HISTORY
The robot revolution has been a long time coming. Many countries' ancient myths included mechanical beings and automatons, and as long ago as the fourth century BC, Greek mathematician Archytas drew up a concept of a mechanical bird powered by steam.
In Greek mythology, Talos was a giant bronze robot, with an average speed of 155 miles/hour. It
circled Crete's shores three times daily, protecting the island by throwing huge boulders at pirates.
Leonardo da Vinci designed a man-shaped machine that looked like a knight in around 1495. It was intended to be controlled with ropes and wheels. When his plans were found almost 500 years later and built according to Leonardo's specifications, the design worked perfectly.
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| Model of Leonardo's robot with inner workings. |
King Philip II of Spain once commissioned a mechanical monk to be made as a thanksgiving offering to God for saving his son. Spanish clockmaker Juanelo Turriano was asked to create the penitent automaton in 1562 after the the 17-year-old crown prince of Spain Don Carlos had recovered from a deathly head wound. One of the first robots made by humans, it still works to this day.
The French philosopher Rene Descartes once constructed a robot in the form of a girl . On one occasion, he transported the automaton by sea. The ship captain spotting it packed in the chest was so horrified at its realistic form that thinking it could only be the devil in disguise, he threw the chest and its contents into the sea.
Early in Edgar Allen Poe's writing career, he published an essay exposing a fake chess-playing automaton. Known initially as the Automaton Chess Player and later as the Mechanical Turk, the machine consisted of a mechanical man dressed in robes and a turban who sat at a wooden cabinet that was overlaid with a chessboard. The 1836 essay employs a method of deduction called 'ratiocination' which is used by C. Auguste Dupin, Poe's fictional detective.
The term robot dates to January 25, 1921, the date when Czech playwright Karel Capek's science fiction play R.U.R (Rossum's Universal Robots) premiered. Čapek used 'roboti' a word from Czech that is connected with 'work' to describe artificial people made in a factory from synthetic organic matters. These robots rebel leading to the collapse of society. and the extinction of the human race.
Since the advent of the computer, robots have proliferated. The most common types are mechanical 'arms.' Fixed to the floor of a workbench, they perform usually routine, repetitive functions such as paint spraying or assembling parts in factories.
Other robots include computer controlled vehicles for carrying materials, and a miscellany of devices from cruise missiles, deep sea and space exploration craft to robotic toys. Some robots do surgery in places inside the body where a human hand is too big.
The opening passage in Isaac Asimov's 1941 short story Liar! includes the earliest recorded use of the word 'robotics.'
The first commercial, digital and programmable robot was built by American inventor George Devol and named the Unimate. It was not made to look like a human, but was instead designed for use, having just one arm and one hand. The patent was filed on December 10, 1954.
The Unimate was sold to General Motors in 1961 where it was used 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.
On November 17, 1970, the Lunokhod 1 moonrover was released by the Soviet Union's orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft. It succeeded in landing on the Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains), becoming the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world.
A Ford assembly line worker called Robert Williams was the first human in history to be killed by a robot. He was hit by a robotic arm in 1979.
In 2004 the first ever robot conductor conducted the Tokyo Philharmonic playing Beethoven's 5th Symphony.
Sophia is a humanoid robot developed by Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics. On October 25, 2017 Sophia was granted Saudi Arabian citizenship, becoming the first robot ever to have a nationality.
Picture below shows Sophia speaking at the AI for GOOD Global Summit, International Telecommunication Union, Geneva in June 2017.
Roughly half of all the robots in the world are in Asia, 32% in Europe, 16% in North America and 1% each in Australasia and Africa.
30% of all the robots in the world are in Japan, more than any country in the world. Japan is considered to be the leader in the world robotics industry.
Harvard researchers unveiled in 2013 the smallest flying robot ever created, with a wingspan of 3 centimeters (1.2 in).
There are many books, movies, and video games with robots in them. Isaac Asimov's novel I, Robot is perhaps the most famous.
Isaac Asimov's 1942 short story Runaround, in which he set out the three Laws of Robotics, is set in 2015. The laws are:
1.A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2.A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, 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.
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| A scene from R.U.R., showing three robots. |
Since the advent of the computer, robots have proliferated. The most common types are mechanical 'arms.' Fixed to the floor of a workbench, they perform usually routine, repetitive functions such as paint spraying or assembling parts in factories.
 |
| Articulated welding robots used in a factory, a type of industrial robot. |
Other robots include computer controlled vehicles for carrying materials, and a miscellany of devices from cruise missiles, deep sea and space exploration craft to robotic toys. Some robots do surgery in places inside the body where a human hand is too big.
FIRSTS
The opening passage in Isaac Asimov's 1941 short story Liar! includes the earliest recorded use of the word 'robotics.'
The first commercial, digital and programmable robot was built by American inventor George Devol and named the Unimate. It was not made to look like a human, but was instead designed for use, having just one arm and one hand. The patent was filed on December 10, 1954.
The Unimate was sold to General Motors in 1961 where it was used 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.
On November 17, 1970, the Lunokhod 1 moonrover was released by the Soviet Union's orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft. It succeeded in landing on the Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains), becoming the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world.
 |
| Soviet Lunokhod moonrover |
A Ford assembly line worker called Robert Williams was the first human in history to be killed by a robot. He was hit by a robotic arm in 1979.
In 2004 the first ever robot conductor conducted the Tokyo Philharmonic playing Beethoven's 5th Symphony.
Sophia is a humanoid robot developed by Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics. On October 25, 2017 Sophia was granted Saudi Arabian citizenship, becoming the first robot ever to have a nationality.
Picture below shows Sophia speaking at the AI for GOOD Global Summit, International Telecommunication Union, Geneva in June 2017.
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| Sophia by International Telecommunication Union |
FUN ROBOT FACTS
Roughly half of all the robots in the world are in Asia, 32% in Europe, 16% in North America and 1% each in Australasia and Africa.
30% of all the robots in the world are in Japan, more than any country in the world. Japan is considered to be the leader in the world robotics industry.
 |
| ASIMO , a bipedal humanoid robot, created by Honda in 2000. |
Harvard researchers unveiled in 2013 the smallest flying robot ever created, with a wingspan of 3 centimeters (1.2 in).
There are many books, movies, and video games with robots in them. Isaac Asimov's novel I, Robot is perhaps the most famous.
Isaac Asimov's 1942 short story Runaround, in which he set out the three Laws of Robotics, is set in 2015. The laws are:
1.A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2.A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, 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.
Nikola Tesla named the industrial robots that construct the Model S all-electric luxury hatchack after the X-men characters: Wolverine, Xavier, Beast, Iceman, and Cyclops.
Robots took the jobs of an estimated 670,000 US workers between 1990 and 2007.
The Longquan temple on the outskirts of Beijing has a robotic monk named Xian’er designed to teach people about Buddhism.
In Middle East countries there is a sport called Robot Camel Racing where robots are placed on top of the camels. They are operated by a joystick, using the right hand to crack whips and the left to pull on the reins.
Robots took the jobs of an estimated 670,000 US workers between 1990 and 2007.
The Longquan temple on the outskirts of Beijing has a robotic monk named Xian’er designed to teach people about Buddhism.
In Middle East countries there is a sport called Robot Camel Racing where robots are placed on top of the camels. They are operated by a joystick, using the right hand to crack whips and the left to pull on the reins.
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