History of robots and Classification of robots

History of robots,

The history of robots can be traced back to ancient times and includes many milestones, such as the first industrial robot, the first robotic arm, and the first robot to use artificial intelligence: 

• Ancient world: The Renaissance era saw artists, scientists, and inventors like Leonardo Da Vinci imagine automated mechanisms that would lead to robots. There are also eyewitness accounts of mechanical birds in middle-eastern palaces as early as the 9th and 10th centuries. 
• Industrial Revolution: Humans developed the ability to control electricity and power machines with small motors.
• 1921: The term "robot" was first used in the play R.U.R: Rossum's Universal Robots by Karel Čapek. 
1930: The first true industrial robot was created using the model construction system Meccano. 
1949: The first machine was able to navigate on its own. 
1958: Stanford Research Institute developed the robot "Shakey", which could move around a room, observe its surroundings, and respond to its environment. 
1959: The first robotic arm was installed on a factory floor. 
1969: The first small, electric-powered six-axis robot was created. 
1972: The first robot to use artificial intelligence was created. 





Classification of robots,







Types of robots by chronology

In this case, up to five types of robots can be distinguished, in keeping with the stages that robotics has gone through until the present day.

First generation: robot manipulators

These can pick up and move objects but they have very restricted movements.

Second generation: learning robots

These gather information from the environment to make more complex movements.

Third generation: reprogrammable robots

These are equipped with sensors and they use programming languages to vary their functions in keeping with the needs of any given moment.

Fourth generation: mobile robots

The first intelligent robots capable of interpreting the environment in real time appear in the fourth generation.

Fifth generation: robots with artificial intelligence

This is the stage that’s currently under development. They’re intended to mimic human beings and they’re autonomous.







Classifying Robots by their Application
One of the most popular way of classifying robots – and one of the simplest – is by what they actually do. Based on this classification, there are two broad ways of categorising robots.

• Industrial Robots: These were one of the first robots to be used commercially. In a factory assembly line, these are usually in the form of articulated arms specifically developed for such applications as welding, material handling, painting and others. They can be further subdivided as manufacturing robots and logistics robots. Manufacturing robots are designed to move materials, as well as perform a variety of programmed tasks in manufacturing and production settings. They are often used to perform duties that are dangerous or unsuitable for human workers. Logistics robots are mobile automated guided vehicles primarily used in warehouses and storage facilities to transport goods.
• Service robots: The International Organization for Standardization defines a service robot as ‘a robot that performs useful tasks for humans.’ They can be further subdivided as medical robots, home robots, defence robots, entertainment robots, agricultural robots, educational robots, and other types of robots. Medical robots are professional service robots that are used in and out of hospital settings to improve the level of patient care. These robots reduce the workload of the medical staff, which allows them to spend more time caring directly for patients. Mobile medical robots are used for the delivery of medication and other sensitive materials in a hospital. Home robots automate tasks like cleaning and disinfecting. The primary purpose of education robots is to make kids aware of their potential, utility, and help kids build their own robots using readymade kits. Educational robots are used extensively in schools, both in classrooms and in extracurricular activities. One of the most important uses of robots in defence is to ensure the safety of soldiers and civilians. For example, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) are used to carry out dangerous tasks or activities in hazardous environments, drones are used for surveillance, and so on. Agricultural robots sense weather pattern and can adjust the watering of crop as needed, can be used for sowing, de-weeding, and harvesting crops.

Classifying Robots by their Kinematics or Locomotion
Robots can also be classified according to how they move – or not move.

Stationary Robots:
They can be further subdivided as:

• Cartesian Robots: these are perhaps the most common types of robots. They have three axes which are linear i.e, they can only move in straight lines rather than rotating and are mounted at right angles to each other. Because of their rigid structure, this type of robots usually can offer good levels of precision and repeatability. Cartesian robots are mostly used in the industrial and the manufacturing sector.
• Cylindrical robots: The body of this type of robot is such that the robotic arm can move up and down along a vertical member. The arm can rotate about that vertical axis and the arm can also extend or contract. This construction makes the manipulator able to work in a cylindrical space. They are used for assembly operations, spot welding and for die casting machines.
• Spherical Robots: This type of robot works in a spherical system. It can move in a bi-angular and single linear direction. SCARA Robots: SCARA stands for Selective Compliance Arm for Robotic Assembly. This type of robot has two parallel revolute joints. They are used for assembly purposes all over the world.
• Articulated Robots: These are robots with a wide range of movements that include forward, backward, upward and downward motion. Because of their large work envelope, articulated robots can be used for several different applications like assembly, arc welding, material handling, machine tending, and packaging.
• Parallel Robots: These are closed-loop systems to support a single platform where both accuracy and dynamic response are needed. An example of this kind of robot would be those used for drilling and milling.
• Wheeled Robots and legged Robots: These are robots having wheels, and can be further be categorized as: single wheel robots, two-wheel robots, three and more wheel robots, bipedal robots (humanoid robots), tri-pedal robots, quadra-pedal robots and hexapod robots..
• Airborne Robots: these robots can fly through the air. Drones are an extremely popular example of flying robots.
• Aquatic Robots: These robots can work on or under water. They are mostly used for underwater exploration of oil, gas or minerals.
















Present status and future trends.

The Future of Robotics: What’s the Use of AI in Robotics?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) increases human-robot interaction, collaboration opportunities, and quality. The industrial sector already has co-bots, which are robots that work alongside humans to perform testing and assembly.

Advances in AI help robots mimic human behavior more closely, which is why they were created in the first place. Robots that act and think more like people can integrate better into the workforce and bring a level of efficiency unmatched by human employees.

Robot designers use Artificial Intelligence to give their creations enhanced capabilities like:

• Computer Vision: Robots can identify and recognize objects they meet, discern details, and learn how to navigate or avoid specific items.
• Manipulation: AI helps robots gain the fine motor skills needed to grasp objects without destroying the item.
• Motion Control and Navigation: Robots no longer need humans to guide them along paths and process flows. AI enables robots to analyze their environment and self-navigate. This capability even applies to the virtual world of software. AI helps robot software processes avoid flow bottlenecks or process exceptions.
• Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Real-World Perception: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (ML) help robots better understand their surroundings, recognize and identify patterns, and comprehend data. These improvements increase the robot’s autonomy and decrease reliance on human agents.

The Future of Robotics and Robots

Thanks to improved sensor technology and more remarkable advances in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, robots will keep moving from mere rote machines to collaborators with cognitive functions. These advances, and other associated fields, are enjoying an upwards trajectory, and robotics will significantly benefit from these strides.

We can expect to see more significant numbers of increasingly sophisticated robots incorporated into more areas of life, working with humans. Contrary to dystopian-minded prophets of doom, these improved robots will not replace workers. Industries rise and fall, and some become obsolete in the face of new technologies, bringing new opportunities for employment and education.

That’s the case with robots. Perhaps there will be fewer human workers welding automobile frames, but there will be a greater need for skilled technicians to program, maintain, and repair the machines. In many cases, this means that employees could receive valuable in-house training and upskilling, giving them a set of skills that could apply to robot programming and maintenance and other fields and industries.

The Future of Robotics: How Robots Will Change the World

Robots will increase economic growth and productivity and create new career opportunities for many people worldwide. However, there are still warnings out there about massive job losses, forecasting losses of 20 million manufacturing jobs by 2030, or how 30% of all jobs could be automated by 2030.

But thanks to the consistent levels of precision that robots offer, we can look forward to robots handling more of the burdensome, redundant manual labor tasks, making transportation work more efficiently, improving healthcare, and freeing people to improve themselves. But, of course, time will tell how this all works out.