Главная страница | Контакты | Случайная страница Автомобили Астрономия Биология География Дом и сад Другие языки Другое Информатика История Культура Литература Логика Математика Медицина Металлургия Механика Образование Охрана труда Педагогика Политика Право Психология Религия Риторика Социология Спорт Строительство Технология Туризм Физика Философия Финансы Химия Черчение Экология Экономика Электроника

Robots in Perspective

If you think robots belong to space movies, think again. Right now, all over the world, robots are on the move. Putting chocolates into boxes, walking into live volcanoes, driving trains in Paris and defusing bombs in Northern Ireland are their common tasks. Today's robots are doing more and more things humans can't do or don't want to do.

The idea of creating an intelligent

machine is very old. Homer described gold

girls, mechanical helpers built by

Hephaistos, the Greek god of smiths. In

1495, Leonardo da Vinci designed

a mechanical man. But only the invention

of transistors and integrated circuits in the

1950s and 1960s made real robots possible.

Compact, reliable electronics and computers

added brains to already existing machines. In 1959, researchers

demonstrated the possibility of robotic manufacturing ashtrays.

The Czech word 'robota', meaning hard work, was first used by

the writer Karel Chapek in the story where robots are invented to

help people by performing simple tasks, but being used to fight wars,

they turn on their human masters and take over the world.

There's no precise definition of a robot. It is normally defined as a programmable machine imitating an intelligent creature. Getting information from its surroundings and doing something physical (moving or manipulating objects) qualify a machine as a robot.

Name a boring or dangerous job. Somewhere, a robot is probably doing it. Robots are ideal for doing jobs that require repetitive, precise and fast movements. Robots are good at doing the same thing without asking for a safe working environment, salary, breaks, food and sleep, without getting bored or tired, without making mistakes. Factories are so highly automated that most human workers carry out only supervising and maintaining the robots.

People keep finding new uses for robots - making and packing drugs and foods, soldering tiny wires to semiconductor chips, inserting integrated circuits onto printed circuit boards used in electronics, working in radioactive "hot zones", exploring space.

All work and no play make anyone dull - even a robot. Soccer-playing robots gather each year at RoboCup, an international event collecting over 100 teams from 35 countries. Robotic players use radio signals to coordinate their actions with their teammates. Teams are placed in divisions based on size, ranging from the size of a pizza box. By 2050, the organizers of RoboCup count on developing a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can beat the human world champion team in soccer.