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Wikipedia

Robot

January 10, 2023

This article is about mechanical robots. For software agents, see Bot. For other uses of the term, see Robot (disambiguation).

A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically.[2] A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be constructed to evoke human form, but most robots are task-performing machines, designed with an emphasis on stark functionality, rather than expressive aesthetics.

ASIMO (2000) at the Expo 2005
Articulated welding robots used in a factory are a type of industrial robot
The quadrupedal military robot Cheetah, an evolution of BigDog (pictured), was clocked as the world's fastest legged robot in 2012, beating the record set by an MIT bipedal robot in 1989.[1]

Robots can be autonomous or semi-autonomous and range from humanoids such as Honda's Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility (ASIMO) and TOSY's TOSY Ping Pong Playing Robot (TOPIO) to industrial robots, medical operating robots, patient assist robots, dog therapy robots, collectively programmed swarm robots, UAV drones such as General Atomics MQ-1 Predator, and even microscopic nano robots. By mimicking a lifelike appearance or automating movements, a robot may convey a sense of intelligence or thought of its own. Autonomous things are expected to proliferate in the future, with home robotics and the autonomous car as some of the main drivers.[3]

The branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, and application of robots,[4] as well as computer systems for their control, sensory feedback, and information processing is robotics. These technologies deal with automated machines that can take the place of humans in dangerous environments or manufacturing processes, or resemble humans in appearance, behavior, or cognition. Many of today's robots are inspired by nature contributing to the field of bio-inspired robotics. These robots have also created a newer branch of robotics: soft robotics.

From the time of ancient civilization, there have been many accounts of user-configurable automated devices and even automata resembling humans and other animals, such as animatronics, designed primarily as entertainment. As mechanical techniques developed through the Industrial age, there appeared more practical applications such as automated machines, remote-control and wireless remote-control.

The term comes from a Slavic root, robot-, with meanings associated with labor. The word 'robot' was first used to denote a fictional humanoid in a 1920 Czech-language play R.U.R. (Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti – Rossum's Universal Robots) by Karel Čapek, though it was Karel's brother Josef Čapek who was the word's true inventor.[5][6][7] Electronics evolved into the driving force of development with the advent of the first electronic autonomous robots created by William Grey Walter in Bristol, England in 1948, as well as Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine tools in the late 1940s by John T. Parsons and Frank L. Stulen.

The first modern digital and programmable robot was invented by George Devol in 1954 and spawned his seminal robotics company, Unimation. The first Unimate was sold to General Motors in 1961 where it lifted pieces of hot metal from die casting machines at the Inland Fisher Guide Plant in the West Trenton section of Ewing Township, New Jersey.[8]

Robots have replaced humans[9] in performing repetitive and dangerous tasks which humans prefer not to do, or are unable to do because of size limitations, or which take place in extreme environments such as outer space or the bottom of the sea. There are concerns about the increasing use of robots and their role in society. Robots are blamed for rising technological unemployment as they replace workers in increasing numbers of functions.[10] The use of robots in military combat raises ethical concerns. The possibilities of robot autonomy and potential repercussions have been addressed in fiction and may be a realistic concern in the future.

Summary

Anthropomorphism in robots:
 
KITT (a fictional robot) is mentally anthropomorphic; it thinks like a human.
 
iCub is physically anthropomorphic; it looks like a human.

The word robot can refer to both physical robots and virtual software agents, but the latter are usually referred to as bots.[11] There is no consensus on which machines qualify as robots but there is general agreement among experts, and the public, that robots tend to possess some or all of the following abilities and functions: accept electronic programming, process data or physical perceptions electronically, operate autonomously to some degree, move around, operate physical parts of itself or physical processes, sense and manipulate their environment, and exhibit intelligent behavior, especially behavior which mimics humans or other animals.[12][13] Related to the concept of a robot is the field of synthetic biology, which studies entities whose nature is more comparable to living things than to machines.

History

Main article: History of robots

The idea of automata originates in the mythologies of many cultures around the world. Engineers and inventors from ancient civilizations, including Ancient China,[14] Ancient Greece, and Ptolemaic Egypt,[15] attempted to build self-operating machines, some resembling animals and humans. Early descriptions of automata include the artificial doves of Archytas,[16] the artificial birds of Mozi and Lu Ban,[17] a "speaking" automaton by Hero of Alexandria, a washstand automaton by Philo of Byzantium, and a human automaton described in the Lie Zi.[14]

Early beginnings

Many ancient mythologies, and most modern religions include artificial people, such as the mechanical servants built by the Greek god Hephaestus[18] (Vulcan to the Romans), the clay golems of Jewish legend and clay giants of Norse legend, and Galatea, the mythical statue of Pygmalion that came to life. Since circa 400 BC, myths of Crete include Talos, a man of bronze who guarded the island from pirates.

In ancient Greece, the Greek engineer Ctesibius (c. 270 BC) "applied a knowledge of pneumatics and hydraulics to produce the first organ and water clocks with moving figures."[19]: 2 [20] In the 4th century BC, the Greek mathematician Archytas of Tarentum postulated a mechanical steam-operated bird he called "The Pigeon". Hero of Alexandria (10–70 AD), a Greek mathematician and inventor, created numerous user-configurable automated devices, and described machines powered by air pressure, steam and water.[21]

 
Al-Jazari – a musical toy

The 11th century Lokapannatti tells of how the Buddha's relics were protected by mechanical robots (bhuta vahana yanta), from the kingdom of Roma visaya (Rome); until they were disarmed by King Ashoka.[22]

In ancient China, the 3rd-century text of the Lie Zi describes an account of humanoid automata, involving a much earlier encounter between Chinese emperor King Mu of Zhou and a mechanical engineer known as Yan Shi, an 'artificer'. Yan Shi proudly presented the king with a life-size, human-shaped figure of his mechanical 'handiwork' made of leather, wood, and artificial organs.[14] There are also accounts of flying automata in the Han Fei Zi and other texts, which attributes the 5th century BC Mohist philosopher Mozi and his contemporary Lu Ban with the invention of artificial wooden birds (ma yuan) that could successfully fly.[17]

 
Su Song's astronomical clock tower showing the mechanical figurines which chimed the hours

In 1066, the Chinese inventor Su Song built a water clock in the form of a tower which featured mechanical figurines which chimed the hours.[23][24][25] His mechanism had a programmable drum machine with pegs (cams) that bumped into little levers that operated percussion instruments. The drummer could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns by moving the pegs to different locations.[25]

Samarangana Sutradhara, a Sanskrit treatise by Bhoja (11th century), includes a chapter about the construction of mechanical contrivances (automata), including mechanical bees and birds, fountains shaped like humans and animals, and male and female dolls that refilled oil lamps, danced, played instruments, and re-enacted scenes from Hindu mythology.[26][27][28]

13th century Muslim Scientist Ismail al-Jazari created several automated devices. He built automated moving peacocks driven by hydropower.[29] He also invented the earliest known automatic gates, which were driven by hydropower,[30] created automatic doors as part of one of his elaborate water clocks.[31] One of al-Jazari's humanoid automata was a waitress that could serve water, tea or drinks. The drink was stored in a tank with a reservoir from where the drink drips into a bucket and, after seven minutes, into a cup, after which the waitress appears out of an automatic door serving the drink.[32] Al-Jazari invented a hand washing automaton incorporating a flush mechanism now used in modern flush toilets. It features a female humanoid automaton standing by a basin filled with water. When the user pulls the lever, the water drains and the female automaton refills the basin.[19]

Mark E. Rosheim summarizes the advances in robotics made by Muslim engineers, especially al-Jazari, as follows:

Unlike the Greek designs, these Arab examples reveal an interest, not only in dramatic illusion, but in manipulating the environment for human comfort. Thus, the greatest contribution the Arabs made, besides preserving, disseminating and building on the work of the Greeks, was the concept of practical application. This was the key element that was missing in Greek robotic science.[19]: 9 

 
Model of Leonardo's robot with inner workings. Possibly constructed by Leonardo da Vinci around 1495.[33]

In Renaissance Italy, Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) sketched plans for a humanoid robot around 1495. Da Vinci's notebooks, rediscovered in the 1950s, contained detailed drawings of a mechanical knight now known as Leonardo's robot, able to sit up, wave its arms and move its head and jaw.[34] The design was probably based on anatomical research recorded in his Vitruvian Man. It is not known whether he attempted to build it. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, Leonardo da Vinci may have been influenced by the classic automata of al-Jazari.[29]

In Japan, complex animal and human automata were built between the 17th to 19th centuries, with many described in the 18th century Karakuri zui (Illustrated Machinery, 1796). One such automaton was the karakuri ningyō, a mechanized puppet.[35] Different variations of the karakuri existed: the Butai karakuri, which were used in theatre, the Zashiki karakuri, which were small and used in homes, and the Dashi karakuri which were used in religious festivals, where the puppets were used to perform reenactments of traditional myths and legends.

In France, between 1738 and 1739, Jacques de Vaucanson exhibited several life-sized automatons: a flute player, a pipe player and a duck. The mechanical duck could flap its wings, crane its neck, and swallow food from the exhibitor's hand, and it gave the illusion of digesting its food by excreting matter stored in a hidden compartment.[36] About 30 years later in Switzerland the clockmaker Pierre Jaquet-Droz made several complex mechanical figures that could write and play music. Several of these devices still exist and work.[37]

Remote-controlled systems

 
The Brennan torpedo, one of the earliest 'guided missiles'

Remotely operated vehicles were demonstrated in the late 19th century in the form of several types of remotely controlled torpedoes. The early 1870s saw remotely controlled torpedoes by John Ericsson (pneumatic), John Louis Lay (electric wire guided), and Victor von Scheliha (electric wire guided).[38]

The Brennan torpedo, invented by Louis Brennan in 1877, was powered by two contra-rotating propellers that were spun by rapidly pulling out wires from drums wound inside the torpedo. Differential speed on the wires connected to the shore station allowed the torpedo to be guided to its target, making it "the world's first practical guided missile".[39] In 1897 the British inventor Ernest Wilson was granted a patent for a torpedo remotely controlled by "Hertzian" (radio) waves[40][41] and in 1898 Nikola Tesla publicly demonstrated a wireless-controlled torpedo that he hoped to sell to the US Navy.[42][43]

In 1903, the Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres y Quevedo demonstrated a radio control system called "Telekino", which he wanted to use to control an airship of his own design. Unlike the previous systems, which carried out actions of the 'on/off' type, Torres device was able to memorize the signals received to execute the operations on its own and could carry out to 19 different orders.[44][45]

Archibald Low, known as the "father of radio guidance systems" for his pioneering work on guided rockets and planes during the First World War. In 1917, he demonstrated a remote controlled aircraft to the Royal Flying Corps and in the same year built the first wire-guided rocket.

Early robots

 
W. H. Richards with "George", 1932

In 1928, one of the first humanoid robots, Eric, was exhibited at the annual exhibition of the Model Engineers Society in London, where it delivered a speech. Invented by W. H. Richards, the robot's frame consisted of an aluminium body of armour with eleven electromagnets and one motor powered by a twelve-volt power source. The robot could move its hands and head and could be controlled through remote control or voice control.[46] Both Eric and his "brother" George toured the world.[47]

Westinghouse Electric Corporation built Televox in 1926; it was a cardboard cutout connected to various devices which users could turn on and off. In 1939, the humanoid robot known as Elektro was debuted at the 1939 New York World's Fair.[48][49] Seven feet tall (2.1 m) and weighing 265 pounds (120.2 kg), it could walk by voice command, speak about 700 words (using a 78-rpm record player), smoke cigarettes, blow up balloons, and move its head and arms. The body consisted of a steel gear, cam and motor skeleton covered by an aluminum skin. In 1928, Japan's first robot, Gakutensoku, was designed and constructed by biologist Makoto Nishimura.

Modern autonomous robots

The first electronic autonomous robots with complex behaviour were created by William Grey Walter of the Burden Neurological Institute at Bristol, England in 1948 and 1949. He wanted to prove that rich connections between a small number of brain cells could give rise to very complex behaviors – essentially that the secret of how the brain worked lay in how it was wired up. His first robots, named Elmer and Elsie, were constructed between 1948 and 1949 and were often described as tortoises due to their shape and slow rate of movement. The three-wheeled tortoise robots were capable of phototaxis, by which they could find their way to a recharging station when they ran low on battery power.

Walter stressed the importance of using purely analogue electronics to simulate brain processes at a time when his contemporaries such as Alan Turing and John von Neumann were all turning towards a view of mental processes in terms of digital computation. His work inspired subsequent generations of robotics researchers such as Rodney Brooks, Hans Moravec and Mark Tilden. Modern incarnations of Walter's turtles may be found in the form of BEAM robotics.[50]

 
U.S. Patent 2,988,237, issued in 1961 to Devol

The first digitally operated and programmable robot was invented by George Devol in 1954 and was ultimately called the Unimate. This ultimately laid the foundations of the modern robotics industry.[51] Devol sold the first Unimate to General Motors in 1960, and it was installed in 1961 in a plant in Trenton, New Jersey to lift hot pieces of metal from a die casting machine and stack them.[52] Devol's patent for the first digitally operated programmable robotic arm represents the foundation of the modern robotics industry.[53]

The first palletizing robot was introduced in 1963 by the Fuji Yusoki Kogyo Company.[54] In 1973, a robot with six electromechanically driven axes was patented[55][56][57] by KUKA robotics in Germany, and the programmable universal manipulation arm was invented by Victor Scheinman in 1976, and the design was sold to Unimation.

Commercial and industrial robots are now in widespread use performing jobs more cheaply or with greater accuracy and reliability than humans. They are also employed for jobs which are too dirty, dangerous or dull to be suitable for humans. Robots are widely used in manufacturing, assembly and packing, transport, earth and space exploration, surgery, weaponry, laboratory research, and mass production of consumer and industrial goods.[58]

Future development and trends

External video
  Atlas, The Next Generation
Further information: Robotics

Various techniques have emerged to develop the science of robotics and robots. One method is evolutionary robotics, in which a number of differing robots are submitted to tests. Those which perform best are used as a model to create a subsequent "generation" of robots. Another method is developmental robotics, which tracks changes and development within a single robot in the areas of problem-solving and other functions. Another new type of robot is just recently introduced which acts both as a smartphone and robot and is named RoboHon.[59]

As robots become more advanced, eventually there may be a standard computer operating system designed mainly for robots. Robot Operating System is an open-source set of programs being developed at Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Technical University of Munich, Germany, among others. ROS provides ways to program a robot's navigation and limbs regardless of the specific hardware involved. It also provides high-level commands for items like image recognition and even opening doors. When ROS boots up on a robot's computer, it would obtain data on attributes such as the length and movement of robots' limbs. It would relay this data to higher-level algorithms. Microsoft is also developing a "Windows for robots" system with its Robotics Developer Studio, which has been available since 2007.[60]

Japan hopes to have full-scale commercialization of service robots by 2025. Much technological research in Japan is led by Japanese government agencies, particularly the Trade Ministry.[61]

Many future applications of robotics seem obvious to people, even though they are well beyond the capabilities of robots available at the time of the prediction.[62][63] As early as 1982 people were confident that someday robots would:[64] 1. Clean parts by removing molding flash 2. Spray paint automobiles with absolutely no human presence 3. Pack things in boxes—for example, orient and nest chocolate candies in candy boxes 4. Make electrical cable harness 5. Load trucks with boxes—a packing problem 6. Handle soft goods, such as garments and shoes 7. Shear sheep 8. prosthesis 9. Cook fast food and work in other service industries 10. Household robot.

Generally such predictions are overly optimistic in timescale.

New functionalities and prototypes

In 2008, Caterpillar Inc. developed a dump truck which can drive itself without any human operator.[65] Many analysts believe that self-driving trucks may eventually revolutionize logistics.[66] By 2014, Caterpillar had a self-driving dump truck which is expected to greatly change the process of mining. In 2015, these Caterpillar trucks were actively used in mining operations in Australia by the mining company Rio Tinto Coal Australia.[67][68][69][70] Some analysts believe that within the next few decades, most trucks will be self-driving.[71]

A literate or 'reading robot' named Marge has intelligence that comes from software. She can read newspapers, find and correct misspelled words, learn about banks like Barclays, and understand that some restaurants are better places to eat than others.[72]

Baxter is a new robot introduced in 2012 which learns by guidance. A worker could teach Baxter how to perform a task by moving its hands in the desired motion and having Baxter memorize them. Extra dials, buttons, and controls are available on Baxter's arm for more precision and features. Any regular worker could program Baxter and it only takes a matter of minutes, unlike usual industrial robots that take extensive programs and coding to be used. This means Baxter needs no programming to operate. No software engineers are needed. This also means Baxter can be taught to perform multiple, more complicated tasks. Sawyer was added in 2015 for smaller, more precise tasks.[73]

Prototype cooking robots have been developed and could be programmed for autonomous, dynamic and adjustable preparation of discrete meals.[74][75]

Etymology

See also: Glossary of robotics
 
A scene from Karel Čapek's 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), showing three robots

The word robot was introduced to the public by the Czech interwar writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), published in 1920.[6] The play begins in a factory that uses a chemical substitute for protoplasm to manufacture living, simplified people called robots. The play does not focus in detail on the technology behind the creation of these living creatures, but in their appearance they prefigure modern ideas of androids, creatures who can be mistaken for humans. These mass-produced workers are depicted as efficient but emotionless, incapable of original thinking and indifferent to self-preservation. At issue is whether the robots are being exploited and the consequences of human dependence upon commodified labor (especially after a number of specially-formulated robots achieve self-awareness and incite robots all around the world to rise up against the humans).

Karel Čapek himself did not coin the word. He wrote a short letter in reference to an etymology in the Oxford English Dictionary in which he named his brother, the painter and writer Josef Čapek, as its actual originator.[6]

In an article in the Czech journal Lidové noviny in 1933, he explained that he had originally wanted to call the creatures laboři ("workers", from Latin labor). However, he did not like the word, and sought advice from his brother Josef, who suggested "roboti". The word robota means literally "corvée", "serf labor", and figuratively "drudgery" or "hard work" in Czech and also (more general) "work", "labor" in many Slavic languages (e.g.: Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Polish, Macedonian, Ukrainian, archaic Czech, as well as robot in Hungarian). Traditionally the robota (Hungarian robot) was the work period a serf (corvée) had to give for his lord, typically 6 months of the year. The origin of the word is the Old Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian) rabota "servitude" ("work" in contemporary Bulgarian and Russian), which in turn comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *orbh-. Robot is cognate with the German root Arbeit (work).[76][77]

English pronunciation of the word has evolved relatively quickly since its introduction. In the U.S. during the late '30s to early '40s the second syllable was pronounced with a long "O" like "row-boat."[78][better source needed] By the late '50s to early '60s, some were pronouncing it with a short "U" like "row-but" while others used a softer "O" like "row-bought."[79] By the '70s, its current pronunciation "row-bot" had become predominant.

The word robotics, used to describe this field of study,[4] was coined by the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. Asimov created the "Three Laws of Robotics" which are a recurring theme in his books. These have since been used by many others to define laws used in fiction. (The three laws are pure fiction, and no technology yet created has the ability to understand or follow them, and in fact most robots serve military purposes, which run quite contrary to the first law and often the third law. "People think about Asimov's laws, but they were set up to point out how a simple ethical system doesn't work. If you read the short stories, every single one is about a failure, and they are totally impractical," said Dr. Joanna Bryson of the University of Bath.[80])

Modern robots

 
A laparoscopic robotic surgery machine

Mobile robot

Main articles: Mobile robot and Automated guided vehicle

Mobile robots[81] have the capability to move around in their environment and are not fixed to one physical location. An example of a mobile robot that is in common use today is the automated guided vehicle or automatic guided vehicle (AGV). An AGV is a mobile robot that follows markers or wires in the floor, or uses vision or lasers.[82] AGVs are discussed later in this article.

Mobile robots are also found in industry, military and security environments.[83] They also appear as consumer products, for entertainment or to perform certain tasks like vacuum cleaning. Mobile robots are the focus of a great deal of current research and almost every major university has one or more labs that focus on mobile robot research.[84]

Mobile robots are usually used in tightly controlled environments such as on assembly lines because they have difficulty responding to unexpected interference. Because of this most humans rarely encounter robots. However domestic robots for cleaning and maintenance are increasingly common in and around homes in developed countries. Robots can also be found in military applications.[85]

Industrial robots (manipulating)

Main articles: Industrial robot and Manipulator (device)
 
A pick and place robot in a factory

Industrial robots usually consist of a jointed arm (multi-linked manipulator) and an end effector that is attached to a fixed surface. One of the most common type of end effector is a gripper assembly.

The International Organization for Standardization gives a definition of a manipulating industrial robot in ISO 8373:

"an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose, manipulator programmable in three or more axes, which may be either fixed in place or mobile for use in industrial automation applications."[86]

This definition is used by the International Federation of Robotics, the European Robotics Research Network (EURON) and many national standards committees.[87]

Service robot

Main article: Service robot

Most commonly industrial robots are fixed robotic arms and manipulators used primarily for production and distribution of goods. The term "service robot" is less well-defined. The International Federation of Robotics has proposed a tentative definition, "A service robot is a robot which operates semi- or fully autonomously to perform services useful to the well-being of humans and equipment, excluding manufacturing operations."[88]

Educational (interactive) robots

Main article: Educational robotics

Robots are used as educational assistants to teachers. From the 1980s, robots such as turtles were used in schools and programmed using the Logo language.[89][90]

There are robot kits like Lego Mindstorms, BIOLOID, OLLO from ROBOTIS, or BotBrain Educational Robots can help children to learn about mathematics, physics, programming, and electronics. Robotics have also been introduced into the lives of elementary and high school students in the form of robot competitions with the company FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). The organization is the foundation for the FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST Tech Challenge, FIRST Lego League Challenge and FIRST Lego League Explore competitions.

There have also been robots such as the teaching computer, Leachim (1974).[91] Leachim was an early example of speech synthesis using the using the Diphone synthesis method. 2-XL (1976) was a robot shaped game / teaching toy based on branching between audible tracks on an 8-track tape player, both invented by Michael J. Freeman.[92] Later, the 8-track was upgraded to tape cassettes and then to digital.

Modular robot

Main article: Self-reconfiguring modular robot

Modular robots are a new breed of robots that are designed to increase the use of robots by modularizing their architecture.[93] The functionality and effectiveness of a modular robot is easier to increase compared to conventional robots. These robots are composed of a single type of identical, several different identical module types, or similarly shaped modules, which vary in size. Their architectural structure allows hyper-redundancy for modular robots, as they can be designed with more than 8 degrees of freedom (DOF). Creating the programming, inverse kinematics and dynamics for modular robots is more complex than with traditional robots. Modular robots may be composed of L-shaped modules, cubic modules, and U and H-shaped modules. ANAT technology, an early modular robotic technology patented by Robotics Design Inc., allows the creation of modular robots from U and H shaped modules that connect in a chain, and are used to form heterogeneous and homogenous modular robot systems. These "ANAT robots" can be designed with "n" DOF as each module is a complete motorized robotic system that folds relatively to the modules connected before and after it in its chain, and therefore a single module allows one degree of freedom. The more modules that are connected to one another, the more degrees of freedom it will have. L-shaped modules can also be designed in a chain, and must become increasingly smaller as the size of the chain increases, as payloads attached to the end of the chain place a greater strain on modules that are further from the base. ANAT H-shaped modules do not suffer from this problem, as their design allows a modular robot to distribute pressure and impacts evenly amongst other attached modules, and therefore payload-carrying capacity does not decrease as the length of the arm increases. Modular robots can be manually or self-reconfigured to form a different robot, that may perform different applications. Because modular robots of the same architecture type are composed of modules that compose different modular robots, a snake-arm robot can combine with another to form a dual or quadra-arm robot, or can split into several mobile robots, and mobile robots can split into multiple smaller ones, or combine with others into a larger or different one. This allows a single modular robot the ability to be fully specialized in a single task, as well as the capacity to be specialized to perform multiple different tasks.

Modular robotic technology is currently being applied in hybrid transportation,[94] industrial automation,[95] duct cleaning[96] and handling. Many research centres and universities have also studied this technology, and have developed prototypes.

Collaborative robots

A collaborative robot or cobot is a robot that can safely and effectively interact with human workers while performing simple industrial tasks. However, end-effectors and other environmental conditions may create hazards, and as such risk assessments should be done before using any industrial motion-control application.[97]

The collaborative robots most widely used in industries today are manufactured by Universal Robots in Denmark.[98]

Rethink Robotics—founded by Rodney Brooks, previously with iRobot—introduced Baxter in September 2012; as an industrial robot designed to safely interact with neighboring human workers, and be programmable for performing simple tasks.[99] Baxters stop if they detect a human in the way of their robotic arms and have prominent off switches. Intended for sale to small businesses, they are promoted as the robotic analogue of the personal computer.[100] As of May 2014, 190 companies in the US have bought Baxters and they are being used commercially in the UK.[10]

Robots in society

Roughly half of all the robots in the world are in Asia, 32% in Europe, and 16% in North America, 1% in Australasia and 1% in Africa.[103] 40% of all the robots in the world are in Japan,[104] making Japan the country with the highest number of robots.

Autonomy and ethical questions

Main articles: Roboethics and Ethics of artificial intelligence
 
An android, or robot designed to resemble a human, can appear comforting to some people and disturbing to others.[105]

As robots have become more advanced and sophisticated, experts and academics have increasingly explored the questions of what ethics might govern robots' behavior,[106][107] and whether robots might be able to claim any kind of social, cultural, ethical or legal rights.[108] One scientific team has said that it was possible that a robot brain would exist by 2019.[109] Others predict robot intelligence breakthroughs by 2050.[110] Recent advances have made robotic behavior more sophisticated.[111] The social impact of intelligent robots is subject of a 2010 documentary film called Plug & Pray.[112]

Vernor Vinge has suggested that a moment may come when computers and robots are smarter than humans. He calls this "the Singularity".[113] He suggests that it may be somewhat or possibly very dangerous for humans.[114] This is discussed by a philosophy called Singularitarianism.

In 2009, experts attended a conference hosted by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) to discuss whether computers and robots might be able to acquire any autonomy, and how much these abilities might pose a threat or hazard. They noted that some robots have acquired various forms of semi-autonomy, including being able to find power sources on their own and being able to independently choose targets to attack with weapons. They also noted that some computer viruses can evade elimination and have achieved "cockroach intelligence." They noted that self-awareness as depicted in science-fiction is probably unlikely, but that there were other potential hazards and pitfalls.[113] Various media sources and scientific groups have noted separate trends in differing areas which might together result in greater robotic functionalities and autonomy, and which pose some inherent concerns.[115][116][117]

Military robots

Some experts and academics have questioned the use of robots for military combat, especially when such robots are given some degree of autonomous functions.[118] There are also concerns about technology which might allow some armed robots to be controlled mainly by other robots.[119] The US Navy has funded a report which indicates that, as military robots become more complex, there should be greater attention to implications of their ability to make autonomous decisions.[120][121] One researcher states that autonomous robots might be more humane, as they could make decisions more effectively. However, other experts question this.[122]

One robot in particular, the EATR, has generated public concerns[123] over its fuel source, as it can continually refuel itself using organic substances.[124] Although the engine for the EATR is designed to run on biomass and vegetation[125] specifically selected by its sensors, which it can find on battlefields or other local environments, the project has stated that chicken fat can also be used.[126]

Manuel De Landa has noted that "smart missiles" and autonomous bombs equipped with artificial perception can be considered robots, as they make some of their decisions autonomously. He believes this represents an important and dangerous trend in which humans are handing over important decisions to machines.[127]

Relationship to unemployment

Main article: Technological unemployment

For centuries, people have predicted that machines would make workers obsolete and increase unemployment, although the causes of unemployment are usually thought to be due to social policy.[128][129][130]

A recent example of human replacement involves Taiwanese technology company Foxconn who, in July 2011, announced a three-year plan to replace workers with more robots. At present the company uses ten thousand robots but will increase them to a million robots over a three-year period.[131]

Lawyers have speculated that an increased prevalence of robots in the workplace could lead to the need to improve redundancy laws.[132]

Kevin J. Delaney said "Robots are taking human jobs. But Bill Gates believes that governments should tax companies’ use of them, as a way to at least temporarily slow the spread of automation and to fund other types of employment."[133] The robot tax would also help pay a guaranteed living wage to the displaced workers.

The World Bank's World Development Report 2019 puts forth evidence showing that while automation displaces workers, technological innovation creates more new industries and jobs on balance.[134]

Contemporary uses

 
A general-purpose robot acts as a guide during the day and a security guard at night.
See also: List of robots

At present, there are two main types of robots, based on their use: general-purpose autonomous robots and dedicated robots.

Robots can be classified by their specificity of purpose. A robot might be designed to perform one particular task extremely well, or a range of tasks less well. All robots by their nature can be re-programmed to behave differently, but some are limited by their physical form. For example, a factory robot arm can perform jobs such as cutting, welding, gluing, or acting as a fairground ride, while a pick-and-place robot can only populate printed circuit boards.

General-purpose autonomous robots

Main article: Autonomous robot

General-purpose autonomous robots can perform a variety of functions independently. General-purpose autonomous robots typically can navigate independently in known spaces, handle their own re-charging needs, interface with electronic doors and elevators and perform other basic tasks. Like computers, general-purpose robots can link with networks, software and accessories that increase their usefulness. They may recognize people or objects, talk, provide companionship, monitor environmental quality, respond to alarms, pick up supplies and perform other useful tasks. General-purpose robots may perform a variety of functions simultaneously or they may take on different roles at different times of day. Some such robots try to mimic human beings and may even resemble people in appearance; this type of robot is called a humanoid robot. Humanoid robots are still in a very limited stage, as no humanoid robot can, as of yet, actually navigate around a room that it has never been in.[citation needed] Thus, humanoid robots are really quite limited, despite their intelligent behaviors in their well-known environments.

Factory robots

Car production

Over the last three decades, automobile factories have become dominated by robots. A typical factory contains hundreds of industrial robots working on fully automated production lines, with one robot for every ten human workers. On an automated production line, a vehicle chassis on a conveyor is welded, glued, painted and finally assembled at a sequence of robot stations.

Packaging

Industrial robots are also used extensively for palletizing and packaging of manufactured goods, for example for rapidly taking drink cartons from the end of a conveyor belt and placing them into boxes, or for loading and unloading machining centers.

Electronics

Mass-produced printed circuit boards (PCBs) are almost exclusively manufactured by pick-and-place robots, typically with SCARA manipulators, which remove tiny electronic components from strips or trays, and place them on to PCBs with great accuracy.[135] Such robots can place hundreds of thousands of components per hour, far out-performing a human in speed, accuracy, and reliability.[136]

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs)

 
An intelligent AGV drops-off goods without needing lines or beacons in the workspace.

Mobile robots, following markers or wires in the floor, or using vision[82] or lasers, are used to transport goods around large facilities, such as warehouses, container ports, or hospitals.[137]

Early AGV-style robots

Limited to tasks that could be accurately defined and had to be performed the same way every time. Very little feedback or intelligence was required, and the robots needed only the most basic exteroceptors (sensors). The limitations of these AGVs are that their paths are not easily altered and they cannot alter their paths if obstacles block them. If one AGV breaks down, it may stop the entire operation.

Interim AGV technologies

Developed to deploy triangulation from beacons or bar code grids for scanning on the floor or ceiling. In most factories, triangulation systems tend to require moderate to high maintenance, such as daily cleaning of all beacons or bar codes. Also, if a tall pallet or large vehicle blocks beacons or a bar code is marred, AGVs may become lost. Often such AGVs are designed to be used in human-free environments.

Intelligent AGVs (i-AGVs)

Such as SmartLoader,[138] SpeciMinder,[139] ADAM,[140] Tug[141] Eskorta,[142] and MT 400 with Motivity[143] are designed for people-friendly workspaces. They navigate by recognizing natural features. 3D scanners or other means of sensing the environment in two or three dimensions help to eliminate cumulative errors in dead-reckoning calculations of the AGV's current position. Some AGVs can create maps of their environment using scanning lasers with simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) and use those maps to navigate in real time with other path planning and obstacle avoidance algorithms. They are able to operate in complex environments and perform non-repetitive and non-sequential tasks such as transporting photomasks in a semiconductor lab, specimens in hospitals and goods in warehouses. For dynamic areas, such as warehouses full of pallets, AGVs require additional strategies using three-dimensional sensors such as time-of-flight or stereovision cameras.

Dirty, dangerous, dull, or inaccessible tasks

See also: Dirty, dangerous and demeaning

There are many jobs that humans would rather leave to robots. The job may be boring, such as domestic cleaning or sports field line marking, or dangerous, such as exploring inside a volcano.[144] Other jobs are physically inaccessible, such as exploring another planet,[145] cleaning the inside of a long pipe, or performing laparoscopic surgery.[146]

Space probes

Almost every unmanned space probe ever launched was a robot.[147][148] Some were launched in the 1960s with very limited abilities, but their ability to fly and land (in the case of Luna 9) is an indication of their status as a robot. This includes the Voyager probes and the Galileo probes, among others.

Telerobots

 
A U.S. Marine Corps technician prepares to use a telerobot to detonate a buried improvised explosive device near Camp Fallujah, Iraq.

Teleoperated robots, or telerobots, are devices remotely operated from a distance by a human operator rather than following a predetermined sequence of movements, but which has semi-autonomous behaviour. They are used when a human cannot be present on site to perform a job because it is dangerous, far away, or inaccessible. The robot may be in another room or another country, or may be on a very different scale to the operator. For instance, a laparoscopic surgery robot allows the surgeon to work inside a human patient on a relatively small scale compared to open surgery, significantly shortening recovery time.[146] They can also be used to avoid exposing workers to the hazardous and tight spaces such as in duct cleaning. When disabling a bomb, the operator sends a small robot to disable it. Several authors have been using a device called the Longpen to sign books remotely.[149] Teleoperated robot aircraft, like the Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, are increasingly being used by the military. These pilotless drones can search terrain and fire on targets.[150][151] Hundreds of robots such as iRobot's Packbot and the Foster-Miller TALON are being used in Iraq and Afghanistan by the U.S. military to defuse roadside bombs or improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in an activity known as explosive ordnance disposal (EOD).[152]

Automated fruit harvesting machines

Robots are used to automate picking fruit on orchards at a cost lower than that of human pickers.

Domestic robots

 
The Roomba domestic vacuum cleaner robot does a single, menial job

Domestic robots are simple robots dedicated to a single task work in home use. They are used in simple but often disliked jobs, such as vacuum cleaning, floor washing, and lawn mowing. An example of a domestic robot is a Roomba.

Military robots

Main article: Military robot

Military robots include the SWORDS robot which is currently used in ground-based combat. It can use a variety of weapons and there is some discussion of giving it some degree of autonomy in battleground situations.[153][154][155]

Unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs), which are an upgraded form of UAVs, can do a wide variety of missions, including combat. UCAVs are being designed such as the BAE Systems Mantis which would have the ability to fly themselves, to pick their own course and target, and to make most decisions on their own.[156] The BAE Taranis is a UCAV built by Great Britain which can fly across continents without a pilot and has new means to avoid detection.[157] Flight trials are expected to begin in 2011.[158]

The AAAI has studied this topic in depth[106] and its president has commissioned a study to look at this issue.[159]

Some have suggested a need to build "Friendly AI", meaning that the advances which are already occurring with AI should also include an effort to make AI intrinsically friendly and humane.[160] Several such measures reportedly already exist, with robot-heavy countries such as Japan and South Korea[161] having begun to pass regulations requiring robots to be equipped with safety systems, and possibly sets of 'laws' akin to Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.[162][163] An official report was issued in 2009 by the Japanese government's Robot Industry Policy Committee.[164] Chinese officials and researchers have issued a report suggesting a set of ethical rules, and a set of new legal guidelines referred to as "Robot Legal Studies."[165] Some concern has been expressed over a possible occurrence of robots telling apparent falsehoods.[166]

Mining robots

Mining robots are designed to solve a number of problems currently facing the mining industry, including skills shortages, improving productivity from declining ore grades, and achieving environmental targets. Due to the hazardous nature of mining, in particular underground mining, the prevalence of autonomous, semi-autonomous, and tele-operated robots has greatly increased in recent times. A number of vehicle manufacturers provide autonomous trains, trucks and loaders that will load material, transport it on the mine site to its destination, and unload without requiring human intervention. One of the world's largest mining corporations, Rio Tinto, has recently expanded its autonomous truck fleet to the world's largest, consisting of 150 autonomous Komatsu trucks, operating in Western Australia.[167] Similarly, BHP has announced the expansion of its autonomous drill fleet to the world's largest, 21 autonomous Atlas Copco drills.[168]

Drilling, longwall and rockbreaking machines are now also available as autonomous robots.[169] The Atlas Copco Rig Control System can autonomously execute a drilling plan on a drilling rig, moving the rig into position using GPS, set up the drill rig and drill down to specified depths.[170] Similarly, the Transmin Rocklogic system can automatically plan a path to position a rockbreaker at a selected destination.[171] These systems greatly enhance the safety and efficiency of mining operations.

Healthcare

Robots in healthcare have two main functions. Those which assist an individual, such as a sufferer of a disease like Multiple Sclerosis, and those which aid in the overall systems such as pharmacies and hospitals.

Home automation for the elderly and disabled

Further information: Disability robot
 
The Care-Providing Robot FRIEND

Robots used in home automation have developed over time from simple basic robotic assistants, such as the Handy 1,[172] through to semi-autonomous robots, such as FRIEND which can assist the elderly and disabled with common tasks.

The population is aging in many countries, especially Japan, meaning that there are increasing numbers of elderly people to care for, but relatively fewer young people to care for them.[173][174] Humans make the best carers, but where they are unavailable, robots are gradually being introduced.[175]

FRIEND is a semi-autonomous robot designed to support disabled and elderly people in their daily life activities, like preparing and serving a meal. FRIEND make it possible for patients who are paraplegic, have muscle diseases or serious paralysis (due to strokes etc.), to perform tasks without help from other people like therapists or nursing staff.

Pharmacies

Main article: Pharmacy automation

Script Pro manufactures a robot designed to help pharmacies fill prescriptions that consist of oral solids or medications in pill form.[176][better source needed] The pharmacist or pharmacy technician enters the prescription information into its information system. The system, upon determining whether or not the drug is in the robot, will send the information to the robot for filling. The robot has 3 different size vials to fill determined by the size of the pill. The robot technician, user, or pharmacist determines the needed size of the vial based on the tablet when the robot is stocked. Once the vial is filled it is brought up to a conveyor belt that delivers it to a holder that spins the vial and attaches the patient label. Afterwards it is set on another conveyor that delivers the patient's medication vial to a slot labeled with the patient's name on an LED read out. The pharmacist or technician then checks the contents of the vial to ensure it's the correct drug for the correct patient and then seals the vials and sends it out front to be picked up.

McKesson's Robot RX is another healthcare robotics product that helps pharmacies dispense thousands of medications daily with little or no errors.[177] The robot can be ten feet wide and thirty feet long and can hold hundreds of different kinds of medications and thousands of doses. The pharmacy saves many resources like staff members that are otherwise unavailable in a resource scarce industry. It uses an electromechanical head coupled with a pneumatic system to capture each dose and deliver it to either its stocked or dispensed location. The head moves along a single axis while it rotates 180 degrees to pull the medications. During this process it uses barcode technology to verify it's pulling the correct drug. It then delivers the drug to a patient specific bin on a conveyor belt. Once the bin is filled with all of the drugs that a particular patient needs and that the robot stocks, the bin is then released and returned out on the conveyor belt to a technician waiting to load it into a cart for delivery to the floor.

Research robots

See also: Robotics research

While most robots today are installed in factories or homes, performing labour or life saving jobs, many new types of robot are being developed in laboratories around the world. Much of the research in robotics focuses not on specific industrial tasks, but on investigations into new types of robot, alternative ways to think about or design robots, and new ways to manufacture them. It is expected that these new types of robot will be able to solve real world problems when they are finally realized.[citation needed]

Bionic and biomimetic robots

Further information: Biomimetics
Further information: Bionics

One approach to designing robots is to base them on animals. BionicKangaroo was designed and engineered by studying and applying the physiology and methods of locomotion of a kangaroo.

Nanorobots

Further information: Nanorobotics

Nanorobotics is the emerging technology field of creating machines or robots whose components are at or close to the microscopic scale of a nanometer (10−9 meters). Also known as "nanobots" or "nanites", they would be constructed from molecular machines. So far, researchers have mostly produced only parts of these complex systems, such as bearings, sensors, and synthetic molecular motors, but functioning robots have also been made such as the entrants to the Nanobot Robocup contest.[178] Researchers also hope to be able to create entire robots as small as viruses or bacteria, which could perform tasks on a tiny scale. Possible applications include micro surgery (on the level of individual cells), utility fog,[179] manufacturing, weaponry and cleaning.[180] Some people have suggested that if there were nanobots which could reproduce, the earth would turn into "grey goo", while others argue that this hypothetical outcome is nonsense.[181][182]

Reconfigurable robots

Main article: Self-reconfiguring modular robot

A few researchers have investigated the possibility of creating robots which can alter their physical form to suit a particular task,[183] like the fictional T-1000. Real robots are nowhere near that sophisticated however, and mostly consist of a small number of cube shaped units, which can move relative to their neighbours. Algorithms have been designed in case any such robots become a reality.[184]

Robotic, mobile laboratory operators

Further information: Laboratory robotics

In July 2020 scientists reported the development of a mobile robot chemist and demonstrate that it can assist in experimental searches. According to the scientists their strategy was automating the researcher rather than the instruments – freeing up time for the human researchers to think creatively – and could identify photocatalyst mixtures for hydrogen production from water that were six times more active than initial formulations. The modular robot can operate laboratory instruments, work nearly around the clock, and autonomously make decisions on his next actions depending on experimental results.[185][186]

Soft-bodied robots

Robots with silicone bodies and flexible actuators (air muscles, electroactive polymers, and ferrofluids) look and feel different from robots with rigid skeletons, and can have different behaviors.[187] Soft, flexible (and sometimes even squishy) robots are often designed to mimic the biomechanics of animals and other things found in nature, which is leading to new applications in medicine, care giving, search and rescue, food handling and manufacturing, and scientific exploration.[188][189]

Swarm robots

Main article: Swarm robotics

Inspired by colonies of insects such as ants and bees, researchers are modeling the behavior of swarms of thousands of tiny robots which together perform a useful task, such as finding something hidden, cleaning, or spying. Each robot is quite simple, but the emergent behavior of the swarm is more complex. The whole set of robots can be considered as one single distributed system, in the same way an ant colony can be considered a superorganism, exhibiting swarm intelligence. The largest swarms so far created include the iRobot swarm, the SRI/MobileRobots CentiBots project[190] and the Open-source Micro-robotic Project swarm, which are being used to research collective behaviors.[191][192] Swarms are also more resistant to failure. Whereas one large robot may fail and ruin a mission, a swarm can continue even if several robots fail. This could make them attractive for space exploration missions, where failure is normally extremely costly.[193]

Haptic interface robots

Further information: Haptic technology

Robotics also has application in the design of virtual reality interfaces. Specialized robots are in widespread use in the haptic research community. These robots, called "haptic interfaces", allow touch-enabled user interaction with real and virtual environments. Robotic forces allow simulating the mechanical properties of "virtual" objects, which users can experience through their sense of touch.[194]

Contemporary art and sculpture

Further information: Robotic art

Robots are used by contemporary artists to create works that include mechanical automation. There are many branches of robotic art, one of which is robotic installation art, a type of installation art that is programmed to respond to viewer interactions, by means of computers, sensors and actuators. The future behavior of such installations can therefore be altered by input from either the artist or the participant, which differentiates these artworks from other types of kinetic art.

Le Grand Palais in Paris organized an exhibition "Artists & Robots", featuring artworks created by more than forty artists with the help of robots in 2018.[195]

Robots in popular culture

 
Toy robots on display at the Museo del Objeto del Objeto in Mexico City
See also: List of fictional robots and androids and Droid (Star Wars)

Literature

Main article: Robots in literature

Robotic characters, androids (artificial men/women) or gynoids (artificial women), and cyborgs (also "bionic men/women", or humans with significant mechanical enhancements) have become a staple of science fiction.

The first reference in Western literature to mechanical servants appears in Homer's Iliad. In Book XVIII, Hephaestus, god of fire, creates new armor for the hero Achilles, assisted by robots.[196] According to the Rieu translation, "Golden maidservants hastened to help their master. They looked like real women and could not only speak and use their limbs but were endowed with intelligence and trained in handwork by the immortal gods." The words "robot" or "android" are not used to describe them, but they are nevertheless mechanical devices human in appearance. "The first use of the word Robot was in Karel Čapek's play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) (written in 1920)". Writer Karel Čapek was born in Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic).

Possibly the most prolific author of the twentieth century was Isaac Asimov (1920–1992)[197] who published over five-hundred books.[198] Asimov is probably best remembered for his science-fiction stories and especially those about robots, where he placed robots and their interaction with society at the center of many of his works.[199][200] Asimov carefully considered the problem of the ideal set of instructions robots might be given to lower the risk to humans, and arrived at his Three 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 orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; and a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.[201] These were introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround", although foreshadowed in a few earlier stories. Later, Asimov added the Zeroth Law: "A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm"; the rest of the laws are modified sequentially to acknowledge this.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first passage in Asimov's short story "Liar!" (1941) that mentions the First Law is the earliest recorded use of the word robotics. Asimov was not initially aware of this; he assumed the word already existed by analogy with mechanics, hydraulics, and other similar terms denoting branches of applied knowledge.[202]

Films

See also: Category:Robot films

Robots appear in many films. Most of the robots in cinema are fictional. Two of the most famous are R2-D2 and C-3PO from the Star Wars franchise.

Sex robots

Main article: Sex robot

The concept of humanoid sex robots has drawn public attention and elicited debate regarding their supposed benefits and potential effects on society. Opponents argue that the introduction of such devices would be socially harmful, and demeaning to women and children,[203] while proponents cite their potential therapeutical benefits, particularly in aiding people with dementia or depression.[204]

Problems depicted in popular culture

 
Italian movie The Mechanical Man (1921), the first film to have shown a battle between robots

Fears and concerns about robots have been repeatedly expressed in a wide range of books and films. A common theme is the development of a master race of conscious and highly intelligent robots, motivated to take over or destroy the human race. Frankenstein (1818), often called the first science fiction novel, has become synonymous with the theme of a robot or android advancing beyond its creator.

Other works with similar themes include The Mechanical Man, The Terminator, Runaway, RoboCop, the Replicators in Stargate, the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica, the Cybermen and Daleks in Doctor Who, The Matrix, Enthiran and I, Robot. Some fictional robots are programmed to kill and destroy; others gain superhuman intelligence and abilities by upgrading their own software and hardware. Examples of popular media where the robot becomes evil are 2001: A Space Odyssey, Red Planet and Enthiran.

The 2017 game Horizon Zero Dawn explores themes of robotics in warfare, robot ethics, and the AI control problem, as well as the positive or negative impact such technologies could have on the environment.

Another common theme is the reaction, sometimes called the "uncanny valley", of unease and even revulsion at the sight of robots that mimic humans too closely.[105]

More recently, fictional representations of artificially intelligent robots in films such as A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Ex Machina and the 2016 TV adaptation of Westworld have engaged audience sympathy for the robots themselves.

See also

Specific robotics concepts

Robotics methods and categories

Specific robots and devices

Other related articles

Further reading

  • Al-Arshani, Sarah (29 November 2021). "Researchers behind the world's first living robot have found a way to make it reproduce — by shaping it like Pac-Man". Business Insider.
  • See this humanoid robot artist sketch drawings from sight (CNN, Video, 2019)
  • Margolius, Ivan. 'The Robot of Prague', Newsletter, The Friends of Czech Heritage no. 17, Autumn 2017, pp. 3 – 6. https://czechfriends.net/images/RobotsMargoliusJul2017.pdf
  • Glaser, Horst Albert and Rossbach, Sabine: The Artificial Human, Frankfurt/M., Bern, New York 2011 "A Tragical History"
  • Gutkind, L. (2006). Almost Human: Making Robots Think. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
  • Craig, J.J. (2005). Introduction to Robotics, Pearson Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River, NJ.
  • Tsai, L. W. (1999). Robot Analysis. Wiley. New York.
  • Sotheby's New York. The Tin Toy Robot Collection of Matt Wyse (1996)
  • DeLanda, Manuel. War in the Age of Intelligent Machines. 1991. Swerve. New York.
  • Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 2. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.
  • Cheney, Margaret [1989:123] (1981). Tesla, Man Out of Time. Dorset Press. New York. ISBN 0-88029-419-1
  • Čapek, Karel (1920). , Aventinum, Prague.
  • TechCast Article Series, Jason Rupinski and Richard Mix,

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January 10, 2023
robot, this, article, about, mechanical, robots, software, agents, other, uses, term, disambiguation, robot, machine, especially, programmable, computer, capable, carrying, complex, series, actions, automatically, robot, guided, external, control, device, cont. This article is about mechanical robots For software agents see Bot For other uses of the term see Robot disambiguation A robot is a machine especially one programmable by a computer capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically 2 A robot can be guided by an external control device or the control may be embedded within Robots may be constructed to evoke human form but most robots are task performing machines designed with an emphasis on stark functionality rather than expressive aesthetics ASIMO 2000 at the Expo 2005 Articulated welding robots used in a factory are a type of industrial robot The quadrupedal military robot Cheetah an evolution of BigDog pictured was clocked as the world s fastest legged robot in 2012 beating the record set by an MIT bipedal robot in 1989 1 Robots can be autonomous or semi autonomous and range from humanoids such as Honda s Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility ASIMO and TOSY s TOSY Ping Pong Playing Robot TOPIO to industrial robots medical operating robots patient assist robots dog therapy robots collectively programmed swarm robots UAV drones such as General Atomics MQ 1 Predator and even microscopic nano robots By mimicking a lifelike appearance or automating movements a robot may convey a sense of intelligence or thought of its own Autonomous things are expected to proliferate in the future with home robotics and the autonomous car as some of the main drivers 3 The branch of technology that deals with the design construction operation and application of robots 4 as well as computer systems for their control sensory feedback and information processing is robotics These technologies deal with automated machines that can take the place of humans in dangerous environments or manufacturing processes or resemble humans in appearance behavior or cognition Many of today s robots are inspired by nature contributing to the field of bio inspired robotics These robots have also created a newer branch of robotics soft robotics From the time of ancient civilization there have been many accounts of user configurable automated devices and even automata resembling humans and other animals such as animatronics designed primarily as entertainment As mechanical techniques developed through the Industrial age there appeared more practical applications such as automated machines remote control and wireless remote control The term comes from a Slavic root robot with meanings associated with labor The word robot was first used to denote a fictional humanoid in a 1920 Czech language play R U R Rossumovi Univerzalni Roboti Rossum s Universal Robots by Karel Capek though it was Karel s brother Josef Capek who was the word s true inventor 5 6 7 Electronics evolved into the driving force of development with the advent of the first electronic autonomous robots created by William Grey Walter in Bristol England in 1948 as well as Computer Numerical Control CNC machine tools in the late 1940s by John T Parsons and Frank L Stulen The first modern digital and programmable robot was invented by George Devol in 1954 and spawned his seminal robotics company Unimation The first Unimate was sold to General Motors in 1961 where it lifted pieces of hot metal from die casting machines at the Inland Fisher Guide Plant in the West Trenton section of Ewing Township New Jersey 8 Robots have replaced humans 9 in performing repetitive and dangerous tasks which humans prefer not to do or are unable to do because of size limitations or which take place in extreme environments such as outer space or the bottom of the sea There are concerns about the increasing use of robots and their role in society Robots are blamed for rising technological unemployment as they replace workers in increasing numbers of functions 10 The use of robots in military combat raises ethical concerns The possibilities of robot autonomy and potential repercussions have been addressed in fiction and may be a realistic concern in the future Contents 1 Summary 2 History 2 1 Early beginnings 2 2 Remote controlled systems 2 3 Early robots 2 4 Modern autonomous robots 3 Future development and trends 3 1 New functionalities and prototypes 4 Etymology 5 Modern robots 5 1 Mobile robot 5 2 Industrial robots manipulating 5 3 Service robot 5 4 Educational interactive robots 5 5 Modular robot 5 6 Collaborative robots 6 Robots in society 6 1 Autonomy and ethical questions 6 2 Military robots 6 3 Relationship to unemployment 7 Contemporary uses 7 1 General purpose autonomous robots 7 2 Factory robots 7 2 1 Car production 7 2 2 Packaging 7 2 3 Electronics 7 2 4 Automated guided vehicles AGVs 7 2 4 1 Early AGV style robots 7 2 4 2 Interim AGV technologies 7 2 4 3 Intelligent AGVs i AGVs 7 3 Dirty dangerous dull or inaccessible tasks 7 3 1 Space probes 7 3 2 Telerobots 7 3 3 Automated fruit harvesting machines 7 3 4 Domestic robots 7 4 Military robots 7 5 Mining robots 7 6 Healthcare 7 6 1 Home automation for the elderly and disabled 7 6 2 Pharmacies 7 7 Research robots 7 7 1 Bionic and biomimetic robots 7 7 2 Nanorobots 7 7 3 Reconfigurable robots 7 7 4 Robotic mobile laboratory operators 7 7 5 Soft bodied robots 7 7 6 Swarm robots 7 7 7 Haptic interface robots 7 8 Contemporary art and sculpture 8 Robots in popular culture 8 1 Literature 8 2 Films 8 3 Sex robots 8 4 Problems depicted in popular culture 9 See also 9 1 Specific robotics concepts 9 2 Robotics methods and categories 9 3 Specific robots and devices 9 4 Other related articles 10 Further reading 11 References 12 External linksSummaryAnthropomorphism in robots KITT a fictional robot is mentally anthropomorphic it thinks like a human iCub is physically anthropomorphic it looks like a human The word robot can refer to both physical robots and virtual software agents but the latter are usually referred to as bots 11 There is no consensus on which machines qualify as robots but there is general agreement among experts and the public that robots tend to possess some or all of the following abilities and functions accept electronic programming process data or physical perceptions electronically operate autonomously to some degree move around operate physical parts of itself or physical processes sense and manipulate their environment and exhibit intelligent behavior especially behavior which mimics humans or other animals 12 13 Related to the concept of a robot is the field of synthetic biology which studies entities whose nature is more comparable to living things than to machines HistoryMain article History of robots The idea of automata originates in the mythologies of many cultures around the world Engineers and inventors from ancient civilizations including Ancient China 14 Ancient Greece and Ptolemaic Egypt 15 attempted to build self operating machines some resembling animals and humans Early descriptions of automata include the artificial doves of Archytas 16 the artificial birds of Mozi and Lu Ban 17 a speaking automaton by Hero of Alexandria a washstand automaton by Philo of Byzantium and a human automaton described in the Lie Zi 14 Early beginnings Many ancient mythologies and most modern religions include artificial people such as the mechanical servants built by the Greek god Hephaestus 18 Vulcan to the Romans the clay golems of Jewish legend and clay giants of Norse legend and Galatea the mythical statue of Pygmalion that came to life Since circa 400 BC myths of Crete include Talos a man of bronze who guarded the island from pirates In ancient Greece the Greek engineer Ctesibius c 270 BC applied a knowledge of pneumatics and hydraulics to produce the first organ and water clocks with moving figures 19 2 20 In the 4th century BC the Greek mathematician Archytas of Tarentum postulated a mechanical steam operated bird he called The Pigeon Hero of Alexandria 10 70 AD a Greek mathematician and inventor created numerous user configurable automated devices and described machines powered by air pressure steam and water 21 Al Jazari a musical toy The 11th century Lokapannatti tells of how the Buddha s relics were protected by mechanical robots bhuta vahana yanta from the kingdom of Roma visaya Rome until they were disarmed by King Ashoka 22 In ancient China the 3rd century text of the Lie Zi describes an account of humanoid automata involving a much earlier encounter between Chinese emperor King Mu of Zhou and a mechanical engineer known as Yan Shi an artificer Yan Shi proudly presented the king with a life size human shaped figure of his mechanical handiwork made of leather wood and artificial organs 14 There are also accounts of flying automata in the Han Fei Zi and other texts which attributes the 5th century BC Mohist philosopher Mozi and his contemporary Lu Ban with the invention of artificial wooden birds ma yuan that could successfully fly 17 Su Song s astronomical clock tower showing the mechanical figurines which chimed the hoursIn 1066 the Chinese inventor Su Song built a water clock in the form of a tower which featured mechanical figurines which chimed the hours 23 24 25 His mechanism had a programmable drum machine with pegs cams that bumped into little levers that operated percussion instruments The drummer could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns by moving the pegs to different locations 25 Samarangana Sutradhara a Sanskrit treatise by Bhoja 11th century includes a chapter about the construction of mechanical contrivances automata including mechanical bees and birds fountains shaped like humans and animals and male and female dolls that refilled oil lamps danced played instruments and re enacted scenes from Hindu mythology 26 27 28 13th century Muslim Scientist Ismail al Jazari created several automated devices He built automated moving peacocks driven by hydropower 29 He also invented the earliest known automatic gates which were driven by hydropower 30 created automatic doors as part of one of his elaborate water clocks 31 One of al Jazari s humanoid automata was a waitress that could serve water tea or drinks The drink was stored in a tank with a reservoir from where the drink drips into a bucket and after seven minutes into a cup after which the waitress appears out of an automatic door serving the drink 32 Al Jazari invented a hand washing automaton incorporating a flush mechanism now used in modern flush toilets It features a female humanoid automaton standing by a basin filled with water When the user pulls the lever the water drains and the female automaton refills the basin 19 Mark E Rosheim summarizes the advances in robotics made by Muslim engineers especially al Jazari as follows Unlike the Greek designs these Arab examples reveal an interest not only in dramatic illusion but in manipulating the environment for human comfort Thus the greatest contribution the Arabs made besides preserving disseminating and building on the work of the Greeks was the concept of practical application This was the key element that was missing in Greek robotic science 19 9 Model of Leonardo s robot with inner workings Possibly constructed by Leonardo da Vinci around 1495 33 In Renaissance Italy Leonardo da Vinci 1452 1519 sketched plans for a humanoid robot around 1495 Da Vinci s notebooks rediscovered in the 1950s contained detailed drawings of a mechanical knight now known as Leonardo s robot able to sit up wave its arms and move its head and jaw 34 The design was probably based on anatomical research recorded in his Vitruvian Man It is not known whether he attempted to build it According to Encyclopaedia Britannica Leonardo da Vinci may have been influenced by the classic automata of al Jazari 29 In Japan complex animal and human automata were built between the 17th to 19th centuries with many described in the 18th century Karakuri zui Illustrated Machinery 1796 One such automaton was the karakuri ningyō a mechanized puppet 35 Different variations of the karakuri existed the Butai karakuri which were used in theatre the Zashiki karakuri which were small and used in homes and the Dashi karakuri which were used in religious festivals where the puppets were used to perform reenactments of traditional myths and legends In France between 1738 and 1739 Jacques de Vaucanson exhibited several life sized automatons a flute player a pipe player and a duck The mechanical duck could flap its wings crane its neck and swallow food from the exhibitor s hand and it gave the illusion of digesting its food by excreting matter stored in a hidden compartment 36 About 30 years later in Switzerland the clockmaker Pierre Jaquet Droz made several complex mechanical figures that could write and play music Several of these devices still exist and work 37 Remote controlled systems The Brennan torpedo one of the earliest guided missiles Remotely operated vehicles were demonstrated in the late 19th century in the form of several types of remotely controlled torpedoes The early 1870s saw remotely controlled torpedoes by John Ericsson pneumatic John Louis Lay electric wire guided and Victor von Scheliha electric wire guided 38 The Brennan torpedo invented by Louis Brennan in 1877 was powered by two contra rotating propellers that were spun by rapidly pulling out wires from drums wound inside the torpedo Differential speed on the wires connected to the shore station allowed the torpedo to be guided to its target making it the world s first practical guided missile 39 In 1897 the British inventor Ernest Wilson was granted a patent for a torpedo remotely controlled by Hertzian radio waves 40 41 and in 1898 Nikola Tesla publicly demonstrated a wireless controlled torpedo that he hoped to sell to the US Navy 42 43 In 1903 the Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres y Quevedo demonstrated a radio control system called Telekino which he wanted to use to control an airship of his own design Unlike the previous systems which carried out actions of the on off type Torres device was able to memorize the signals received to execute the operations on its own and could carry out to 19 different orders 44 45 Archibald Low known as the father of radio guidance systems for his pioneering work on guided rockets and planes during the First World War In 1917 he demonstrated a remote controlled aircraft to the Royal Flying Corps and in the same year built the first wire guided rocket Early robots W H Richards with George 1932 In 1928 one of the first humanoid robots Eric was exhibited at the annual exhibition of the Model Engineers Society in London where it delivered a speech Invented by W H Richards the robot s frame consisted of an aluminium body of armour with eleven electromagnets and one motor powered by a twelve volt power source The robot could move its hands and head and could be controlled through remote control or voice control 46 Both Eric and his brother George toured the world 47 Westinghouse Electric Corporation built Televox in 1926 it was a cardboard cutout connected to various devices which users could turn on and off In 1939 the humanoid robot known as Elektro was debuted at the 1939 New York World s Fair 48 49 Seven feet tall 2 1 m and weighing 265 pounds 120 2 kg it could walk by voice command speak about 700 words using a 78 rpm record player smoke cigarettes blow up balloons and move its head and arms The body consisted of a steel gear cam and motor skeleton covered by an aluminum skin In 1928 Japan s first robot Gakutensoku was designed and constructed by biologist Makoto Nishimura Modern autonomous robots The first electronic autonomous robots with complex behaviour were created by William Grey Walter of the Burden Neurological Institute at Bristol England in 1948 and 1949 He wanted to prove that rich connections between a small number of brain cells could give rise to very complex behaviors essentially that the secret of how the brain worked lay in how it was wired up His first robots named Elmer and Elsie were constructed between 1948 and 1949 and were often described as tortoises due to their shape and slow rate of movement The three wheeled tortoise robots were capable of phototaxis by which they could find their way to a recharging station when they ran low on battery power Walter stressed the importance of using purely analogue electronics to simulate brain processes at a time when his contemporaries such as Alan Turing and John von Neumann were all turning towards a view of mental processes in terms of digital computation His work inspired subsequent generations of robotics researchers such as Rodney Brooks Hans Moravec and Mark Tilden Modern incarnations of Walter s turtles may be found in the form of BEAM robotics 50 U S Patent 2 988 237 issued in 1961 to Devol The first digitally operated and programmable robot was invented by George Devol in 1954 and was ultimately called the Unimate This ultimately laid the foundations of the modern robotics industry 51 Devol sold the first Unimate to General Motors in 1960 and it was installed in 1961 in a plant in Trenton New Jersey to lift hot pieces of metal from a die casting machine and stack them 52 Devol s patent for the first digitally operated programmable robotic arm represents the foundation of the modern robotics industry 53 The first palletizing robot was introduced in 1963 by the Fuji Yusoki Kogyo Company 54 In 1973 a robot with six electromechanically driven axes was patented 55 56 57 by KUKA robotics in Germany and the programmable universal manipulation arm was invented by Victor Scheinman in 1976 and the design was sold to Unimation Commercial and industrial robots are now in widespread use performing jobs more cheaply or with greater accuracy and reliability than humans They are also employed for jobs which are too dirty dangerous or dull to be suitable for humans Robots are widely used in manufacturing assembly and packing transport earth and space exploration surgery weaponry laboratory research and mass production of consumer and industrial goods 58 Future development and trendsExternal video Atlas The Next GenerationFurther information Robotics Various techniques have emerged to develop the science of robotics and robots One method is evolutionary robotics in which a number of differing robots are submitted to tests Those which perform best are used as a model to create a subsequent generation of robots Another method is developmental robotics which tracks changes and development within a single robot in the areas of problem solving and other functions Another new type of robot is just recently introduced which acts both as a smartphone and robot and is named RoboHon 59 As robots become more advanced eventually there may be a standard computer operating system designed mainly for robots Robot Operating System is an open source set of programs being developed at Stanford University the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Technical University of Munich Germany among others ROS provides ways to program a robot s navigation and limbs regardless of the specific hardware involved It also provides high level commands for items like image recognition and even opening doors When ROS boots up on a robot s computer it would obtain data on attributes such as the length and movement of robots limbs It would relay this data to higher level algorithms Microsoft is also developing a Windows for robots system with its Robotics Developer Studio which has been available since 2007 60 Japan hopes to have full scale commercialization of service robots by 2025 Much technological research in Japan is led by Japanese government agencies particularly the Trade Ministry 61 Many future applications of robotics seem obvious to people even though they are well beyond the capabilities of robots available at the time of the prediction 62 63 As early as 1982 people were confident that someday robots would 64 1 Clean parts by removing molding flash 2 Spray paint automobiles with absolutely no human presence 3 Pack things in boxes for example orient and nest chocolate candies in candy boxes 4 Make electrical cable harness 5 Load trucks with boxes a packing problem 6 Handle soft goods such as garments and shoes 7 Shear sheep 8 prosthesis 9 Cook fast food and work in other service industries 10 Household robot Generally such predictions are overly optimistic in timescale New functionalities and prototypes This section needs to be updated Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information August 2021 In 2008 Caterpillar Inc developed a dump truck which can drive itself without any human operator 65 Many analysts believe that self driving trucks may eventually revolutionize logistics 66 By 2014 Caterpillar had a self driving dump truck which is expected to greatly change the process of mining In 2015 these Caterpillar trucks were actively used in mining operations in Australia by the mining company Rio Tinto Coal Australia 67 68 69 70 Some analysts believe that within the next few decades most trucks will be self driving 71 A literate or reading robot named Marge has intelligence that comes from software She can read newspapers find and correct misspelled words learn about banks like Barclays and understand that some restaurants are better places to eat than others 72 Baxter is a new robot introduced in 2012 which learns by guidance A worker could teach Baxter how to perform a task by moving its hands in the desired motion and having Baxter memorize them Extra dials buttons and controls are available on Baxter s arm for more precision and features Any regular worker could program Baxter and it only takes a matter of minutes unlike usual industrial robots that take extensive programs and coding to be used This means Baxter needs no programming to operate No software engineers are needed This also means Baxter can be taught to perform multiple more complicated tasks Sawyer was added in 2015 for smaller more precise tasks 73 Prototype cooking robots have been developed and could be programmed for autonomous dynamic and adjustable preparation of discrete meals 74 75 EtymologySee also Glossary of robotics A scene from Karel Capek s 1920 play R U R Rossum s Universal Robots showing three robots The word robot was introduced to the public by the Czech interwar writer Karel Capek in his play R U R Rossum s Universal Robots published in 1920 6 The play begins in a factory that uses a chemical substitute for protoplasm to manufacture living simplified people called robots The play does not focus in detail on the technology behind the creation of these living creatures but in their appearance they prefigure modern ideas of androids creatures who can be mistaken for humans These mass produced workers are depicted as efficient but emotionless incapable of original thinking and indifferent to self preservation At issue is whether the robots are being exploited and the consequences of human dependence upon commodified labor especially after a number of specially formulated robots achieve self awareness and incite robots all around the world to rise up against the humans Karel Capek himself did not coin the word He wrote a short letter in reference to an etymology in the Oxford English Dictionary in which he named his brother the painter and writer Josef Capek as its actual originator 6 In an article in the Czech journal Lidove noviny in 1933 he explained that he had originally wanted to call the creatures labori workers from Latin labor However he did not like the word and sought advice from his brother Josef who suggested roboti The word robota means literally corvee serf labor and figuratively drudgery or hard work in Czech and also more general work labor in many Slavic languages e g Bulgarian Russian Serbian Slovak Polish Macedonian Ukrainian archaic Czech as well as robot in Hungarian Traditionally the robota Hungarian robot was the work period a serf corvee had to give for his lord typically 6 months of the year The origin of the word is the Old Church Slavonic Old Bulgarian rabota servitude work in contemporary Bulgarian and Russian which in turn comes from the Proto Indo European root orbh Robot is cognate with the German root Arbeit work 76 77 English pronunciation of the word has evolved relatively quickly since its introduction In the U S during the late 30s to early 40s the second syllable was pronounced with a long O like row boat 78 better source needed By the late 50s to early 60s some were pronouncing it with a short U like row but while others used a softer O like row bought 79 By the 70s its current pronunciation row bot had become predominant The word robotics used to describe this field of study 4 was coined by the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov Asimov created the Three Laws of Robotics which are a recurring theme in his books These have since been used by many others to define laws used in fiction The three laws are pure fiction and no technology yet created has the ability to understand or follow them and in fact most robots serve military purposes which run quite contrary to the first law and often the third law People think about Asimov s laws but they were set up to point out how a simple ethical system doesn t work If you read the short stories every single one is about a failure and they are totally impractical said Dr Joanna Bryson of the University of Bath 80 Modern robots A laparoscopic robotic surgery machine Mobile robot Main articles Mobile robot and Automated guided vehicle Mobile robots 81 have the capability to move around in their environment and are not fixed to one physical location An example of a mobile robot that is in common use today is the automated guided vehicle or automatic guided vehicle AGV An AGV is a mobile robot that follows markers or wires in the floor or uses vision or lasers 82 AGVs are discussed later in this article Mobile robots are also found in industry military and security environments 83 They also appear as consumer products for entertainment or to perform certain tasks like vacuum cleaning Mobile robots are the focus of a great deal of current research and almost every major university has one or more labs that focus on mobile robot research 84 Mobile robots are usually used in tightly controlled environments such as on assembly lines because they have difficulty responding to unexpected interference Because of this most humans rarely encounter robots However domestic robots for cleaning and maintenance are increasingly common in and around homes in developed countries Robots can also be found in military applications 85 Industrial robots manipulating Main articles Industrial robot and Manipulator device A pick and place robot in a factory Industrial robots usually consist of a jointed arm multi linked manipulator and an end effector that is attached to a fixed surface One of the most common type of end effector is a gripper assembly The International Organization for Standardization gives a definition of a manipulating industrial robot in ISO 8373 an automatically controlled reprogrammable multipurpose manipulator programmable in three or more axes which may be either fixed in place or mobile for use in industrial automation applications 86 This definition is used by the International Federation of Robotics the European Robotics Research Network EURON and many national standards committees 87 Service robot Main article Service robot Most commonly industrial robots are fixed robotic arms and manipulators used primarily for production and distribution of goods The term service robot is less well defined The International Federation of Robotics has proposed a tentative definition A service robot is a robot which operates semi or fully autonomously to perform services useful to the well being of humans and equipment excluding manufacturing operations 88 Educational interactive robots Main article Educational robotics Robots are used as educational assistants to teachers From the 1980s robots such as turtles were used in schools and programmed using the Logo language 89 90 There are robot kits like Lego Mindstorms BIOLOID OLLO from ROBOTIS or BotBrain Educational Robots can help children to learn about mathematics physics programming and electronics Robotics have also been introduced into the lives of elementary and high school students in the form of robot competitions with the company FIRST For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology The organization is the foundation for the FIRST Robotics Competition FIRST Tech Challenge FIRST Lego League Challenge and FIRST Lego League Explore competitions There have also been robots such as the teaching computer Leachim 1974 91 Leachim was an early example of speech synthesis using the using the Diphone synthesis method 2 XL 1976 was a robot shaped game teaching toy based on branching between audible tracks on an 8 track tape player both invented by Michael J Freeman 92 Later the 8 track was upgraded to tape cassettes and then to digital Modular robot Main article Self reconfiguring modular robot Modular robots are a new breed of robots that are designed to increase the use of robots by modularizing their architecture 93 The functionality and effectiveness of a modular robot is easier to increase compared to conventional robots These robots are composed of a single type of identical several different identical module types or similarly shaped modules which vary in size Their architectural structure allows hyper redundancy for modular robots as they can be designed with more than 8 degrees of freedom DOF Creating the programming inverse kinematics and dynamics for modular robots is more complex than with traditional robots Modular robots may be composed of L shaped modules cubic modules and U and H shaped modules ANAT technology an early modular robotic technology patented by Robotics Design Inc allows the creation of modular robots from U and H shaped modules that connect in a chain and are used to form heterogeneous and homogenous modular robot systems These ANAT robots can be designed with n DOF as each module is a complete motorized robotic system that folds relatively to the modules connected before and after it in its chain and therefore a single module allows one degree of freedom The more modules that are connected to one another the more degrees of freedom it will have L shaped modules can also be designed in a chain and must become increasingly smaller as the size of the chain increases as payloads attached to the end of the chain place a greater strain on modules that are further from the base ANAT H shaped modules do not suffer from this problem as their design allows a modular robot to distribute pressure and impacts evenly amongst other attached modules and therefore payload carrying capacity does not decrease as the length of the arm increases Modular robots can be manually or self reconfigured to form a different robot that may perform different applications Because modular robots of the same architecture type are composed of modules that compose different modular robots a snake arm robot can combine with another to form a dual or quadra arm robot or can split into several mobile robots and mobile robots can split into multiple smaller ones or combine with others into a larger or different one This allows a single modular robot the ability to be fully specialized in a single task as well as the capacity to be specialized to perform multiple different tasks Modular robotic technology is currently being applied in hybrid transportation 94 industrial automation 95 duct cleaning 96 and handling Many research centres and universities have also studied this technology and have developed prototypes Collaborative robots A collaborative robot or cobot is a robot that can safely and effectively interact with human workers while performing simple industrial tasks However end effectors and other environmental conditions may create hazards and as such risk assessments should be done before using any industrial motion control application 97 The collaborative robots most widely used in industries today are manufactured by Universal Robots in Denmark 98 Rethink Robotics founded by Rodney Brooks previously with iRobot introduced Baxter in September 2012 as an industrial robot designed to safely interact with neighboring human workers and be programmable for performing simple tasks 99 Baxters stop if they detect a human in the way of their robotic arms and have prominent off switches Intended for sale to small businesses they are promoted as the robotic analogue of the personal computer 100 As of May 2014 update 190 companies in the US have bought Baxters and they are being used commercially in the UK 10 Robots in society TOPIO a humanoid robot played ping pong at Tokyo International Robot Exhibition IREX 2009 101 102 Roughly half of all the robots in the world are in Asia 32 in Europe and 16 in North America 1 in Australasia and 1 in Africa 103 40 of all the robots in the world are in Japan 104 making Japan the country with the highest number of robots Autonomy and ethical questions Main articles Roboethics and Ethics of artificial intelligence An android or robot designed to resemble a human can appear comforting to some people and disturbing to others 105 As robots have become more advanced and sophisticated experts and academics have increasingly explored the questions of what ethics might govern robots behavior 106 107 and whether robots might be able to claim any kind of social cultural ethical or legal rights 108 One scientific team has said that it was possible that a robot brain would exist by 2019 109 Others predict robot intelligence breakthroughs by 2050 110 Recent advances have made robotic behavior more sophisticated 111 The social impact of intelligent robots is subject of a 2010 documentary film called Plug amp Pray 112 Vernor Vinge has suggested that a moment may come when computers and robots are smarter than humans He calls this the Singularity 113 He suggests that it may be somewhat or possibly very dangerous for humans 114 This is discussed by a philosophy called Singularitarianism In 2009 experts attended a conference hosted by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence AAAI to discuss whether computers and robots might be able to acquire any autonomy and how much these abilities might pose a threat or hazard They noted that some robots have acquired various forms of semi autonomy including being able to find power sources on their own and being able to independently choose targets to attack with weapons They also noted that some computer viruses can evade elimination and have achieved cockroach intelligence They noted that self awareness as depicted in science fiction is probably unlikely but that there were other potential hazards and pitfalls 113 Various media sources and scientific groups have noted separate trends in differing areas which might together result in greater robotic functionalities and autonomy and which pose some inherent concerns 115 116 117 Military robots Some experts and academics have questioned the use of robots for military combat especially when such robots are given some degree of autonomous functions 118 There are also concerns about technology which might allow some armed robots to be controlled mainly by other robots 119 The US Navy has funded a report which indicates that as military robots become more complex there should be greater attention to implications of their ability to make autonomous decisions 120 121 One researcher states that autonomous robots might be more humane as they could make decisions more effectively However other experts question this 122 One robot in particular the EATR has generated public concerns 123 over its fuel source as it can continually refuel itself using organic substances 124 Although the engine for the EATR is designed to run on biomass and vegetation 125 specifically selected by its sensors which it can find on battlefields or other local environments the project has stated that chicken fat can also be used 126 Manuel De Landa has noted that smart missiles and autonomous bombs equipped with artificial perception can be considered robots as they make some of their decisions autonomously He believes this represents an important and dangerous trend in which humans are handing over important decisions to machines 127 Relationship to unemployment Main article Technological unemployment For centuries people have predicted that machines would make workers obsolete and increase unemployment although the causes of unemployment are usually thought to be due to social policy 128 129 130 A recent example of human replacement involves Taiwanese technology company Foxconn who in July 2011 announced a three year plan to replace workers with more robots At present the company uses ten thousand robots but will increase them to a million robots over a three year period 131 Lawyers have speculated that an increased prevalence of robots in the workplace could lead to the need to improve redundancy laws 132 Kevin J Delaney said Robots are taking human jobs But Bill Gates believes that governments should tax companies use of them as a way to at least temporarily slow the spread of automation and to fund other types of employment 133 The robot tax would also help pay a guaranteed living wage to the displaced workers The World Bank s World Development Report 2019 puts forth evidence showing that while automation displaces workers technological innovation creates more new industries and jobs on balance 134 Contemporary uses A general purpose robot acts as a guide during the day and a security guard at night See also List of robots At present there are two main types of robots based on their use general purpose autonomous robots and dedicated robots Robots can be classified by their specificity of purpose A robot might be designed to perform one particular task extremely well or a range of tasks less well All robots by their nature can be re programmed to behave differently but some are limited by their physical form For example a factory robot arm can perform jobs such as cutting welding gluing or acting as a fairground ride while a pick and place robot can only populate printed circuit boards General purpose autonomous robots Main article Autonomous robot General purpose autonomous robots can perform a variety of functions independently General purpose autonomous robots typically can navigate independently in known spaces handle their own re charging needs interface with electronic doors and elevators and perform other basic tasks Like computers general purpose robots can link with networks software and accessories that increase their usefulness They may recognize people or objects talk provide companionship monitor environmental quality respond to alarms pick up supplies and perform other useful tasks General purpose robots may perform a variety of functions simultaneously or they may take on different roles at different times of day Some such robots try to mimic human beings and may even resemble people in appearance this type of robot is called a humanoid robot Humanoid robots are still in a very limited stage as no humanoid robot can as of yet actually navigate around a room that it has never been in citation needed Thus humanoid robots are really quite limited despite their intelligent behaviors in their well known environments Factory robots Car production Over the last three decades automobile factories have become dominated by robots A typical factory contains hundreds of industrial robots working on fully automated production lines with one robot for every ten human workers On an automated production line a vehicle chassis on a conveyor is welded glued painted and finally assembled at a sequence of robot stations Packaging Industrial robots are also used extensively for palletizing and packaging of manufactured goods for example for rapidly taking drink cartons from the end of a conveyor belt and placing them into boxes or for loading and unloading machining centers Electronics Mass produced printed circuit boards PCBs are almost exclusively manufactured by pick and place robots typically with SCARA manipulators which remove tiny electronic components from strips or trays and place them on to PCBs with great accuracy 135 Such robots can place hundreds of thousands of components per hour far out performing a human in speed accuracy and reliability 136 Automated guided vehicles AGVs An intelligent AGV drops off goods without needing lines or beacons in the workspace Mobile robots following markers or wires in the floor or using vision 82 or lasers are used to transport goods around large facilities such as warehouses container ports or hospitals 137 Early AGV style robots Limited to tasks that could be accurately defined and had to be performed the same way every time Very little feedback or intelligence was required and the robots needed only the most basic exteroceptors sensors The limitations of these AGVs are that their paths are not easily altered and they cannot alter their paths if obstacles block them If one AGV breaks down it may stop the entire operation Interim AGV technologies Developed to deploy triangulation from beacons or bar code grids for scanning on the floor or ceiling In most factories triangulation systems tend to require moderate to high maintenance such as daily cleaning of all beacons or bar codes Also if a tall pallet or large vehicle blocks beacons or a bar code is marred AGVs may become lost Often such AGVs are designed to be used in human free environments Intelligent AGVs i AGVs Such as SmartLoader 138 SpeciMinder 139 ADAM 140 Tug 141 Eskorta 142 and MT 400 with Motivity 143 are designed for people friendly workspaces They navigate by recognizing natural features 3D scanners or other means of sensing the environment in two or three dimensions help to eliminate cumulative errors in dead reckoning calculations of the AGV s current position Some AGVs can create maps of their environment using scanning lasers with simultaneous localization and mapping SLAM and use those maps to navigate in real time with other path planning and obstacle avoidance algorithms They are able to operate in complex environments and perform non repetitive and non sequential tasks such as transporting photomasks in a semiconductor lab specimens in hospitals and goods in warehouses For dynamic areas such as warehouses full of pallets AGVs require additional strategies using three dimensional sensors such as time of flight or stereovision cameras Dirty dangerous dull or inaccessible tasks See also Dirty dangerous and demeaning There are many jobs that humans would rather leave to robots The job may be boring such as domestic cleaning or sports field line marking or dangerous such as exploring inside a volcano 144 Other jobs are physically inaccessible such as exploring another planet 145 cleaning the inside of a long pipe or performing laparoscopic surgery 146 Space probes Almost every unmanned space probe ever launched was a robot 147 148 Some were launched in the 1960s with very limited abilities but their ability to fly and land in the case of Luna 9 is an indication of their status as a robot This includes the Voyager probes and the Galileo probes among others Telerobots A U S Marine Corps technician prepares to use a telerobot to detonate a buried improvised explosive device near Camp Fallujah Iraq Teleoperated robots or telerobots are devices remotely operated from a distance by a human operator rather than following a predetermined sequence of movements but which has semi autonomous behaviour They are used when a human cannot be present on site to perform a job because it is dangerous far away or inaccessible The robot may be in another room or another country or may be on a very different scale to the operator For instance a laparoscopic surgery robot allows the surgeon to work inside a human patient on a relatively small scale compared to open surgery significantly shortening recovery time 146 They can also be used to avoid exposing workers to the hazardous and tight spaces such as in duct cleaning When disabling a bomb the operator sends a small robot to disable it Several authors have been using a device called the Longpen to sign books remotely 149 Teleoperated robot aircraft like the Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle are increasingly being used by the military These pilotless drones can search terrain and fire on targets 150 151 Hundreds of robots such as iRobot s Packbot and the Foster Miller TALON are being used in Iraq and Afghanistan by the U S military to defuse roadside bombs or improvised explosive devices IEDs in an activity known as explosive ordnance disposal EOD 152 Automated fruit harvesting machines Robots are used to automate picking fruit on orchards at a cost lower than that of human pickers Domestic robots The Roomba domestic vacuum cleaner robot does a single menial job Domestic robots are simple robots dedicated to a single task work in home use They are used in simple but often disliked jobs such as vacuum cleaning floor washing and lawn mowing An example of a domestic robot is a Roomba Military robots Main article Military robot Military robots include the SWORDS robot which is currently used in ground based combat It can use a variety of weapons and there is some discussion of giving it some degree of autonomy in battleground situations 153 154 155 Unmanned combat air vehicles UCAVs which are an upgraded form of UAVs can do a wide variety of missions including combat UCAVs are being designed such as the BAE Systems Mantis which would have the ability to fly themselves to pick their own course and target and to make most decisions on their own 156 The BAE Taranis is a UCAV built by Great Britain which can fly across continents without a pilot and has new means to avoid detection 157 Flight trials are expected to begin in 2011 158 The AAAI has studied this topic in depth 106 and its president has commissioned a study to look at this issue 159 Some have suggested a need to build Friendly AI meaning that the advances which are already occurring with AI should also include an effort to make AI intrinsically friendly and humane 160 Several such measures reportedly already exist with robot heavy countries such as Japan and South Korea 161 having begun to pass regulations requiring robots to be equipped with safety systems and possibly sets of laws akin to Asimov s Three Laws of Robotics 162 163 An official report was issued in 2009 by the Japanese government s Robot Industry Policy Committee 164 Chinese officials and researchers have issued a report suggesting a set of ethical rules and a set of new legal guidelines referred to as Robot Legal Studies 165 Some concern has been expressed over a possible occurrence of robots telling apparent falsehoods 166 Mining robots Mining robots are designed to solve a number of problems currently facing the mining industry including skills shortages improving productivity from declining ore grades and achieving environmental targets Due to the hazardous nature of mining in particular underground mining the prevalence of autonomous semi autonomous and tele operated robots has greatly increased in recent times A number of vehicle manufacturers provide autonomous trains trucks and loaders that will load material transport it on the mine site to its destination and unload without requiring human intervention One of the world s largest mining corporations Rio Tinto has recently expanded its autonomous truck fleet to the world s largest consisting of 150 autonomous Komatsu trucks operating in Western Australia 167 Similarly BHP has announced the expansion of its autonomous drill fleet to the world s largest 21 autonomous Atlas Copco drills 168 Drilling longwall and rockbreaking machines are now also available as autonomous robots 169 The Atlas Copco Rig Control System can autonomously execute a drilling plan on a drilling rig moving the rig into position using GPS set up the drill rig and drill down to specified depths 170 Similarly the Transmin Rocklogic system can automatically plan a path to position a rockbreaker at a selected destination 171 These systems greatly enhance the safety and efficiency of mining operations Healthcare Robots in healthcare have two main functions Those which assist an individual such as a sufferer of a disease like Multiple Sclerosis and those which aid in the overall systems such as pharmacies and hospitals Home automation for the elderly and disabled Further information Disability robot The Care Providing Robot FRIEND Robots used in home automation have developed over time from simple basic robotic assistants such as the Handy 1 172 through to semi autonomous robots such as FRIEND which can assist the elderly and disabled with common tasks The population is aging in many countries especially Japan meaning that there are increasing numbers of elderly people to care for but relatively fewer young people to care for them 173 174 Humans make the best carers but where they are unavailable robots are gradually being introduced 175 FRIEND is a semi autonomous robot designed to support disabled and elderly people in their daily life activities like preparing and serving a meal FRIEND make it possible for patients who are paraplegic have muscle diseases or serious paralysis due to strokes etc to perform tasks without help from other people like therapists or nursing staff Pharmacies Main article Pharmacy automation This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed July 2009 Learn how and when to remove this template message Script Pro manufactures a robot designed to help pharmacies fill prescriptions that consist of oral solids or medications in pill form 176 better source needed The pharmacist or pharmacy technician enters the prescription information into its information system The system upon determining whether or not the drug is in the robot will send the information to the robot for filling The robot has 3 different size vials to fill determined by the size of the pill The robot technician user or pharmacist determines the needed size of the vial based on the tablet when the robot is stocked Once the vial is filled it is brought up to a conveyor belt that delivers it to a holder that spins the vial and attaches the patient label Afterwards it is set on another conveyor that delivers the patient s medication vial to a slot labeled with the patient s name on an LED read out The pharmacist or technician then checks the contents of the vial to ensure it s the correct drug for the correct patient and then seals the vials and sends it out front to be picked up McKesson s Robot RX is another healthcare robotics product that helps pharmacies dispense thousands of medications daily with little or no errors 177 The robot can be ten feet wide and thirty feet long and can hold hundreds of different kinds of medications and thousands of doses The pharmacy saves many resources like staff members that are otherwise unavailable in a resource scarce industry It uses an electromechanical head coupled with a pneumatic system to capture each dose and deliver it to either its stocked or dispensed location The head moves along a single axis while it rotates 180 degrees to pull the medications During this process it uses barcode technology to verify it s pulling the correct drug It then delivers the drug to a patient specific bin on a conveyor belt Once the bin is filled with all of the drugs that a particular patient needs and that the robot stocks the bin is then released and returned out on the conveyor belt to a technician waiting to load it into a cart for delivery to the floor Research robots See also Robotics research While most robots today are installed in factories or homes performing labour or life saving jobs many new types of robot are being developed in laboratories around the world Much of the research in robotics focuses not on specific industrial tasks but on investigations into new types of robot alternative ways to think about or design robots and new ways to manufacture them It is expected that these new types of robot will be able to solve real world problems when they are finally realized citation needed Bionic and biomimetic robots Further information BiomimeticsFurther information BionicsOne approach to designing robots is to base them on animals BionicKangaroo was designed and engineered by studying and applying the physiology and methods of locomotion of a kangaroo Nanorobots Further information NanoroboticsNanorobotics is the emerging technology field of creating machines or robots whose components are at or close to the microscopic scale of a nanometer 10 9 meters Also known as nanobots or nanites they would be constructed from molecular machines So far researchers have mostly produced only parts of these complex systems such as bearings sensors and synthetic molecular motors but functioning robots have also been made such as the entrants to the Nanobot Robocup contest 178 Researchers also hope to be able to create entire robots as small as viruses or bacteria which could perform tasks on a tiny scale Possible applications include micro surgery on the level of individual cells utility fog 179 manufacturing weaponry and cleaning 180 Some people have suggested that if there were nanobots which could reproduce the earth would turn into grey goo while others argue that this hypothetical outcome is nonsense 181 182 Reconfigurable robots Main article Self reconfiguring modular robot A few researchers have investigated the possibility of creating robots which can alter their physical form to suit a particular task 183 like the fictional T 1000 Real robots are nowhere near that sophisticated however and mostly consist of a small number of cube shaped units which can move relative to their neighbours Algorithms have been designed in case any such robots become a reality 184 Robotic mobile laboratory operators Further information Laboratory robotics In July 2020 scientists reported the development of a mobile robot chemist and demonstrate that it can assist in experimental searches According to the scientists their strategy was automating the researcher rather than the instruments freeing up time for the human researchers to think creatively and could identify photocatalyst mixtures for hydrogen production from water that were six times more active than initial formulations The modular robot can operate laboratory instruments work nearly around the clock and autonomously make decisions on his next actions depending on experimental results 185 186 Soft bodied robots Robots with silicone bodies and flexible actuators air muscles electroactive polymers and ferrofluids look and feel different from robots with rigid skeletons and can have different behaviors 187 Soft flexible and sometimes even squishy robots are often designed to mimic the biomechanics of animals and other things found in nature which is leading to new applications in medicine care giving search and rescue food handling and manufacturing and scientific exploration 188 189 Swarm robots Main article Swarm roboticsInspired by colonies of insects such as ants and bees researchers are modeling the behavior of swarms of thousands of tiny robots which together perform a useful task such as finding something hidden cleaning or spying Each robot is quite simple but the emergent behavior of the swarm is more complex The whole set of robots can be considered as one single distributed system in the same way an ant colony can be considered a superorganism exhibiting swarm intelligence The largest swarms so far created include the iRobot swarm the SRI MobileRobots CentiBots project 190 and the Open source Micro robotic Project swarm which are being used to research collective behaviors 191 192 Swarms are also more resistant to failure Whereas one large robot may fail and ruin a mission a swarm can continue even if several robots fail This could make them attractive for space exploration missions where failure is normally extremely costly 193 Haptic interface robots Further information Haptic technology Robotics also has application in the design of virtual reality interfaces Specialized robots are in widespread use in the haptic research community These robots called haptic interfaces allow touch enabled user interaction with real and virtual environments Robotic forces allow simulating the mechanical properties of virtual objects which users can experience through their sense of touch 194 Contemporary art and sculpture Further information Robotic art Robots are used by contemporary artists to create works that include mechanical automation There are many branches of robotic art one of which is robotic installation art a type of installation art that is programmed to respond to viewer interactions by means of computers sensors and actuators The future behavior of such installations can therefore be altered by input from either the artist or the participant which differentiates these artworks from other types of kinetic art Le Grand Palais in Paris organized an exhibition Artists amp Robots featuring artworks created by more than forty artists with the help of robots in 2018 195 Robots in popular culture Toy robots on display at the Museo del Objeto del Objeto in Mexico City See also List of fictional robots and androids and Droid Star Wars Literature Main article Robots in literature Robotic characters androids artificial men women or gynoids artificial women and cyborgs also bionic men women or humans with significant mechanical enhancements have become a staple of science fiction The first reference in Western literature to mechanical servants appears in Homer s Iliad In Book XVIII Hephaestus god of fire creates new armor for the hero Achilles assisted by robots 196 According to the Rieu translation Golden maidservants hastened to help their master They looked like real women and could not only speak and use their limbs but were endowed with intelligence and trained in handwork by the immortal gods The words robot or android are not used to describe them but they are nevertheless mechanical devices human in appearance The first use of the word Robot was in Karel Capek s play R U R Rossum s Universal Robots written in 1920 Writer Karel Capek was born in Czechoslovakia Czech Republic Possibly the most prolific author of the twentieth century was Isaac Asimov 1920 1992 197 who published over five hundred books 198 Asimov is probably best remembered for his science fiction stories and especially those about robots where he placed robots and their interaction with society at the center of many of his works 199 200 Asimov carefully considered the problem of the ideal set of instructions robots might be given to lower the risk to humans and arrived at his Three 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 orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law and a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law 201 These were introduced in his 1942 short story Runaround although foreshadowed in a few earlier stories Later Asimov added the Zeroth Law A robot may not harm humanity or by inaction allow humanity to come to harm the rest of the laws are modified sequentially to acknowledge this According to the Oxford English Dictionary the first passage in Asimov s short story Liar 1941 that mentions the First Law is the earliest recorded use of the word robotics Asimov was not initially aware of this he assumed the word already existed by analogy with mechanics hydraulics and other similar terms denoting branches of applied knowledge 202 Films See also Category Robot films Robots appear in many films Most of the robots in cinema are fictional Two of the most famous are R2 D2 and C 3PO from the Star Wars franchise Sex robots Main article Sex robot The concept of humanoid sex robots has drawn public attention and elicited debate regarding their supposed benefits and potential effects on society Opponents argue that the introduction of such devices would be socially harmful and demeaning to women and children 203 while proponents cite their potential therapeutical benefits particularly in aiding people with dementia or depression 204 Problems depicted in popular culture Italian movie The Mechanical Man 1921 the first film to have shown a battle between robots Fears and concerns about robots have been repeatedly expressed in a wide range of books and films A common theme is the development of a master race of conscious and highly intelligent robots motivated to take over or destroy the human race Frankenstein 1818 often called the first science fiction novel has become synonymous with the theme of a robot or android advancing beyond its creator Other works with similar themes include The Mechanical Man The Terminator Runaway RoboCop the Replicators in Stargate the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica the Cybermen and Daleks in Doctor Who The Matrix Enthiran and I Robot Some fictional robots are programmed to kill and destroy others gain superhuman intelligence and abilities by upgrading their own software and hardware Examples of popular media where the robot becomes evil are 2001 A Space Odyssey Red Planet and Enthiran The 2017 game Horizon Zero Dawn explores themes of robotics in warfare robot ethics and the AI control problem as well as 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and one of the founding fathers of modern science fiction White Michael 2005 Isaac Asimov a life of the grand master of science fiction Carroll amp Graf pp 1 2 ISBN 978 0 7867 1518 3 Archived from the original on 5 December 2016 Retrieved 25 September 2016 R Clarke Asimov s Laws of Robotics Implications for Information Technology Australian National University IEEE Archived from the original on 22 July 2008 Retrieved 25 September 2008 Seiler Edward Jenkins John H 27 June 2008 Isaac Asimov FAQ Isaac Asimov Home Page Archived from the original on 16 July 2012 Retrieved 24 September 2008 White Michael 2005 Isaac Asimov A Life of the Grand Master of Science Fiction Carroll amp Graf p 56 ISBN 978 0 7867 1518 3 Intelligent machines Call for a ban on robots designed as sex toys BBC News 15 September 2015 Archived from the original on 30 June 2018 Retrieved 21 June 2018 Abdollahi Hojjat Mollahosseini Ali Lane Josh T Mahoor Mohammad H November 2017 A pilot study on using an intelligent life like robot as a companion for elderly individuals with dementia and depression 2017 IEEE RAS 17th International Conference on Humanoid Robotics Humanoids pp 541 546 arXiv 1712 02881 Bibcode 2017arXiv171202881A doi 10 1109 humanoids 2017 8246925 ISBN 978 1 5386 4678 6 S2CID 1962455 External links Wikiquote has quotations related to Robot Robotics at Curlie Journal of Field Robotics Robot at Wikipedia s sister projects Definitions from Wiktionary Media from Commons Textbooks from Wikibooks Resources from Wikiversity Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Robot amp oldid 1129869761, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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