Type of Robots

There are three main branches of robotics today. Although they all share the same origins, in the mid-1900s robots break into three categories: Industrial, Research, and Educational.

 << Educational Robot
 Educational Robot is a robot whose job is to guide humanity in the field of education, such as learning a variety of subjects, or maybe play together, can also assist people to practice life.

<< Industrial Robot :

Industrial robot as defined by 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.

Reprogrammable: whose programmed motions or auxiliary functions may be changed without physical alterations;

Multipurpose: capable of being adapted to a different application with physical alterations;

Physical alterations: alteration of the mechanical structure or control system except for changes of programming cassettes, ROMs, etc.

Axis: direction used to specify the robot motion in a linear or rotary mode

<< Research Robot

Research Robots are robots used by humans to perform various studies such as, robots sent to the moon to conduct research in the month, was sent into the woods to do research there, and many more.

The History Of First Robot In The World

When we think of robots, we normally think of electronic machines in the shape of humans – like cyborgs or androids – or other computerized autonomous devices like the Roomba. But the definition of the word ‘Robot’ covers much more than that.
The definition of Robot is any machine or mechanical device that operates automatically or semi-automatically. This means that what is considered “a robot” need not be limited to being powered by electricity. Though, over the last century, we’ve seen an explosion in devices that are powered by some form of electricity. By far, the most prevalent usage of modern robots is in the workplace on production lines. Used specifically to make production more efficient for the company, cheaper for the consumer and safer for the employees. But where did the word come from?

Origin Of The Word “Robot”
The word “Robot” was coined in 1920 by Karel Capek and his brother, Josef Capek. Karel was a Czech writer looking for a word to call the artificial creatures in his play. Unhappy with the word laboři (or ‘workers’ in Latin), his brother suggested roboti from the Latin word robota (meaning ‘serf labor’).
In 1944, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov decided to expand on that and coined the word “Robotics” for use in his short story ‘Runaround‘. It later became a recurring theme in many of his books which helped to spur popularity and increase usage of the word.

What Was The World’s First Robot?
Aside from mythological tales which include mechanical servants built by the Greek gods, the clay golems of Jewish legend and clay giants of Norse legend, the first real documented instance of a robot was in the 4th century BC by the Greek mathematician Archytas. He created a wooden, mechanical steam-operated bird that he called “The Pigeon”.
The bird is believed to have been suspended from the end of a pivoted bar, while the apparatus revolved by puffs of compressed air and steam. Documentation of “The Pigeon” was found in the writings of Heron of Alexandria, who described it as “operated by water, falling weights, and steam”. Not only does it lay claim to the first known robot, but it is also the first documented record of a scientist attempting to figure out how birds fly.

What About Modern Robots?
Robots and robotic technology is evolving at an ever increasing pace. We’ve sent robots into space to explore planets for us, into nuclear reactors, and even into hostile situations in place of soldiers in the war on terror. The industry itself is branching out in unpredictable, yet exciting ways. For instance, this strangely life-like (yet unsettling) robot shown in the video below is a robotic “pop star” which sings and dances for an audience (be warned, it is a tad creepy):

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a robot?

For many people it is a machine that imitates a human—like the androids in Star Wars, Terminator and Star Trek: The Next Generation. However much these robots capture our imagination, such robots still only inhabit Science Fiction. People still haven't been able to give a robot enough 'common sense' to reliably interact with a dynamic world. However, Rodney Brooks and his team at MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab are working on creating such humanoid robots.

The type of robots that you will encounter most frequently are robots that do work that is too dangerous, boring, onerous, or just plain nasty. Most of the robots in the world are of this type. They can be found in auto, medical, manufacturing and space industries. In fact, there are over a million of these type of robots working for us today.

Some robots like the Mars Rover Sojourner and the upcoming Mars Exploration Rover, or the underwater robot Caribou help us learn about places that are too dangerous for us to go. While other types of robots are just plain fun for kids of all ages. Popular toys such as Teckno, Polly or AIBO ERS-220 seem to hit the store shelves every year around Christmas time.

And as much fun as robots are to play with, robots are even much more fun to build. In Being Digital, Nicholas Negroponte tells a wonderful story about an eight year old, pressed during a televised premier of MITMedia Lab's LEGO/Logo work at Hennigan School. A zealous anchor, looking for a cute sound bite, kept asking the child if he was having fun playing with LEGO/Logo. Clearly exasperated, but not wishing to offend, the child first tried to put her off. After her third attempt to get him to talk about fun, the child, sweating under the hot television lights, plaintively looked into the camera and answered, "Yes it is fun, but it's hard fun."

But what exactly is a robot?

As strange as it might seem, there really is no standard definition for a robot. However, there are some essential characteristics that a robot must have and this might help you to decide what is and what is not a robot. It will also help you to decide what features you will need to build into a machine before it can count as a robot.

A robot has these essential characteristics:

• Sensing First of all your robot would have to be able to sense its surroundings. It would do this in ways that are not unsimilar to the way that you sense your surroundings. Giving your robot sensors: light sensors (eyes), touch and pressure sensors (h`nds), chemical sensors (nose), hearing and sonar sensors (ears), and taste sensors (tongue) will give your robot awareness of its environment.
• Movement A robot needs to be able to move around its environment. Whether rolling on wheels, walking on legs or propelling by thrusters a robot needs to be able to move. To count as a robot either the whole robot moves, like the Sojourner or just parts of the robot moves, like the Canada Arm.
• Energy A robot needs to be able to power itself. A robot might be solar powered, electrically powered, battery powered. The way your robot gets its energy will depend on what your robot needs to do.
• Intelligence A robot needs some kind of "smarts." This is where programming enters the pictures. A programmer is the person who gives the robot its 'smarts.' The robot will have to have some way to receive the program so that it knows what it is to do.

So what is a robot?

Well it is a system that contains sensors, control systems, manipulators, power supplies and software all working together to perform a task. Designing, building, programming and testing a robots is a combination of physics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, structural engineering, mathematics and computing. In some cases biology, medicine, chemistry might also be involved. A study of robotics means that students are actively engaged with all of these disciplines in a deeply problem-posing problem-solving environment.