Robotics

Introduction
What do Rosie from ‘The Jetsons’ and Robot from ‘Lost in Space’ have in common?   They are both intelligent robots designed with the purpose of performing a function that made the lives of the main characters in these stories a little easier.   Today we use robotics to create various technologies that is adding value to our everyday lives.   Robots are no longer characters from a science fiction movie or funny characters from Saturday morning cartoons.
According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Robotics is: “technology is dealing with the design, construction, and operation of robots in automation.”   Simply put, robotics is the study of robots.   There are two main types of robots which include a rover and an autonomous robot.   The rover robot allows a person to control the movements and an autonomous robot is artificially intelligent and can make judgments and act according to the programmed or “learned” information.   This paper will explain the history of robots, what makes them work, advantages and disadvantages of robotic technology, and examples of robots that are used to make society more productive.
Early concepts of robots
The concept of mechanical devices being used to carry out specific physical tasks dated back to around 3000 B.C. in ancient Egypt.   Egyptian water clocks used human figurines to strike the hour bells to allow them to keep time.   Egyptian priests also used steam to open the temple doors.   In 400 B.C. a wooden pigeon that could fly was created by Archytus of Tarentum.   The word “robot” originates from the Czechoslovakian word robota which means drudgery.   In 1921 Karel Capek’s play Rossum’s Universal Robots told the story of mechanical men that were built to work the factory assembly lines and how they came to rebel against their human creators.   Robots have been widely written about in science fiction literature, most notably by Isaac Asimov.   Asimov proposed the three “Laws of Robotics” which has become the... [continues]

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