Essay: Robots and robotics

Introduction
Robotics is the branch of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computer science engineering that deals with the pattern, construction, operation, and application of robots, as well as computer systems for their control, sensory feedback, and information processing.
These technologies are very useful and deal with automated machines that can take the place of humans in dangerous environments or manufacturing processes, or resemble humans in appearance, behavior, and/or cognition. These days robots are inspired by nature contributing to the field of bio-inspired robotics.
The approach 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 often assumed that robots will one day be able to mimic human behavior and manage tasks in a human-like fashion. Today, robotics is a field which is growing rapidly, as technological advances continue; researching, designing, and building new robots serve various practical purposes, whether domestically, commercially, or militarily. Many robots do jobs that are dangerous to people such as defusing bombs, mines and exploring shipwrecks.
In the area of robotics, it is very important to deal with the design, operation, construction, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots. By the use of computer technology one can work on their control, sensory feedback, and information processing using appropriate hardware and sensors. Many of the motors are used in robotics which is controlled through dedicated micro-controllers with appropriate program. Therefore, language knowledge in assembly and ‘C’ is a must to design robotic applications and one should have knowledge about these two.
The word “robot” was coined by Karel Capek who wrote a play named or entitled “R.U.R.” or “Rossum’s Universal Robots” back in 1921. The base for this word comes from the Czech word ‘robota’ or ‘robotnik’ which means work or forced labor or servitude or drudgery. In his play, machines modeled after the humans had great power but without common human failings. In the end these machines were used for war and later turned against their human creators.
But even before that the Greeks made mobile statues that were the beginnings of what we would call robots.
For the most part, the word “Robot” today means any man-made machine which can perform work or other actions normally done or performed by humans.
ROBOTS
A robot is a machine which is designed to execute one or more tasks repeatedly, with speed and precision. There are as many different types of robots as there are tasks for them to be performed.
A robot can be controlled by a human operator even sometimes from a great distance. But most of robots are controlled by computer, and fall into either of two categories: autonomous robots and insect robots. An autonomous robot acts as a stand-alone system and it complete with its own computer (called the controller). Insect robots work in fleets ranging in number from a few to thousands, with all fleet members under the guidance of a single controller. The term insect comes from the similarity of the system to a colony of insects, where the individuals are simple but the fleet as a whole can be sophisticated.
Robots are sometimes grouped according to the time interval in which they were first widely used. First -generation robots which date from the 1970s and consist of stationary, nonprogrammable, electromechanical devices without sensors. Second-generation robots which were developed in the 1980s and can contain sensors and programmable controllers. Third -generation robots which were developed approx. 1990 and the present. These machines can be either stationary or mobile , autonomous or insect type, with sophisticated programming, speech recognition and synthesis, and other advanced features. Fourth -generation robots i.e. furture robots are in the research-and-development phase, and include features such as artificial intelligence, self-replication, self- assembly, and nano-scale size (physical dimensions on the order of nanometers, or units of 10-9 meter).
Some advanced robots are called androids because of their superficial coincidence to human beings. Androids are mobile, usually moving around on wheels or a track drive (robots legs are unstable and difficult to engineer). The android is not necessarily the end point of robot evolution. Some of the most esoteric and powerful robots do not look or behave anything like humans. The ultimate in robotic intelligence and sophistication might take on forms yet to be imagined, it might be invented in future.
What are robots made of?
Robots have 3 main components which are :-
• Brain – usually a computer
• Actuators and mechanical parts – motors, pistons, grippers, wheels, gears,etc.
• Sensors — vision, sound, temperature, motion, light, touch, etc.
With these 3 components , robots can interact and affect the environment to become useful.