Robotics

We explain what robotics is, its history, benefits, types and other characteristics. Also, what are the laws of robotics.

robotics like this
The word “robotics” was coined by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.

What is Robotics?

robotics It is a discipline that deals with the design, operation, manufacturing, study and application of automata or robots . To do this, it combines mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, electronic engineering, biomedical engineering and computer science, as well as other disciplines.

robotics represents the summit in the trajectory of technological development that is, tool design. Its mission is to build a tool that can perform many of the tasks that humans currently perform, more efficiently and quickly, or in conditions and environments that would be inaccessible to humans.

The robot is, in some ways, the most intelligent tool possible. However, the development of this type of tools, since the years of the beginnings of automation, It also translates into unemployment and the replacement of human labor with automatons.

This also feeds an ancestral fear of losing control over these types of tools, or of being replaced, dominated or violated by them, warnings that appear even in texts as ancient as the Golem from the Hebrew tradition, or Frankenstein's monster created by the English novelist Mary Shelley.

History of robotics

robotics story sophia
Sophia is a gynoid robot with realistic human appearance, created in 2015.

the word robot comes from the Czech word robotwhich literally means “slave”. It was put into circulation by the Czech writer Karel Capek (1890-1938) with his novel RUR (Rossum Universal Robots) from 1920.

Likewise, the word roboticsunderstood as discipline, was coined by Isaac Asimov (1920-1992). This Science Fiction writer was one of the most famous cultists of the robotic imaginary future.

However, the antecedents of robotics can be traced much earlier, in the desire of human beings to build beings in their image and likeness, which could relieve them of tedious work.

You may be interested:  Fact

Already in the 3rd century BC. C. the Chinese writer Lie Yukou wrote the Lie Zia story where a Chinese king was presented with a mechanical human figure. In the texts Pneumatics and Automaton by Heron of Alexandria, in the 1st century BC. C., the ideas of machines and automatons capable of doing what human beings cannot do were already appearing.

The first real robots appeared between 1950 and 1960. They were dedicated to simple, mechanical and automated industrial tasks. In 1971 the first robot dedicated to space exploration was used. It was placed on the Martian surface by the space project of the defunct Soviet Union. Contact with it was lost just a few seconds after landing.

The Americans imitated this gesture in 1976 with NASA's Viking I, thus demonstrating the enormous potential of robots in space exploration and in other extreme environments, such as the seabed. An attempt was even made to use robots to remove debris from the reactor destroyed in Chernobyl in 1986, but the radiation fried the circuits within a few seconds of use.

The first humanoid and bipedal robot, the ASIMO, was announced in Japan in 2011 and demonstrations were made of their ability to interact with humans.

Advances in artificial intelligence also allowed Sophia to appear in 2015, a gynoid robot with a realistic human appearance, designed to adapt to the social environment with humans and be able to remember, recognize faces and simulate facial expressions.

Robotics Features

Robotics is the science that studies robots, and as such, concentrates the different disciplines necessary to design and manufacture them. Thus, it brings together knowledge from different branches of engineering, electronics, physics, computing, mechanics, animatronics and other similar areas of knowledge.

Its task, clearly, is to develop the different aspects of a functional robot: its autonomy and own intelligence, its resistance and operational capacity, its programming and control mechanisms.

You may be interested:  Artifact

Furthermore, it is a relatively young discipline, whose applications in real life have an enormous impact. At the same time, it is a source of distrust and fear on the part of society.

Types of robots

robotics types classification zoomorphic dogaibo
Aibo is a zoomorphic robot that also exhibits the behavior of a dog.

Robots are generally classified based on their membership in the different generations of built robots, which are:

  • First generation Multifunctional robots with a simple control system, manual, fixed sequence or variable sequence.
  • Second generation Learning robots, which repeat sequences of movements previously executed by human operators.
  • Third generation Sensorized control robots, controlled by some type of program (software) that sends signals to the robotic body to carry out certain mechanical tasks.

Another form of classification responds to the robot structure being able to talk about robots:

  • Polyarticulated They have many moving parts.
  • Mobiles They are of the rolling or self-propelled type.
  • Zoomorphic They imitate the shape of some animals.
  • Anthropomorphic They imitate the shape of the human being.

There are also hybrid robots, which combine some of the previous categories.

Benefits of robotics

robotics benefits medicine
Robotics is used in medicine to achieve greater precision.

Some benefits of robotics are:

  • Increased productivity in factories and other mechanical spaces, since robots can do tasks more times, faster and more efficiently than human workers.
  • Access to hostile environments such as outer space, the seabed, airless spaces, etc., in which a human worker could not operate or would do so at very high costs and risks.
  • Automation of unwanted tasks generally those linked to maintenance or cleaning, which are mechanical and repetitive. Smart vacuum cleaners (roomba) are a good example of this.
  • Help in medicine allowing remote operations, controlled by specialized medical software, with a very high rate of precision, through arms and other robotic tools.
  • War applications to manufacture automated bombers, unmanned tanks, and other new forms of technological weaponry. Whether this is actually a benefit is a matter of debate.
You may be interested:  TIC

robotic engineering

If robotics is the science that designs, plans and conceives robots, robotic engineering is, on the other hand, their formal incorporation into the domains of engineering.

Responsible for the design of automated tools that make human life easier, or that take steps towards the eventual construction of a true robot, like those predicted in science fiction. This is a university degree with very high demand in today's post-industrial world.

Laws of robotics

In his fictional work, the American writer Isaac Asimov conceived the Three Laws of Robotics which are a fundamental code of operation incorporated into the core of the positronic brains of the robots in their stories. The three laws were, in order of hierarchy and importance:

  • First Law No robot will harm a human being or allow a human being to come to harm through inaction.
  • Second Law Every robot must obey the orders given to it by a human being, except in cases where such orders contradict the First Law.
  • Third Law Every robot must ensure the preservation of its existence, except in cases where this contradicts what is established in the First and/or Second Law.

Later, in his novel Robots and Empire (1985), Asimov added a “Zero Law” with absolute priority over the other three, which read “A robot will not harm humanity or allow humanity to suffer harm through inaction.”

Asimov's stories were about robotic dilemmas when it came to complying with these three laws. It explained the exceptions, contradictions and problems arising from its code of conduct.

Continue with: Generations of computers

References

  • “Robotics” on Wikipedia.
  • “Introduction to Robotics” (video) on MindMachineTV.
  • “What is robotics for?” at Planetarium Alfa.
  • “What is Robotics?” at NASA.
  • “A Brief History of our Robotic Future” (video) on WIRED.
  • “Robotics (Technology)” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.