The incredible world of robotics and its promising future

INTRODUCTION

As soon as we come across the word robot, we tend to imagine a metallic structure with human-looking arms and legs performing tasks to help us. However, in real terms it is just a machine operated externally or through an embedded controller and does not necessarily look like a human being. Technically, robotics is a branch of Science and Engineering that deals with the design, construction and operation of robots, as well as computer systems for their control, sensory feedback and information processing.

Interestingly, the concept is almost as old as the hills, with the first robot dating back to 350 BC, built in the form of a mechanical bird, by a Greek mathematician called Archytas. Although the term was coined a long time ago, the real potential of fully autonomous robotics was realized in the second half of the 20th century.

Robotics Applications

The main purpose of robotics was just to perform a set of complex tasks, mainly in factories with robot parts, but now it has spread to many fields. Today, we can find the following industrial applications of robotics –:

Military

It goes without saying that military operations involve a high level of risk and therefore it makes sense to use machines to save human lives. There are many varieties of military robots, namely UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones), UGVs (unmanned ground vehicles) and UUVs (unmanned underwater vehicles). These are used to locate terrorists and launch attacks. There are even four-legged robots to carry heavy weapons and ammunition.

You may also read: Robots in the Armed Forces

Education

Many schools and institutes are using robots to educate and engage students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programs. There are many kits available for students through which they can learn a lot about robotics. Furthermore, children with autism and other behavioral disorders also find it more convenient to interact with robots and acquire knowledge on different topics.

Health care

Several types of robots are being developed for use in hospitals to assist doctors and nurses in caring for patients. There are robots that can disinfect a place, take care of patients' needs, and even remove unwanted elements from the body without surgery. There is also a robot called da Vinci that helps perform surgeries with precision that are difficult to perform manually.

Agriculture

Many small robots are used in agricultural fields equipped with cameras and sensors. They browse fields and detect weeds and other types of infection. The sensors help to apply the spray only to the affected areas, thus protecting the environment from the release of harmful chemicals into the air.

Factory

Industrial robots are evidently being equipped on a large scale in factories that build heavy equipment. Factors such as negative population growth in certain countries, the lack of interest of the younger workforce in dedicating themselves to factory work and the efficiency of robotic parts to save time are determining the increase in the use of industrial robots. The most common illustration that can be cited here is automobile factories that build cars using robotic parts together with human workers.

Space

Several countries have built their own space robots with various shapes and sizes to explore space. Some of them cannot even control their own weight on Earth, but they work efficiently in space and with excellent dexterity. As there is no gravity and certain situations are challenging for survival, these robots can be easily replaced in space to capture videos and perform other routine tasks.

Types of robots

From heavy, metallic, wired machines known as superrobots to tiny devices known as nanobots, the field of robotics has been widely explored. Listed below are the varieties of robots that have been designed recently. Let's check out the list of some interesting forms of robots:

Exoskeletons: It is a technology where an electronic suit offers limb movement and greater strength to the user. Mainly, these are used for military purposes to lift heavy loads and for patients suffering from spinal injuries.

Example: Ekso Bionics has developed full-body ekso suits that can be used by people suffering from stroke or spinal cord injury to recover. Originally developed for DARPA for use by soldiers, these suits are also used in several rehabilitation clinics for patients with lower limb weakness.

Humanoid robots: These are robots that have a body similar to a human containing a head, two arms, a torso and two legs. A subcategory of humanoids are known as androids which closely resemble a human when it comes to aesthetic aspects and can imitate a human's expressions.

Example: Atlas is one of the most advanced humanoid robots developed by Google-owned Boston Dynamics. Although he is not an android with human skin and expressions, he can do a lot of interesting things. He can walk in the snow and rebalance himself like us, open doors, lift boxes and even feel objects that are in front of him.

Animal Robots: Bioinspired robotics is a relatively new category of robotics where the natural biological characteristics of living beings are replicated in the form of animal-inspired robotic models. The characteristics of animals such as the way they jump, climb, walk or crawl are observed and then efforts are made to iterate them in a machine setup.

Example: There is a robot called Cheetah developed by Boston Dynamics that can gallop at over 46 kilometers per hour. A similar robot with the same name was developed by MIT, which can detect obstacles and jump over them while running at 21 kilometers per hour. Rescue Robots: One of the most logical and sensible uses of robots is to deploy them in disaster management situations for rescue operations. It takes a lot of courage and also efforts to search for and save victims during a human-made or man-made disaster. Although there have been cases where robots have been assigned for rescue operations but they have not performed as per expectations. It is still considered an emerging technology, as there are many challenges to be faced.

Nanorobots: These tiny devices are designed to perform repetitive tasks with precision in nanometer dimensions of a few nanometers or less. They are applied in the assembly and maintenance of sophisticated systems or in the construction of devices, machines and circuits at the atomic or molecular level. Furthermore, they can also be equipped in the healthcare sector for the purposes of administering medicines, destroying cancer cells, etc.

Example: A group of physicists from the University of Mainz, Germany, designed the world's smallest engine from a single atom. It converts thermal energy into motion on the smallest scale ever seen.

Swarm: Swarm robotics is like imitating a group of insects or ants in the form of small devices crawling together and forming certain designs. They can be used in areas such as agriculture, rescue tasks or military operations.

Example: A swarm of 1,024 tiny robots was developed by Harvard University that could make certain formations like alphabets, five-pointed stars, and other complex designs without any central intelligence.

DARPA Robotics Challenge

The DARPA Robotics Challenge, i.e. DRC, was conducted by the US Defense Agency DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), which lasted from 2012 to 2015. The idea was to develop semi-autonomous robots that could assist in robotics operations. rescue in a human-engineered environment. Many teams participated in the competition, but only three of them managed to complete all 8 tasks. First prize was won by Team KAIST with their DRC Hubo robot, followed by runners-up IHMC and Tartan Rescue in second and third positions, respectively.

Tasks assigned to robots include driving a vehicle, walking through uneven debris, clearing debris, turning valves, connecting hoses, opening doors, drilling holes and climbing stairs. Although they are easy for humans, the same is extremely complicated for robots. It takes hundreds and thousands of lines of coding to make the robot take just one step. Furthermore, humans began to walk after several years of evolution and even now, when a child is born, it takes more than a year to be able to walk perfectly. Therefore, there are still many challenges and obstacles that need to be faced.

Conclusion

Today there are many robots that carry a variety of shapes, sizes and structures, but they are all subject to certain challenges. For example, the robots participating in the DARPA competition were efficient at human-like tasks, but they did not have an adequate system to perceive their environment and were simply following the operator's instructions. Then there are mini-robots like Darwin, developed by ROBOTIS, which are quite skilled at walking, playing football and even getting up after falling, but cannot be used in applications that require physical strength. There is also a robot called Cozmo from Anki who can even express feelings and play, but it is just for entertainment.

Moving forward, there are certain implications of robotics that need to be discussed. It has long been thought that the development and deployment of robots will eliminate numerous jobs from the human workforce. However, Sherry Turkle, a professor at MIT, states that robots are not substitutes, but rather companions for humans and that their development prefers to generate jobs.

Another concern is that we need to set a limit on the nature of tasks assigned to robots. It's logical to use them in places too dangerous for human access, but it also raises a big question: if something goes wrong, who will be to blame. Without a doubt, technology has always offered countless benefits and plays an important role in our lives, but it is equally important to decide the limits of its use.