among others, as well as the space industry. Robots, such as the Mars rover Sojourner and the upcoming Mars Exploration rover or the underwater robotic vehicle Caribou, were designed and sent to places where humans cannot go, such as volcanoes, mars, etc., for the purpose of helping to conduct research in those particular places. On the other hand, other types of robots were designed for the purpose of entertaining small children and others. A few of them are Techno, Polly and AIBO ERS-220, which often arrive at the stores around Christmas time.
Robots are very efficient, fun and easy to design. In his book Being Digital, Nicholas Negroponte relates an excellent story that took place about eight years ago at the time of the televised premier of the Media Lab’s LEGO/Logo work at the Hennigan School. When the robot was first introduced to the children in school, they didn’t show interest in adopting it. However, in a third attempt, the children talked, played and had fun with the robot. The children asked the robot questions and the robot started giving responses to the children. The children in the class felt very excited and had fun with the robot.
Finally, what exactly does robot mean?
Many authors gave definitions based on their understanding. There is really no standard definition of robotics. When designing the robot, every designer needs to have the following properties and features, if not it is not considered a robot [2].
The robot should have following characteristics:
SensingFirst, robots have to recognize the surroundings and respond according to them. The robots will not behave in all the environments. We have to imbue robots with sensitivity to light (eyes), touch, pressure (like hands), chemicals (nose), sound (ears) and taste (tongue) among others. By combining all these we will get the correct working robot for the environment.
MovementThe robot should be capable of identifying surroundings/ environment in order to perform actions such as moving its body all around the surroundings.
EnergyRobots should be capable of identifying the power in their battery and should charge by themselves.
IntelligenceRobots need to become smarter than humans. Those who make robots smart are called programmers. Robots should require a minimum amount of knowledge to understand and perform the task that the user instructed.
So, the definition of the term robot encompasses a sensor, controlling device, physical device, manipulator, and a programming testing device, with mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, mathematics, and a small portion of chemistry also being involved.
1.2 History and Evolution of Robots
Table 1.1 shows the origins of robotics along with detailed information of when the robots came into existence, the developer’s name, etc. Presently, there are various types of robots which are used for various environments for various users. Moreover, the robots were classified into mechanical construction, electrical components and computer programming mechanism.
Table 1.1 History of the earliest robots.
| Date | Significance | Robot name | Inventor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd century BC and earlier | First humanoid automata based on an earlier description | Yan Shi | ||
| 1st century AD and earlier | Descriptions of more than 100 machines and automata which include a fire engine, a wind organ, a coin-operated machine, and a steam-powered engine | Ctesibius, Philo of Byzantium, Heron of Alexandria, and others | ||
| c. 420 BC | Robot designed like a bird, which will fly | Flying Pigeon | Archytas of Tarentum | |
| 1206 | First humanoid robot with automata mechanism | Robot band, hand-washing automaton [11], automated moving peacocks [12] | Al-Jazari | |
| 1495 | Humanoid robot | Mechanical Knight | Leonardo da Vinci | |
| 1738 | Mechanical duck which can eat, flap its wings, and excrete | Digesting Duck | Jacques de Vaucanson | |
| 1898 | First radio-controlled device | Teleautomaton | Nikola Tesla | |
| 1921 | First fictional automatons called robots | Rossum’s Universal Robots | Karel Čapek | |
| 1930s | Humanoid robot exhibited at the 1939 and 1940 New York World’s Fair | Elektro | Westinghouse Electric Corporation | |
| 1946 | First general-purpose digital computer | Whirlwind | Multiple people | 5 |
| 1948 | Simple robots exhibiting biological behaviors | Elsie and Elmer | William Grey Walter | |
| 1956 | First commercial robot from the Unimation company | Unimate | George Devol | |
| 1961 | First installed industrial robot | Unimate | George Devol | |
| 1967 to 1972 | First full-scale humanoid intelligent robot | WABOT-1 | Waseda University | |
| 1973 | First industrial robot with six electromechanically driven axes | Famulus | KUKA Robot Group | |
| 1974 | First microcomputer controlled electric industrial robot, IRB 6 from ASEA, which was already patented in 1972. | IRB 6 | ABB Robotics | |
| 1975 | Programmable universal manipulation arm, a Unimation product | PUMA | Victor Scheinman | |
| 1978 | First object-level robot programming language, which allows robots to handle variations in object position, shape, and sensor noise | Freddy I and II, RAPT robot programming language | Patricia Ambler and Robin Popplestone | |
| 1983 | First multitasking, parallel programming language used for a robot control |
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