Robotics Essay -- essays research papers fc

Robotics     The meet usually thought of by the word robot is that of a mechanicalbeing, somewhat pitying in shape. Common in science fiction, robots are generallydepicted as working in the service of deal, but often escaping the control ofthe people and doing them harm.     The word robot comes from the Czech writer Karel Capeks 1921 play R.U.R. (which stands for "Rossums Universal Robots"), in which mechanicalbeings made to be slaves for benignantity rebel and kill their creators. From this,the fictional image of robots is sometimes troubling, expressing the fears thatpeople may turn over of a robotized world over which they cannot keep control. Thehistory of real robots is rarely as dramatic, but where developments in roboticsmay lead is beyond our imagination.     Robots exist today. They are used in a relatively small number offactories located in highly industrialized countries such as the United States ,Germany, and Japan. Robots are as well as being used for scientific research, inmilitary programs, and as educational tools, and they are being developed to fearpeople who have lost the use of their limbs. These devices, however, are forthe most part quite different from the androids, or humanlike robots, and some other(a)robots of fiction. They rarely take human form, they perform only a limitednumber of set tasks, and they do not have minds of their own. In fact, it isoften hard to distinguish between devices called robots and other modernautomated systems.     Although the term robot did not come into use until the 20th century,the idea of mechanical beings is much older. Ancient myths and tales talkedabout walking statues and other marvels in human and animal form. Such objectswere products of the imagination and nothing more, but some of the mechanizedfigures also mentioned in early writings could well have been made. Suchfigures, called automatons, hav e long been popular.     For several centuries, automatons were as close as people came toconstructing true robots. European church towers provide fascinating examplesof clockwork figures from medieval times, and automatons were also devised inChina. By the 18th century, a number of extremely clever automatons becamefamous for a while. Swiss craftsman ... ...ng time.     Research into developing mobile, autonomous robots is of heavy(p) value.It advances robotics, aids the comparative study of mechanical and biologicalsystems, and can be used for such purposes as devising robot aids for thehandicapped.     As for the idea androids of the possible future, the well-knownscience-fiction writer Isaac Asimov has already laid down rules for theirbehavior. Asimovs first law is that robots may not harm humans either through body process or inaction. The second is that they must obey humans except when thecommands conflict with th e first law. The third is that robots must protectthemselves except, again, when this comes into conflict with the first law.Future androids tycoon have their own opinions about these laws, but these issuesmust wait their time.BibliographyBuckley, Ruth V. "Robot." Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc. 1993. Gibilisco,Stan. The McGraw-Hill Illustrated Encyclopedia of Robotics and ArtificialIntelligence. McGraw-Hill, Inc. New York, 1994. Warring, R. H. Robots andRobotology. Tab Books Inc. Blue Ridge Summit, Pa. 1984.And variant sites on the internet.