Robotics :: essays research papers

Two years ago, the Chrysler corporation completely gutted its Windsor, Ontario, car assembly establish and within six weeks had installed an entirely new factory inside the building. It was a marvel of engineering. When it came time to go to work, a whole new work personnel office marched onto the assembly line. There on opening day was a crew of 150 industrial automatons. Industrial robots dont look anything like the androids from sci-fi books and movies. They dont act like the vile Daleks or a fusspot C-3P0. If anything, the industrial robots toiling on the Chrysler line resemble elegant swans or baby brontosauruses with their fat, squat bodies, long arched necks and wee heads. An industrial robot is essentially a long manipulator arm that holds tools such as welding guns or motorized screwdrivers or grippers for picking up objects. The robots working at Chrysler and in numerous other modern factories are extremely adept at performing highly specialized tasks - one robot may spray paint car parts while another does spots welds while another pours radioactive chemicals. Robots are ideal workers they never prolong bored and they work around the clock. Whats even more important, theyre flexible. By altering its programming you can instruct a robot to take on dissimilar tasks. This is largely what sets robots apart from other machines try as you might you cant make your washing machine do the dishes. Although some critics complain that robots are stealing much-needed jobs past from people, so far theyve been given only the dreariest, dirtiest, most soul-destroying work. The word robot is Slav in origin and is related to the words for work and worker. Robots for the first time appeared in a play, Rossums Universal Robots, written in 1920 by the Czech playwright, Karel Capek. The play tells of an engineer who designs man-like machines that have no human weakness and become immensely popular. However, when the robots are used for war they rebel against the ir human masters. Though industrial robots do dull, dehumanizing work, they are nevertheless a delight to watch as they stretch out their long necks, swivel their heads and poke about the area where they work. They satisfy "that vague longing to see the human body reflected in a machine, to see a living function translated into mechanical parts", as one writer has said. Just as much fun are the numerous "personal" robots flat on the market, the most popular of which is HERO, manufactured by Heathkit.