The word robot has been derived from a Czech word ‘robota’ that means ‘drudgery’. A robot can be defined as a machine operated by computer programs that can perform small actions. They can be programmed to do various things. The field in which we study robots is known as Robotics.
Mostly robots are used to do jobs that involve repetitive actions or dangerous jobs that cannot be done by humans. You must have watched sci-fi movies and are surely fascinated with those robotic characters, but real life robots are way different from those extra smart machines .
Quick Facts: –
- The first ever robot was created in the 5th century BC by Archytas of Tarentum in the form of mechanical doves.
- Leonardo da Vinci drew plans for a robotic machine, kind of an armoured humanoid in 1495.
- The first humanoid robot was Elektro built by Westinghouse in 1939. It was 7 feet tall and could speak 700 words.
- Japan, also known as the epicentre of technology has the majority of industrial robots in operation today.
- In 1981, a robot killed a factory worker at the Kawasaki plant.
- Robots are also used in military tactics, medicine, to explore other planets or underwater life.
- The US military has over 4,000 robots used for scouting in some dangerous countries like Afghanistan and Iraq.
- The size of the smallest robot is less than 1/1000th part of a millimetre. It is called a nanobot.
- A robot is not able to think or make decisions. It is only a programmed machine that helps us to get things done.
- Electronic sensors are used in the eyes and ears of a robot so that they can sense and process the information about their surroundings.
- The environment on Mars is too harsh and not suitable for human beings so NASA sent a robot to the planet for research. It sent information back as well the form of photos.
