Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Robotics :: essays research papers

Two years ago, the Chrysler corporation completely gutted its Windsor, Ontario, car throng plant and at bottom 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 force marched onto the assembly line. There on opening day was a crew of 150 industrial robots. Industrial robots dont look anything like the androids from sci-fi books and movies. They dont act like the evil 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, foresightful arched necks and small 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 works at Chrysler and in numerous other modern factories argon extremely adept at performing highly specialized tasks - one robot may spray pai nt car parts while another does spots welds while another pours radioactive chemicals. Robots are ideal workers they never get bore and they work around the clock. Whats even more important, theyre flexible. By altering its programming you can instruct a robot to take on different tasks. This is for the most part 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 away 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 first 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 their human masters. Th ough industrial robots do dull, dehumanizing work, they are nevertheless a delight to watch as they crane 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 nutriment function translated into mechanical parts", as one writer has said. Just as much fun are the numerous "personal" robots now on the market, the most popular of which is HERO, manufactured by Heathkit.

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