In fact, a robot is a mechanical device that automatically performs work. Robots can accept human orders, execute pre-programmed programs, and act according to the principle programs formulated by artificial intelligence technology. Robots perform tasks that replace or assist human work, such as manufacturing, construction or dangerous work.
Robots can be the product of advanced comprehensive cybernetics, mechatronics, computers, materials and bionics. At present, it has important applications in industry, medicine and even military fields.
European and American countries believe that robots should be computer-controlled and multi-functional automatic machines that can be changed through programming, but Japan does not agree with this statement. The Japanese believe that "robot is any advanced automatic machine", including the kind of manipulator that needs one person to operate. So many Japanese people's concept of robots is not defined by Europeans and Americans.
Now, the international concept of robot has gradually approached the same. Generally speaking, people can accept that robots are machines that realize various functions by their own power and control ability. The United Nations Organization for Standardization adopted the definition of robot given by the American Robotics Association: "Programmable multifunctional manipulator for handling materials, parts and tools; Or specialized systems with variable and programmable actions to perform different tasks.
The evaluation criteria of robot ability include: intelligence, which refers to feeling and perception, including memory, operation, comparison, recognition, judgment, decision-making, learning and logical reasoning; Function refers to flexibility, universality or space occupation; Physical fitness refers to strength, speed, continuous operation ability, reliability, combination and life span. Therefore, it can be said that the robot is a three-dimensional coordinate machine with biological functions.
A brief history of robot development
1920, the Czechoslovak writer karel capek invented "robot" in his science fiction "Robot Universal Company in" according to the meaning of "hard labor" in Czech and "worker" in Polish.
Elektro, a household robot manufactured by Westinghouse Electric Company, was exhibited at the new york World Expo on 1939. It is controlled by cables, can walk, can speak 77 words and even smoke, but it is far from really doing housework. But it makes people's yearning for home robots more concrete.
1942, American science fiction master Asimov put forward the "three laws of robots". Although this is only a creation in science fiction, it later became the default research and development principle in academic circles.
1948, norbert wiener published "cybernetics", which expounded the * * * law of communication and control functions in machines and human nerve and sensory functions, and took the lead in proposing an automated factory with computers as the core.
George Devol, an American, made the world's first programmable robot and registered a patent. This kind of manipulator can do different jobs according to different programs, so it is universal and flexible.
At the Dartmouth meeting in 1956, Marvin Minsky put forward his view on intelligent machines: intelligent machines "can create an abstract model of the surrounding environment, and if they encounter problems, they can find solutions from the abstract model". This definition will affect the research direction of intelligent robots in the next 30 years.
1959 de Waal and American inventor Joseph engelberg made the first industrial robot. Subsequently, Unimation Company, the world's first robot manufacturing factory, was established. Because of engelberg's research and promotion of industrial robots, he is also called "the father of industrial robots".
1962, American AMF company produced "VERSTRAN" (meaning universal handling), which became a truly commercialized industrial robot like Unimate produced by Unimation company, and was exported to all countries in the world, which set off a worldwide upsurge of robots and robot research.
The application of 1962-1963 sensor improves the mobility of the robot. People tried to install various sensors on robots, including 196 1 Ernst's tactile sensor, 1962' s pressure sensor used by tomovic and Bonnie on the world's earliest "dexterous hand", 1963' s McCarthy began to add visual sensing system to robots,/kloc-0.
1965, the laboratory of applied physics of Johns Hopkins University developed the beast robot. Beast has been able to correct its position according to the environment through sonar systems, photovoltaic cells and other equipment. Since the mid-1960s, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and Edinburgh University in the UK have successively set up robot laboratories. The United States has begun to study the second generation of robots with sensors and "feelings" and is moving towards artificial intelligence.
1968 The Stanford Research Institute in the United States announced their successful robot Shakey. It has a visual sensor, which can find and catch building blocks according to human instructions, but the computer that controls it is as big as a room. Shakey can be regarded as the first intelligent robot in the world, which opened the prelude to the research and development of the third generation robot.
1969, Ichiro Kato Laboratory of Waseda University in Japan developed the first robot that walked on two feet. Ichiro Kato has been committed to the research of humanoid robots for a long time and is known as the "father of humanoid robots". Japanese experts have always been good at developing humanoid robots and entertainment robots, and later went further, giving birth to Honda's ASIMO and Sony's QRIO.
1973, the robot T3 of Mielack Dragon Company in Cincinnati, USA was born for the first time with the cooperation of robots and small computers.
1978, Unimation company of the United States launched PUMA, a general industrial robot, which indicated that the industrial robot technology was fully mature. Puma still works in the front line of the factory.
1984, engelberg pushed the robot Helpmate, which can deliver meals, medicines and emails to patients in the hospital. In the same year, he also predicted: "I will let the robot sweep the floor, cook, go out to help me wash the car and check the safety."
1998, Lego Denmark launched the Mind-storms suite, which makes robot manufacturing as simple as building blocks and can be assembled at will, allowing robots to enter the personal world.
From 65438 to 0999, Sony Corporation of Japan launched the dog robot AIBO, which sold out immediately. Since then, entertainment robots have become one of the ways for robots to enter ordinary families.
In 2002, iRobot Company of Denmark introduced a vacuum cleaner robot Roomba, which can avoid obstacles, automatically design the travel route, and automatically drive to the charging seat when the power is insufficient. Roomba is the largest and most commercialized home robot in the world.
In June 2006, Microsoft Corporation launched Microsoft Robotics Studio, and the trend of modularization and platform unification of robots became more and more obvious. Bill Gates predicted that home robots would soon sweep the world.
Definition of robot
In the scientific and technological circles, scientists will give a clear definition of every scientific and technological term, but it has been several decades since robots came out, and there are still different opinions on the definition of robots, and there is no unified opinion. One of the reasons is that robots are still developing, and new models and functions are constantly appearing. The fundamental reason is that robot involves the concept of human and becomes a philosophical question that is difficult to answer. Just as the word robot was originally born in science fiction, people are full of illusions about robots. Perhaps it is precisely because of the vague definition of robot that people are given full imagination and creative space.
Operating robot: it can be automatically controlled, repeatedly programmed, multifunctional and multi-degree-of-freedom, and can be fixed or moved for related automation systems.
Program-controlled robot: control the mechanical actions of the robot in turn according to the pre-required order and conditions.
Teaching a reproducible robot: by guiding or other means, first teach the robot to act, input the working program, and the robot will automatically repeat the operation.
Numerical control robot: Teach the robot by numerical value and language. Without moving the robot, the robot works according to the taught information.
Sensory control robot: uses the information obtained by sensors to control the action of the robot.
Adaptive control robot: the robot can adapt to the change of environment and control its own actions.
Learning-controlled robot: the robot can "experience" the work experience, has certain learning function, and applies the "learned" experience to the work.
Intelligent robot: a person who uses artificial intelligence to decide his own actions.
According to the application environment, China robotics experts divide robots into two categories, namely industrial robots and special robots. The so-called industrial robot is a multi-joint manipulator or multi-degree-of-freedom robot facing the industrial field. Special robots are all kinds of advanced robots except industrial robots, which are used in non-manufacturing industries and serve human beings, including service robots, underwater robots, entertainment robots, military robots, agricultural robots, robot machines and so on. Among special robots, some branches develop rapidly and tend to be independent systems, such as service robots, underwater robots, military robots and micro-manipulation robots. At present, international robotics scholars divide robots into two categories from the application environment: industrial robots in manufacturing environment and service environment and humanoid robots in non-manufacturing environment, which is consistent with the classification in China.
Aerial robots are also called unmanned aerial vehicles. In recent years, in the military robot family, UAV is the field with the most active scientific research activities, the greatest technological progress, the largest investment in research and procurement, and the richest practical experience. For more than 80 years, the development of UAVs in the world is basically based on the United States, which ranks first in the world in terms of technical level, types and quantity.