Page 13 - Build a Remote Controlled Robot

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INTRODUCTION

FIGURE I-1. The robots of the play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal
Robots) attack their human masters. (Courtesy of New York Public
Library at Lincoln Center.)

would like to have. It applies more specifically to those types of
robots at work in factories all over the world, shown here in
Figs. I-2 through I-4. These assembly line type robots can do
everything from welding a car (then painting it) to assembling
delicate electronics components, all automatically, 24 hours a
day if needed, and without a break. They don’t get sick
(although when they do break down, they can be easily
repaired or even replaced), ask for pay raises, or any pay for
that matter, and can be retrained to do another job in a matter
of minutes by simply changing the job program in their control
computers. If you look again at Figs. I-2 through I-4, you will
see that while the device most certainly looks mechanical, it
does not look like a human. Instead it takes the shape of the
most useful part of the human anatomy, from a robot stand-
point, the arm.
Both these definitions seem to be correct in their specific
case, but there is a middle family between the simple auto-
mated device and the sophisticated computer-controlled