Leji Li

ENGL 21007
Professor Maria Vint
September 16, 2019

Robotics

Note: this definition is for the college students who have no idea about robotics and robots. This

definition will let these students have a basic idea about the study of robotics and its subject of

study – robots.

Robotics is the study of the design, construction and use of robots (Bulitin). Robotics is

tightly connected with other engineering subjects like mechanical engineering and electrical

engineering, as well as science subjects such as computer science, mathematic and biology.

Robotics aims to create the robots can be used as human subsitute or human assistance.

The word “robot” was first brought out by Czech playwright Karl Capek in his work

R.U.R (Rossum’s Universal Robots) in 1921 (Stanford University). The word “robot” is slave in

Czech, which can exactly describe the purpose of those kind of machines – do the routine and

boring task for human and perform human’s commands (Stanford University). The word

“robotic” is derived from “robot”, which is created by Isaac Asimov, a Russian-born American

science-fiction writer (Stanford University). Asimov saw robots as a “better, cleaner race” and

set up three rules for them, which is knows as “Laws of Robotics” and now scientists still use

those laws as the principle (Stanford University). These laws are:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to

come to hurt.

2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders

would conflict with the First Law.

 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict

with the First of Second Law.

Since robotics involves many science subjects, a robot is a complicated system that

consist of sensors, mechanical structures, software system and so on

(IntroBooksEducation).Thus, not all machines can be considered as robots. In order to being

classify as a robot, the machine is required to have three certain characteristics

(IntroBooksEducation)

1. The ability to sense the environment that it’s working in. such as that touch and

pressure sensors enable the robot performs the action of grabbing

(IntroBooksEducation).

2. A robot has the ability to move from one place to another like Boston Dynamics’

robot dog. Or at least has the ability to move part of its structure, like the machine

aim for carrying packages in Amazon’s storage (IntroBooksEducation).

3. Has the internal energy source and the source is rechargeable (IntroBooksEducation).

4. Intelligent. A robot should have the ability to complete the given tasks or human

commands. That robot should have some way to receive and upgrade the instruction

program for working efficiently (IntroBooksEducation).

According to features, there are some categories of robots (IEEE).

1. Aerospace. This category includes all the flying robots, as well as the robots that can

work in space, such NASA’s Robonaut.

Figure 1 Robonaut can use tools designed to be used by astronauts on the space station. (NASA)

2. Consumer. This kind of robots are the robots that can be found in the market and are

used of having fun or do the chores, such as the Robotic vacuum cleaner.

3. Disaster Response. This kind of robots are for performing dangerous jobs like

deactivating the bombs.

4. Drones. This kind of robots also known as the unmanned aerial vehicles. Such as the

air force’s RQ-4

Figure 2 RQ-4 Global Hawk (U.S. Air Force)

5. Education. This kind of robots are for home or in classrooms education. Those robots

are programmable and come with an easy-use application for programming. Such as

Lego’s robots.

6. Entertainment. Those robots have emotional response functions to interact with

people.

7. Exoskeletons. This kind of robots are used for physical rehabilitation to help patient

perform daily activities. They also can strength solders’ power and speed in military

purpose.

8. Industrial. This category of robots is designed for performing repetitive tasks. The

typical example is the machinal arms.

9. Self-driving cars. Self-driving car can drive the user to the destination without any

help from the user.

 Work Cited
“Robotics.” Builtin, https://builtin.com/robotics.
“Robotics: A Brief History.” Stanford University,
https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/soco/projects/1998-
99/robotics/history.html.
“Crash Course What Is Robotics.” IntroBooks Education, 15 Sept. 2018,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwr0z3nRyqo.
“Types of Robots.” IEEE, IEEE, https://robots.ieee.org/learn/types-of-robots/.
“Robonaut Can Use Tools Designed to Be Used by Astronauts on the Space Station.” NASA,
NASA, 1 Feb. 2012, https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/nasa-
knows/what-is-robonaut-58.html.
“U.S. Air Force.” U.S. Air Force, U.S. Air Force,
https://www.af.mil/News/Photos/igphoto/2000336767/.