RUSS SWAN - BOTS AND BODS how robots and humans work, from the inside out.

Bots and Bods copyright 2021 by UniPress Books Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews.

Andrews McMeel Publishing

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ISBN 978-1-5248-6936-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020947821

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Introduction

What is a robot? Is it a kind of metal person with flashing lights, making beeping noises and talking in a funny voice? That could be a robot. But its only part of the story. Some bots look like people, but many dont. They come in all different shapes, colors, and sizes, from the gigantic to the microscopic. Some even look like animals, such as insects, fish, lizards, and dogs.

In 1920, a Czech writer named Karel apek first used the word robot in a play. In his language, it meant forced labor. The robots in the play were humanlike machines built to do hard work. In the end, they rebelled against their human masters. Robots started to appear in movies after that, and scientists began to build machines that they called robots. In the 1960s, the first robots were created to work in factoriesand the bot world has been growing ever since.

A robot is basically a machine designed by humans thats programmed to carry out jobs that a person might normally door find impossible to do. Robots are built to do things better than humans, and for longer. They make life easier and safer for people by doing dangerous, boring, and dirty tasks. Bots can do exactly the same things day in and day out. They never get tired and always do what they are told. Not many humans can match that!

Because robots do lots of jobs that humans might do, they often copy what the human body does. A person needs energy to do anything, from breathing to hitting a home run. A robot needs energy, too, to carry out its tasks. Humans and robots both have to move around to get anything done, and each has different mechanisms for doing that. Anything a person does relies on information gathered by their senses, such as seeing, hearing, and tasting. A bot also has to know whats going on around it and needs sensors to pick up the signals. In a human, all of this is controlled by the amazing brain. Robots have nothing as advanced as that to tell them what to do, but they try their best with the computers and other devices that engineers give them!

In this book, youll find all the things that humans and robots can do in the same way, and where and how they are different. First, youll get to know the basic features of human bodies and how they are copied in bots. Then youll see how movement happens, how the world is seen and sensed, and how humans and robots think it all through. Throughout each chapter are interesting examples that point toward a future when bots will be helping bods more than ever.

think about this...

Youll find Think About This boxes on some of the pages that ask interesting questions about bots and bods. .

Almost Human

Robots in movies often walk, talk, and even have feelings. In real life, things are differentbut bots are getting closer to bods all the time!

A humanoid robot looks quite a lot like a human but also like a machine. It might even say hello!

Some robots look a lot like us. They have arms, hands, legs, feet, and heads but are made of metal and plastic. We can still tell they are machines. These bots are called humanoids. If a robot looks completely human, its called an androidor a cyborg if part of its body is human and the rest is a machine. If androids and cyborgs sound a bit scary, dont worry! Youll find them only in sci-fi books or movies!

There are also robots that dont look much like us but that carry out human tasks, like helping people in a hospital, making cars in a factory, or keeping places safe. They can move around, pick up and carry objects, and use tools. These working robots are often quicker at doing what we do, and they make fewer mistakes.

Then there are robots that dont look like us in any way and can do all kinds of things we cant. They can fly, drop into blazing-hot volcanoes, dive to the bottom of oceans, and even explore planets. Some robots look like animals rather than humans and copy what those animals do. There are robot ants, bees, and ladybugs that can fly or crawl into tiny spaces; robot snakes and lizards that can slither and climb across all kinds of surfaces; robot fish that can swim in the seaand even a robot kangaroo that can leap a distance of 3 feet! Copying movements like this from nature is a science called biomimetics. These robot animals may help us go places and do things that would be impossible for people.

A drone is a robot that is very different from a human. For a start, it can fly!

We humans are pretty much limited by our sizeunlike robots. The tallest human ever was an American man named Robert Wadlow (8 feet 11 inches). The biggest walking robot ever is Tradinno, a fire-breathing dragon (30 feet tall and 51 feet long). Robots can be huge, or they, like a nanobot, can be smaller than this period. There are even invisible robots!

Robots can also figure out how to do things, like pick up a ball, play chess, or cut the grassbut they are always told what to do by humans. Only a human can create a robot. Until a robot can truly think for itself, the most it can be is almost human.