Robotics and Artificial Intelligence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

Robots started as simple mechanical devices but have evolved remarkably over time. The term “robot” itself comes from the Czech word “robota” meaning “forced labor” or “slave,” first introduced in Karel Čapek’s 1921 play R.U.R. Isaac Asimov later popularized robots in his 1951 book “I, Robot” and coined the term “robotics.”

The earliest robot-like devices were automata powered by water and steam, built by ancient Greeks, Chinese, and Ethiopians. By medieval times, automata were attached to clocks, and in the 18th century, spring-powered mannequins could play instruments and draw pictures.

Modern industrial robots emerged in the 1950s after computers were invented. The first industrial robot was created in 1954 by George Devol and Joseph Engelberger – a simple “pick-and-place” manipulator arm attached to a computer. Their company, Unimation, brought robots to market in 1961, with General Motors being an early adopter.

Medical robots have been particularly groundbreaking. Ole, the first robotic doctor, began performing surgeries in California in the 1980s. In 1983, a robotic nurse called Medical Electric King Kong (Melkong) was developed in Japan that could help with patient care. By 1994, Robodoc was performing precise hip replacement surgeries.

The MIT Leg Lab has been pioneering walking robots since 1980, with their two-legged Troody even serving as a model for dinosaurs in the 1997 film “The Lost World: Jurassic Park.” Their approach focuses on controlling force exertion rather than precise foot placement calculations.

By the 1990s, robots were widespread in manufacturing, hazardous environments, and space exploration. The Sojourner rover from the 1997 Mars Pathfinder mission could travel 46 feet per day using solar power.

The AI side of robotics has been developing too. Early examples include the Hopkins Beast from the 1960s that could find electrical outlets to recharge itself, and SARCOS, a ping-pong playing robot that mimics human movements.

By the mid-1990s, there were around 650,000 robots worldwide, with Japan being the largest user and the US second with 14% of the world’s robots. The dream of creating robots with human-like intelligence remains challenging – robots still struggle with tasks humans find easy, like distinguishing between a hole and a shadow.

What strikes me is how robotics has evolved from purely mechanical devices to increasingly intelligent systems that can learn from their environments. They predict personal robots of the future that could sing, dance, tell jokes, and handle household tasks -We will have to give some time to see how that goes.