RoboticsRobotics is the branch of computer science and engineering that involves creating and making robots. Robots are mechanical devices that can move and react to sensory input giving them some degree of autonomous control. Some robots have the ability to perform locomotion, but most are stationary. They are of enormous interest to researchers in artificial intelligence because it gives computers a chance to interact with the real world. It is not only artificial intelligence that the field of robotics overlaps with; it also has common characteristics with mechatronics, nanotechnology, electronics and bioengineering.
Robots are widely used in the industrial sector performing high-precision jobs such as painting and welding. They are used in laboratories for repetitive tasks in chemistry and biology, and in situations which would be dangerous for humans such as cleaning toxic waste or defusing bombs.
In Japan, major corporations are investing millions of research and development funds into the design of domestic robots. With aging populations across much of Europe, the United States and Japan, such technologies could prove to be quite lucrative. Domestic robots will perform chores around the home, though some chores are easier than others. While vacuuming, fetching the mail/newspaper and doing laundry are feasible tasks, some have grander visions of robots providing nursing care for the elderly.
In his play ‘Rossum’s Universal Robots’ Czech playwright Karl Capek invented the word Robot. Robota is the Czech word for ‘forced labour or serf’. But it was the Russian-born American scientist and Science Fiction writer Isaac Asimov who is given the credit for being the first person to use the term Robotics. He wrote a short story I, Robot, published in the 1940s in which he suggested a guide to the behaviour of smart machines or robots which he called the Three Laws of Robotics:
1. A robot may not injure or harm a human being or allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must follow the instructions given to it by a human being without violating Rule 1.
3. A robot must protect itself as long as such protection does not violate Rules 1 and 2.
Web Resources On Robotics
What is robotics?
History of Robotics
Book Resources On RoboticsRobot Programming: A Practical Guide to Behaviour-Based Robotics by Joe Jones & Daniel Roth
PIC Robotics: A Beginner’s Guide to Robotics Projects Using the PIC Micro by John Iovine
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