The history of robotics dates back to ancient times. After all, since time immemorial, people have come up with various devices for entertainment. The great mathematicians of antiquity created amazing mechanisms that in our time can cause genuine delight. From those times to the present day, the desire to create an independently functioning mechanism has not faded at all, on the contrary, it has only grown. Best scientists of the world are working on the creation of various types of robots capable of performing a wide variety of functions. However, before delving into history, you should understand what robotics is.
1. What is robotics?
Robotics is a science that studies the development of automated technical systems based on electronics, as well as mechanics and programming. The production of robots is one of the most developed branches of modern industry. Just imagine, at the moment, thousands of robots are working in factories and enterprises, replacing the hard work of people.
Automated manipulators have become an integral part of various industrial and scientific research. In addition, robots allow us to explore the space beyond our planet, where there is no access to humans.
If we talk about the history of robots, then the first mechanisms that perform the simplest movements are found in ancient times. However, the first surviving drawings and records of a working robot date back to 1495. They were created by the world-famous inventor, scientist Leonardo Da Vinci, who created an iron knight capable of moving his arms and legs.
If we talk about modern robots, then the development of robotics dates back to 1961, when General Motors created the first robot with a moving arm that performs some sequence of actions recorded on a magnetic drum. In fact, this development laid the foundation for the mass production of robots.
It is worth noting that the very concept of "robot" came to us a little earlier, or rather in 1921, when science fiction writer Karela Capek wrote a play called "Rossum's Universal Robots". Of course, at that time it was a simple fantasy, and no one could have imagined that robots would enter people's lives so tightly. A little later, 20 years later, Isaac Asimov formulated three basic laws of robotics that determined the idea of robots:
- The robot is not capable of harming a person, or allowing by its inaction to harm a person;
- The robot must follow the commands of the person, if they do not contradict the first law;
- The robot must ensure its safety as long as it does not contradict the first and second law.
Active development of robotics and mass production of automated machines began in the 1970s. First of all, these were industrial robotic machines that were used in production. They successfully replaced people on assembly lines and performed repetitive work, which significantly reduced the number of accidents at work, as well as increased the productivity of enterprises.
Of course, robots are not capable of working on their own. To control them, people are needed who constantly monitor the progress of the work and, if necessary, can turn them off or reconfigure them.
Nowadays, robots have become even smarter. Some factories, such as IBM for keyboard assembly in Texas, have fully automated production. At the same time, all work from the moment of unloading materials and up to the receipt of finished products is performed by robots. Such factories do not require lighting, and they are able to work around the clock, seven days a week.
2.1. Types of robots
A brief history of robotics allows us to understand how rapidly this field is developing. Only a little more than 50 years have passed since the appearance of the first robot capable of performing a few simple movements, to the mass production of a wide variety of robotic mechanisms and machines. In addition, today there is a huge variety household robots which greatly simplifies the everyday life of ordinary people.
Scientific activity in the development of robotics is very high. Every year, international conferences on robots are held, national and international scientific and technical meetings are held, and so on. Every year, a huge number of robots appear that can replace people in the workplace, help in everyday life, entertainment robots, and even robots working in medicine.
Curious is the fact that even today robots are able to build other robots, which in turn will work in the production of the same automated machines. Already at the moment, many science fiction books have become a completely normal and familiar reality, and it is not difficult to imagine what robots will be among people in 10-20 years.
To understand what kind of robots can generally be found in modern life, you should understand some terms:
- Mechanism;
- Robot;
- android;
- Car.
So, a machine is a set of mechanisms that replace a person or an animal in a certain area. Such devices are designed, as a rule, to convert one type of energy into another. In the vast majority of cases, machines are used to automate labor.
Mechanism is the use of certain materials to perform certain mechanical functions. All designs of mechanisms are based on mutual adhesion, as well as the resistance of bodies.
A robot is a machine with anthropomorphic (human-like) behavior, which is partially or fully capable of performing the functions of a person (or animal) under certain conditions.
Android is a concept science fiction which is now becoming a reality. It is a robot that looks like a human. The purpose of the android is to replace a person in any kind of activity.
Knowing what a robot is, one can only imagine what functions it can perform. Nowadays, robots can take on a wide variety of forms, from pets, to huge industrial installations - from vacuum cleaner robots, to real robots from science fiction stories playing on musical instruments or performing important tasks on other planets.
2.2. Achievements in robotics
It is difficult to describe all the modern achievements in the development of robotics. However, everyone agrees that the highest achievements in this field have become modern robots working in medicine. With their arrival, mankind has opened up new opportunities for performing the most subtle operations that even the most trained and experienced person is not able to perform.
It is possible to describe all existing achievements indefinitely, so let's pay attention only to the most interesting developments. For example, robots playing music. Yes, this is no longer a fantasy - this is a real reality available to everyone. Modern technologies allow you to create groups of robots playing various musical instruments. At the same time, robots do not make mistakes and do not need rest.
Imagine a rock band made up entirely of robots. Even 10 years ago it was the most daring fantasy, but today it is a reality. Of course, machines are not able to write music themselves, they are programmed by people. Despite all the achievements of modern robotics, yet all robots are controlled (programmed) by people and carry out exclusively pre-programmed commands.
In addition, robots work in a wide variety of areas:
- In construction;
- on production lines;
- In medicine;
- In the field of entertainment.
3. Robotics: Video
It is thanks to robots that our life is the way we see it. Many things used in Everyday life, have become more affordable due to the operation of machines that do not need wages and work in three or even four shifts.
Space exploration is largely made possible by robots. Moreover, modern automated machines provide the opportunity to obtain rock samples from other planets, meteorites and comets. This, in turn, makes a significant contribution to the work of scientists. It is worth noting a certain relationship - the more “smart” cars become, the faster technologies develop to make even more advanced and “smart” cars.
4. Prospects for the development of robotics
The development of robotics has far-reaching prospects. If you look at the history of the development of this area, you can understand that the development of robotics is accelerating every year. And given the importance of automated machines in a wide variety of industries, especially in medicine, it is not difficult to imagine what hopes are placed on them.
Despite the fact that the history of the development of robotics began relatively recently, this area of technology already has a very high level. The world's best scientists are working tirelessly to create new types of robots - from nanorobots that will be used in medicine to treat various diseases, to independent machines with advanced artificial intelligence. At the moment, one can only imagine to what heights robotics technology will be able to reach in the near future.
:: Opinion 1::
(Great Soviet Encyclopedia)
integral robot
Sheiki Stanford
university (1970)
Robot(Czech robot, from robota - forced labor, rob - slave), a machine with anthropomorphic (human-like) behavior, which partially or completely performs the functions of a person (sometimes an animal) when interacting with the outside world.
A.L.I.C.E. - chat robot,
almost passed
Turing test
With development robotics 3 types of robots were determined: with a rigid program of actions; controlled by a human operator; with artificial intelligence (sometimes called integral), acting purposefully ("intelligently") without human intervention. Majority modern robots(of all three varieties) - robotic manipulators, although there are other types of robots (for example, informational, walking, etc.). It is possible to combine robots of the first and second varieties in one machine with the division of the time of their operation. It is also possible for a person to work together with a robot of the third type (in the so-called supervisory mode).
:: Opinion 2::
(Great Soviet encyclopedia. Machines and mechanisms theory.)
Robot- an automatic machine that simulates the properties and functions of living organisms and, in particular, imitates human actions when moving tools and objects of labor in space.
:: Opinion 3::
(Glossary.ru Dictionary of natural sciences.)
Unmanned
flying
apparatus (UAV)
Hopkins animal
Robot- an electronic-mechanical device: - capable of expedient behavior in a changing external environment; - performing work operations with complex spatial movements.
The main part of the robot is computing system, which controls the movement of the robot itself or third-party objects using manipulator devices. To perform its functions, the robot processes information from its sensors.
stanley robot car,
DARPA race winner
Grand Challenge 2005
Robot(from Czech robota) - an electromechanical, pneumatic, hydraulic device or a combination of them, designed to replace a person in industry, hazardous environments, etc.
Modular
robot
Modern robots operate on the basis of the principles of feedback, subordinate control and hierarchy of the robot control system. The hierarchy of the robot control system implies the division of the control system into horizontal layers that control general behavior robot, calculation of the required trajectory of the manipulator, the behavior of its individual drives, and layers that directly control the drive motors.
An industrial robot is a device that produces some manipulative functions similar to the functions of a human hand.
A robot "in general" is an indefinite concept, and therefore many automatic devices can be attributed to the class of robots.
Robot vacuum cleaner
Robot control systems
Program control
Software control is the simplest type of control system used to control manipulators in industrial facilities. In such robots there is no sensory part, all actions are rigidly fixed and regularly repeated.
Adaptive control
Robots with an adaptive control system are equipped with a sensory part. The signals transmitted by the sensors are analyzed and, depending on the results, a decision is made on next steps, transition to the next stage of actions, etc.
Intelligent control
The intelligent control method is based on artificial intelligence methods. Human-assisted control
An example of such a robot is a remote-controlled demining apparatus.
Robot (program)
Robot or bot(English bot, short for English robot) - special program, which performs automatically and / or according to a specified schedule, any actions through the same interfaces as a regular user. As a rule, the term is used in relation to the Internet. IN network games bots are sometimes referred to as computer-controlled players.
Robots Monsieur
The term robot has no stability. It almost always needs an additional word (for example, industrial or BEAM).
Robot should include three components:
1. Sensor. A sensor that receives a device for perceiving the environment of the robot's operation.
2. Reflector. Program, processing device, neuron, neurode...
3. Actuator. A mechanism that allows you to do work in the environment of the robot.
Thus:
A robot is an autonomous system independent of the operating environment that implements a feedback mechanism in the sensor-reflector-actuator chain.
A robot is a machine (more precisely, an "automatic machine"), the behavior of which looks reasonable.
PaPeRo Robots by NEC
Key words here "looks" And "reasonableness". Those. the determination whether a given machine is a "robot" or not at any given time lies with the observer, and this means not a private person, but rather the public consciousness, with its assessment of the current state of science and technology.
IN public consciousness the machines that surround us every day are not "reasonable", only something new can give the impression of "reasonableness" and for that period until it becomes commonplace. The first washing machine, which "learned" to distinguish silk from cotton, also seemed "very smart" and, accordingly, a "robot", and now it is already a "normal" washing machine.
"Robot" is always the cutting edge of science and technology. And it is precisely because of the same reason that we also consider a small mechanical bug of a dozen parts crawling into the light ("Look, so small, but so smart!"), Without objection, a real robot!
Let's try to define the boundaries of the concept of "robot".
gray walter turtle
Postulate one: A robot is a machine, a product of the activity of another being. That is, the robot is a secondary creation. With this we draw a line between a robot and a living being.
Second postulate: The robot is designed to do the job. By this we again emphasize the secondary nature of the robot. Tasks for the robot are set by its creator, in particular a person.
Several consequences follow from this.
Consequence one: the robot can perform actions that directly affect the senses of its creator. Hence - domestic robots, game robots, teaching robots.
Second consequence: the robot can produce the appearance of work by influencing its creator, creating in him a feeling of the work being done.
Third consequence: The robot can mimic the behavior expected by the creator. From here: Aibo, Asimo, Quiro, and other Japanese pseudo-animals.
Robot dog
Aibo (prototype)
Postulate three: The robot receives information about the world in which it exists. If it doesn't, then it's not a robot, it's just an automaton.
Fourth postulate: The robot changes the outside world. The robot certainly produces a physical impact on the world around it. He moves objects in it, moves himself, influences by his presence or absence on the interaction of other objects of his world.
Fifth postulate: Feedback between the robot and the environment. The robot must receive information about the result of its impact on the outside world.
Robot Fish Popo
Sixth postulate: The robot has various levels"intelligence". You can try to divide the robots into four levels of complexity (levels of intelligence).
A simple hard program
Complex tough program
Simple adaptive program
Complex adaptive program
Development of the concept of "robot"
A robot was originally defined as an anthropomorphic artifact that functions anthropomorphically (that is, a robot is artificially created - by a human or a robot, looks like a human, and performs actions similar to those of a human).
However, anthropomorphism significantly narrows the range of artifacts that can, generally speaking, be attributed to robots (for example, mechanisms capable of executing complex programs, but not looking like a person: the mode of movement is a platform on wheels).
Definition 1:
A robot is an artifact that functions autonomously.
Artifact - a robot created artificially (by an intelligent living being or a robot). A robot can be a machine, a device, or a combination of both. The introduction of the concept of artificiality of creation allows us to separate robots from objects created naturally(e.g. living organisms, natural phenomena).
Functioning - the robot performs any actions using the energy of the source. An energy source is needed. The energy source may or may not be renewable. Ultimately, this only affects the operating time and autonomy. Examples of energy sources: spring, flywheel, galvanic cell or battery, electrical network, solar battery, compressed air tank, kinetic or potential energy of an artifact. Complexity: all objects somehow manifest themselves, and these manifestations can be detected. Perhaps it is necessary to separate actions from manifestations and actions that are characteristic of a robot from actions that it can perform, perhaps there is no need to limit the concept of performing actions. Additionally: actions can be useful, useless, harmful, meaningless.
Autonomously - the robot functions independently in any environment, has a spatially limited volume, can be removed from one place and moved to another place and continue or resume functioning.
Examples of robots by definition 1:
- Clockwork toy. The source of energy is a spring, the actions performed are mechanical movement in space.
- Lamp post. The source of energy is the electrical network, the actions performed are lighting.
- A moving object (such as a ball). The source of energy is the initial potential or kinetic energy, the actions performed are mechanical movement in space.
- Steam boiler with turbine and electric generator. The source of energy is the fuel in the furnace, the actions performed are the production of electrical energy.
- A computer running on battery power and running a program. The source of energy is the battery, the actions performed are information processing.
Does not apply to robots by definition 1:
- Closet. There is no source of energy. But, if a lamp with a battery is built into the cabinet, then it can be attributed to robots.
- Atoms, planets. They are not artifacts. But, if a molecule is artificially assembled from atoms, which performs any actions, for example, mechanical movement under the influence of an electric field (microelectric motor), then it can be attributed to robots.
- Plants, animals. They are not artifacts, although they may have properties obtained through selection or genetic experiments.
The examples given show that the author has adopted the definition of a robot, according to which a very wide circle artifacts. If this circle needs to be narrowed, then the above definition must be supplemented with restrictions, for example: a moving robot is an artifact that functions autonomously and is capable of mechanical movement.
- 1. Karel Capek. R. U. R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), 1920
- 2. Nakano E. Introduction to robotics: Per. from Japanese. - M.: Mir, 1988. - 334 p., ill.
- 3. Shahinpur M. Course of robotics: TRANS. from English. - M.: Mir, 1990. - 527 p., ill.
The process of the emergence and formation of social thought, the creation and improvement of robots - universal automatic devices endowed with certain abilities, as well as the development of robotics covers a long historical period from ancient times to the present and can be divided into 4 stages.
First stage. Deep antiquity. One of the earliest references to artificial man- a bronze giant named Taloe, built by Hephaestus to protect the island of Crete from enemy invasion, - dates back to the 3rd century. BC e. There are many legends about the clay colossus Golem, who possessed a monstrous physical force and which was the ancient prototype of the robot. According to Callistratus (III century BC) and Pausanias (II century BC), the mechanic and sculptor Daedalus created several mechanical statues, among them the statue of Aphrodite, which could reproduce different kinds movements; claim that they were all fairly complex mechanisms.
Reliable information about mechanical people, created in the image and likeness of man, refers to the 1st century BC. and are associated with the name of the ancient Greek mechanic Heron of Alexandria, who left several works on mechanics, in particular, the famous Treatise on Pneumatics, in which he described many automata in the form of moving figures and singing birds. In his work on automata, he wrote that the ancients possessed the art of constructing them, while the word "automaton" Heron denoted cult and theatrical devices, in which the moving figures of people played a central role. For example, he created a device with the help of which the statues installed in the temple of Dionysius "came to life": as soon as the sacrificial fire blazed, the figures of the god Dionysius and his wife Ariadne began to move. It must be said that the drives of Heron's automata were often very complex mechanisms using hydraulic and pneumatic devices.
So, the first historical stage of the movement of mankind along the path of creating robots is characterized by an abundance of myths and legends about mechanical creatures, as well as the creation of the first quite perfect humanoid automata for their time - androids, intended mainly for cult and entertainment purposes.
Second phase. Middle Ages. In various regions of the world, the process of developing and creating various automatic devices and humanoid mechanisms continues to develop - androids, individual samples achieved high degree perfection, served as a standard of the highest craftsmanship, a product of the most advanced technologies and scientific and technical achievements of their time.
In the XIII century. Western European masters designed automatic devices: R. Bacon - a model of a "talking head", A. Magnus - an "iron man". French craftsmen showed high technical skill, creating around 1500 for Louis XII a mechanical lion, which, when called, approached the king, stopped and respectfully rose on its hind legs.
Among the most famous creators of mechanical figures of the Middle Ages was the French mechanic Jacques de Vaucanson (1709-1782). His "Fluttering Duck", which received most famous and preserved to this day, stretched her neck to take grain from her hand, swallowed and digested it, drank, floundered in the water, quacked, her movements exactly imitated the movements of a live duck. Vaucanson was especially proud of the fact that the wings of a duck were so accurately reproduced that not a single anatomist could find fault with their device. Among other models of Vaukanson, the “Pianist”, who, playing the piano, raised his head and imitated breathing, as well as the “Player, on the flute”, who also sang, accompanying himself and beating the beat with his foot, gained fame. Vaucanson dreamed of building a model of a human with a heart, arteries and veins, but death prevented this goal from being achieved.
Vaucanson's contemporaries Swiss watchmakers Pierre Jaquet-Droz (1721-1790) and his son Henri Jaquet-Droz (1752-1791) achieved a high degree of perfection in the creation of automatic machines - androids, some of which have survived to this day. By the way, on behalf of Henri Droz, the phrase "android" came about. The android "Scribe" (1.1) created by Droz the father can serve as an example of the highest technical skill, sitting at the table and writing out letters and words in neat handwriting, smoothly shaking his head and lowering his eyelids to the beat of the movement of his hand. The "scribe" could be programmed to write any text consisting of no more than 40 letters, but the preference was most often given to the famous saying of René Descartes: "Cogito, ergo sum", which means "I think, therefore I am." Pierre Jaquet-Droz achieved such perfection in the creation of automata that he was once captured by the Inquisition in Spain on charges of witchcraft. Created by Pierre and Henri Droz, "The Girl Playing the Harpsichord", according to the enthusiastic descriptions of her contemporaries, plays, moves her lips, her chest rises and falls with "breathing", she looks at the keys, at the notes, and sometimes casts a glance at the audience, at the end the game gets up and bows to the audience.
Russian artisans also contributed to the creation of such mechanisms. So, the famous self-taught mechanic I.P. Kulibin (1735-1818) built the "Egg Figure" for 3 years - a universal clock that gave a theatrical performance with musical accompaniment. The clock mechanism served not only for its intended purpose, but also for the automatic activation of other mechanisms, with the help of which the clock was struck, the figures moved and musical melodies were played.
Along with the direct natural creation of various automatic devices that reproduced the functions of living beings, in the Middle Ages, the foundations were laid quite intensively and the corresponding scientific directions were developed. Attempts to establish a correspondence between "mechanisms and individual human organs can be found even in the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). And the famous French mathematician and philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-165C) stated that the bodies of animals are nothing but complex machines; it was unsafe to say the same about a person at that time.
In the XVI - XVII centuries. at the junction of physiology and mechanics, a new scientific direction arises, called iatromechanics (from gr. t rto e _ doctor). Its outstanding representative was G. A. Borelli (1608-1679), physician and mechanic, professor at the University of Messina, whose work "On the Movement of Animals" was published in Rome in 1680-1681. posthumously. In it, on the basis of mechanical analogies, the work of the muscles of the heart, blood circulation and other organs of animals and humans is considered, a doctrine is built on the laws of their movement and functioning, based on the principles of mechanics. Borelli's doctrine developed in the 18th century, in particular, Leonard Euler (1707-1783) and Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782) in their first works, carried out within the walls of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, considered a number of issues of blood flow in the body and muscle movement, resorting to mechanical analogies. In essence, iatromechanics laid the foundations of modern scientific areas - biomechanics and bionics, playing important role in the development of robotics.
At the turn of the XVIII and XIX centuries. in the works of L. Carnot, G. Monge, X. Lanz and A. Betancourt, O. Borgny, J. Ashette, J. Christian, the science of machines arises. In 1841, R. Willis defined the concept of a mechanism, and from that time on, the machine began to be approached as an object requiring scientific research.
The beginning of a new stage in the study of machines and mechanisms was laid by the Russian mathematician, Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences P.L. mathematical methods. In his work "The Theory of Mechanisms Known as Parallelograms" published by him in 1853, the problems of the theory of mechanisms were first described in the language of mathematics.
The English mathematician and logician George Boole (1815-1864) developed the foundations of mathematical logic and created the so-called Boolean algebra, which later formed the basis for the implementation of all computational and logical operations performed by modern computers. The main work of D. Boole "Investigation of the Laws of Thought" was published in 1854.
The industrial revolution, associated with the transition from manual production to machine production and which began in the second half of the 18th century, activates inventors and reorients their creative efforts towards the creation of new machines and devices, the improvement of industrial technologies. It was during this period that the foundations of industrial automation began to be laid, especially in the textile industry. J. Vaukanson built not only android automata, but also automatic looms. Back in the 20s. 18th century Bouchon and Falcon of Lyon designed looms for the production of patterned silk fabric which were partly controlled, to put it modern language using punched cards or punched tape. Subsequently, these machines were improved by Vaucanson and the French inventor Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752-1834), and in 1805 Jacquard created an automatic machine on which, using punched cards, fabrics with a preprogrammed pattern could be produced. In France alone, 10,000 such machines were put into operation within 7 years.
The creation of programmable Jacquard weaving machines was one of the most important events that determined the further technical progress of the industry and served as an impetus for the development of robotics. Others don't. less important event was the creation of the first computer in almost modern meaning this word. Based on the programming method used by Jacquard, the idea of a computer was expressed and then developed by the outstanding English mathematician, economist and mechanic Charles Babbage (1792-1871). For over 37 years he worked on the realization of his idea. In 1823 he built a differentiating machine and began work on a more complex one. The analytical engine developed as a result of its structural features was already a computer in the modern sense, it had almost all the same functional blocks that make up modern computers, and data was entered using punched cards. Despite the fact that this machine was not built due to the limited capabilities of the technology of that time, its structural features predetermined the direction of the development of computer technology for a whole generation, and its creator
Ch. Babbage entered the history of computer technology as "the father of the computer."
So, the second historical stage in the development of robotics is characterized, on the one hand, by the flourishing of the highest technical art of masters in creating complex automatic devices that reproduce the functions of animals and humans; on the other hand, the beginning of the development and introduction into the developing industrial production of very effective technological devices and automatic machines. At the same time, during this period, the corresponding scientific directions begin to form, computer technology declares itself.
Third stage. Late XIX - first half of the XX a On the basis of the increased scientific and technical capabilities of the time, the realization of the needs of society and production in various automatic devices is growing. At the same time, more clear progress is being made in bringing them closer to the form that is typical for modern robotic devices.
Literature and art take on the role of a kind of catalyst for the process, multiplying the interest of society in the problem of robotics. It was during this period that many highly artistic science fiction works of literature appeared, many comics, cartoons and feature films were staged, in which androids, robots, phantoms and other creations of the human imagination play leading roles.
The very concept of "robot" comes from fiction. For the first time he used it as a derivative of the Czech word "robota" - corvee, forced labor, in his play "R. U. R." (Rossem "s Universal Robots - "Rossum's universal robots") the famous Czech writer K. Capek (1890-1938). The play, staged on January 21, 1921 at the Prague National Theater, tells about a certain Rossum, the founder of a factory where biological by growing robots, characterized by extremely high performance.
And although these creatures would today be called "androids" rather than "robots" (which, as is now commonly believed, should be mechanical), the use of the word "robot" has become ubiquitous. "Robots are people ... they are mechanically more perfect than us, they have an incredibly strong intellect, but they have no soul," one of the characters in the play defines the concept of "robot".
Robots do not feel pain, they do not experience human feelings and experiences. They were created by people only to perform hard and dangerous work and in this sense surpass people in dexterity and physical strength. In society, they are assigned the role of laborers and soldiers. Entrepreneurial businessmen, in pursuit of profit, set up mass production of robots, while the people themselves stop working, and, in the words of one of the characters in the play, a "solid crazy orgy" ensues. In the end, the robots from "horror and suffering acquire a soul", begin to see clearly and rise up. "The power of man has fallen. Capturing the plant, we have become the masters of everything ... A new era has come! The power of robots!". This is the end of the play.
Thus, K. Capek not only created a literary work, but staged and reviewed in art form a number of fundamental issues of robotics - ways to create robots, their main characteristics, production sizes and areas of use, socio-psychological aspects of the relationship between robots and people, self-reproduction of robots.
Perhaps, the theme of robotics occupies the most significant place in the work of another remarkable science fiction writer, the American scientist and popularizer of science, Isaac Asimov. In one of his stories, united by the general cycle "I am a robot", A. Azimov in 1942 tried for the first time to formulate the basic principles of the behavior of robots and their interaction with humans, based on the categories of goodness and humanity. These principles, called three laws of robotics, they say:
1. A robot cannot harm a person or contribute to causing harm to him by his inaction.
2. He must carry out the orders of man, except those which are contrary to the first law.
3. The robot must ensure its own safety, except in cases where this is contrary to the first and second laws.
One of the pioneers of industrial robotics, founder and president of the Unimation robotics company, recognized as the "father of modern industrial robotics", Joseph F. Engelberger believes that A. Asimov's three laws of robotics are the standards that specialists must follow when creating modern robots . Fantastic ideas and images of writers largely anticipated the trends of scientific and technological progress, and the new concept of "robot" began to play an important role in the future not only in literature and art, but also in science, technology, and production.
Thanks to the general interest in robots, inventors and talented craftsmen manage to find sources of funding, develop and create original android designs. So, 7 years after the premiere of "R. U. R." American engineer J. Wensley designed a voice-controlled robot "Mr. Televox", which had an outward resemblance to a person, capable of performing elementary movements on command given by voice, and which became an exhibit at the World Exhibition in New York. The exhibition of the British Association of Modeling Engineers in 1928 was "opened" by a robot named "Eric", who addressed the audience with a short speech. In the same year, under the guidance of Dr. Nishimura
Makota creates the first Japanese robot, called the "Naturalist" and capable of electrically manipulating his arms and head. Subsequently, this android began to be considered the ancestor of robotics in Japan.
The first domestic android robot B2M was created in 1936 by a gifted Moscow schoolboy Vadim Matskevich and in 1937 was awarded a diploma of the World Exhibition in Paris. Now V.V. Matskevich is a candidate of technical sciences, the author of many printed works, in particular, the fascinating popular science book "Entertaining anatomy of robots", published by the publishing house "Radio and Communication" already in the second edition (1988).
However, all these original devices, being a breakthrough in the field of new technology, a vivid demonstration of the creative capabilities of man, had an extremely limited practical application. The solution to the technical problems associated with the use of robots in manufacturing processes and scientific research was essentially untouched. Moreover, it remained completely unclear what tasks can be solved by robotic devices in industry. _
If we turn to robots as software-controlled multi-purpose machines of a manipulation type intended for use in industry or scientific research, then one of the very first industrial manipulators was a rotary mechanism with a gripping device for removing workpieces from a furnace, developed in the USA by Babbitt in 1892. Further improvement of this device leads to the appearance of the predecessors of modern robots. They turned out to be intensively developed in 1940-1950, especially in the USA, France and Germany, copying remote manipulators for working with dangerous radioactive materials. One of the first copying manipulators of this type for servicing nuclear reactors, developed in the USA under the direction of R. Hertz, thanks to force sensing, made it possible to use both visual and force information as feedback, which significantly improved the control process and expanded the functionality of the device.
The emergence of such manipulators played an important role in the subsequent development of manipulation systems, transmission mechanisms, sensing systems, and robotics hardware. Among the manipulators created at that time, copying manipulators developed by the Oregon State Research Institute (USA) received particular fame; his designs and control principles are still used in many models of robots. Yet more direct predecessors of modern robots can be considered programmable paint spray machines developed in 1930-1940. in the USA, for example, Pollard and Roselund machines, which were programmed by recording a signal from a lever mechanism moving along a given path.
Increased economic potential and demand for modern types armaments of the leading industrial countries in the first half of the 20th century. give a powerful impetus to the development of science and scientific and technical areas, without which the emergence and progress of modern robotics would be impossible. It's about primarily about computer technology and cybernetics.
In 1936-1937. English mathematician Alan Motison Turing (1912-1954) introduces the concept of an "abstract computing machine", now called a Turing machine, capable of performing calculations of arbitrary complexity using the simplest read and shift operations and which became the prototype of the late 1940s. universal computers. Through the efforts of a number of talented scientists (J. von Neumann, G. Walter, W.R. Ashby, K. Shannon, etc.), based on the study of analogies between the nervous human system, computers and automatic control systems, the theory of algorithms is developing, which has become one of the theoretical sources of computational mathematics, and then cybernetics and robotics.
On the basis of the synthesis of the theory of information processes, computer technology and the functional-computational approach, cybernetics is being created, defined as the science of managing complex dynamic systems (Academician A.I. Berg). Its "fathers" are called outstanding American scientists - mathematician Norbert Wiener (1894-1964) and neurophysiologist Warren McCulloch (1898-1969), and the date of official birth is considered to be 1948, when N. Wiener's book "Cybernetics, or control and communication in the animal and the machine."
The logical conclusion of the period of formation of the theoretical foundations of computer technology was the work of the outstanding American mathematician, one of the founders of cybernetics, John von Neumann (1903-1957), it was he who came up with the idea of recording a program for solving a problem in a computer memory. Thanks to the principle of storing programs, computers become universal. The first computers in which the Neumann principle was implemented were Howard Aiken's electromechanical computing calculator of sequential action on electromagnetic relay circuits (1944) created in the USA and the first truly electronic computer "ENIAC" (1947), developed under a contract with the Pentagon at the University of Pennville under the leadership of J. Prosper Eckert and J. Morley, who later founded the famous IBM.
No less important for the development of computer technology, cybernetics and robotics was another work by J. von Neumann - "The General and Logical Theory of Cybernetic Automata", published in 1951 and devoted to the principles of constructing control and computing automatic devices. In his writings and lectures, he gave a general scheme of a self-reproducing automaton - "a machine shop that, given enough raw materials and time, will make copies of any machine." The image of Neumann's phantom robot is often found on the pages of specialized literature on robotics.
Already from the first works of J. von Neumann, the theory and practice of electronic computers began to develop at an amazing pace, and the invention of the transistor in the laboratories of the Bell Telephone company by John Bardeen, Walter Britten and William Shockley gave a new impetus to this dynamic process, which later made it possible to create compact and reliable computer control systems for robots.
So, the third stage of the formation of robotics is marked by the emergence and universal recognition the term "robot", the development and use for human needs of the direct predecessors of modern robots - remote copying manipulators and programmable automatic devices of the manipulation type, as well as the rapid development of the scientific and applied foundations of computer technology and cybernetics. This powerful scientific and technical reserve, following the interests and needs of social development, brought modern robotics to the start.
Fourth stage. Second half of the 20th century The emergence of modern robots should be attributed to 1959, when the first industrial manipulators with program control were created in the USA, which received the generally accepted name of industrial robots (IR) and marked the beginning of commercial production. In the 1950s a group of American engineers, having begun work on the problem of applying control theory in solving common tasks optimal movement of equipment, tools and materials in the production process, found that the management of loading and unloading and transport mechanisms and processes can be entrusted to a computer. The relative ease of programming the control computer becomes the basis for the creation of flexible equipment suitable for efficient operation in changing production conditions. This approach led to the creation of the first mechanical manipulators with program control, i.e. industrial robots.
The pioneers here were two talented American engineers - George C. Devol and Joseph F. Engelberger. In 1954, Devol patented in the USA a method for moving objects between different production sites based on a control program on punched cards, similar to those once proposed by Babbage. The invention was intended to solve, first of all, the problem of flexibility, i.e. creation of a universal transport device, easily reconfigured to perform other operations. In 1956, Devol, together with Engelberger, then working in one of the aerospace companies, organized the world's first robotic company "Unimation" ("Union"), which means "universal automation" - short for "Universal Automation". In the laboratory of this company, the world's first industrial robot was created according to Devol's patent, which bore the modest name "programmable device for transferring objects" and became the prototype for subsequent developments. Unimation held a leading position in the global robotics industry until the early 1980s, when the position of a number of other companies that developed more dynamically strengthened.
In the early 1960s the first American industrial robots trademarks"Unimate" (1.2) and "Versatran" (1.3), created respectively by Unimation, American Machine and Faundry (AMF) and designed to serve technological processes - injection molding, forging, machining, spot welding, application coatings - entered the industrial market. They were already quite advanced systems with feedback and a controlled trajectory of movement, they had numerical control and memory, like a computer. Already in the first robots "Unimate" and "Versatran" the principle of programming by learning was implemented. The human operator, using the coordinate handle, set a sequence of points through which the "hand" had to pass in one working cycle, and the robot "remembered" their coordinates, after which it could automatically move from one point to another in a given sequence with great accuracy.
The use of robots in the automotive and metallurgical industries turned out to be economically profitable: the cost of acquiring robots "Unimate" or "Versatran" (25-35 thousand dollars per product) paid off in 1.5 - 2.5 years. As it was said in one of articles of the time, published in Machinery Magazine, a new type of production worker has emerged in the American metalworking industry who is not a member of a union, does not drink coffee at lunchtime, works 24 hours a day and is not interested in benefits or pensions. He masters new job in a few minutes and always does it well, never complains about heat, dust and odors, and never gets hurt. This is an industrial robot.
The first commercial successes in the use of industrial robots were a powerful impetus for their further improvement. In the early 1970s computer-controlled robots appear. The first mini-computer to control a robot was released in 1974 by Cincinnati Milacron, one of the leading robot manufacturers in the United States. At the end of 1971, the American firm "INTEL" created the first microprocessor, and a few years later robots with microprocessor control appeared, which led to a significant increase in their quality while reducing the cost. The fact is that microprocessors and microcomputers based on them. are extremely cheap, small in size and weight, and relatively easy to program to perform a wide variety of functions. It is microprocessors, these "wonder crystals of the 20th century." made it possible to build control microcomputers, the cost of which is tens and hundreds of times lower than the cost of traditional mainframe computers. For example, if we compare microcomputers with the first electronic computer "ENIAC", we can see that their reliability is about 1000 times higher, the amount of energy consumed is less than a million times, the performance is more than 20 times, and the physical dimensions of memory blocks are approximately 1/30000 share of ENIAC machine block sizes. But perhaps the most amazing thing is that the computer is 10,000 times cheaper. Already in the mid-1980s. approximately 34 million microprocessors were used in capitalist countries, including 23 million in the USA, 9 in Japan, and 2 million in Western Europe. 70 and 400 times respectively.
In the following years, after the creation and entry into the industrial Market of the first robots, the rapid development of Robotics began all over the world. Competition, the struggle for sales markets have determined a sharp increase in the production of industrial robots in leading countries, accompanied by the vigorous introduction of robotics in various industries. In a number of capitalist countries, associations or societies are organized that oversee research and development in the field of creating and using industrial robots, in particular, the Japan Industrial Robotics Association (JIRA) was formed in 1972, in 1974 the US Robotics Institute (RIA) and the British Robot Association (BRA), in 1975 - the Italian Society of Robotics (SIRI), in 1978 - French (AFRI), in 1980 - Swedish (SWIRA), in 1981 - Australian (ARA), in 1982 - Danish (DRA) and Singaporean (SRA) robot associations.
The very principle of using industrial robots is also changing - from single to complex. In the leading robotic countries (Japan, USA, Germany, USSR, etc.) in the late 1960s - early 1970s. flexible production systems (FPS), the so-called "unmanned" productions, which are the productions of the future, are being developed and created. Scientific and technological advances in robotics made it possible in the 1960s-1980s. create a number of complex scientific and special robotic complexes for research outer space(stations of the Luna type, Lunokhod devices - the USSR; stations of the Mariner, Servoyer, Viking types - the USA, etc.), as well as the development of underwater depths (devices "TV", "Mosquito", " Dolphin" - Japan; devices "KURV", "RCV" - USA; "Manta", "OCA" - USSR; "ROV", "RM" - France; "ARCS" - Canada, etc.).
Robotics as a scientific discipline is formed by the joint efforts of scientists and technology developers into a holistic scientific and technical direction, enriched by vast experience in the development and operation of a wide variety of robots, robotic devices and systems.
So, the considered fourth historical stage can be called as a whole the stage of modern robotics. It is characterized by the development and creation of already sufficiently advanced robots controlled in the most developed form from a computer and having an applied purpose as in industrial production, and in scientific research; dynamic development and wide use in production processes of a class of industrial robots; the final formation of robotics into a single scientific and technical direction.
Since antiquity, people began to think about creating mechanical people capable of performing hard and routine work. In myths, there are references to the creation by Hephaestus of mechanical slaves who perform work for a person. But various mechanisms were also created out of scientific interest. For example, the mechanical dove of the Greek mathematician Archytas from Tarentum, built by him around 400 AD, is known. Possibly propelled by steam, the dove was able to fly.
And some robots were created rather for fun or for the purpose of extracting commercial profit, and many of them were falsifications, such as the famous Turk chess machine.
The first drawing of a humanoid robot was made by Leonardo da Vinci around 1495. His notes were only found in the 1950s and contained detailed drawings of a knight able to move his arms and head.
Although, it is not known if this robot was built. There is also an opinion that NASA experts used the findings of Leonardo to create a manipulator in preparation for expeditions to the moon.
The first working humanoid robot was created by the French inventor Jacques de Vaucanson in 1737. The android was a life-size human capable of playing a flute. Flutist Vaucanson had 12 pieces in his repertoire!
But the most famous invention of Jacques de Vaucanson is digestive ducks, created by him in 1739. These robots consisted of about 400 parts, and were able to flap their wings, drink water. Also, the ducks pecked at the grains and, in a second, they defecated. But, in fact, the duck did not digest food: the grains eaten were placed in a special container, and the "output product" was prepared in another.
By the end of the 19th century, an engineer from Russia, Chebyshev Pafnuty, came up with a mechanism - a stop-walker, which had a high cross-country ability. Of course, this invention was not of great benefit to mankind, but the idea itself gave a certain impetus to the development of robotics technologies.
In 1885, Frank Reade's Electric Man was first tested. The machine had a rather powerful searchlight, and the opponents were waiting for electric discharges, which the Man shot directly from the eyes. The power source appears to have been in a meshed van. Nothing is known about Electric Man's abilities or speed.
By the way, the word robot did not exist then. It appeared only in 1920, thanks to Karel Capek and his brother Josef.
In 1893, Professor Archie Campion presented a prototype Boilerplate robot at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
Boilerplate was conceived as a means of bloodless conflict resolution - in other words, it was a prototype of a mechanical soldier. The robot existed in a single copy, but it had the ability to perform the proposed function - Boilerplate repeatedly participated in hostilities. Although the stories about Boilerplate are interesting, their truth is suspect, as well as the stories about Steem Man and Electric Man.
Seven years later, Louis Philip Perew created the Automatic Man in America. "This giant of wood, rubber and metals, who walks, runs, jumps, talks and rolls his eyes - imitates a man in almost everything." Automatic Man was 7 feet 5 inches (2.25 meters) tall, wearing a white suit, giant shoes and a matching hat.
The first programmable mechanisms with manipulators appeared in the 1930s in the United States. The impetus for their creation was the work of Henry Ford on the creation of an automated production line or conveyor (1913). The first industrial robot that actually existed in hardware belongs to L.G. Pollard. October 29, 1934, Willard L.G. Pollard filed a patent application for a new fully automatic surface painting machine. In 1937, the license for the production of this manipulator somehow got to the DeVilbiss company. It was DeVilbiss in 1941, with the help of Harold Roseland, who built the first prototypes of this device. However, the final Roseland version, patented and marketed in 1944, was a very different machine, borrowing only the idea of a control system from Pollard, Jr.
The history of serious robotics begins with the advent of the nuclear industry almost immediately after the end of World War II. The task set - to secure the work of personnel with radioactive preparations - is successfully solved with the help of manipulators that copy the movements of a human operator. These are not yet completely “honest” robots, since they still consist only of mechanical parts: belt and chevron gears are used. The modern name for such devices is copy manipulators or MSM (master-slave manipulators). One of the first MSM companies, CRL (Central Research Laboratories), was founded in 1945, and its first MSM, Model 1, was presented to the US Atomic Energy Commission as early as 1949.
May 18, 1966 can be considered the birth date of the first truly serious robot that the whole world heard about. On this day, Grigory Nikolaevich Babakin, chief designer of the S.A. Lavochkin machine-building plant in Khimki, signed the head volume of the E8 preliminary project. It was Lunokhod-1, the lunar rover 8EL as part of the automatic station E8 No. 203, the first apparatus in history to successfully conquer the lunar surface on November 17, 1970.
In 1968, the Stanford Research Institute (SRI, Stanford Research Institute) creates "Shakey" - the first mobile robot with artificial vision and the rudiments of intelligence. The device on wheels solves the problem of avoiding possible obstacles - various cubes. Exclusively on a flat surface, because the robot is very unstable. Most notably, the "brain" of the robot takes up an entire room next door, communicating with the "body" via radio.
Sustainability research leads to work on the dynamic balance of robots, resulting in robot horses and even several robots on one leg - in order to not fall, they have to constantly run and jump. The era of stability and patency research begins. At this time, many robots appear to explore other planets and, of course, conduct military operations in the desert. All robotics in the United States is very often sponsored by DARPA to this day.
Japan occupies the first place in the world in the production and use of robots. In 1928, under the leadership of Dr. Nishimuro Makoto, a robot called "Naturalist" was created, 3.2 meters high. Equipped with motors, he could change the position of his head and hands. And on November 21, 2000, at the first ever ROBODEX exhibition in Yokohama, Japan, Tokyo Sony Corporation presents its first humanoid robot "SDR-3X".
26.04.2008, 12:10In this article you will find answers to questions:
1. The history of the term " android";
2. How did the term " Program";
3. Who coined the word " Robot";
4. Birth" Cybernetics";
5. Who came up with the unit of measurement of information;
6. History of appearance " artificial intelligence".
A few words about why I collected information for this article.
Nowadays, the name of Isaac Asimov is on everyone's lips. Why is clear. He is our contemporary. We read his works, watch films based on his work. Some of the postulates formulated by Azimov have already been "canonized" to a certain extent. In no way am I trying to belittle this man's contribution to the "roboticization" of social thinking. But sometimes I get the impression that the era of robots in the mass consciousness is associated only with Asimov. What was before him is now little known and unpopular. So it seems to me...
With this article, I want to remind you of the people who lived before us, who were interested in robots and promoted their development in accordance with the possibilities that were in their era. They did a lot. Shall we start?
1. The history of the term "Android"
Have you heard? In Switzerland, some watchmaker made a mechanical man who can write.
- How did you hear it! Did you know that his son made another mechanical man who can draw.
- What are you saying? That would be interesting to see!
Such conversations could be heard anywhere and everywhere in Western Europe about two hundred years ago. The mechanical people of the Swiss watchmaker Pierre-Jacques Droz and his son Henri caused general surprise. Much has been said and written about them. Crowds flocked to Chaux-de-Fonds, the Swiss village on the French border, where Droz lived and worked to see them.
Almost all the inhabitants of this village were engaged in the production of watches. Some made clock springs, others made dials, others made gears, cogs and cylinders. Labor was divided up to the point that there were specialists in the manufacture of cases, polishing of wheels, screws, painters of numbers, enamellers, gilders. The whole village represented one manufactory, producing several thousand different watches a year.
The ticking of pendulums, the slow rotation of gears, the running of second hands - all this brilliant, precise world of mechanisms that fits in the palm of your hand or in a small box on the wall, fascinated Pierre Droz in his youth, and he, despite the successful ending religious school, without hesitation, took up watchmaking craft.
Pierre's success in watchmaking was so great that the manufacture of ordinary watches soon ceased to bring satisfaction, and he, following the example of other skilled craftsmen, begins to invent and attach various additional mechanisms to watches - all sorts of self-moving figures.
One of his first products - a wonderful pendulum clock with a shepherd and a dog - Dro took to the capital of Spain, the city of Madrid, to King Ferdinand IV. The demonstration was carried out in the presence of numerous court nobility. Excited, Dro showed them the piece he had created. When the hour hand approached any hour, the shepherd brought a flute to his mouth and whistled as many times as the hours should have struck.
At the feet of the shepherdess lay a dog guarding a basket of apples. As soon as one of the courtiers touched the fruit, the dog began to bark. They took their hand off the fruit - the barking immediately stopped. The king liked the invention of Pierre Droz, and he paid well and bought a watch.
Encouraged by his success, Dro, upon returning home, decided to make a mechanism that looked like a person and made human movements. It was a daring plan of the master, who felt his power over the wheels and levers. To build a mechanical man, it was necessary to have a subtle knowledge of mechanics and great ingenuity. Nevertheless, Pierre Droz ardently set about her permission.
lasted twenty months hard work. Often, Dro would stay well past midnight by the light of an oil lamp. Finally, in 1770, in the spring, the first mechanical man was born. It was a mechanical "writing boy".
When the mechanical man wrote, he moved his head and seemed to follow what he was writing. After finishing the work, the scribe sprinkled a sheet of paper with sand to dry the ink, and then shook it off. By pure chance, the "writing boy" and part of his "manuscripts", as well as other inventions of the father and son of Dro, have survived to this day. After long wanderings, they are now in Switzerland, in the Museum of Fine Arts in Neuchâtel. The sixteen-year-old son of Pierre Droz, Henri, was watching the work on the manufacture of the "writing boy". The boy inherited from his father an exceptional ability for mechanics and three years later he himself set about building a new mechanical man, who, according to the plan, was supposed to draw. The size of the draftsman was the same as his "big brother". In his right hand he held a pencil and drew various figures, and also wrote. For example, he could depict a small dog and sign “my Tutu” under the picture. And the portraits of Louis XV and XVI and Marie Antoinette still delight visitors to the museum in Neuchâtel. In the process of work, the draftsman stopped, as if contemplating what was drawn, and also sometimes blew motes from a sheet of paper. After some time, both mechanics, father and son Dro, took up together the invention and construction of the third mechanical man - the musician (Fig. 2). In terms of complexity, it far exceeded its "brothers". This doll played the harmonium, striking the keys with her fingers. Trills and fast passages were clear and easy for her. Before the start of the game, the musician examined the notes and made some preliminary movements with her hand. In addition, she turned her head and eyes, as if following the position of her hands. Her chest rose and fell as if she were breathing. After finishing the game, the musician bowed her head, thanking the audience for their approval. 
Pierre and Henri Droz demonstrated their inventions at an exhibition in Paris in 1774. The movements of all three mechanical people were so natural that many of the spectators were ready to consider them living people. And only when the Dros opened the complex clockwork of their creations from the back, the audience began to believe that they were really works of technology, and not living beings.
The source of movement of all three automata described is a clockwork with a winding spring. The spring drives the most complex systems of gears, levers, rods and cams - all that later became known as a software mechanism.
At first glance, it may seem that the "toys" of Pierre and Henri Droz have nothing to do with the development of technology. But it is not so. The mechanical people of Dro played a very important role in common process human knowledge of nature and laid the foundation for automatic machines with program control.
2. How the term "Program" appeared
The very word program comes from the Greek word "gram" - "scripture" and the prefix "pro", which here means "in advance". The general meaning of the word "program" is a destiny, something written for the future. In our case, the software mechanism determines the entire sequence of behavior of mechanical people. And not a single movement of the automaton, even the most insignificant, can be changed without making amendments to the program! Well, what happens if something changes in the external conditions during the operation of the machine? Well, let's say, if you try to hold the scribe's hand when he writes? One of two things will happen: either the machine will stop, or ... something will crackle in it and it will break. All these automata cannot respond to changes in external conditions occurring in the course of their operation. Nevertheless, software machines have become an important step in the development of robotics.
Already at the beginning of the 19th century, automatic spinning and weaving machines with program control appeared. In a terrible time for Europe, when Napoleon conquered one country after another and the army needed a lot of fabrics, the French inventor Joseph Marie Jacquard found a way that could influence the complex work of the loom mechanisms. To do this, the inventor used a set of cardboard cards with different arrangements of holes. It was the holes that were the symbol for the operation of the machine - its program. The card passed under the probes. When the probes fell into the holes, they lowered and, with the help of special devices, moved the threads on the loom. So complex patterns were obtained on the fabrics. New map, new program, and hence a new pattern. Changing a sheet of cardboard card is tantamount to replacing one hard-coded machine with another, a new design. This was already a significant step forward compared to the Draw machines. After all, every mechanical person there had his own program of action sequences and the transition to a new program was associated with a reworking of the entire control mechanism. Indeed, it hardly made sense to build looms capable of producing only one fabric pattern inherent in this design: people quickly got bored with this pattern. The idea of entering the program of the machine using cardboard cards and a set of probes turned out to be very successful. More than one hundred and fifty years have passed since the invention of Jacquard, but still no better way has been found to produce fabrics decorated with complex patterns.
3. Who coined the word "Robot"
Robots owe their name not to cybernetics and not even to engineers, but ... to a writer. This is Karel Capek - the famous Czech writer and playwright first came up with this word.
 | In the early thirties, Čapek wrote a play which he called "RUR". Her hero, engineer Ross, managed to invent a complex machine that could do all the work of a person. The author called this humanoid machine "robot". Ross's invention immediately attracted the attention of capitalists, who organized a special firm for the production of robots. Robots had a complete external resemblance to a person and could perform any work. The demand for them was so great that the plant soon switched to their mass production. The owners of robots began to replace them with living people in factories and plants. Finally, the capitalists felt calm. But not for long! One day, robots attacked people and killed them all. People on Earth ceased to exist, and intelligent automatons took their place... |
Such an ending of the first play about robots left a deep imprint in the souls of the first viewers and formed a negative attitude of society towards them for many decades. However, technology continued to develop, and people continued to build robots, regardless of emotions.
One of the first robots was built by the American engineer Wensley in 1925. The author gave him the name Mr. Televox. When Wensley was asked where this strange name came from, he replied: “The first half of the word - “tele” - is Greek and means “far”, the second - “vox” is Latin and means “voice”. With my name, I wanted to emphasize the ability of my robot to respond to commands given by a human voice. Outwardly, Mr. Televox was not very attractive: a square head with some kind of rectangles instead of eyes and a mouth, a female hairpin instead of a nose, an open wooden body with a complex interweaving of wires and mechanisms inside, and, finally, ridiculous arms and legs. Televox had the ability to hear and execute several different orders given by a person with the help of whistle sounds. By giving a different number of repeated whistles, Wensley could make the robot open the windows, close the door, turn on the fan and vacuum cleaner, and turn on the light in the room. Televox was not only a hearing and speaking robot. He could do some household chores, replacing the housekeeper. Let's assume that the owner of the robot is visiting. By the time she gets home, she wants to have a hot supper. To do this, she only needs to use the phone and call Televox home. With the help of whistles, you can give the appropriate order, and a mechanical servant will warm up the dinner. How will he do it? Very simple. When leaving home, the hostess should put the pot and pans with food on the electric stove. Televoks will then only have to turn on the stove in the power grid, which he can easily do on his own.
Very soon Mr. Televox had brothers. The first of these was the robot Eric, built in 1928 by the English engineer Richards. This robot performed before the public on September 15, 1928 in London at the opening of the annual exhibition of the Society of Engineers. He delivered a speech about the results of the past year. Eric was shown in many other cities in the UK.
4. Birth of "Cybernetics"
The starting point is considered to be 1948, when the founder of cybernetics, the outstanding American mathematician Norbert Wiener (1894-1964) published the book "Cybernetics", in which a lot was said about the quantitative evaluation of various signals. Talented people stood at the origins of robotics. The son of a professor of Slavic studies, a native of Russia, Norbert Wiener received his Ph.D. from Harvard University at the age of 18!
The appearance of the book as a powerful explosion shocked the whole world. It was she who proclaimed the birth of a new science - CYBERNETICS. Wiener was a generalist. He seems to have resurrected in our day the traditions of universalism that flourished in the days of Descartes, Leibniz and Newton. The breadth of interests was combined in him with a deep conviction in the unity of science, in the need for a close union of its various branches. Most of all, Wiener strove to study the hidden riches of the "no man's land". So he called the border strips lying at the junctions of two or more sciences. It was one of these "no man's fields", located between mathematics, technology and physiology, that brought the scientist world fame.
By the way, one of the meanings of the Greek word kebernetes, from which its name comes, is steering. Oddly enough, but almost all created cybernetic systems for many years did without a "man-helmsman". More recently, just a few years ago, a new direction appeared - second-order cybernetics. It differs from the classical one in that it includes a human observer in the control loop, which was traditionally purely machine-made.
5. Who came up with the theory of information and the unit of measurement of information "Bit"
In 1948, Claude Shannon, another American mathematician, published " mathematical theory connections". In fact, Shannon's work predetermined the path in which the section of cybernetics has been developing ever since - information theory.
Since the appearance of Shannon's work, mathematicians, physicists and engineers began to understand the term "information" as something new, different from what is meant by this word in everyday life.
After reading the book, people said that it was empty or, conversely, very informative. But no one even thought that you can accurately calculate how much information is contained on its pages. It seemed even more difficult to estimate the amount of information in the sound signals of our speech or in a television image!
But Shannon was able to solve this problem, thanks to which, since the 50s of our century, mankind has measured information as confidently as, say, the length of an object in meters or its weight in kilograms. The unit of measurement of information with light hand Claude Shannon became bit.
6. The history of the emergence of "Artificial Intelligence"
Research on artificial intelligence belong to those few scientific and scientific and technical disciplines, the date of birth of which can be indicated almost to the nearest day. And at the same time, artificial intelligence had not one such date, but at least two, which often happens in the history of science.
Indeed, for the first time the term "artificial intelligence" was introduced into scientific practice in the summer of 1956, when in Dartmus (USA) on the initiative of the well-known American specialist on the theory and practice of John McCartney's computers, many "godfathers" of cybernetics - K. Shannon, M. Minsky, G. Simon, A. Newell and others - gathered to discuss the possibility of implementing a project to create artificial intelligence. The term "artificial intelligence" was introduced even into the name of the conference - Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial intelligence, and very soon entered into scientific use.
Participants of the Dartmus conference in 1956 could not ignore one more early work, directly related to the problems of artificial intelligence (although this term was not used in it) - an article by the prominent English mathematician Alan Turing "Computing machinary and intelligence", published in the October issue of the journal "Mind" in 1950. October 1950 is the second (and historically the first) date for the emergence of research on artificial intelligence. In this article, A. Turing formulated his famous test, according to which a computer demonstrates intelligent behavior if it is able to act in such a way that the observer is not able to decide whether he is dealing with a computer or with a person. Everything is grown-up!
Like this...
And then - Asimov, Asimov ... :)))
Good luck to you!
Thanks to Vladimir Kanivets (Portal of robotics lovers - Robo.com.ua) for the material provided
We have prepared an article about
