Robots

 

Part I

 

 Link to History, My Manual

  Example Robots (My manual)

  History

    5000 years ago, had articulated jaw, used by priests - they talked behind curtain

     1300sautomatons

     1800s

        Andre Myerde - draw pictures and write poems

        Play chess - midget inside

       Jacquard loom, - weave patterns using cards

       Babbage Difference Engine - first computer. brass gears and cams

        Thomas Edison, talking doll

  Karel Capek, first use of term robot in play, RUR, means slave labor

 

 

The RUR robot which appeared in an adaption of Czech author Karel Capek's Rossum's Universal Robots.
 

  1926: Metropolus Movie, set in 2026, oppressed workers, robot controlled the city ,

      robot named Maria. Prototype for robot films, Written by Fritz Lay, Maria was inspiration

      for C3PO

 

  Electro: 1939 World's Fair, 11 motors, photocells, electric eyes (voice provided by man behind

     curtain)

  Isaac Asimov first used term robotics

  Asimov's 3 laws of robotics

 

      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 it by human beings, except where such

        orders would conflict with the First Law.

      A robot must protect its own existence, except where such protection would

        conflict with the First or Second Laws.

 

 

  1946 ENIAC: Alan Turing, Mauchley and Eckert, von Neumann

  1950s: Robot films inspired by Asimov's 3 laws as were many other films

  Forbidden planet - robot placed in conflict situation

 

 

  George Devol - Grandfather of robotics. Devol built first industrial robot in 1961

  Company named Unimatation built Unimate which used feedback

  Joseph Engelberger - Father of robotics

  Japanese entry - look long term

Part II

  MIT - Norbert Weiner - developed field of cybernetics

  The Beast at Johns Hopkins

 

 

  1960s start of AI

  Marvin Minski at MIT and AI

  Claude Shannon: 1963 established AI lab at Stanford focusing on robotics and computer

      vision

  1965 Shakey at SRI. First reasoning mobile robot. Move took one hour to compute

  1970s mobile carts at Stanford university employing computer vision

  3mile island - birth of field robotics industry

  1979 Hans Morovek at Carnegie Mellon developed IMP robot

  Navlab1 and 2

  1995 - change direction, what can do with power from cigarette lighter in vehicle

  BOB - Brains on Board

  Helpmate by Joe Engleberger - delivers meals in hospital etc.

  Definitions

    

        Cybernetics

          Concerned with processes of communication and control

        Industrial Robot

 

       ISO, the International Standard Organization, have formulated the following definition

       with respect to robots and manipulators.

 

       "Manipulating industrial robot is an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multi-

       purpose, manipulative machine with several degrees of freedom (DOF), which may be

       either fixed in place or mobile for use in industrial automation applications"

       "Manipulator is a machine, the mechanism of which usually consists of a series of

       segments jointed or sliding relative to one another, for the purpose of grasping

       and/or moving objects (pieces or tools) usually in several degrees of freedom... "

       "Degrees of freedom is one of the variables (maximum number of six) required to

       define the motion of a body in space"

 

       The interpretation of the definition would then be that a robot should:

 

       be reprogrammable in an easy way, without having to change the machine physically.

       have a memory and logic to be able to work independently and automatically.

       have a physical structure in a fashion that allows the use for several tasks without major reconstruction.