Cognoscis

When someone says Robot, a picture of a human looking machine with lots of light work and weird sound comes to our mind. But that is only one small tiny part of a wide range of Robotic models that exists in today’s world. Then one wonders what more designs could be there!

Setting apart the mythology, we can trace back the evolution of this amazing field of automata to the time before Christ was born. Around 250 BC an ancient Greek engineer named Ctesibus made organs and water clocks with movable figures. According to the Lie Zi text written in 3^rd century BC in China, Yan Shi invented a life sized Humanoid Robot that had all the organs made of wood, resin and leather. It could see, walk, sing and even wink when touched at the appropriate positions that were indeed the switches. Removing of an organ would shut down one of its function. This was in 3^rd century BC. One more Robot that I like to mention is a mechanical duck made by Jacques de Vaucanson in the 1700s that could EAT grains, FLAP wings and even EXCRETE. Throughout the history, there have been inventions of automatic machines and it is still going on. There have been engineers who drew the models of Robots; how can we forget the great Leonardo DaVinci who made the sketch of a Humanoid Robot called the Mechanical Knight. There have been Authors like Mary Shelly created the Robotic monster called Frankenstein’s monster.

The major difference between the earlier inventions and now is the fact that the Robot of today is an electromechanical system whereas the ancient Robots were Mechanical systems. The greatest addition of the modern world to the Field of automata is the fact that now the Robots have a brain that runs on electricity. With the introduction of the Microprocessors, Microcontrollers, the memory elements and the Stored Program Concept (SPC), Artificial Intelligence (AI) not only gained huge momentum, but also new dimensions. Now there is a whole new world of Robotics out there.

Almost everything in today’s world is being made automatic. The industrial Robots work 24 hours a day and make the products with high precision and are the most widely needed Robots as of today. Robotic limb that can be given to the amputees is definitely something that engineers are proud of. Think of the technology where you could control that arm just by thinking about the action you want to perform. The special instrument on your head will take the generated brain signals and give it to the robotic arm and the arm will do what you want it to do. This technology is still in the RnD stage. The satellites, unmanned aircrafts; Robots that can perform welding in inhuman environments; Robots that can perform the most sensitive, life saving surgeries; Robots that can entertain you, explore the surface of Mars, orbit around other planets and satellites, security systems, gas analyzer that are used in mines, your fuzzy logic equipped washing machine? There are endless robots in this world and there is an endless possibility of making new ones too. Think of a robotic vehicle that can go into a building and diffuse a bomb, the risk of human life is no longer an issue while diffusing the bomb!

With the onset of AI, it has brought in its own fears too. The first popular fear came out as a Novel that I mentioned earlier,The Frankenstein. I, Robot a novel by Isaac Asimov (That also came out as a movie later) even gave us three laws that would make sure that here would be no threat by Robots to Humans They are

1. 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. 2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

But we all know how that ended. Throughout the time there have been such stories being told of world domination by Robots. Terminator, Matrix and many such movies tell us how AI imbibed machines will take over the world and how humans will have to fight for their survival. The three laws of Robotics

So, in the end I put it this way; Robotics is the field that showcases the creativity and innovation of an engineer, something that is equivalent to art; watching the living things, understanding the mechanics and then creating its mechanical version. The field of Robotics is something that has more good than bad (The main drawback is the fact that it takes away the jobs of people). So, there is so much that has been done and there is so much more that can be done. It is an exciting field to work in both full time or just as a hobby. I have started working in this field recently and right now I and my friends are building our second Robot. I will try and publish more articles on Robotics and any help from your side will be appreciated

-Anoop