Madison Square Garden as "an automaton which left to itself, will act as though possessed of reason and without any wilful control from the outside." He defended his invention against critical reporters, arguing that his automata were not "wireless torpedo", but instead, "mechanical men, which will do the laborious work of the human race."
Modern history
1900s
Starting in 1900,
L. Frank Baum
Lyman Frank Baum (; May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author best known for his children's books, particularly ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' and its sequels. He wrote 14 novels in the ''Oz'' series, plus 41 other novels (not includ ...
introduced contemporary technology into
children's books
A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younge ...
in the Oz series. In ''
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is a children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the magical Land of Oz afte ...
'' (1900) Baum told the story of the
cyborg
A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline. Tin Woodman
Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodman, also known as the Tin Man or—mistakenly—the "Tin Woodsman," is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. Baum's Tin Woodman first appeared in his classic 1900 book '' ...
, a human woodcutter who had his limbs, head and body replaced by a tinsmith after his wicked axe had severed them. In ''
Ozma of Oz
''Ozma of Oz: A Record of Her Adventures with Dorothy Gale of Kansas, Billina the Yellow Hen, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger; Besides Other Good People Too Numerous to Mention Faithfully Recorded Herein'', p ...
'' (1907) Baum describes the copper clockwork man
Tik-Tok, who needs to be continuously wound up and runs down at inopportune moments.
In 1903, the Spanish engineer
Leonardo Torres y Quevedo
Leonardo Torres y Quevedo (; 28 December 1852 – 18 December 1936) was a Spanish civil engineer and mathematician of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Torres was a pioneer in the development of the radio control and automated ...
introduced a radio based control system called the "''Telekino''" at the
Paris Academy of Science
The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at th ...
. It was intended as a way of testing a
dirigible of his own design without risking human lives. To avoid the expense of conceivably crashing his airship prototype he built his demonstration device into a boat. Unlike the system Tesla used, which carried out actions of the 'on/off' type, Torres device was able to memorize the signals received to execute the operations on its own and could carry out to 19 different orders. In 1906, in the presence of an audience which included the King of Spain, Torres demonstrated the invention in the
Port of Bilbao
The Port of Bilbao is located on the Bilbao Abra bay, and along the Estuary of Bilbao, in Biscay ( Basque Country). The main facilities are in the Santurtzi and Zierbena municipalities, approximately 15 km (9.3 mi) west of Bilbao. Also ...
, guiding a boat from the shore with people on board. Later, he would try to apply the Telekino to projectiles and torpedoes but had to abandon the project for lack of financing.
1910s
In 1912,
Leonardo Torres y Quevedo
Leonardo Torres y Quevedo (; 28 December 1852 – 18 December 1936) was a Spanish civil engineer and mathematician of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Torres was a pioneer in the development of the radio control and automated ...
built the first truly autonomous machine capable of playing chess. As opposed to the human-operated
The Turk and
Ajeeb
Ajeeb was a chess-playing "automaton", created by Charles Hooper (a cabinet maker), first presented at the Royal Polytechnical Institute in 1868. A particularly intriguing piece of faux mechanical technology (while presented as entirely automat ...
, ''
El Ajedrecista'' (The Chessplayer) was an automaton which play chess without human guidance. It only played an
endgame
Endgame, Endgames, End Game, End Games, or similar variations may refer to:
Film
* ''The End of the Game'' (1919 film)
* ''The End of the Game'' (1975 film), short documentary U.S. film
* ''Endgame'' (1983 film), 1983 Italian post-apocalyptic f ...
with three
chess pieces, automatically moving a white
king
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
and a
rook
Rook (''Corvus frugilegus'') is a bird of the corvid family. Rook or rooks may also refer to:
Games
*Rook (chess), a piece in chess
*Rook (card game), a trick-taking card game
Military
* Sukhoi Su-25 or Rook, a close air support aircraft
* USS ...
to
checkmate the black king moved by a human opponent.
In his 1913 paper ''Essays on Automatics'', Torres proposed a machine that makes "judgments" using sensors that capture information from the outside, parts that manipulate the outside world like arms, power sources such as batteries and air pressure, and the most important, captured information and past information. It is defined as a part that can control the reaction like a living thing according to external information and adapt to changes in the environment to change its behavior.
[L. Torres Quevedo. ''Ensayos sobre Automática - Su definicion. Extension teórica de sus aplicaciones,'' Revista de la Academia de Ciencias Exacta, Revista 12, pp.391-418, 1913.]
[L. Torres Quevedo. ]
Essais sur l'Automatique - Sa définition. Etendue théorique de ses applications
'' Revue Génerale des Sciences Pures et Appliquées, vol.2, pp.601-611, 1915.[B. Randell. ''Essays on Automatics,'' The Origins of Digital Computers, pp.89-107, 1982.]
1920s
The term "robot" was first used in a play published by the Czech
Karel Čapek
Karel Čapek (; 9 January 1890 – 25 December 1938) was a Czech writer, playwright and critic. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel '' War with the Newts'' (1936) and play '' R.U.R.'' (''Rossum's Universal ...
in 1921. ''R.U.R.'' (
Rossum's Universal Robots) was a satire, robots were manufactured biological beings that performed all unpleasant manual labor. According to Čapek, the word was created by his brother
Josef from the Czech word ''robota'' '
corvée
Corvée () is a form of unpaid, forced labour, that is intermittent in nature lasting for limited periods of time: typically for only a certain number of days' work each year.
Statute labour is a corvée imposed by a state for the purposes of ...
', or in Slovak 'work' or 'labor'. (Karel Čapek was working on his play during his stay in
Trenčianske Teplice
Trenčianske Teplice (german: Trentschin-Teplitz; hu, Trencsénteplic) is a health resort and small spa town in western Slovakia, in the valley of the river Teplička, at the foothills of the Strážovské vrchy mountains, a few kilometres away ...
in
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
where his father worked as a medical doctor.) The play ''R.U.R,'' replaced the popular use of the word "automaton".
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...
built Televox in 1926; it was a cardboard cutout connected to various devices which users could turn on and off. In 1927,
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
's
Metropolis
A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications.
A big ci ...
was released; the
Maschinenmensch
The ''Maschinenmensch'' (literally 'machine-human' in German language, German) is a fictional robot featured in Thea von Harbou's novel ''Metropolis (novel), Metropolis'' and Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927 film), film adaption of the novel. In the ...
("machine-human"), a
gynoid
A gynoid, or fembot, is a feminine humanoid robot. Gynoids appear widely in science fiction film and art. As more realistic humanoid robot design becomes technologically possible, they are also emerging in real-life robot design.
Name
A gynoid ...
humanoid robot, also called "Parody", "Futura", "Robotrix", or the "Maria impersonator" (played by German actress
Brigitte Helm
Brigitte Helm (born Brigitte Gisela Eva Schittenhelm, 17 March 1906 – 11 June 1996) was a German actress, best remembered for her dual role as Maria and her double named Futura, in Fritz Lang's 1927 silent film, '' Metropolis''.
Early life ...
), was the first robot ever to be depicted on film.
The most famous Japanese robotic automaton was presented to the public in 1927. The
Gakutensoku
Gakutensoku (學天則, Japanese for "learning from the laws of nature"), the first robot to be built in the East, was created in Osaka in the late 1920s. The robot was designed and manufactured by biologist Makoto Nishimura (1883–1956, father ...
was supposed to have a diplomatic role. Actuated by compressed air, it could write fluidly and raise its
eyelids
An eyelid is a thin fold of skin that covers and protects an eye. The levator palpebrae superioris muscle retracts the eyelid, exposing the cornea to the outside, giving vision. This can be either voluntarily or involuntarily. The human eye ...
.
Many robots were constructed before the dawn of computer-controlled servomechanisms, for the public relations purposes of major firms. These were essentially machines that could perform a few stunts, like the automata of the 18th century. In 1928, one of the first humanoid robots was exhibited at the annual exhibition of the Model Engineers Society in London. Invented by W. H. Richards, the robot - named
Eric
The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization).
The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...
- consisted of an
aluminium
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...
suit of armour
Plate armour is a historical type of personal body armour made from bronze, iron, or steel plates, culminating in the iconic suit of armour entirely encasing the wearer. Full plate steel armour developed in Europe during the Late Middle Ages, e ...
with eleven
electromagnet
An electromagnet is a type of magnet in which the magnetic field is produced by an electric current. Electromagnets usually consist of wire wound into a coil. A current through the wire creates a magnetic field which is concentrated in ...
s and one motor powered by a 12-volt power source. The robot could move its hands and head and could be controlled by remote control or voice control.
1930s
The earliest designs of
industrial robots
An industrial robot is a robot system used for manufacturing. Industrial robots are automated, programmable and capable of movement on three or more axes.
Typical applications of robots include welding, painting, assembly, disassembly, pick a ...
were put into production in the United States. These ''manipulators'' had
joints
A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGraw- ...
modelled on human
shoulder
The human shoulder is made up of three bones: the clavicle (collarbone), the scapula (shoulder blade), and the humerus (upper arm bone) as well as associated muscles, ligaments and tendons. The articulations between the bones of the shoulder mak ...
-arm-
wrist
In human anatomy, the wrist is variously defined as (1) the carpus or carpal bones, the complex of eight bones forming the proximal skeletal segment of the hand; "The wrist contains eight bones, roughly aligned in two rows, known as the carp ...
kinetics to replicate human motions like pulling, pushing, pressing and lifting. Motions could be controlled through
cam
Calmodulin (CaM) (an abbreviation for calcium-modulated protein) is a multifunctional intermediate calcium-binding messenger protein expressed in all eukaryotic cells. It is an intracellular target of the secondary messenger Ca2+, and the bin ...
and
switch
In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...
programming. In 1938
Willard V. Pollard filed the first patent application for such an arm, the "Position Controlling Apparatus" with electronic controllers,
pneumatic cylinder
Pneumatic cylinders (sometimes known as air cylinders) are mechanical devices which use the power of compressed gas to produce a force in a reciprocating linear motion.
Like hydraulic cylinders, something forces a piston to move in the desir ...
and motors that powered six axes of motion. But the large
drum memory
Drum memory was a magnetic data storage device invented by Gustav Tauschek in 1932 in Austria. Drums were widely used in the 1950s and into the 1960s as computer memory.
For many early computers, drum memory formed the main working memory of ...
made programming time-consuming and difficult.
In 1939, the humanoid robot known as
Elektro
Elektro is the nickname of a robot built by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in its Mansfield, Ohio facility between 1937 and 1938. Seven feet tall (2.1 m), weighing 265 pounds (120.2 kg), humanoid in appearance, he could walk by voice ...
appeared at the
World's Fair
A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...
. Seven feet tall (2.1 m) and weighing 265 pounds (120 kg), it could walk by voice command, speak about 700 words (using a 78-rpm
record player
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
), smoke cigarettes, blow up balloons, and move its head and arms. The body consisted of a steel gear cam and motor skeleton covered by an aluminium skin.
In 1939
Konrad Zuse
Konrad Ernst Otto Zuse (; 22 June 1910 – 18 December 1995) was a German civil engineer, pioneering computer scientist, inventor and businessman. His greatest achievement was the world's first programmable computer; the functional program ...
constructed the first
program
Program, programme, programmer, or programming may refer to:
Business and management
* Program management, the process of managing several related projects
* Time management
* Program, a part of planning
Arts and entertainment Audio
* Progra ...
mable electromechanical
computer, laying the foundation for the construction of a humanoid machine that is now deemed a robot.
The practical application of
binary logic to electric switches had been demonstrated by
Claude Shannon
Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer, and cryptographer known as a "father of information theory".
As a 21-year-old master's degree student at the Massachusetts Inst ...
, but his
calculator was not programmable.
1940s
In 1941 and 1942,
Isaac Asimov formulated the
Three Laws of Robotics
The Three Laws of Robotics (often shortened to The Three Laws or known as Asimov's Laws) are a set of rules devised by science fiction author Isaac Asimov. The rules were introduced in his 1942 short story " Runaround" (included in the 1950 colle ...
, and in the process coined the word "robotics". In 1945
Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush ( ; March 11, 1890 – June 28, 1974) was an American engineer, inventor and science administrator, who during World War II headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), through which almost all warti ...
published
As We May Think, an essay that investigated the potential of
electronic data processing. He predicted the rise of computers, digital word processors,
voice recognition and
machine translation
Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT (not to be confused with computer-aided translation, machine-aided human translation or interactive translation), is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates t ...
. He was later credited by
Ted Nelson
Theodor Holm Nelson (born June 17, 1937) is an American pioneer of information technology, philosopher, and sociologist. He coined the terms ''hypertext'' and '' hypermedia'' in 1963 and published them in 1965. Nelson coined the terms '' trans ...
, the inventor of
hypertext.
In 1943
Arturo Rosenblueth
Arturo Rosenblueth Stearns (October 2, 1900 – September 20, 1970) was a Mexican researcher, physician and physiologist, who is known as one of the pioneers of cybernetics.
Biography
Rosenblueth was born in 1900 in Ciudad Guerrero, Chihuahua. ...
,
Norbert Wiener and
Julian Bigelow
Julian Bigelow (March 19, 1913 – February 17, 2003) was a pioneering American computer engineer. Life
Bigelow was born in 1913 in Nutley, New Jersey. He obtained a master's degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying electrica ...
adopted the human
central nervous system
The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting primarily of the brain and spinal cord. The CNS is so named because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity of all p ...
as control paradigm for
automatic weapons systems. In doing so they pioneered
cybernetics (Greek for ''steersman'') and modelled
data processing on the assumption that an animal continually communicates its sensorial experience to its central nervous system as automatic and involuntary feedback, thus being able to regulate processes such as
respiration
Respiration may refer to:
Biology
* Cellular respiration, the process in which nutrients are converted into useful energy in a cell
** Anaerobic respiration, cellular respiration without oxygen
** Maintenance respiration, the amount of cellul ...
,
circulation and
digestion
Digestion is the breakdown of large insoluble food molecules into small water-soluble food molecules so that they can be absorbed into the watery blood plasma. In certain organisms, these smaller substances are absorbed through the small intest ...
. Following the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, at a 1946 conference on cybernetics,
Warren McCulloch
Warren Sturgis McCulloch (November 16, 1898 – September 24, 1969) was an American neurophysiologist and cybernetician, known for his work on the foundation for certain brain theories and his contribution to the cybernetics movement.Ken Aizawa ( ...
gathered a team of mathematicians, computer engineers,
physiologists
Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...
and
psychologists
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...
to work on machine operation using biological systems as starting point. Following the publication of his book in 1948, Wiener's idea that inanimate systems could simulate biological and social systems through the use of sensors led to the adaption of cybernetic theories into industrial machines. But
servo control
Servo control is a method of controlling many types of RC/hobbyist servos by sending the servo a PWM (pulse-width modulation) signal, a series of repeating pulses of variable width where either the width of the pulse (most common modern hobby ser ...
lers proved inadequate in achieving the desired level of automation.
The first electronic autonomous robots with complex behavior were created by
William Grey Walter
William Grey Walter (February 19, 1910 – May 6, 1977) was an American-born British neurophysiologist, cybernetician and robotician.
Early life and education
Walter was born in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, on 19 February 1910, the ...
of the
Burden Neurological Institute __NOTOC__
Stoke Park Hospital, was a large hospital for the mental handicapped, closed circa 1997, situated on the north-east edge of Bristol, England, just within South Gloucestershire. Most patients were long-term residents, both adults and ...
at Bristol, England in 1948 and 1949. He wanted to prove that rich connections between a small number of
brain cells
Brain cells make up the functional tissue of the brain. The rest of the brain tissue is structural or connective called the stroma which includes blood vessels. The two main types of cells in the brain are neurons, also known as nerve cells, an ...
could give rise to very complex
behaviors - essentially that the secret of how the brain worked lay in how it was wired up. His first robots, named
Elmer and Elsie
''Elmer and Elsie'' is a 1934 American comedy film directed by Gilbert Pratt and written by Humphrey Pearson. The film stars George Bancroft, Frances Fuller, Roscoe Karns, George Barbier, Nella Walker and Charles Sellon. The film was released on ...
, were constructed between 1948 and 1949 and were often described as "tortoises" due to their shape and slow rate of movement. The three-wheeled tortoise robots were capable of
phototaxis
Phototaxis is a kind of taxis, or locomotory movement, that occurs when a whole organism moves towards or away from a stimulus of light. This is advantageous for phototrophic organisms as they can orient themselves most efficiently to receive ...
, by which they could find their way to a recharging station when they ran low on battery power.
Walter stressed the importance of using purely
analogue electronics
Analogue electronics ( en-US, analog electronics) are electronic systems with a continuously variable signal, in contrast to digital electronics where signals usually take only two levels. The term "analogue" describes the proportional relat ...
to
simulate
A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...
brain processes at a time when his contemporaries such as
Alan Turing
Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical co ...
and
John von Neumann
John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...
were all turning towards a view of mental processes in terms of
digital computation. Walter's work inspired subsequent generations of robotics researchers such as
Rodney Brooks
Rodney Allen Brooks (born 30 December 1954) is an Australian roboticist, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, author, and robotics entrepreneur, most known for popularizing the actionist approach to robotics. He was a Panasonic Profes ...
,
Hans Moravec
Hans Peter Moravec (born November 30, 1948, Kautzen, Austria) is an adjunct faculty member at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA. He is known for his work on robotics, artificial intelligence, and writings ...
and
Mark Tilden
Mark W. Tilden is a robotics physicist who produces complex robotic movements from simple analog logic circuits, often with discrete electronic components, and usually without a microprocessor. He is controversial because of his libertarian Tild ...
. Modern incarnations of Walter's "turtles" may be found in the form of
BEAM robotics
BEAM robotics (from biology, electronics, aesthetics and mechanics) is a style of robotics that primarily uses simple analogue circuits, such as comparators, instead of a microprocessor in order to produce an unusually simple design. While not as ...
.
1950s
In 1951 Walter published the paper ''A Machine that learns'', documenting how his more advanced mechanical robots acted as
intelligent agent
In artificial intelligence, an intelligent agent (IA) is anything which perceives its environment, takes actions autonomously in order to achieve goals, and may improve its performance with learning or may use knowledge. They may be simple or ...
by demonstrating conditioned reflex learning.
Unimate
Unimate was the first industrial robot,
which worked on a General Motors assembly line at the Inland Fisher Guide Plant in Ewing Township, New Jersey, in 1961.Mickle, Paul"1961: A peep into the automated future" ''The Trentonian''. Accessed Aug ...
, the first digitally operated and programmable robot, was invented by
George Devol
George Charles Devol Jr. (February 20, 1912 – August 11, 2011) was an American inventor, best known for creating Unimate, the first industrial robot. Devol's invention earned him the title "Grandfather of Robotics". The National Inventor ...
in 1954 and "represents the foundation of the modern robotics industry."
In Japan, robots became popular comic book characters. Robots became cultural icons and the Japanese government was spurred into funding research into
robotics
Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrate ...
. Among the most iconic characters was the
Astro Boy
''Astro Boy'', known in Japan by its original name , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka. It was serialized in Kobunsha's ''Shōnen'' from 1952 to 1968. The 112 chapters were collected into 23 '' tankōbon'' ...
, who is taught human feelings such as love, courage and self-doubt. Culturally, robots in Japan became regarded as helpmates to their human counterparts.
The introduction of
transistor
upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink).
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch ...
s into
computers in the mid-1950s reduced their size and increased performance. Therefore, computing and programming could be incorporated into a range of applications, including automation. In 1959 researchers of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
(MIT) demonstrated computer-assisted manufacturing.
1960s
Devol sold the first Unimate to
General Motors in 1960, and it was installed in 1961 in a plant in
Ewing Township, New Jersey
Ewing Township is a township in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township falls within the New York metropolitan area as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. It borders the Philadelphia metropolitan area and is part of the F ...
, to lift hot pieces of metal from a
die casting
Die casting is a metal casting process that is characterized by forcing molten metal under high pressure into a mold cavity. The mold cavity is created using two hardened tool steel dies which have been machined into shape and work similarly ...
machine and place them in cooling liquid. "Without any fanfare, the world's first working robot joined the assembly line at the General Motors plant in Ewing Township in the spring of 1961... It was an automated die-casting mold that dropped red-hot door handles and other such car parts into pools of cooling liquid on a line that moved them along to workers for trimming and buffing." Devol's patent for the first digitally operated programmable robotic arm represents the foundation of the modern robotics industry.
The Rancho Arm was developed as a robotic arm to help handicapped patients at the
Rancho Los Amigos Hospital
Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center is a rehabilitation hospital located in Downey, California, United States. Its name in Spanish means 'Friends' Ranch'.
History
Overview
Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, or Ran ...
in
Downey, California; this computer-controlled arm was bought by Stanford University in 1963.
In 1967 the first
industrial robot
An industrial robot is a robot system used for manufacturing. Industrial robots are automated, programmable and capable of movement on three or more axes.
Typical applications of robots include welding, painting, assembly, disassembly, pick ...
was put to productive use in Japan. The Versatran robot had been developed by
American Machine and Foundry
American Machine and Foundry (known after 1970 as AMF, Inc.) was one of the United States' largest recreational equipment companies, with diversified products as disparate as garden equipment, atomic reactors, and yachts.
The company was founde ...
. A year later a hydraulic robot design by
Unimation
Unimation was the world's first robotics company. It was founded in 1962 by Joseph F. Engelberger and George Devol and was located in Danbury, Connecticut. Devol had already applied for a patent an industrial robotic arm in 1954; was issued in ...
was put into production by
Kawasaki Heavy Industries
(or simply Kawasaki) is a Japanese public multinational corporation manufacturer of motorcycles, engines, heavy equipment, aerospace and defense equipment, rolling stock and ships, headquartered in Chūō, Kobe and Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It is ...
.
Marvin Minsky
Marvin Lee Minsky (August 9, 1927 – January 24, 2016) was an American cognitive and computer scientist concerned largely with research of artificial intelligence (AI), co-founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AI laboratory, ...
created the Tentacle Arm in 1968; the arm was computer-controlled and its 12 joints were powered by hydraulics.
In 1969
Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, an ...
student
Victor Scheinman
Victor David Scheinman (December 28, 1942 – September 20, 2016) was an American pioneer in the field of robotics.
He was born in Augusta, Georgia, where his father Leonard was stationed with the US Army. At the end of the war the family mov ...
created the Stanford Arm, recognized as the first electronic computer-controlled robotic arm because the Unimate's instructions were stored on a
magnetic drum
Drum memory was a magnetic data storage device invented by Gustav Tauschek in 1932 in Austria. Drums were widely used in the 1950s and into the 1960s as computer memory.
For many early computers, drum memory formed the main working memory of ...
.
In the late-1960s the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
became the testing ground for automated command technology and sensor networks. In 1966 the
McNamara Line
The McNamara Line, an operational strategy employed by the United States in 1966–1968 during the Vietnam War, aimed to prevent infiltration of South Vietnam by NVA forces from North Vietnam and Laos. Physically, the McNamara Line ran across So ...
was proposed with the aim of requiring virtually no ground forces. This sensor network of seismic and acoustic sensors, photoreconnaissance and sensor-triggered
land mines
A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automati ...
was only partially implemented due to high cost.
The first mobile robot capable of reasoning about its surroundings,
Shakey, was built in 1970 by the Stanford Research Institute (now
SRI International
SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic ...
). Shakey combined multiple sensor inputs, including TV cameras,
laser rangefinders, and "bump sensors" to navigate.
1970s
In the early 1970s precision munitions and smart weapons were developed. Weapons became robotic by implementing
terminal guidance In the field of weaponry, terminal guidance refers to any guidance system that is primarily or solely active during the "terminal phase", just before the weapon impacts its target. The term is generally used in reference to missile guidance system ...
. At the end of the Vietnam War the first laser-guided bombs were deployed, which could find their target by following a laser beam that was pointed at the target. During the 1972
Operation Linebacker
Operation Linebacker was the codename of a U.S. Seventh Air Force and U.S. Navy Task Force 77 air interdiction campaign conducted against North Vietnam from 9 May to 23 October 1972, during the Vietnam War.
Its purpose was to halt or slow the ...
laser-guided bombs proved effective, but still depended heavily on human operators.
Fire-and-forget
Fire-and-forget is a type of missile guidance which does not require further external intervention after launch such as illumination of the target or wire guidance, and can hit its target without the launcher being in line-of-sight of the targe ...
weapons were also first deployed in the closing Vietnam War, once launched no further attention or action was required from the operator.
The development of humanoid robots was advanced considerably by
Japanese robotics scientists in the 1970s.
Waseda University
, mottoeng = Independence of scholarship
, established = 21 October 1882
, type = Private
, endowment =
, president = Aiji Tanaka
, city = Shinjuku
, state = Tokyo
, country = Japan
, students = 47,959
, undergrad = 39,382
, postgrad ...
initiated the WABOT project in 1967, and in 1972 completed the WABOT-1, the world's first full-scale humanoid intelligent robot. Its limb control system allowed it to walk with the lower limbs, and to grip and transport objects with hands, using tactile sensors. Its vision system allowed it to measure distances and directions to objects using external receptors, artificial eyes and ears. And its conversation system allowed it to communicate with a person in Japanese, with an artificial mouth. This made it the first
android.
Freddy and
Freddy II
Freddy (1969–1971) and Freddy II (1973–1976) were experimental robots built in the Department of Machine Intelligence and Perception (later Department of Artificial Intelligence, now part of the School of Informatics at the University of Ed ...
were robots built at the
University of Edinburgh School of Informatics
The School of Informatics is an academic unit of the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, responsible for research, teaching, outreach and commercialisation in informatics. It was created in 1998 from the former Department of Artificial Intell ...
by
Pat Ambler
Ann Patricia "Pat" Fothergill (''née'' Waddington, formerly Ambler; 13 February 1936 – 28 January 2017) was a pioneer in robotics and robot control languages in the AI department of the University of Edinburgh. She moved to the University of ...
,
Robin Popplestone
Robin John Popplestone (9 December 1938 in Bristol – 14 April 2004 in Glasgow) was a pioneer in the fields of machine intelligence and robotics. He is known for developing the COWSEL and POP-2, POP programming languages, and for his work on Fr ...
,
Austin Tate
Austin Tate is Emeritus Professor of Knowledge-based systems in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. From 1985 to 2019 he was Director of AIAI (Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute) in the School of Informatic ...
, and
Donald Mitchie, and were capable of assembling wooden blocks in a period of several hours. German based company
KUKA
KUKA is a German manufacturer of industrial robots and systems for factory automation. It has been predominantly owned by the Chinese company Midea Group since 2016.
The KUKA Robotics Corporation has 25 subsidiaries, mostly sales and servi ...
built the world's first industrial robot with six electromechanically driven axes, known as FAMULUS.
In 1974,
Michael J. Freeman created Leachim, a robot teacher who was programmed with the class curricular, as well as certain biographical information on the 40 students whom Leachim was programmed to teach. Leachim had the ability to synthesize
human speech
Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if they are th ...
. Leachim was tested in a fourth grade classroom in the
Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
borough of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
.
In 1974, David Silver designed The Silver Arm, which was capable of fine movements replicating human hands. Feedback was provided by
touch
In physiology, the somatosensory system is the network of neural structures in the brain and body that produce the perception of touch ( haptic perception), as well as temperature ( thermoception), body position (proprioception), and pain. It ...
and
pressure
Pressure (symbol: ''p'' or ''P'') is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure (also spelled ''gage'' pressure)The preferred spelling varies by country and e ...
sensors
A sensor is a device that produces an output signal for the purpose of sensing a physical phenomenon.
In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem that detects events or changes in its environment and sends ...
and analyzed by a computer.
The
SCARA
The SCARA is a type of industrial robot. The acronym stands for Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm or Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arm.
By virtue of the SCARA's parallel-axis joint layout, the arm is slightly compliant in the X ...
, Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm, was created in 1978 as an efficient, 4-axis robotic arm. Best used for picking up parts and placing them in another location, the SCARA was introduced to assembly lines in 1981.
The Stanford Cart successfully crossed a room full of chairs in 1979. It relied primarily on
stereo vision
Stereopsis () is the component of depth perception retrieved through binocular vision.
Stereopsis is not the only contributor to depth perception, but it is a major one. Binocular vision happens because each eye receives a different image becaus ...
to navigate and determine distances.
The
Robotics Institute
The Robotics Institute (RI) is a division of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. A June 2014 article in ''Robotics Business Review'' magazine calls it "the world's best robo ...
at
Carnegie Mellon University was founded in 1979 by
Raj Reddy
Dabbala Rajagopal "Raj" Reddy (born 13 June 1937) is an Indian-American computer scientist and a winner of the Turing Award. He is one of the early pioneers of artificial intelligence and has served on the faculty of Stanford and Carnegie Mello ...
.
1980s
Takeo Kanade
is a Japanese computer scientist and one of the world's foremost researchers in computer vision. He is U.A. and Helen Whitaker Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He has approximately 300 peer-reviewed academic publications and holds aroun ...
created the first "direct-drive arm" in 1981. The first of its kind, the arm's motors were contained within the robot itself, eliminating long transmissions.
In 1984 Wabot-2 was revealed; capable of playing the organ, Wabot-2 had 10 fingers and two feet. Wabot-2 was able to read a score of music and accompany a person.
In 1986,
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.
Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...
began its humanoid research and development program to create robots capable of interacting successfully with humans. A
hexapodal robot named Genghis was revealed by MIT in 1989. Genghis was famous for being made quickly and cheaply due to construction methods; Genghis used 4 microprocessors, 22 sensors, and 12
servo motors
A servomotor (or servo motor) is a rotary actuator or linear actuator that allows for precise control of angular or linear position, velocity and acceleration. It consists of a suitable motor coupled to a sensor for position feedback. It also ...
. Rodney Brooks and Anita M. Flynn published "Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control: A Robot Invasion of The Solar System". The paper advocated creating smaller cheaper robots in greater numbers to increase production time and decrease the difficulty of launching robots into space.
1990s
In 1994 one of the most successful
robot-assisted surgery appliances was cleared by the
FDA
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...
. The
Cyberknife had been invented by
John R. Adler
John R. Adler (born 1954) is an American neurosurgeon.
He was born in Yonkers, New York, in 1954. He graduated at Harvard College in 1976 and at Harvard Medical School in 1980. From 1980 to 1987 he did a neurosurgical residency at Massachusetts ...
and the first system was installed at Stanford University in 1991. This
radiosurgery system integrated
image-guided surgery Image-guided surgery (IGS) is any surgical procedure where the surgeon uses tracked surgical instruments in conjunction with preoperative or intraoperative images in order to directly or indirectly guide the procedure. Image guided surgery systems u ...
with robotic positioning. The Cyberknife is now deployed to treat patients with brain or spine
tumors
A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...
. An
x-ray
An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...
camera tracks displacement and compensates for motion caused by breathing.
The
biomimetic
Biomimetics or biomimicry is the emulation of the models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems. The terms "biomimetics" and "biomimicry" are derived from grc, βίος (''bios''), life, and μίμησ ...
robot
RoboTuna
The RoboTuna is a robotic fish project involving a series of robotic fish designed and built by a team of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.
The Project
The project started in 1993. Their aim was to inves ...
was built by doctoral student David Barrett at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1996 to study how fish swim in water. RoboTuna is designed to swim and to resemble a
bluefin tuna Bluefin tuna is a common name used to refer to several species of tuna
A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae (mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, th ...
.
Honda's
P2 humanoid robot was first shown in 1996. Standing for "Prototype Model 2", P2 was an integral part of Honda's humanoid development project; over tall, P2 was smaller than its predecessors and appeared to be more human-like in its motions.
Expected to operate for only seven days, the
Sojourner
A sojourner is a person who resides temporarily in a place.
Sojourner may also refer to:
* Sojourner Truth (1797–1883), abolitionist and women's rights activist
* Albert Sojourner (1872–1951), member of the Mississippi House of Representative ...
rover finally shuts down after 83 days of operation in 1997. This small robot (only 23 lbs or 10.5 kg) performed semi-autonomous operations on the surface of
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
as part of the
Mars Pathfinder
''Mars Pathfinder'' (''MESUR Pathfinder'') is an American robotic spacecraft that landed a base station with a roving probe on Mars in 1997. It consisted of a lander, renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, and a lightweight, wheeled robot ...
mission; equipped with an obstacle avoidance program, Sojourner was capable of planning and navigating routes to study the surface of the planet. Sojourner's ability to navigate with little data about its environment and nearby surroundings allowed it to react to unplanned events and objects.
The
P3 humanoid robot was revealed by Honda in 1998 as a part of the company's continuing humanoid project. In 1999, Sony introduced the
AIBO
AIBO (''stylized aibo, Artificial Intelligence Robot'', homonymous with , "pal" or "partner" in Japanese) is a series of robotic dogs designed and manufactured by Sony. Sony announced a prototype Aibo in mid-1998, and the first consumer model wa ...
, a robotic dog capable of interacting with humans; the first models released in Japan sold out in 20 minutes. Honda revealed the most advanced result of their humanoid project in 2000, named
ASIMO. ASIMO can run, walk, communicate with humans, recognise faces, environment, voices and posture, and interact with its environment. Sony also revealed its
Sony Dream Robots, small humanoid robots in development for entertainment. In October 2000, the United Nations estimated that there were 742,500 industrial robots in the world, with more than half of them being used in Japan.
2000s
In April 2001, the
Canadarm2 was launched into orbit and attached to the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...
. The Canadarm2 is a larger, more capable version of the arm used by the
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program ...
, and is hailed as "smarter". Also in April, the
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controll ...
Global Hawk
The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk is a high-altitude, remotely-piloted surveillance aircraft of the 1990s–2020s. It was initially designed by Ryan Aeronautical (now part of Northrop Grumman), and known as Tier II+ during development. T ...
made the first autonomous non-stop flight over the Pacific Ocean from
Edwards Air Force Base in California to
RAAF Base Edinburgh
RAAF Base Edinburgh is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) military airbase located in Edinburgh approximately north of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia and forms part of the Edinburgh Defence Precinct.
The base is primarily home to No 9 ...
in Southern Australia. The flight was made in 22 hours.
The popular
Roomba, a robotic vacuum cleaner, was first released in 2002 by the company
iRobot
iRobot Corporation is an American technology company that designs and builds consumer robots. It was founded in 1990 by three members of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab, who designed robots for space exploration and military defense. The com ...
.
In 2005,
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
revealed a robotic system of block-modules capable of attaching and detaching, described as the first robot capable of self-replication, because it was capable of assembling copies of itself if it was placed near more of the blocks which composed it. Launched in 2003, on 3 and 24 January, the Mars rovers
Spirit
Spirit or spirits may refer to:
Liquor and other volatile liquids
* Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks
* Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol
* Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, ...
and
Opportunity
Opportunity may refer to:
Places
* Opportunity, Montana, an unincorporated community, United States
* Opportunity, Nebraska, an unincorporated community, United States
* Opportunity, Washington, a former census-designated place, United States
* ...
landed on the surface of Mars. Both robots drove many times the distance originally expected, and Opportunity was still operating as late as mid-2018, before communications were lost due to a major dust storm.
Self-driving cars
A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car, driver-less car, or robotic car (robo-car), is a car that is capable of traveling without human input.Xie, S.; Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Ding, Z.; Arvin, F.,Distributed Motion Planning for S ...
had made their appearance by around 2005, but there was room for improvement. None of the 15 devices competing in the
DARPA Grand Challenge
The DARPA Grand Challenge is a prize competition for American autonomous vehicles, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the most prominent research organization of the United States Department of Defense. Congress has authoriz ...
(2004) successfully completed the course; in fact no robot successfully navigated more than 5% of the off-road course, leaving the $1 million prize unclaimed. In 2005, Honda revealed a new version of its ASIMO robot, updated with new behaviors and capabilities. In 2006, Cornell University revealed its "Starfish" robot, a four-legged robot capable of self modeling and learning to walk after having been damaged. In 2007,
TOMY
is a Japanese entertainment company that makes children's toys and merchandise. It was created from a merger on March 1st 2006 of two companies: Tomy (founded in 1924 as Tomiyama, changing the name to Tomy in 1963) and long-time rival Ta ...
launched the entertainment robot, i-sobot, a humanoid bipedal robot that can walk like a human and performs kicks and punches and also some entertaining tricks and special actions under "Special Action Mode".
2010s
The 2010s were defined by large-scale improvements in the availability, power and versatility of commonly available robotic components, as well as the mass proliferation of robots into everyday life, which caused both optimistic speculation and new societal concerns.
Development of humanoid robots continued to advance;
Robonaut 2
A robonaut is a humanoid robot, part of a development project conducted by the Dexterous Robotics Laboratory at NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas. Robonaut differs from other current space-faring robots in that, while ...
was launched to the International Space Station aboard
Space Shuttle Discovery
Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' ( Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-103) is one of the orbiters from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the third of five fully operational orbiters to be built. Its first mission, STS-41-D, flew from August 30 to S ...
on the
STS-133
STS-133 ( ISS assembly flight ULF5) was the 133rd mission in NASA's Space Shuttle program; during the mission, Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' docked with the International Space Station. It was ''Discoverys 39th and final mission. The mission l ...
mission in 2011 as the first
humanoid robot
A humanoid robot is a robot resembling the human body in shape. The design may be for functional purposes, such as interacting with human tools and environments, for experimental purposes, such as the study of bipedal locomotion, or for other pu ...
in space. While its initial purpose was to teach engineers how dextrous robots behave in space, the hope is that through upgrades and advancements, it could one day venture outside the station to help spacewalkers make repairs or additions to the station or perform scientific work. By the end of the decade, humanoid and animal-like robots were capable of clearing difficult obstacle courses, maintaining balance, and even performing
gymnastic
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, sh ...
feats. However, the vast majority of robotic developments in the 2010s instead saw smaller, more specialized non-humanoid robots become cheaper, more capable, and more ubiquitous.
Moore's Law and the increasing integration of digital electronic components into lightweight and powerful
systems on a chip allowed for the heavy computation necessary for the operation of a robotic system to be performed by smaller and smaller devices. Many of these advances in chip and sensor technology were driven by the growth and spread of
smartphones, which demanded these new components to meet the increasing demands of everyday use.
The cost and weight reductions of these components have resulted in a proliferation of new kinds of special-purpose robots.
Quadcopter
A quadcopter or quadrotor is a type of helicopter with four rotors.
Although quadrotor helicopters and convertiplanes have long been flown experimentally, the configuration remained a curiosity until the arrival of the modern UAV or drone. T ...
s, a novelty at the beginning of the decade, became a ubiquitous platform for robotic systems, featuring autonomous navigation and stabilization and carrying increasingly powerful sensors, including stabilized high definition cameras, radar, and surveying equipment. By the end of the decade, the cost of a robotic quadcopter with
4K cameras and autonomous navigation had dropped to within range of hobbyist budgets, and companies like
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
were exploring the use of quadcopters to autonomously deliver freight, though deployment of this systems did not happen on a large scale in the decade.
The decade also saw a boom in the capabilities of
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
. Over the course of the 2010s, the capacity of onboard computers used within robots increased to the point that robots could perform increasingly complex actions without human guidance, as well as independently process data in more complex ways. The growth of
mobile data
Mobile broadband is the marketing term for wireless Internet access via mobile networks. Access to the network can be made through a portable modem, wireless modem, or a tablet/ smartphone (possibly tethered) or other mobile device. The fi ...
networks and increasing power of
graphics cards
A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or mistakenly GPU) is an expansion card which generates a feed of output images to a display device, such as a computer moni ...
for artificial intelligence applications also allowed robots to communicate with distant
clusters in real time, effectively boosting the capability of even very simple robots to include cutting-edge artificial intelligence techniques.
The 2010s also saw the growth of new software paradigms, which allowed robots and their AI systems to take advantage of this increased computing power.
Neural networks became increasingly well developed in the 2010s, with companies like Google offering free and open access to products like
TensorFlow
TensorFlow is a free and open-source software library for machine learning and artificial intelligence. It can be used across a range of tasks but has a particular focus on training and inference of deep neural networks. "It is machine learnin ...
, which allowed robot manufacturers to quickly integrate neural nets that allowed for abilities like
facial recognition and object identification in even the smallest, cheapest robots.
The growth of robots in the 2010s also coincided with the increasing power of the
open source software
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open ...
movement, with many companies offering free access to their artificial intelligence software. Open source hardware, such as the
Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi () is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom. The Raspberry Pi project originally leaned towards the promotion of teaching basic ...
line of compact
single board computers and the
Arduino
Arduino () is an open-source hardware and software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardware products are licensed under ...
line of
microcontrollers, as well as a growing array of electronic components like
sensors
A sensor is a device that produces an output signal for the purpose of sensing a physical phenomenon.
In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem that detects events or changes in its environment and sends ...
and
motors
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy.
Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power g ...
dramatically increased in power and decreased in price over the 2010s. Combined with the drop in cost of manufacturing techniques like
3D printing
3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...
, these components allowed hobbyists, researchers and manufacturers alike to quickly and cheaply build special-purpose robots that exhibited high degrees of artificial intelligence, as well as to share their designs with others around the world.
Self-driving cars
A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car, driver-less car, or robotic car (robo-car), is a car that is capable of traveling without human input.Xie, S.; Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Ding, Z.; Arvin, F.,Distributed Motion Planning for S ...
transitioned from speculative to emergent during the decade. By the end of the decade, most new cars were manufactured with robotic subsystems capable of warning the car's human driver about dangers such as nearby vehicles or potential lane departures. In 2014, new
Tesla vehicles were fitted with the computer hardware necessary to eventually support a full autopilot software system, with increasingly autonomous software systems arriving as updates over later years. By the end of the decade, autonomous driving was possible on large highways, but still required human supervision.
The growth of robotic capabilities during the decade happened in tandem with the centralization of economic power into the hands of
large multinational tech companies, which has prompted concerns that the capabilities of these robots could be abused by the companies that make them available to consumers. The acquisition of
Roomba by
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
led to concerns from data privacy advocates that data about the interiors of users' homes collected by the robots' sensors and cameras could be stored, shared and analyzed without those users' informed consent. Likewise, the ubiquity of small flying quadcopters,
home automation, and facial recognition capabilities by robots has caused serious concerns regarding
human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
abuses, including allegations of repression of ethnic minorities in
China and concerns about violations of privacy rights by law enforcement in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. As robotic systems showed the ability to perform more and more tasks once limited to human operators, many
ethicists An ethicist is one whose judgment on ethics and ethical codes has come to be trusted by a specific community, and (importantly) is expressed in some way that makes it possible for others to mimic or approximate that judgment. Following the advice of ...
raised concerns that robots operating complex systems may not have the moral or ethical safeguards necessary to ensure public safety.
Throughout the 2010s, humans continued to examine the nature of their relationships with robots, with trends indicating a general belief that robots were or would become conscious beings deserving of rights, and potential allies or rivals to humans. On 25 October 2017 at the Future Investment Summit in
Riyadh
Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of th ...
, a robot called
Sophia and referred to with female pronouns was granted
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
n citizenship, becoming the first robot ever to have a nationality.
This has attracted controversy, as it is not obvious whether this implies that Sophia can vote or marry, or whether a deliberate system shutdown can be considered murder; as well, it is controversial considering how few rights are given to Saudi human women. Popular works of art in the 2010s, such as HBO's revival of ''
Westworld
''Westworld'' is an American science fiction-thriller media franchise that began with the 1973 film ''Westworld'', written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film depicts a technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park populate ...
'', encouraged empathy for robots, and explored questions of humanity and consciousness.
By the end of the decade, commercial and industrial robots were in widespread use, performing jobs more cheaply or with greater accuracy and reliability than humans, and were widely used in manufacturing, assembly and packing, transport, Earth and space exploration, surgery, weaponry, laboratory research, and mass production of consumer and industrial goods. The growth of the use robots across industry, as well as in the
service sector and in creative or highly skilled jobs formerly limited to humans, led to fears in the latter part of the decade of mass
technological unemployment
Technological unemployment is the loss of jobs caused by technological change. It is a key type of structural unemployment.
Technological change typically includes the introduction of labour-saving "mechanical-muscle" machines or more efficie ...
.
By the very end of the decade, robotics had started to make advancements on the nanotechnology scale. In 2019, engineers at the University of Pennsylvania created millions of nanobots in just a few weeks using technology borrowed from the mature semiconductor industry. These microscopic robots, small enough to be injected into the human body and controlled wirelessly, could one day deliver medications and perform surgeries, revolutionizing medicine and health.
See also
*
History of artificial intelligence
The history of artificial intelligence (AI) began in ancient history, antiquity, with myths, stories and rumors of artificial beings endowed with intelligence or consciousness by master craftsmen. The seeds of modern AI were planted by philoso ...
*
History of computing hardware
*
History of mass production
*
Numerical control
Notes
More about humanoid robot
References
* Haug, Walter. "The ''Roman van Walewein'' as a postclassical literary experiment." In ''Originality and Tradition in the Middle Dutch Roman van Walewein'', ed. B. Besamusca and E. Kooper. Cambridge, 1999. 17–28.
Further reading
* Baumgartner, Emmanuèlle. "Le temps des automates." In ''Le Nombre du temps, en hommage à
Paul Zumthor''. Paris: Champion, 1988. pp. 15–21.
* Brett, G. "The Automata in the Byzantine 'Throne of Solomon'." ''Speculum'' 29 (1954): 477–87.
* Glaser, Horst Albert and Rossbach, Sabine: The Artificial Human, Frankfurt/M., Bern, New York 2011 "The Artificial Human. A Tragical History", ebook "The Artificial Humans. A Real History of Robots, Androids, Replicants, Cyborgs, Clones and all the rest"
* Sullivan, P. "Medieval Automata: The 'Chambre de beautés' in
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History of Robots in 10 Minutes.
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History of robotics