoroid shield/shelter, etc.

-Facility maintenance, e.g. solar array and radiator cleaning and surface property restoration,

re-configuration of arrays, re-calibration of instruments, exchange of replaceable units,

recovery of stranded rovers, etc.

-Production, e.g. unloading of lander and material transportation to the exploration site or to

the lunar base, regolith and rock mining in order to extract material for construction and

production facilities, etc[16].

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IV. IMPACT OF ROBOTICS IN SOCIETY

The main question of impact of robotics in society is how might society change with the

robotics revolution? Industrial and internet revolutions are important concerns about loss of

jobs. Manufacturing companies had replaced the group of workers who used to perform the

same work by hand to make processes faster and efficient. Similarly, robots and workers can

switch their places regardless of whether the workforce is growing or declining [17].

Further, the demand for robots itself creates additional jobs. Yet, theory and efficiency

provide little consolation for the human worker who needs a job to feed her or his family, and

cost-benefits may be negated by unintended effects, e.g., a negative customer experience with

call-centre representatives whose first language is not that of the customers. Connected to

labour, some experts are concerned about technology dependency. For example, as robots

prove themselves to be better than humans in difficult surgeries, the resulting loss of those

jobs may also mean the gradual loss of that medical skill or knowledge, to the extent that

there would be fewer human practitioners. This is not the same worry with labour and service

robots that perform dull and dirty tasks, in that we care less about the loss of those skills; but

there is a similar issue of becoming overly reliant on technology for basic work. For one

thing, this dependency seems to cause society to be more fragile: for instance, the Y2K

problem caused significant panic, since so many critical systems such as air-traffic control

and banking were dependent on computers whose ability to correctly advance their internal

clock to January 1, 2000 (as opposed to resetting it to January 1, 1900) was uncertain; and

similar situations exist today with malicious computer viruses du jour. Like the social

networking and email capabilities of the Internet Revolution, robotics may profoundly impact

human relationships. Already, robots are taking care of our elderly and children, though there

are not many studies on the effects of such care, especially in the long term. Some soldiers

have emotionally bonded with the bomb-disposing PackBots that have saved their lives,

sobbing when the robot meets its end. And robots are predicted to soon become our lovers

and companions: they will always listen and never cheat on us [17, 18]. Given the lack of

research studies in these areas, it is unclear whether psychological harm might arise from

replacing human relationships with robotic ones. Harm also need not be directly to persons,

e.g., it could also be to the environment. In the computer industry, “e-waste” is a growing and

urgent problem, given the disposal of heavy metals and toxic materials in the devices at the

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end of their product lifecycle. Robots as embodied computers will likely exacerbate the

problem, as well as increase pressure on rare-earth elements needed today to build computing

devices and energy resources needed to power them. Networked robots would also increase

the amount of ambient radiofrequency radiation, like that created by mobile phones which

have been blamed, fairly or not, for a decline of honeybees necessary for pollination and

agriculture, in addition to human health problems. Thus, some of the questions in this area

include: What is the predicted economic impact of robotics, all things considered? How do

we estimate the expected costs and benefits? Are some jobs too important or too dangerous

for machines to take over? What do we do with the workers displaced by robots? How do we

mitigate disruption to a society dependent on robotics, if those robots were to become

inoperable or corrupted, e.g., through an electromagnetic pulse or network virus? Is there a

danger with emotional attachments to robots? Are we engaging in deception by creating

anthropomorphized machines that may lead to such attachments, and is that bad? Is there

anything essential in human companionship and relationships that robots cannot replace?

What is the environmental impact of a much larger robotics industry than we have today?

Could we possibly face any truly cataclysmic consequences from the widespread adoption of

social robotics, and if so, should a precautionary principle apply [17, 18, 19]?

V. CONCLUSION

Robots are going to play a very significant part in our daily life. Like computers in the 20th

century Robots are going to be common house hold items in future. With the development of

computers, semiconductor technology Robotics will grow in leaps and bounds. They will find

applications in almost all areas and become universal. There are expected times when Robots

will over power mankind in future. The ethnicity of providing intelligence to robots is

questioned but future is the answer to this question. It is for us to wait and see whether the

creators or the creation will rule the world.

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