“If the machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how it is distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxury and relaxation only if the machines that produce goods become common property, or most people will end up catastrophically poor if the owners of the cars oppose the redistribution of wealth … In reality, we should not fear robots, but capitalism. , - Stephen Hawking.
Historical reference. The emergence of robots and robotization of world production in the 20th century
The prototypes of modern robots appeared in the days of ancient Greece. On about. The residents of Pharos installed four gilded female figures with automatic controls, which were clearly visible from afar. During the day they reflected sunlight, and in the evening they burned like lanterns.
It is known that in the XII century the Arab scientist and inventor Al-Jazari created a boat with mechanical musicians who entertained people by playing musical instruments.
Around 1495, Leonardo da Vinci created a blueprint for a humanoid robotic knight. It is not known if he tried to collect it, but manuscripts found in the middle of the 20th century indicate that a mechanical person could sit, move his arms and head, and even open a visor.
Blueprint for Leonardo's robot.
In the XVI-XVIII centuries in Europe, the construction of "automatons" became widespread. These were clockwork mechanisms, similar to humans or animals, which were able to perform fairly complex movements of the limbs.
In 1738, Jacques de Vaucanson created the first "android" - a humanoid device that played the flute. Also, a French mechanic and inventor became famous for designing mechanical ducks that could peck food.
Promotional video:
Jacques de Vaucanson's mechanical duck.
Also, information about the Russian engineer Pafnutiy Chebyshev reached us, who at the end of the 19th century invented the "stop-walk" - a mechanical machine that had high cross-country ability.
Pafnutiy Chebyshev's foot-walking car.
Nikola Tesla could not stay away either. The great genius in 1898 created and demonstrated to the public a miniature radio-controlled ship.
Tesla's radio-controlled ship.
In 1920, the Czech writer Karel Čapek and his brother Josef coined the word “robot”. They first used this word in the play "Rossum Universal Robots", which tells about the events in a factory that produces "artificial people". The play was staged in 1921 in Prague and was a great success and helped popularize the term "robot".
In Czech, the word robota means "hard labor", "hard work", "corvee" (cf. Bulgarian rob "slave"), and in Russian translations the word "worker" was then used.
Interest in robots grew. In 1927, the American engineer J. Wensley designed the voice-controlled robot "Mr. Televox", which looked like a man and was capable of performing elementary voice commands. This robot became an exhibit at the World's Fair in New York. In 1928, the robot Eric welcomed visitors to the British Association of Modeling Engineers exhibition. In the same year, under the leadership of Dr. Nishimura Makota, the first Japanese robot, the "Naturalist", was created, capable of moving its arms and head using an electric drive. Subsequently, this android began to be considered the ancestor of Japan's robotics.
In 1936, the first Soviet robot, B2M, was created. Moscow schoolboy Vadim Matskevich built an android and for this he was awarded a diploma at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. V. V. Matskevich later became a candidate of technical sciences, the author of many popular scientific works and books.
Since the beginning of the 30s, structures have appeared that outwardly resemble human-like creatures, capable of performing the simplest hand movements and reproducing phrases at the command of a person. There is information that in those years robots were produced mainly by the Westinghouse company, some German and Dutch engineers for advertising purposes.
1936 was a turning point in the history of the development of science and technology. The English mathematician Alan Mothison Turing introduced the concept of an "abstract computing machine" (now known as a "Turing machine"), capable of performing calculations of arbitrary complexity with the help of simple read and shift operations, and anticipated the appearance in the late 1940s. universal computers. In those years, a number of scientists (J. von Neumann, G. Walter, W. R. Ashby, C. Shannon, and others) developed the theory of algorithms based on the study of analogies between the human nervous system, computers, and automatic control systems. Subsequently, it became one of the theoretical origins of computational mathematics, and then - cybernetics and robotics.
In 1938, "Electro" appeared in the world: an android weighing 120 kg, had a height of two meters, could walk, talk and even smoke. The robot was designed by engineer Joseph Barnett.
Video of the Electro robot:
In 1942, the famous science fiction writer, American scientist and popularizer of science Isaac Asimov published a series of stories "I am a Robot", in one of which he first tried to formulate the basic principles of robot behavior and their interaction with humans. The story of the collection is built in the form of an interview with Dr. Susan Kelvin in 2057, in which she shares her memories of her work as a full-time robotic psychologist of the world leader in the production of positronic robots at US Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc.
The general idea uniting the stories of the collection is to solve the problems associated with robots, which can be attributed to the clash of the iron logic of the laws of robotics and the human factor. These principles, later called the Three Laws of Robotics, read:
- A robot cannot harm a person or contribute to harm by its inaction.
- He must carry out the orders of a person, except for those that are contrary to the first law.
- The robot must ensure its own safety, unless it is contrary to the first and second laws.
One of the pioneers of industrial robotics, founder and president of the robotics firm Unimation, Joseph F. Engelberger, believes that A. Azimov's three laws of robotics are the standards that specialists must follow when creating modern robots.
In the 50s, automation and robotization of production reached a new level and became a mass phenomenon.
According to the American Institute of Robotics (RIA), an industrial robot is a reprogrammable multifunctional manipulator designed to move objects along predetermined paths using variable programmable movements. Close to this is the European definition, where robots are understood only as universal automatic installations with at least three degrees of mobility, equipped with various gripping devices and an easily reprogrammed control system.
It was then that the first industrial robots began to be created, carrying out the assembly of equipment and the simplest monotonous operations. To work with radioactive materials, mechanical manipulators were developed that copied the movements of the hands of a person in a safe place. An example is the remotely controlled trolley developed in 1960 with a manipulator, a television camera and a microphone, which was used to survey the area and collect samples in areas of high radioactivity.
The first robotic arm was developed by self-taught inventor George Devol in 1954. The structure weighed two tons and was controlled by a program recorded on a magnetic drum. This system was named "Unimate", a patent was issued for the device, and then the inventor in 1961 founded the company "Unimation". This system came to be used for casting metal parts from molds. The gripping device worked by means of a hydraulic drive. In the same year 1961, this company installed the first industrial robot. It was implemented at the General Motors plant in New Jersey at the foundry site. Then the novelty was tested by the Chrysler and Ford factories.
Manipulator "Unimate".
This robot had five degrees of freedom (what it is, we will tell in the following articles) and a gripper with two "fingers". This machine was more efficient and faster than humans. The accuracy of the work was quite high - up to 1.25 mm. The number of defective parts has decreased.
In 1965, Ralph Mosher, an engineer at General Electric, developed the Walking Truck robot for carrying loads and a number of similar functions.
Video of Walking Truck Robot:
Since 1967, industrial robots have been coming to Europe. Welding robots and painters appear. Using video cameras and sensors, manipulators learn to determine the dimensions of products and their location.
In 1968, robotization began to develop in Japan. Japanese company "Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd." received a license to manufacture a robot from "Unimation Inc." and assembled her first industrial robot. Initially, the supply of such robots was small and were used mainly in welding and spraying.
The 70s have passed in the rapid development of robotics. In 1982, IBM creates the first official language for programming robotic systems. In 1984, the first electrically powered Scara robot was introduced by Adept.
If in 1968 Japan was one of the newcomers in the production and development of robotics, then by the early 80s the number of firms engaged in this industry increased many times - from 10 to 175. If at the beginning of the formation of production the Japanese produced about 200 robots, then in 1981 - already 22100 pieces.
In total for the period from 1968 to 1981. 98,800 robots were manufactured at Japanese factories. In 1982, the park of actual industrial robots in Japan totaled about 13,000, in 1984 - 65,000, in 1985 - 93,000, in 1986 - 116,000, and in 1989 - 174,000! And this is without taking into account non-programmable manipulators without rigid control. Since then, Japan has embarked on a journey to become the world's robot capital. By the end of the 20th century, there were about 130 companies involved in the production of robots. Leading Japanese robotics companies include: Kawasaki Heuvy Industries, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Fujitsu Fanuc, Aida Engineering, Matsushita Electric Company, Yasukawa Electric, and others.
The United States was inferior to other countries in terms of the fleet of industrial robots for a long time in the early 80s. In 1984, the number of robots was approximately 13,000, in 1985 - 20,000. In total, 3,500 robots have been used in the US industry since 1981, and in 1989 more than 35,000 have been used.
Then about 20 firms were engaged in the development of robots, the most famous of which were Cincinnati Milacron and Unimation (which in the early 80s was transferred to the Westinghouse concern). Most often, industrial robots in the States were introduced in the automotive industry, where they were used in spot welding of bodies. By 1981, there were already 270 robots at General Motors. Also robots were introduced by Ford, Chrysler and other companies.
Also, the pace of industrialization was growing in Western Europe.
The third country in the development of industrial robots and the scale of their implementation is the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1980, there were 22 companies producing industrial robots, and now there are more than 90 companies supplying about 200 different models, but at least 50% of all industrial robots used are shared by ASEA, Kuka, Volkswagen.
The park of industrial robots in Germany in 1980 was about 1300, in 1984 - 6600, in 1986 - 12400, and by the beginning of 1988 - 14900 units, about half of which were used in the automotive industry.
In the early 90s, a breakthrough occurred in the development of robotics: a controller appeared with an intuitive control interface that could be controlled by an operator. He could change the parameters of work and regulate the mode. Scientific and technological progress has made it possible to increase the development capabilities, intelligence and control of robots. Their functions and reliability only evolved: the complexity, speed of work, the number of axes increased, additional materials began to be used. Several confident steps have also been taken towards the creation of artificial intelligence.
True, in the mid-1990s, there was a certain decline in the introduction of robots and the financing of large projects. For a number of reasons, robotic equipment was used only for car assembly and some other industries. The cost of development and use was very high, but by the year 2000 production began to grow again, increasing by 30% annually.
The leading robot manufacturers in the 20th century were Kawasaki Heuvy Industries, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Fujitsu Fanuc, Yasukawa Electric, Matsushita Electric Company (Japan); Cincinnati Milacron, Unimation, GMF Robotics, IBM (USA); ASEA (Sweden); Volkswagen and Kuka (Germany); Renault (France); Comau-Fiat (Italy); Tralfa (Norway); GEC and Dainichi Sykes (UK).
The performance indicators of robots from leading companies already began to reach great heights: robots from Unimate, Versatran, Kawasaki Unimate, Trallfa, ASEA, Kuka, etc. could work without interruptions for maintenance up to 500 - 700 hours, their total service life is increased to 40 thousand hours. The losses associated with downtime during repair and changeover did not exceed 2% of the total working time. All these factors led to good cost savings for manufacturers.
One of the main directions of the scientific and technological progress of the world industry at the end of the 20th century was the creation of flexible production systems (the exact definition will be given in the next article). Such systems have increased the efficiency of small-scale and batch production. In 1987, 360-370 GPS were in operation all over the world, for example, in Japan - 102, USA - 66, Germany - 40, Great Britain - 36, Italy - 32, France - 30, Sweden - 10.
At the end of the 20th century, the robotization of production was carried out quite intensively in all industrial countries. Improvement of robot systems was created and studied, associated with their sensation and artificial intelligence. The main priorities of the manufacturers are the redistribution of the world market, the release of better quality goods to the market with a lower cost price and with a more diverse assortment.