About 20 years ago, everyone dreamed: "Robots work in - a man is happy." But then, objectively speaking, devices like Electronica from the popular film seemed to be perfect fantasy, Day. Az reports with reference to rambler.ru.
What has robotics already achieved and what unusual robots have already been invented?
What is a robot and where did this word come from?
People wanted to create an artificial replacement for themselves even in the ancient world. Think of the golems, the myth of Pygmalion who breathed life into the statue of Galatea, or the myths of Hephaestus who created servants for himself.
Myths became reality when the Arab scholar Al-Jazari in the 12th century developed mechanical figures of musicians who played tambourines, harp, and flute.
Initially, robots were supposed to replace a person where it is dangerous for him to be: they could work in mines, under rubble, in an aggressive environment, become universal soldiers, perform actions according to a given program or commands that a person gives.
Later, inventors began to shift the hard, boring and monotonous work to robots. In addition, many robot projects are created for entertainment.
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The word “robot” was coined by Czech science fiction writer Karel Čapek and his brother Josef in 1920. Actually, robota is translated from Czech as "forced labor", and robot is, in fact, the one who does this work.
A modern robot is a system that perceives, thinks, acts and communicates. It can automatically perform certain operations, mechanical work.
The line between robots and automated systems is quite thin. Therefore, the developers of robots focus on the complexity of systems and their "thinking" capabilities, the degree of implementation of artificial intelligence technologies.
However, bot programs are also robots. They also work for people, they just solve other problems.
What's the coolest robot in the world? Atlas
A group of engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created Boston Dynamics in 1992. In 2013, Google bought it, but three years later it sold Boston Dynamics to SoftBank - they say, in the next three years, commercially successful robots should not be expected.
SoftBank, which previously acquired the ARM processor developer, believed in the prospects of Boston Dynamics. And the company nevertheless became a leader in the field of robotics, proving that not everything can be measured by commercial success.
Atlas moves better than you and me. He has already learned to walk, run through the woods, do push-ups, even jump on steps. And he became the first robot that can do back flips:
In parallel with Atlas, engineers are working on robotic animals: robot dogs Spot, Spot Mini, BigDog and LittleDog, the world's fastest four-legged robot Cheetah, and others.
A significant part of the robots are being created for DARPA, the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
But robots are different. Even two-legged
Experts are unanimous in the opinion that in the future, wars will move to a new format: only robots will fight. Such developments are already being used by the armies of the United States, Israel and other countries.
BigDog for DARPA is being developed as a military transporter. In South Korea, there are robotic sentries that guard the border with North Korea.
MegaBots is the leader in the development of combat robots in the United States. She recently showed off the giant Eagle Prime combat robot. It is operated by two pilots from the built-in cockpit. The robot weighs about 12 tons, its height is more than 5 m.
Inside - a V-shaped eight-cylinder engine with a capacity of 430 horsepower. A cannon and a huge claw will help Eagle Prime defeat opponents in robot battles.
The main rivals of the United States are the Japanese. One of the coolest Japanese furs is Kuratas. Yes, mechs have long gone beyond computer games:
The main difficulty here is a violation of the fundamental laws of robotics: a robot cannot harm a person.
And at the same time, the developers do not guarantee that the robot will distinguish enemy soldiers from civilians, attacking from surrendering; therefore, the final command, which can lead to bodily harm or murder, is still given by the person.
There are robots with real citizenship, like humans
Robots, which are difficult to distinguish from humans, are created for two reasons: to replace a person who provides certain services (a consultant, for example) or to give a “half” that you can choose and customize to your liking.
The most famous example of a humanoid robot is Sophia. By the way, she is a citizen of Saudi Arabia and in general the first robot with citizenship.
Sofia is endowed with artificial intelligence, can convey emotions with facial expressions and communicate. I remember once she promised to destroy humanity.
There are robots even in Russia. For example, Fedor
In Russia, by order of the Ministry of Emergencies, they created the anthropomorphic robot Fedor. FEDOR (Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research - the final experimental demonstration object of research) was originally supposed to help rescuers.
There is a version that Dmitry Rogozin, the chairman of the board of trustees of the Advanced Research Foundation, named the robot Fedor in honor of his grandson. The creation of the robot cost 300 million rubles.
Fedor's height is 180 cm, weight is about 160 kg. The robot recognizes voice commands and is powered by a 20 horsepower (13.5 kW) motor. It is controlled by a Linux-based system, and remote control is supported. The battery is enough for Fedor for about an hour of work.
Fedor already knows how to open doors, shoot a pistol, operate a drill. He was recently taught to drive an ATV and a car offline.
Robots appear in the form of animals, check your cat
Anthropomorphic robots are great, but robots created in the image and likeness of animals are sometimes much more interesting. For example, startup Festo has created a spider robot and a flying fox that resembles a giant robotic bat.
Biomimetic robots have already appeared on the screen. You might have seen a spider-robot in Star Wars: legs allow it to make a wheel, and a push with the last pair of limbs allows it to move. It is useless to knock the spider robot down - it immediately rises and rolls on.
The flying fox soars quite naturally. For the wings, the engineers used a modified airtight elastane. The design was lightened as much as possible to make it easier for the fox to fly. In addition, the company has developed a kangaroo robot and a variety of other robot beasts.
But some robots have been in business for a long time, like surgical
Robots allow doctors to perform operations with amazing accuracy and reduce the influence of the human factor - soulless mechanics and electronics will not flinch.
One of the most popular medical robots is the da Vinci system from Intuitive Surgical. It includes two units: an executive device is a four-armed robotic arm, and the second unit is intended for a surgeon-operator.
In one hand of the robot there is a video camera, the other two reproduce the movements that the surgeon makes. Another hand replaces the assistant. The doctor sees the operated area in 3D with a significant magnification and controls the movements of the robot with special joysticks.
There are about three dozen da Vinci complexes installed in Russia, the price of each is about $ 2 million. The number of operations in the world that are carried out using such complexes is more than 200 thousand per year.
They do not trust robots to operate independently. If something goes wrong, the doctor should be able to intervene and take over control at any time.
But with robots, delicate work is easier and faster. After such operations, patients recover faster and return to their usual life.
Naturally, robots are already conquering space …
The ISS was powered by Robonaut, a robot developed by NASA in cooperation with General Motors. He helped astronauts to complete difficult missions in orbit.
But when in 2014 they decided to equip the robot with a pair of legs to move around the station, it failed. The cosmonauts were unable to repair the Robonaut, and he had to be written off to earth.
Now the Russian robot Fedor is awaiting in orbit. It is capable of working in space and in the depths of the sea. Fedor will go into space on the Federation spacecraft in 2021.
… and they drive around your apartment
Of course, robotic vacuum cleaners cannot be ignored. Robots can be trusted to keep things clean and tidy. Using infrared and radio sensors, they scan the room, find debris, draw up a floor plan and plot the best cleaning route.
And when the battery is depleted, they will independently return to the base for recharging, and then continue.
But did you know that modern robotic vacuum cleaners can also guard a house? It is enough to install an Internet-controlled webcam on the robot. This will allow you to see what is happening at home, wherever you are.
In addition, robots have been developed for washing windows, cleaning sewers, mowing lawns, cleaning swimming pools, and removing snow.
And this funny contraption is no less useful - it can bring beer from the fridge.
There are even robots that cannot be seen
Nanorobots, or nanobots, are the smallest representatives of the industry. They are being developed, for example, for the delivery of medicinal substances directly to diseased organs or foci of infections.
In addition, molecular machines can count molecules in individual samples or track chemical processes in cars. Nanorobots are also being developed that can place a sperm in an egg:
Robots a few nanometers in size are primitive and devoid of electronics, but they fulfill their function. True, while we are talking about laboratory developments, not industrial designs.
Conclusions: embrace the power of robots now or you will regret it
We can talk about robotics forever. We have no doubt that while this article was being written, several new robots have appeared in the world.
Robots are convenient in that they can be entrusted with boring, routine, hard or delicate work. But who knows what kind of relationships humans will have with robots in the future? And you personally?
Today they will vacuum your house, tomorrow they will do your job, and the day after tomorrow they will be kicked out of the house. Hmm.