What is Robotics

Robotics

The word Robot comes from a Czech word, robota, meaning "forced labor". It was first used to denote a fictional humanoid in a 1920 play. The first commercial, digital and programmable robot was built by George Devol in 1954 and was named the Unimate,.

Robotics is defined as

Robotics is a domain in artificial intelligence that deals with the study of creating intelligent and efficient robots.It is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering and science that includes mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering, computer science, and others.This field of science is concerned with the development of machines that can substitute humans and replication human actions.

Main Application Areas of Robotics:

1. Factory Robots:

1. Car production
   A typical factory contains hundreds of industrial robots working on different parts of a car like welding, glue, painting and finally assembling different parts.
2. Packaging
   Industrial robots are also used extensively for palletizing and packaging of manufactured goods, for example for rapidly taking drink cartons from the end of a conveyor belt and placing them into boxess.
3. Electronics:
   Mass-produced printed circuit boards (PCBs) are almost exclusively manufactured by pick-and-place robots.



2. Dirty, dangerous, dull or inaccessible tasks

   There are many jobs which humans would rather leave to robots. The job may be boring, such as domestic cleaning or sports field line marking, or dangerous, such as exploring inside a volcano.
1. Space probes:
   Almost every unmanned space probe ever launched was a robot. E.g. Curiosity Rover sent to Mars lunched on 26 November 2011. Teleoperated robots, or telerobots, are devices remotely operated from a distance by a human operator. They are used when a human cannot be present on site to perform a job because it is dangerous, far away, or inaccessible. Like, when disabling a bomb, the operator sends a small robot to disable it. E.g. Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle used by Military.
2. Domestic robots:
   These robots are simple robots dedicated to a single task work in home use like disliked or boring jobs, such as vacuum cleaning, floor washing, and lawn mowing. E.g Rumba

3. Research Robots:

1. Bionics, Bioinformatics

Types of Robotics

Generally we have two types of robotics

1. General Purpose Robotics

• Android
An android is a humanoid robot designed to be similar in form to humans. Some androids are built with the same basic physical structure and motion capabilities as humans but are not identical to humans. They may have jointed arms and legs and capable of walking and running like humans but have a plastic or metal exterior that in no way mimics human appearance. Examples of this type of include android Google-owned Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot, Houstan Robotics’Sophia.
• Cyborg
A cybrog short for “cybernetic Organism”, is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline. The term cybrog is used for organism with enhanced abilities due to the integration of some artificial component or technology.E.g. Colorblind Neil Harbisson attached high-tech antenna to his head. This device translates color frequencies into sound frequencies, which allow Harbisson to hear “color”. The implant has also internet connection, people can send image, files and music to his head.

1. Industrial Robotics

An industrial robot is a robot system used for manufacturing. Industrial robots are automated, programmable and capable of movement on three or more axis. Typical applications of robots include welding, painting, assembly, disassembly, pick and place for printed circuit boards, packaging and labeling, palletizing, product inspection, and testing; all accomplished with high endurance, speed, and precision. They can assist in material handling. In the year 2015, an estimated 1.64 million industrial robots were in operation worldwide according to IFR . On basis of their movement these robots are categorized into two categories:
• Fixed Arm Robots
These robots are mounted on a base in a single location near where it will perform its work. It is generally secured to a cement floor with heavy bolts or is mounted on a table or other work surface so that it cannot move. In some special applications, the robot arm can be moveable. E.g.: it may be mounted on rails so that it can slide along a production line.
• Mobile Robots
A mobile robot is capable of moving around. Such robots are generally manipulator arms mounted on a small vehicle.