JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT

History of Robotics

Submitted To: Mr Yves Suiza

Submitted By: Gabrielle Maree C. Legaspi
Subject: Robotics 9
What Is Robotics?
Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering and science that includes mechanical
engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering, computer science, and others.
Robotics deals with the design, construction, operation, and use of robots, as well as computer
systems for their control, sensory feedback, and information processing.

These technologies are used to develop machines that can substitute for humans and
replicate human actions. Robots can be used in many situations and for lots of purposes, but today
many are used in dangerous environments (including bomb detection and deactivation),
manufacturing processes, or where humans cannot survive (e.g. in space, under water, in high heat,
and clean up and containment of hazardous materials and radiation). Robots can take on any form
but some are made to resemble humans in appearance. This is said to help in the acceptance of a
robot in certain replicative behaviors usually performed by people. Such robots attempt to replicate
walking, lifting, speech, cognition, or any other human activity. Many of today's robots are inspired
by nature, contributing to the field of bio-inspired robotics.

The concept of creating machines that can operate autonomously dates back to classical
times, but research into the functionality and potential uses of robots did not grow substantially
until the 20th century. Throughout history, it has been frequently assumed by various scholars,
inventors, engineers, and technicians that robots will one day be able to mimic human behavior
and manage tasks in a human-like fashion. Today, robotics is a rapidly growing field, as
technological advances continue; researching, designing, and building new robots serve various
practical purposes, whether domestically, commercially, or militarily. Many robots are built to do
jobs that are hazardous to people, such as defusing bombs, finding survivors in unstable ruins, and
exploring mines and shipwrecks. Robotics is also used in STEM (science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics) as a teaching aid. The advent of nanorobots, microscopic robots that can be
injected into the human body, could revolutionize medicine and human health.

Robotics is a branch of engineering that involves the conception, design, manufacture, and
operation of robots. This field overlaps with electronics, computer science, artificial intelligence,
mechatronics, nanotechnology and bioengineering.
Early Conceptions of Robots
One of the first instances of a mechanical device built to regularly carry out a particular
physical task occurred around 3000 B.C.: Egyptian water clocks used human figurines to strike
the hour bells. In 400 B.C., Archytas of Tarentum, inventor of the pulley and the screw, also
invented a wooden pigeon that could fly. Hydraulically-operated statues that could speak, gesture,
and prophecy were commonly constructed in Hellenic Egypt during the second century B.C.

In the first century A.D., Petronius Arbiter made a doll that could move like a human being.
Giovanni Torriani created a wooden robot that could fetch the Emperor's daily bread from the store
in 1557. Robotic inventions reached a relative peak (before the 20th century) in the 1700s;
countless in genius, yet impractical, automata (i.e. robots) were created during this time period.
The 19th century was also filled with new robotic creations, such as a talking doll by Edison and
a steam-powered robot by Canadians. Although these inventions throughout history may have
planted the first seeds of inspiration for the modern robot, the scientific progress made in the 20th
century in the field of robotics surpass previous advancements a thousand-fold.

History of Robotics:
This history of robotics is intertwined with the histories of technology, science and the
basic principle of progress. Technology used in computing, electricity, even pneumatics and
hydraulics can all be considered a part of the history of robotics. The timeline presented is therefore
far from complete.

Robotics currently represents one of mankind’s greatest accomplishments and is the single
greatest attempt of mankind to produce an artificial, sentient being. It is only in recent years that
manufacturers are making robotics increasingly available and attainable to the general public.

The focus of this timeline is to provide the reader with a general overview of robotics (with
a focus more on mobile robots) and to give an appreciation for the inventors and innovators in this
field who have helped robotics to become what it is today.
 The word "robot" conjures up a variety of images, from R2D2 and C3PO of Star Wars
fame; to human-like machines that exist to serve their creators (perhaps in the form of the cooking
and cleaning Rosie in the popular cartoon series the Jetsons); to the Rover Sojourner, which
explored the Martian landscape as part of the Mars Pathfinder mission. Some people may
alternatively perceive robots as dangerous technological ventures that will someday lead to the
demise of the human race, either by outsmarting or outmuscling us and taking over the world, or
by turning us into completely technology-dependent beings who passively sit by and program
robots to do all of our work. In fact, the first use of the word "robot" occurred in a play about
mechanical men that are built to work on factory assembly lines and that rebel against their human
masters. These machines in R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), written by Czech playwright
Karl Capek in 1921, got their name from the Czech word for slave.

The word "robotics" was also coined by a writer. Russian-born American science-fiction
writer Isaac Asimov first used the word in 1942 in his short story "Runabout." Asimov had a much
brighter and more optimistic opinion of the robot's role in human society than did Capek. He
generally characterized the robots in his short stories as helpful servants of man and viewed robot
as "a better, cleaner race." Asimov also proposed three "Laws of Robotics" that his robots, as well
as sci-fi robotic characters of many other stories, followed:

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 the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would
conflict with the First Law.

Law Three
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the
First or Second Law.

GREEK TIMES
Some historians affirm that Talos, a giant creature written about in ancient Greek literature,
was a creature (either a man or a bull) made of bronze, given by Zeus to Europa. According to one
version of the myths he was created in Sardinia by Hephaestus on Zeus' command, who gave him
to the Cretan king Minos. In another version Talos came to Crete with Zeus to watch over his love
Europa, and Minos received him as a gift from her. There are suppositions that his name Talos in
the old Cretan language meant the "Sun" and that Zeus was known in Crete by the similar name
of Zeus Tallaios. Since Talos was a bronze man, his blood was led, which they believed was a
divine fluid (ichor), identical to that what runs in the veins of the gods. Talos' single vein was
leading from his neck through his body to one of his heels, which was closed by a bronze nail or
a bronze peg or a pin.

MEDIVAL TIMES
Automatons, human-like figures run by hidden mechanisms, were used to impress peasant
Worshippers in church into believing in a higher power. These mechanisms created the illusion of
self-motion (moving without assistance). The clock jack was a mechanical figure that could strike
time on a bell with its axe. This technology was virtually unheard of in the 13th century.

18TH CENTURY
In the 18th century, miniature automatons became popular as toys for the very rich. They
were made to look and move like humans or small animals.

1990
iRobot Corporation was founded by Rodney Brooks, Colin Angle and Helen Greiner and
produced domestic and military robots.

20TH CENTURY
The digital computer is invented. Researchers quickly start referring to the computer as an
"electronic brain" and start thinking about ways to build robots with computer brains.

When did Robotics begin?

In 1954 George Devol invented the first digitally operated and a programmable robot called
the Unimate. In 1956, Devol and his partner Joseph Engelberger formed the world's first robot
company. In 1961, the first industrial robot, Unimate, went online in a General Motors automobile
factory in New Jersey. General Motors installed the first robot to work in a factory in 1961 to move
pieces of hot metal. Unimate was an autonomous, pre-programmed robot that repeatedly
performed the same dangerous task. In 1966, Shakey the Robot is invented at Stanford. Shakey
was the first autonomous, intelligent robot that made its own decisions about how to behave.
Shakey could be given general instructions, such as "move the block onto the table" and it would
reason how to perform the task. This would involve looking around the room, identifying the block
and the table, and then figuring out how to get the block to the table, including navigating around
any obstacles in the room. In 2004 Shakey was inducted into Carnegie Mellon's Robot Hall of
Fam.
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