Isaac Asimov: A Brief History Of Robotics

ROBOTICS FACTS

S.JANAKI, [e-mail]

III BCA’B’, Student, Dept. of Computer Science, k.c.s. kasinadar college of arts & science

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Robotics is a branch of engineering that involves the conception, design, manufacture, and operation of robot s. This field overlaps with electronics, computer science, artificial intelligence , mechatronics, nanotechnology , and bioengineering.

Science-fiction author Isaac Asimov is often given credit for being the first person to use the term robotics in a short story composed in the 1940s. In the story, Asimov suggested three principles to guide the behavior of robots and smart machines.

Asimov 's Three Laws of Robotics, as they

Robots continued to develop and can now be found in homes as toys, vacuums, and asprogrammable pets. Today robots are a part of many aspects of industry, medicine, science, space exploration, construction, food packaging and are even used to perform surgery. Watson, a robot with artificial intelligence from IBM, defeated the human players in an episode of Jeopardy.

SO WHY USE ROBOTS?

The reason robots are used is that it is often cheaper to use them over humans, easier for robots to do some jobs and sometimes the only possible way to accomplish some tasks! Robots can explore inside gas tanks, inside volcanoes, travel the surface of Mars or other places too dangerous for humans to go where extreme temperatures or contaminated environments exist. Robots can also do the same thing over and over again without getting bored. They can drill, they can weld, they can paint, they can handle hazardous materials, and in some situations, robots are much more accurate than a human ‐ which can cut back on production costs, mistakes or hazards. Robots never get sick, don 't need sleep, don 't need food, don 't need to take a day off, and best of all they don 't ever complain! There are a lot of benefits to using

Most robots are composed of 3 main parts:

1. The Controller ‐ also known as the "brain" which is run by a computer program. Often, the program is very detailed as it give commands for the moving parts of the robot to follow.

2. Mechanical parts ‐ motors, pistons, grippers, wheels, and gears that make the robot move, grab, turn, and lift. These parts are usually powered by air, water, or electricity.

3. Sensors ‐ to tell the robot about its surroundings. Sensors allow the robot to determine sizes, shapes, space between objects, direction, and other relations and properties of substances. Many robots can even identify the amount of pressure necessary to apply to grab an item without crushing it.

All of these parts work together to control how the robot