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1. INTRODUCTION
What comes to mind when I say The Matrix, Terminator, or A Space Odyssey? All of these movies have super-intelligent robots that turn on their human creators. Many people fear that as robots become more intelligent they will be able to use their strength and power against us. Though robots are far from this, many scientists believe that soon robots will be universal.
Robotics is the study of robots. What is a robot? According to robotics researcher Hans Moravec of Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, “a robot is a programmable machine that imitates the action or appearance of an intelligent creature.” In order to be classified as a robot it must be able to react to its surroundings and have physical activity. There are two main types of robots. A rover, or ROV, allows a human to control its movements. An autonomous robot can make judgments and act accordingly. This paper will explain the history of robots, how they work, advantages and disadvantages, and examples of current and future robots.
2. HISTORY OF ROBOT
The Czech playwright Karel Capek created the word robot in the early 1920’s. It comes from the Czech word robota, which means drudgery or slave-like labor. The word robot was introduced in Capek’s play, Rossum’s Universal Robot’s. The play first opened in Prague in January 1921 and soon opened in Europe and the United States. In the play, a scientist invents robots to help humans with simple tasks. But after the robots were used in wars, they turned on the humans and took over the world. The picture to the left is the robot that appeared in a variation of Capek’s RUR. I think it is interesting that Capek did not actually believe that his idea of robots would ever exist. Yet, approximately 40 years later in the late 1950’s early 1960’s, the invention of transistors and integrated circuits made the development of robots possible.
In the 1940’s, the scientist/writer Isaac Asimov wrote a set of laws that he used in his fiction stories. These laws are called “The Three Laws of Robotics” and are known by many researchers today.
They are:
“A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”
“A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the first law.”
“A robot must protect its own existence, as long as this does not conflict with the first two laws.”
In 1968, a robot named “Shakey” was created at the John Hopkins Laboratory. This very large robot could simply find it’s way around a room. Today robots are used for many tasks.