The term robotics was introduced by writer Isaac Asimov in his science fiction book I, Robot, published in 1950.
Rosie the Robot: From the 1962 cartoon guessing what our homes would be like in 2062. Rosie cooked, cleaned and loved her family on The Jetsons.
Roomba: Now we have the Roomba, a household robot that automatically vacuums your home but won't cook you dinner!
Definition of Robotics:
Robotics is the field of computer science and engineering concerned with creating robots, a device controlled by a computer that can sense, think and act. Robotics is one branch of artificial intelligence.
Robotic Applications:
Robots are programmed to explore and manipulate the environment they work in. Robots are now widely used in factories to perform high-precision jobs such as welding and riveting. They are also used in special situations that would be dangerous for humans — for example, cleaning toxic wastes or defusing bombs.
Today there are 800,000 'working' robots. Some of the most advanced robots available today are being used to determine if there is or ever was a form of water on the planet Mars. While these robots explore Mars, a Carnegie Mellon University robot, Zoe, is working in the desert. Zoe works to find forms of life that are not visible to the human eye. As you might imagine, eventually scientists want to send a similar robot to Mars.
Japan is the most robot-friendly nation and nearly half of the robot 'workforce' is in Japan. There, robots have many jobs ranging from cleaning up a room to greeting and entertaining guests. A prototype for a babysitting robot is in the works that will even quiz kids on their homework!
Pittsburgh Connection: Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute is the largest research institute of its kind in the United States.
The Robot Hall of Fame will have a permanent home in roboworld, an exhibit opening in 2009 at Carnegie Science Center. roboworld will be the larget and most extensive permanent robotics exhibit in the country.
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