Robotics: An Introduction

The concept of a robot as we know it today evolved over many years. In fact, its origins could be traced to ancient Greece well before the time when Archimedes invented the screw pump. Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) made far-reaching contributions to the field of robotics with his pioneering research into the brain that led him to make discoveries in neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. He provided physical explanations of how the brain processes visual and other sensory inputs and invented a number of ingenious machines. His flying devices, although not practicable, embodied sound principles of aerodynamics, and a toy built to bring to fruition Leonardo's drawing inspired the Wright brothers in building their own flying machine, which was successfully flown in 1903. The word robot itself seems to have first appeared in 1921 in Karel Capek's play, Rossum's Universal Robots, and originated from the Slavic languages. In many of these languages the word robot is quite common as it stands for worker. It is derived from the Czech word robitit, which implies drudgery. Indeed, robots were conceived as machines capable of repetitive tasks requiring a lower intelligence than that of humans. Yet today robots are thought to be capable of possessing intelligence, and the term is probably inappropriate. Nevertheless it is in use. The term robotics was probably first coined in science fiction work published around the 1950s by Isaac Asimov, who also enunciated his three laws of robotics. It was from Asimov's work that the concept of emulating humans emerged.