Robotics

Robotics is defined as an integrated study of mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, computer engineering and science all at once. A robot itself is a mechanical device designed with electronic circuitry and programmed to perform a specific task. The book calls this a 'robotic era' precisely because these automated machines can take on the role of humans in environments that are genuinely dangerous to people -- defusing bombs, finding survivors inside unstable ruins, and exploring mines and shipwrecks are the book's own examples. A scope chart organises robot applications under four broad relational roles a robot can play alongside people -- co-defender, co-inhabitant, co-explorer, and co-worker -- and fans these out into concrete domains: services; logistics; manufacture and automation, both at macro scale and at micro/nano scale; medical robotics, covering both surgery and rehabilitative orthotics/prosthetics; unmanned vehicles and intelligent transportation; monitoring, inspection and security; human-robot interfaces; and the emerging idea of an intelligent co-robot that works alongside a human rather than simply replacing one. The section closes with a short history: in 1954 George Devol invented the first digitally-operated programmable robot, named Unimate; in 1956 Devol and Joseph Engelberger, regarded as the father of the modern robotics industry, formed the world's first robot company; and in 1961 Unimate began real production work, operating in a General Motors automobile factory in New Jersey to move car parts -- the moment industrial robotics left the laboratory for the factory floor. The word 'robotics' itself is traced to the word 'robot', introduced in the 1920 play 'Rossum's Universal Robots' (R.U.R.) by the Czech writer Karel Capek; 'robot' comes from the Slavic word 'rabota', me …