ROBOTS

ROBOTS

Robot, self-governing, programmable electromechanical device used in industry and in scientific research to perform a task or a limited repertoire of tasks. Robots are a subcategory of automated devices. Although no generally recognized criteria exists that distinguishes them from other automated systems, robots tend to be more versatile and adaptable (or reprogrammable) than less sophisticated devices. They offer the advantages of being able to perform more quickly, cheaply, and accurately than humans in conducting set routines. They are capable of operating in locations or under conditions hazardous to human health, ranging from areas of the factory floor to the ocean depths and outer space.

The term robot itself is derived from the Czech word robota, meaning “compulsory labour”. It was first used in the 1921 play R.U.R. (which stands for “Rossum's Universal Robots”) by the Czech novelist and playwright Karel Čapek, to describe a mechanical device that looks like a human but, lacking human sensibility, can perform only automatic, mechanical operations. In the play, however, the robots proved much more capable than that, eventually conquering and destroying their makers—a recurrent theme in science fiction since that time. The term androids is now generally reserved for human-like figures of this sort, ranging from electromechanical robots in human form to human-like creatures made entirely of biological materials.


Computers today are equipped with a small microprocessor or microprocessors that can handle the data being fed to them by various sensors of the surrounding environment. Making use of the principle of feedback (see Cybernetics), robots can then change their operations to some degree in response to changes in that environment. The commercial use of robots is spreading, with the increasing automation of factories, and they have long since become essential to many laboratory procedures. Japan is in the forefront of nations exploring robot technology. Whether the androids of science fiction will ever become a reality is not yet possible to predict, because duplication of even such seemingly simple acts as bipedal walking has proved enormously difficult. The question of “intelligent” androids must similarly be left to the future of artificial intelligence as a whole. In the meantime, however, robots should continue to expand their applications; the home-made-robot kits available today may be one sign of the future.