A stand-alone hybrid computer system that performs physical and computational activities. Capable of performing many different tasks, it is a multiple-motion device with one or more arms and joints. Robots can be similar in form to a human, but industrial robots do not resemble people at all.
The term is attributed to Czech dramatist Karel Capek in his 1921 play entitled "R.U.R. - Rossum's Universal Robots." Capek applied the Czech word "robota," which means "forced labor" or "servitude" to the mechanized people in the skit. Three years later, robots appeared in Fritz Lang's classic silent movie "Metropolis," and they have been with us ever since.
A Wide Variety of Applications
Robots are designed for many purposes. In manufacturing, they are used for welding, riveting, scraping and painting. They are also deployed for demolition, fire and bomb fighting, nuclear site inspection, industrial cleaning, laboratory use, medical surgery (see telepresence surgery), agriculture, forestry, office mail delivery as well as a myriad of other tasks. Increasingly, more artificial intelligence is being added. For example, some robots can identify objects in a pile, select the objects in the appropriate sequence and assemble them into a unit.
Analog and Digital
Robots use analog sensors for recognizing real-world objects and digital computers for their direction. Analog to digital converters convert temperature, motion, pressure, sound and images into binary code for the robot's computer. The computer directs the physical actions of the arms and joints by pulsing their motors. See AIBO.
Shakey the Robot
Developed in 1969 by the Stanford Research Institute, Shakey was the first fully mobile robot with artificial intelligence. Shakey is seven feet tall and was named after its rather unstable movements. (Image courtesy of The Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org.)
Huey, Dewey and Louie
Named after Donald Duck's famous nephews, robots at this Wayne, Michigan plant apply sealant to prevent possible water leakage into the car. Huey (top) seals the drip rails while Dewey (right) seals the interior weld seams. Louie is outside of the view of this picture. (Image courtesy of Ford Motor Company.)
Inspect Pipes from the Inside
Developed by SRI for Osaka Gas in Japan, this Magnetically Attached General Purpose Inspection Engine (MAGPIE) goes inside gas pipes and looks for leaks. This unit served as the prototype for multicar models that perform temporary repairs while capturing pictures. (Image courtesy of SRI International.)
Computers Making Computers
Robots, whose brains are nothing but chips, are making chips in this TI fabrication plant. (Image courtesy of Texas Instruments, Inc.)
How Small Can They Get?
By 2020, scientists at Rutgers University believe that nano-sized robots will be injected into the bloodstream and administer a drug directly to an infected cell. This robot has a carbon nanotube body, a biomolecular motor that propels it and peptide limbs to orient itself. For more information, see http://bionano.rutgers.edu/Mavroidis_Final_Report.pdf. (Image courtesy of the Bio-Nano Robotics team at Rutgers University: Constantinos Mavroidis, Martin L. Yarmush, Atul Dubey, Angela Thornton, Kevin Nikitczuk, Silvina Tomassone, Fotios Papadimitrakopoulos and Bernie Yurke.)
The term is attributed to Czech dramatist Karel Capek in his 1921 play entitled "R.U.R. - Rossum's Universal Robots." Capek applied the Czech word "robota," which means "forced labor" or "servitude" to the mechanized people in the skit. Three years later, robots appeared in Fritz Lang's classic silent movie "Metropolis," and they have been with us ever since.
A Wide Variety of Applications
Robots are designed for many purposes. In manufacturing, they are used for welding, riveting, scraping and painting. They are also deployed for demolition, fire and bomb fighting, nuclear site inspection, industrial cleaning, laboratory use, medical surgery (see telepresence surgery), agriculture, forestry, office mail delivery as well as a myriad of other tasks. Increasingly, more artificial intelligence is being added. For example, some robots can identify objects in a pile, select the objects in the appropriate sequence and assemble them into a unit.
Analog and Digital
Robots use analog sensors for recognizing real-world objects and digital computers for their direction. Analog to digital converters convert temperature, motion, pressure, sound and images into binary code for the robot's computer. The computer directs the physical actions of the arms and joints by pulsing their motors. See AIBO.
Shakey the Robot
Developed in 1969 by the Stanford Research Institute, Shakey was the first fully mobile robot with artificial intelligence. Shakey is seven feet tall and was named after its rather unstable movements. (Image courtesy of The Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org.)
Huey, Dewey and Louie
Named after Donald Duck's famous nephews, robots at this Wayne, Michigan plant apply sealant to prevent possible water leakage into the car. Huey (top) seals the drip rails while Dewey (right) seals the interior weld seams. Louie is outside of the view of this picture. (Image courtesy of Ford Motor Company.)
Inspect Pipes from the Inside
Developed by SRI for Osaka Gas in Japan, this Magnetically Attached General Purpose Inspection Engine (MAGPIE) goes inside gas pipes and looks for leaks. This unit served as the prototype for multicar models that perform temporary repairs while capturing pictures. (Image courtesy of SRI International.)
Computers Making Computers
Robots, whose brains are nothing but chips, are making chips in this TI fabrication plant. (Image courtesy of Texas Instruments, Inc.)
How Small Can They Get?
By 2020, scientists at Rutgers University believe that nano-sized robots will be injected into the bloodstream and administer a drug directly to an infected cell. This robot has a carbon nanotube body, a biomolecular motor that propels it and peptide limbs to orient itself. For more information, see http://bionano.rutgers.edu/Mavroidis_Final_Report.pdf. (Image courtesy of the Bio-Nano Robotics team at Rutgers University: Constantinos Mavroidis, Martin L. Yarmush, Atul Dubey, Angela Thornton, Kevin Nikitczuk, Silvina Tomassone, Fotios Papadimitrakopoulos and Bernie Yurke.)
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2009 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- Little Space Duo 1.0 (Mac)
- Little Space Duo is a puzzle-based arcade game starring an unusual pair of heroes - a little girl and a small robot. They have found themselves in trouble on a huge spaceship and need to join forces to sort out the situation. Join them on a mission through the spaceship...
- Software downloads 2009-11-18
- Ozum 5.06 (Windows)
- Powerful newsreader and file downloader optimized for images, sound & video with a built-in cross-group search engine. Ozum lets you preview and listen to individual parts of multipart audio or video files before downloading and assembling the whole file. Includes a built-in viewer for images, programmable automatic news scanning robot...
- Software downloads 2009-11-16
- Kamikaze Robots for iPhone 1.0 (Mobile)
- With Kamikaze Robots for iPhone spin crazily down a hill in the ultimate test of stamina performing outrageous spins and sky-high jumps. Go bot-to-bot in a tournament consisting over 25 levels and earn the respect and upgrades you need to become a true Kamikaze Robot. Share the explosively fun action...
- Software downloads 2009-11-12
- Kamikaze Robots Free for iPhone 1.0 (Mobile)
- With Kamikaze Robots Free for iPhone spin crazily down a hill in the ultimate test of stamina performing outrageous spins and sky-high jumps. Go bot-to-bot in a tournament consisting over 25 levels and earn the respect and upgrades you need to become a true Kamikaze Robot. Share the explosively fun...
- Software downloads 2009-11-12
- Giant Fighting Robots Trainer for iPhone 9.4 (Mobile)
- Giant Fighting Robots Trainer for iPhone is fairly complex, with pretty accurate physics. But being in a giant fighting robot with guided machine guns, lightning guns, gatling kasers, and a dozen or so other weapons, trying to defend yourselves against artificially-intelligent, heavily-armed alien fighter, and bomber spider-bots on a dozen...
- Software downloads 2009-11-12
- Giant Fighting Robots for iPhone 9.4 (Mobile)
- Giant Fighting Robots for iPhone is fairly complex, with pretty accurate physics. But being in a giant fighting robot with guided machine guns, lightning guns, gatling kasers, and a dozen or so other weapons, trying to defend yourselves against artificially-intelligent, heavily-armed alien fighter, and bomber spider-bots on a dozen foreign...
- Software downloads 2009-11-12
- (Photos: Video guitars, crafted by hand)
- What is the point of this thing?Solidity and mass is what gives a guitar sustain.This is basically a semi acustic without sound holes...How does having a screen in the front improve the sound?...The article mentions the peformance being centered around the screen???You can get amp modelers with MIDI controls built...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-06
- Attack of the 50ft Robot 1.0 (Windows)
- Attack of the 50ft Robot will have you play as a giant laser shooting robot out to destroy buildings, tanks.
- Software downloads 2009-11-04
- Bad News Robot for iPhone 1.0.1 (Mobile)
- Bad News Robot for iPhone will call, email, or tweet your news for you! Just enter in the phone number that you would like the Bad News Robot for iPhone to call along with your bad news message. It will happily call on your behalf and share the bad news....
- Software downloads 2009-10-30
- Machinarium 1.0 (Mac)
- Machinarium is award-winning independent puzzle / adventure game developed by the makers of popular web-games Samorost and Samorost2. A little robot who's been thrown out to the scrap yard behind the city must return and confront the Black Cap Brotherhood and save his robot-girl friend. Features World: Machinarium world is...
- Software downloads 2009-10-26
- Planet Calypso 10.1.2 (Windows)
- Planet Calypso is a completely unique sandbox MMORPG with a real economy. Set in the future, you are invited to join an open-ended social, economic and political action-adventure as a human colonist on a distant alien planet. The sandbox approach allows you to choose your own path and write a...
- Software downloads 2009-10-23
- Caltech develops robot with digital camera to study sight restoration
- That's not Wall-E, but Cyclops, a four-wheeled robot developed by Caltech scientists for studying possible forms of sight restoration with the help of a digital camera planted in the eye of the robot. According to CNET, the movements of the digital camera eye could "help refine...
- Blog posts 2009-10-22
- Driver Robot 1.1.0.14 (Windows)
- Would you like to automatically update your drivers? Driver Robot has the world's largest driver database. Its fast scan is guaranteed to identify the right driver for your system. Download it now and get the latest official drivers for your PC.
- Software downloads 2009-10-22
- NewsBin Pro 5.54 (Windows)
- NewsBin is a news robot that automatically downloads and decodes binary posts to usenet newsgroups. NewsBin will take full advantage of high bandwidth internet connections by allowing multiple simultaneous connections to your news servers. Supports SSL connections. Processes RAR files, accepts NZB files, includes an image thumbnail viewer, and has...
- Software downloads 2009-10-21
- Resilient cockroach-inspired robot survives large falls, dashes off
- 1.5 meters per second? Wow!On another note, when can we start using these things as lunar and Mars rovers?RE: Resilient cockroach-inspired robot survives large falls, dashes offEn-genius, simplistic design. How impressive indeed. This is getting closer and closer to "fly on the wall" stuff.
- Discussion threads 2009-10-14
- News to know: Intel; Microsoft; Cisco; Google Voice; Postini; Nokia
- Here are today’s notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily. For continuous updates see BNET’s around-the-Web tech coverage. Larry Dignan: Intel: Solid third quarter; Sees brighter prospects ahead Sam Diaz: Analysts interested in Intel's 2010, not just...
- Blog posts 2009-10-14
- MarketBuddy 2.1.1 (Mac)
- Market any Product on the Internet. MarketBuddy can reduce the human effort required to market any product or service using the power and worldwide reach of the Internet. It stores and organizes marketing contact information, then automates common marketing activities. Present Groups, Contacts, Documents, Emails and Setup panels in one...
- Software downloads 2009-10-14
- Resilient cockroach-inspired robot survives large falls, dashes off
- DASH Dynamic Autonomous Sprawled Hexapod is a six-legged insect-inspired robot can reach speeds of 1.5 meters per second and is flexible/strong enough to be dropped from a height of 28 meters without breaking. by Chris Jablonski
- Blog posts 2009-10-13
- Digital Physiognomy 1.74 (Windows)
- Digital Physiognomy is an entertaining psychological profiling software application that determines person's character and traits based on facial features. The program works like a police sketch photo robot. Last version enhances assemble a photo robot with mouse control. The software reveals person's temper, intellect, self-esteem, sense of humor, level of...
- Software downloads 2009-10-12
- Ubicomp 2009 and the fusion of our digital and physical worlds
- Recently, I used my newly downloaded Zipcar app on my iPhone to unlock and honk my booked vehicle from several yards away. It was more novel than useful, but a tall tale example of the countless invisible interactions we're having with sensing, inferring, and data transferring machines every day. It's...
- Blog posts 2009-10-09
Neighboring Terms
Premier Vendor Content Whitepapers, webcasts & resources from our Power Center Sponsors
- Reduce risk. Reduce complexity. Increase reliability.
-
A simplified IT environment isn't just less complex. It's also more reliable. Standardize on a single Linux platform with SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell, and get the world's most interoperable Linux
- Learn more >>
- New Online Dashboard for IT Leaders
-
Read about top issues IT decision-makers face every day, plus get cost-effective solutions to real-life IT problems.
- Learn more >>
- Save time with automated shipping solutions
-
The Business Essentials Guide provides you useful tools and templates to help grow your business and save you time with automated shipping solutions.
- Visit the UPS Business Essentials Guide
- Keep Up With The Latest In Document Management with The DocuMentor.
-
Doc delivers the scoop on today's enterprise content management, printer maintenance, and all other issues related to document management. It's the DocuMentor Blog.
- Learn more >>
Meet Doc
-
-
Here to help you with your Document Management Needs
- Doc is an enigma. Born to a Russian ballerina and a German electrical engineer, he grew up in various locations in the United States. He’s seen the insides of more brands, versions, and generations of printer and printer-related hardware than almost anyone.
- To learn more about this mysterious figure check out his blog on ZDNet and his Workspace on TechRepublic. You’ll be glad you did.
-
Produced by
ZDNet and -
