Robots: Explore the World of Robots and How They Work for Us

Copyright © 2015 by Rick Allen Leider

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Cover design by Georgia Morrissey

Cover photo credit: Thinkstock

ISBN: 978-1-63220-439-4

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63220-820-0

Contents

What Is a Robot?

Robot Roots

How Robots Work

Early Ideas for Robotics

Building Robots

Practical Robots

Research Robots

Industrial Robots

Robots in Medicine

Military Robots

Law Enforcers

Robots in Space

Robots Underwater

Robot Helpers

Robot Pets

Robot Toys

Build Your Own Robot

Robot Games

Robots of the Imagination

Robots on Film

Robots on TV

The Robot Hall of Fame

Robots of the Future

Find Out More

Index

Credits

What Is a Robot?

It would probably be impossible to come up with a definition of robot that would satisfy everyone. Even robot engineers—the people who build them—use varying definitions of the term. We can say, though, that a robot is a machine that senses, recognizes, and interacts with its environment. That means it can move on its own and may even seem to have a mind of its own!

How a Robot Thinks

But even though a robot may move and think, it is only as smart as its programming. Someone had to design them to do the things they do. Robot engineers design some robots to mimic human behavior, like greeting people or playing a musical instrument. Others program robots to carry out useful tasks, like performing surgery or welding mechanical components. Factory robots can execute complex tasks more quickly and accurately than human workers, and they don’t take lunch hours, bathroom breaks, or vacations. About 90 percent of robots work in factories, and half of them build automobiles or work in metal foundries.

A robot arm, such as this one, was built to weld automotive components. The same kind of arms are shown below, busy at work in an auto factory. Most of the robots in use today build things or perform other factory tasks.

EVERYDAY ROBOTS

EVERY DAY you use at least a dozen things created by robots in factories. When you drive in a car or ride a bus, you’re traveling in something built mostly by robots.

What Robots Can Do

Still, robots are breaking into many other fields. Robots can do jobs that are very dangerous to humans or ones that humans just find too unpleasant. For example, robots defuse bombs, clean up nuclear waste, and let medical students poke them with needles to practice taking blood. Someday soon, we’ll be seeing robot babysitters, messengers, teachers, and more.

Some robots are built to look like humans, while others are not. But whether they look like mechanical men or merely metal arms, robots are pretty amazing!

Plans for Rossum’s Universal Robot, known as an R. U. R.

ROBOT DATA

THE WORD ROBOT comes from the Czechoslovakian robotnik, meaning workman. Writer Karel Capek invented the word for his 1921 play R. U. R., which featured robots that revolt against their creators.

DID YOU KNOW?

When you see most robots, you can tell they’re not human, but that’s not necessarily the case with an android. An android can look and behave exactly like a real person. Wall-E is a robot and looks like a machine, while TV’s Star Trek: The Next Generation’s character Lt. Commander Data is an android. The Terminator is also an android.

Lt. Commander Data of Star Trek is an android.

USEFUL TERMS TO KNOW

WHEN TALKING about robots, many terms come up that may seem confusing. For instance, what is an android? Is it different from a robot? What about a ’droid? Is that something different?

Here’s a list to help you figure them out.

Android. An android is a robot that is designed to look and act like a human. So far, they mostly exist only in science fiction, but many robot engineers are working on producing real ones. The shortened form ’droid or droid comes from the Star Wars movies. Droids in that series are very intelligent robots, but don’t really look human. They have a lot of uses—from