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The History of
Robotics
Since antiquity, humans have dreamed of machines that
could relieve them of the drudgery of hard work. Over
two thousand years ago, Heron of Alexandria invented
machines for use in the world of theater. In the 12
th
century, Ismail al-Jazari invented elaborate machines
to tell time and play music. Renaissance inventor
Leonardo da Vinci dreamed up a remarkably modern-
looking robot, but the technology required to actually
build such a machine simply didn’t exist.
It wasn’t until the 1950s that the fi st real robots came
into being, and even then they only performed very
specific tasks in actories, such as welding. And even
though today’s robot technology is developing
rapidly, most robots are still built for very specific
tasks and bear little resemblance to how people
generally imagine them.
This is approximately
what Leonardo da Vinci
thought a robot might
look like.
Welding robots in a
car factory
The UNIMATE was the
world’s fi st industrial robot.
MOST ROBOTS TODAY ARe USeD IN INDUSTRIAl
APPlICATIONS. THeY USUAllY PeRFORM TASKS THAT
ARe RePeTITIVe AND ReQUIRe A HIGH DeGRee OF
PReCISION AND STReNGTH, SUCH AS MOlDING
PlATeS FOR USe ON CARS OR WelDING MeTAl
PARTS TOGeTHeR. IN MOST CASeS, ROBOTS WORK
SePARATelY FROM HUMANS, BeCAUSe THe RISK OF
INJURY IS OTHeRWISe TOO HIGH.
The History of Robotics
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