The image usually conjured up by the word robot is that of a mechanical being, more or less human in shape. Common in science fiction, robots are generally depicted as working in the service of humanity, but often escaping the control of their human masters and doing them harm.
The word robot comes from the Czech writer Karel Čapek’s 1921 play ‘R.U.R.’ (which stands for “Rossum’s Universal Robots”), in which mechanical beings manufactured to be slaves for humanity rise up in rebellion and kill their creators. Thus the fictional image of robots can be dramatic and troubling, expressing the fears that people may have of a mechanized world over which they cannot maintain control. The history of real robots is rarely as dramatic, but where developments in robotics may lead remains to be seen.
Robots exist today. They are used in factories in highly industrialized countries such as the United States, Germany, and Japan. Robots are also being used for scientific research, in military programs, and as educational tools, and they are being developed to aid people who have lost the use of their limbs. These devices, however, are for the most part quite different from the androids, or humanlike robots, and other robots of fiction. They rarely take human form, they perform only a limited number of set tasks, and they do not have minds of their own. In fact, it is often hard to distinguish between devices called robots and other modern automated systems (see Automation).
Although the term robot did not come into use until the 20th century, the idea of mechanical beings is much older. Ancient myths and fantastic tales described walking statues and other marvels in human and animal form. From at least the 3rd century bc, craftsmen in Greece and China constructed lifelike mechanical objects, such as birds and puppets. Such mechanisms, called automatons, frequently used water or steam for motive force. Automatons were particularly popular in the Islamic world from the 9th through the 13th century and in Europe from the 16th through the 19th century.
The revival of European interest in automatons followed the development of steel springs, which were quickly adopted as a power source. European church towers provide fascinating examples of clockwork figures from medieval times. By the 18th century, a number of extremely clever automatons became quite famous for a while. Swiss craftsman Pierre Jacquet-Droz, for example, built mechanical dolls that could draw a simple figure or play music on a miniature organ. Clockwork figures of this sort are rarely made any longer, but many of the “robots” built today for promotional or other purposes are still basically automatons. They may incorporate technological advances such as radio control, but for the most part they can only perform a set routine of entertaining but otherwise useless actions.
Modern robots used in workplaces arose more directly from the Industrial Revolution. As factories developed, more and more machine tools were built that could perform some simple, precise routine over and over again on an assembly line. The trend toward increasing automation of production processes proceeded through the development of machines that were more versatile and needed less tending. One basic principle involved in this development was what is known as feedback, in which part of a machine’s output is used as input to the machine as well, so that it can make appropriate adjustments to changing operating conditions.
The most important 20th-century development, for automation and for robots in particular, was the invention of the computer. When the transistor made tiny computers possible, they could be put in individual machine tools. Modern industrial robots arose from this linking of computer with machine. By means of a computer, a correctly designed machine tool can be programmed to perform more than one kind of task. If it is given a complex manipulator arm, its abilities can be enormously increased. The first such robot was designed by Victor Scheinman, a researcher at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. It was followed in the mid-1970s by the production of so-called “programmable universal manipulators for assembly” (PUMAs) by General Motors and then by other manufacturers in the United States.
The nation that has thus far exploited this new field most successfully, however, is Japan. It has done so by making robot manipulators without trying to duplicate all of the motions of which the human arm and hand are capable. The robots are also easily reprogrammed and are therefore more adaptable to changing tasks on an assembly line. At least one Japanese factory uses an assembly line of robots to make still more robots.
Except for firms that were designed from the start around robots, such as several of those in Japan, industrial robots are still only slowly being placed in production lines. Most of the robots in large automobile and airplane factories are used for welding, spray-painting, and other operations where humans would require expensive ventilating systems. Similarly, robots perform many highly repetitive or dangerous jobs in die casting and electronic assembly lines.
Current work on industrial robots is devoted to increasing their sensitivity to the work environment. Computer-linked television cameras serve as eyes, and pressure-sensitive “skins” are being developed for manipulator grippers. Many other kinds of sensors can also be placed on robots.
Robots are also used in many ways in scientific research, particularly in the handling of radioactive or other hazardous materials. Many other highly automated systems are also often considered to be robots. These include the probes that have landed on and tested the soils of the moon, Venus, and Mars, and the pilotless planes and guided missiles of the military.
Although true androids are still only a distant possibility, a number of humanoid robots have been developed. Among the more prominent creations to appear in the early 21st century were Honda Motor Company’s ASIMO, a two-legged robot that could walk smoothly and climb or descend stairs, and Sony Corporation’s SDR-4X, a “personal entertainment robot” that used sophisticated microelectronics and sensors to walk, sing, and interact with humans. At the World Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan, scientists from Tokhuro University even unveiled a ballroom-dancing robot that was capable of reacting to the movements of its human partner. Nevertheless, a true android would have to house or be linked to the computer equivalent of a human brain. Despite some claims made for the future development of artificial intelligence, computers are likely to remain calculating machines without the ability to think or create for a long time. (See also Artificial Intelligence.)
Research into developing mobile, autonomous robots is of great value. It advances robotics, aids the comparative study of mechanical and biological systems, and can be used for such purposes as devising robot aids for the handicapped.
As for the “thinking” androids of the possible future, the well-known science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov laid down rules for their behavior in the early 1940s. Asimov’s first law is that a robot may not harm a human being either through action or inaction. The second is that robots must obey humans except when the commands conflict with the first law. The third is that robots must protect themselves except when this comes into conflict with the first or second law. Asimov later added a “zeroth law,” which states that robots must protect all humanity. Future androids might have their own opinions about these laws, but such matters must await their time.