Applications of Robots

Applications are surveyed from outer space down to the household. In outer space, robots are used for exploring stars and planets, for investigating the mineralogy of rocks and soils on Mars, and for analysing the elements found in those rocks and soils; NASA's Mars Rovers -- including the Twin Mars Rovers and the Mars Pathfinder Mission -- are the book's named examples. A wide applications chart adds vacuum cleaners, lawn mowing, pool cleaning, welding, cutting, assembling, litter robots, transport, surgery, weaponry, packing, underwater work, hospitals, agriculture and laboratory research. The book's own chapter summary rounds this out further: household robots additionally cover floor cleaners, gutter cleaners, and robots that open and close doors, while industrial robots additionally cover robotic water-jet cutting, robotic laser cutti …

Nanorobots take robot size down to the microscopic level so that a robot can operate in spaces far too small for any conventional machine -- but the book is careful to describe this as only in its developmental stage, not yet a mature or widely deployed technology. Its future prospects are pinned mainly on medicine: nano-robots travelling through the bloodstream to perform small surgical procedures, to fight against bacteria, and to repair individual cells in the body, then finding their own way back out once the job is complete. As a concrete sign of how far the idea has already progressed, the book notes that …