I.What Is a Robot?

Robots are a diverse bunch. Some walk around on their two, four, six, or more legs,
while others can take to the skies. Some robots help physicians to do surgery inside
your body; others toil away in dirty factories. There are robots the size of a coin and
robots bigger than a car. Some robots can make pancakes. Others can land on Mars.

This diversity—in size, design, capabilities—means it’s not easy to come up with a
definition of what a robot is.

In fact, the term “robot” means different things to different people. Even roboticist
themselves have different notions about what is or isn’t a robot. And for most of us,
science fiction has strongly influenced what we expect a robot to look like and be able to
do.

So what makes a robot? Here’s a definition that is neither too general nor too specific:

“A robot is an autonomous machine capable of sensing its environment, carrying out

computations to make decisions, and performing actions in the real world.”

As strange as it might seem, there really is no standard definition for a robot. However,
there are some essential characteristics that a robot must have and this might help you
to decide what is and what is not a robot. It will also help you to decide what features
you will need to build into a machine before it can count as a robot.

A robot has these essential characteristics:

● Sensing-First of all your robot would have to be able to sense its surroundings. It
would do this in ways that are not unsimilar to the way that you sense your
surroundings. Giving your robot sensors: light sensors (eyes), touch and
pressure sensors (hands), chemical sensors (nose), hearing and sonar
sensors (ears), and taste sensors (tongue) will give your robot awareness of its
environment.
● Movement- A robot needs to be able to move around its environment. Whether
rolling on wheels, walking on legs or propelling by thrusters a robot needs to be
able to move. To count as a robot either the whole robot moves, like the
Sojourner or just parts of the robot moves, like the Canada Arm. 
● Energy- A robot needs to be able to power itself. A robot might be solar
powered, electrically powered, battery powered. The way your robot gets its
energy will depend on what your robot needs to do.
● Intelligence-A robot needs some kind of "smarts." This is where programming
enters the pictures. A programmer is the person who gives the robot its 'smarts.'
The robot will have to have some way to receive the program so that it knows
what it is to do

II.What Is Robotics?

Robotics is the intersection of science, engineering and technology that produces

machines, called robots, that substitute for (or replicate) human actions. 

The robotics industry is still relatively young, but has already made amazing strides.
From the deepest depths of our oceans to the highest heights of outer space, robots
can be found performing tasks that humans couldn’t dream of achieving.

III.Types of Robots

It’s not easy to define what robots are, and it’s not easy to categorize them either. Each
robot has its own unique features, and as a whole robots vary hugely in size, shape,
and capabilities. Still, many robots share a variety of features. Here are the 15
categories we used to classify robots.

1. Aerospace: This is a broad category. It includes all sorts of flying robots—the

SmartBird robotic seagull and the Raven surveillance drone, for example—but
also robots that can operate in space, such as Mars rovers and NASA's
Robonaut, the humanoid that flew to the International Space Station and is now
back on Earth.
2. Consumer: Consumer robots are robots you can buy and use just for fun or to
help you with tasks and chores. Examples are the robot dog Aibo, the Roomba
vacuum, AI-powered robot assistants, and a growing variety of robotic toys and
kits.

3. Disaster Response: These robots perform dangerous jobs like searching for
survivors in the aftermath of an emergency. For example, after an earthquake
and tsunami struck Japan in 2011, Packbots were used to inspect damage at the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.

4. Drones: Also called unmanned aerial vehicles, drones come in different sizes
and have different levels of autonomy. Examples include DJI’s popular Phantom
series and Parrot’s Anafi, as well as military systems like Global Hawk, used for
long-duration surveillance.

5. Education: This broad category is aimed at the next generation of roboticists, for
use at home or in classrooms. It includes hands-on programmable sets from
Lego, 3D printers with lesson plans, and even teacher robots like EMYS.

6. Entertainment: These robots are designed to evoke an emotional response and

make us laugh or feel surprise or in awe. Among them are robot comedian
RoboThespian, Disney’s theme park robots like Navi Shaman, and musically
inclined bots like Partner.

7. Exoskeletons: Robotic exoskeletons can be used for physical rehabilitation and

for enabling a paralyzed patient walk again. Some have industrial or military
applications, by giving the wearer added mobility, endurance, or capacity to carry
heavy loads.

8. Humanoids: This is probably the type of robot that most people think of when
they think of a robot. Examples of humanoid robots include Honda’s Asimo,
which has a mechanical appearance, and also androids like the Geminoid series,
which are designed to look like people.

9. Industrial: The traditional industrial robot consists of a manipulator arm designed

to perform repetitive tasks. An example is the Unimate, the grandfather of all
factory robots. This category includes also systems like Amazon's warehouse
robots and collaborative factory robots that can operate alongside human
workers.

10. Medical: Medical and health-care robots include systems such as the da Vinci
surgical robot and bionic prostheses, as well as robotic exoskeletons. A system
that may fit in this category but is not a robot is Watson, the IBM question-
answering supercomputer, which has been used in healthcare applications.

11. Military & Security: Military robots include ground systems like Endeavor
Robotics' PackBot, used in Iraq and Afghanistan to scout for improvised
explosive devices, and BigDog, designed to assist troops in carrying heavy gear.
Security robots include autonomous mobile systems such as Cobalt.

12. Research: The vast majority of today’s robots are born in universities and
corporate research labs. Though these robots may be able to do useful things,
they’re primarily intended to help researchers do, well, research. So although
some robots may fit other categories described here, they can also be called
research robots.
 13. Self-Driving Cars: Many robots can drive themselves around, and an increasing
number of them can now drive you around. Early autonomous vehicles include
the ones built for DARPA’s autonomous-vehicle competitions and also Google’s
pioneering self-driving Toyota Prius, later spun out to form Waymo.

14. Telepresence: Telepresence robots allow you to be present at a place without

actually going there. You log on to a robot avatar via the internet and drive it
around, seeing what it sees, and talking with people. Workers can use it to
collaborate with colleagues at a distant office, and doctors can use it to check on
patients.

15. Underwater: The favorite place for these robots is in the water. They consist of
deep-sea submersibles like Aquanaut, diving humanoids like Ocean One, and
bio-inspired systems like the ACM-R5H snakebot.

IV. Artificial Intelligence vs Robotics: The Background

 
• Defining Robotics and AI
Robotics is the branch of science that deals with the development of robots. Robots aim
to complete the work done by human in much lesser time with better efficiency. The
robots can be automatic or need some initial instructions from humans.
AI is a computer science branch and it helps in developing software that can do the task
that needs personal discretion, decision-making, and intelligence as these qualities
cannot be otherwise programmed in a computer. AI development services can help the
machine learn and perceive surroundings to adapt as per the situation. AI can even
solve different problems, tackle logical reasoning and also learn languages.
 
• Aspects
Robots are programmable and interact with the surrounding using sensors. They might
be automatic or semi-automatic depending on the area of their application.
AI is a science that depends on machine learning and algorithms. If explained in limited
words, AI works on its own decision making and reasoning.
 
• Application
A robot aims to simplify lifestyle and increase work productivity. A robot that can
improvise the methods to work will be more than welcome. But a clear definition of the
robot doesn’t imply anywhere about learning. Designing a robot undergoes a lot of
physical building, external designing, and coding (or AI), which aims to enhance its
decision-making capacity.
But AI is all about humanizing the technological experience. AI engines found use in
GPS trackers, better navigation systems, customer care chatbot, and others. There are
few cases where an AI program powers robots.
There’s a separate type of robot powered by AI, i.e., Artificially-Intelligent Robot. Control
of Robot is through an AI program developed in a tightly knit environment. AI
development companies along with Robotic development firms perform this task. AI
robots have a varied spectrum of application. They found use in several departments of
the same factory whereas a simple robot performs repetitive tasks with a set of
programmed movements. It does not need any intelligence.
 

V. Timeline History of Robots

 
 IN THE BEGINNING

In ancient times, the percursors to robots were Automata, the word which
was originally an Italian renaissance term for a mechanical device, usually
powered by water, windpower or clockwork.  The word Automaton was a
plural version and came to mean a self-operating machine and is
sometimes extended to include robots.
Automata were conceived and built at a very early time in recorded history.
Early examples are clocks programmed for mechanical actions at specific
times (like the latter day cookoo clock) and a statue that could stand from
a sitting position and pour drinks for the Pharaoh Ptolemy II by Ctesibius of
Alexandria in the 3rd Century BC; the noted scientist and engineer Ibn
Ismail ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari of northern Mesopotamia (Iraq) designed
and built a working automata boat with four programmable humanoid
automata musicians in 1206 AD; Around 1495, Leonardo da Vinci
designed an automata knight for the robotic conduct of warfare. An
existing example of automata can be experienced at the Notre Dame
Cathedral in Strasbourg, France.  It is the third in a series of automata /
clocks at the cathedral and was built by Jean-Baptiste Schwilgué from
1836-1843.
Another popular idea for a man-servant fabricated from inanimate matter
was the golem of central European Jewish folklore.  The myth is that
Golem was a manmade version of God’s creation of Adam from clay.
Before Golem was created by man for the purpose of serving man in the field,
1920 doing the tedious work to allow man to have more time for leisure.  The
Golem was created in a way that it could do no harm to man, a theme that
is carried on in modern robotics and was codified in the 20th century by
Isaac Asimov.  But because the Golem was a creation of man and not
God, it was imperfect and had failings, including hurting its master.  The
folk stories were first published in Gustav Meyrink’s 1915 novel “Der
Golem” based on folklore documented by Judah Low ben Bezalel.  
Mary Shelley also was likely influenced by the idea of a golem when she
wrote the novel Frankenstein.  
The Meyrink novellette inspired a series of expressionistic silent movies in
the early 20th century.  Among those, is a now famous movie made in
1920 and marks the beginning of the modern robot era.

1939 Westinghouse introduces the first robot by name at the New York World’s
Fair.  It was called Elektro. Built between 1937 and 1938 in Mansfield,
Ohio, it was seven feet tall, weighing 265 pounds.  It had a humanoid
appearance, could walk by voice command, talk (using a 78-rpm record
player), smoke cigarettes, blow up balloons, and move its head and arms.
The body consisted of a steel gear, cam and motor skeleton covered by an
aluminum skin. The photoelectric “eyes” could distinguish red and green
light.
 Isaac Asimov publishes “Runaround”, in which he defines the Three Laws
of Robotics.  Asimov’s laws initially entailed three guidelines for machines:
Law One – “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction,
allow a human being to come to harm.”
Law Two – “A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except
where such orders would conflict with the First Law.”
1942
Law Three – “A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such
protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.”
Asimov later added the “Zeroth Law,” above all the others – “A robot may
not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.”

Emergence of the computer portended advances that would allow a robot

to perform autonomous operations with electronic versus mechanical
encoding of memory and operational logic.  George Devol patented a
general purpose playback device for controlling machines, using magnetic
1946
recording; J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly built the ENIAC at the
University of Pennsylvania – the first electronic computer; At MIT,
Whirlwind, the first digital general purpose computer, solves its first
problem.

 
BIRTH OF MODERN DAY INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

George Devol, an industrial engineer looking for ways to improve

manufacturing efficiency and automate dangerous and tedious tasks,
designed the first programmable robot and applied for a patent with the
U.S. Patent Office; Devol created and used the term Universal Automation
to describe his robot design.

1954

Joseph Engelberger joins George Devol and they form the first commercial
robot company they called Unimation, a concentration of the term coined
1956 by Devol.  Engelberger is later to be given the title “Father of Robotics” for
his pioneering work in robotics and his lifelong advocacy for robots and
publication of foundational research.

Unimation was purchased by Condec Corporation and development of

1960
Unimate Robot Systems began.

1960 American Machine and Foundry, later known as AMF Corporation,

markets the first cylindrical robot, called the Versatran, designed by Harry
Johnson and Veljko Milenkovic.
 Unimation is awarded the first robot patent by the U.S. Patent office
1961
(originally applied for in 1954).

Homogeneous transformations applied to robot kinematics – this remains

1965
the foundation of robotics theory today

The first industrial robot in Europe, a Unimate, was installed at

Metallverken, Uppsland Väsby, Sweden

1967

Stanford Research (SRI) built Shakey, a very early mobile robot with vision
capability, controlled by a computer the size of a room.

1968

Hitachi (Japan) developed the world’s first vision-based fully-automatic

intelligent robot that assembles objects from plan drawings

1970

The Japanese Robot Association (JIRA, later JARA) was established, the
1971 first national robotics association; JIRA was formed in 1971 as the
Industrial Robot Conversazione, a voluntary organization

 
INTRODUCTION OF ALL-ELECTRIC ROBOTS
1972
 

1973 Kuka, an established welding production line manufacturer in Germany,

builds its first robot of its own design. Known as FAMULUS; this was the
first robot to have six electro-mechanically driven axes, which was to
 become the standard configuration for industrial robots, as it closely
resembles the mechanics of the human arm and allows imitation of motion
in production processes

Hitachi (Japan) developed the automatic bolting robot for concrete pile and
pole industry; this robot was the first industrial robot with dynamic vision
1973 sensors for moving objects (later called line tracking); it recognized bolts
on a mold while it is moving and fastened/loosened the bolts in
synchronization with the mold motion

Machinery manufacturer, Cincinnati Milacron, releases the T3, the first

commercially available minicomputer-controlled industrial robot (designed
by Richard Hohn).

1973

Professor Victor Scheinman, the developer of the Stanford Arm, forms

Vicarm Inc. to market a version of the arm for industrial applications. The
new arm is controlled by a minicomputer, a DEC PDP-10; it is the first
robot that performed small-parts assembly using electronic feedback from
touch and pressure sensors

1974

Bruce Shimano and Brian Carlisle join Scheinman at Vicarm to develop

the programming software for his new multi-axis robot arm. Variable
Assembly Language (VAL) is developed as a computer-based control
1974 system and language. As the first flexible and generic robot programming
language, it will become the foundation for all robot programming
languages to follow, becoming the “Disk Operating System (DOS)” of the
robot industry.  

1974 Fanuc, an acronym for Fuji Automatic Numerical Control, introduced its
first industrial robot.  Fanuc was established in 1956 as a subsidiary of
industrial giant Fujitsu and was the first manufacturer of NC machines in
Japan.
 Kawasaki in Japan, which had licensed Unimate since 1969, built on the
Unimate design to create an arc-welding robot, used to fabricate their
motorcycle frames. They also developed touch and force-sensing
capabilities in their Hi-T-Hand robot, enabling the robot to guide pins into
holes at a rate of one second per pin

1974

Sweden’s ASEA introduced the first fully electric, microprocessor-

controlled industrial robot, IRB 6; with anthropomorphic design, its arm
movement mimicked that of a human arm; it had a payload of 6kg and 5
axis; The S1 controller was the first to use an Intel 8 bit microprocessor
with memory capacity of 16KB

1974

Hitachi (Japan) developed the first sensor based arc welding robot “Mr.
AROS”; the robot is equipped with microprocessors and gap sensors to
correct arc welding path by detecting precise location of workpieces

1975

1977 The Motoman L10 was introduced in 1977. It featured five axis and a
maximum workload of 10 kg, which included the gripper. It weighed 470kg.
The Motoman L10 was the first robot that Yaskawa introduced on the
market. The control system was equipped with a separate programming
pendant and was used to record the robot’s position one by one. The
control system had a magnetic memory that did not require a backup. New
positions, or points, could be added or moved, but it was impossible to
 erase any of them in the recorded program. Four finished programs could
be accessed from separate keys on the programming unit. Using a few
points to calculate a straight line or a circle (interpolation) was not
possible. It was necessary to record a lot of points in order to complete a
welding line. 
The programming unit was used to move each robot axis and save its
position. When running the program, the robot would assume each
position in the same order they were recorded. The control system was the
RB. It had the programming capacity of 250 positions and could be
extended to 600 and 350 instructions. With 16 input signals and 15 output
signals, the RB control system could store 99 robot jobs in magnetic
memory. It also featured 63 welding parameters and a weight of 350kg

Reis of Obernburg, Germany, develops the first six-axis robot with own
integrated control system, the RE15

1979

The Motoman RC Control system was introduced in 1980 and gave the
ability to control up to six axes. The programming capacity was increased
to 1000 positions (600 instructions). The maximum number of jobs stored
in magnetic memory was still 99. External memory was on tapes. There
was now a total of 22 input signals, 21 output signals, and 127 welding
1980 parameters. The later versions of the RG control system enabled circular
and linear interpolation, three dimensional shifting of a robot job, and
pendular motion. With circular interpolation only three points (two for
linear) are needed for the control system to complete a welding line. It was
even possible to control it from an external computer, but it was not put to
much practical use

Japanese company, Nachi, introduces the spot-welding robot which are

fully electric (no hydraulics); this ushers in a new era of electric driven
1980
robots, replacing the previous era of hydraulic drive

 
INTRODUCTION OF MACHINE VISION INTO PRODUCTION ROBOTICS
1981  

1981 Kawasaki develops its own electric robots (P Series)

1981 PaR Systems, a maker of nuclear power plant material handling systems,
introduces large scale gantry robots to the market; gantry robots provide a
much larger range of motion and payload than pedestal robots of the day,
and could replace several robots
 The world’s first six axis robot, the Motoman L10WA was introduced in
1983. It featured an extra wrist axis called A. The RG control system could
handle this robot model and the ordinary L10W with an external axis.
However, the L10W models were almost exclusively used with the next
generation controller RX.
The RX controller introduced the ability to control up to eight axes, the
robot’s six plus two external. The programming capacity was increased to
2200 positions and 1200 instructions and could be extended to 5000
positions. The RX control system had the ability to store 249 robot jobs in
memory. It featured 48 input signals, 24 output signals, and 2 analog
outlets. The RX controller was the first system with a screen and English
text. 
The later versions of the RX controller were equipped with modern
functions like COM-ARC (seam tracking), multi layer, 3D-shift, and parallel
1983 shift. In order to synchronize robot welding with a rotating manipulator the
TRT function was developed. Operator safety features included automatic
low speed during programming and a teach-lock mechanism which
prohibits operation through other equipment than the programming unit

After leaving Unimation to Westinghouse, Joseph Engelberger founded

Transition Robotics, later renamed Helpmates, to develop service robots
primarily for the medical industry.  This was one of the first examples of
service robots. 

1984

1984 Fanuc: Upon completion of the new Head Office, the CNC Factory, the
Injection Molding Machine Factory and the Basic Research Laboratory at
the foot of Mt. Fuji, the Headquarters was transferred from Hino City,
Tokyo. The fully electric plastic injection molding machine, FANUC
AUTOSHOT, was developed
 BBC Brown Boveri of Zurich Switzerland and ASEA of Stockholm Sweden merge to form ABB.
ASEA robots become known as ABB robots.

1988

Computer Motion founded to develop robotic surgical tools; introduces AESOP for its endoscopic
surgical procedure one year later

1989

Barrett Technology was founded by CEO Dr. Bill Townsend in 1988 as a boutique business to
1989 develop robots based on advanced technologies that work hand-in-hand with people. At that time,
removing the barrier between people and robots was a radical concept, far ahead of its time
iRobot (the name is a reference to the book by Issac Asimov) was founded by Colin Angle, Rodney
Brooks and Helen Greiner of MIT’s AI lab.  iRobot designed behavior-based, artificially intelligent
robots. Powered by iRobot’s proprietary “AWARE Robot Intelligence Systems”, its robots were
designed to navigate through complex and dynamic real-world situations, from maneuvering around
furniture to searching abandoned buildings.  iRobot initially focused on work for the U.S. defense
department developing battlefield robots

1990

Marc-Olivier and Pascal Demaurex created the company Demaurex based in Romanel-sur-
Lausanne, Switzerland. After purchasing a license for the Delta robot in 1987, Demaurex, in
Switzerland, sold the first delta-type packaging robot in 1992; this first application was a landmark
installation of 6 robots loading pretzels into blister trays; it was based on the delta robot developed
by Reymond Clavel, Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne (EPFL) and was run by an Adept
controller

1992

1994 CMU Robotics Institute’s Dante II, a six-legged walking robot, explores the Mt. Spurr volcano in
Alaska to sample volcanic gases.