Louise Spilsbury - Robotics

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Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Spilsbury, Louise.

Title: Robotics / Louise and Richard Spilsbury.

Description: New York: Gareth Stevens Publishing, 2017. | Series: Cutting-edge technology | Includes index.

Identifiers: ISBN 9781482451665 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781482451603 (library bound) | ISBN 9781482451481 (6 pack)

Subjects: LCSH: Robotics--Juvenile literature.

Classification: LCC TJ211.2 S65 2017 | DDC 629.892--dc23

First Edition

Published in 2017 by

Gareth Stevens Publishing

111 East 14th Street, Suite 349

New York, NY 10003

2017 Gareth Stevens Publishing

Produced for Gareth Stevens by Calcium

Editors: Sarah Eason and Harriet McGregor

Designer: Jessica Moon

Picture researcher: Rachel Blount

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R obotics is all about designing, building, and operating robots. It involves the work of specialist engineers who find mechanical, electrical, and electronic solutions to problems in order to make robots for different purposes. Many people think of a robot as a mechanical being that looks a little like a human. However, robots have different shapes and sizes because they are created to do certain jobs.

Robots are far more than just machines like vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers. Some robots are critical lifesavers. They might be used to carry out surgery in hospitals or to accurately mix up drugs to make medicines. Other robots safely explode hidden bombs or transport dangerous materials. Others are used just for fun!

Industries use robots because they have advantages over human workers. A robot can be programmed to do a routine task over and over without stopping, in exactly the same way and in exactly the same period of time. People become tired or bored doing the same task repeatedly and for long periods. They may make mistakes or risk being injured at work. Robots can also be made from materials that do not get damaged by heat, pressure, chemicals, or sharp or explosive substances.

If they are programmed well, robotic devices can do tasks that usually require human thought. Here, a chess robot takes on several human players at once in Russia!

S ince the time of the ancient Greeks, people have dreamed of tools that carry out tasks without the need for operators. By the fifteenth century, Leonardo da Vinci (14521519) had made sketches of mechanical humans, but it was not until a few centuries later that working automatic machines were first developed.

One of the most famous early robot inventors was Jacques de Vaucanson (17091782). He built realistic, life-size models of people that could do things automatically, such as play the flute. His best-known automaton was the digesting duck, which could not only flap its wings, but also eat grain and digest it! Jacques later made machines to automatically weave silk fabric using information stored as patterns of holes on paper rolls.

In the early 1960s, the first commercial robot started work in factories. Unimate was a robotic arm designed to remove and stack very hot disks of metal used to make cars. The arm was positioned in one place to carry out this one task. People controlled the robot by inputting data into a computer, which sent information to move its parts. Gradually, many types of arms took on more roles in factories. In the 1980s, Honda began to develop robots that looked and moved like humans. ASIMO is its most famous humanoid, or humanlike, robot. It resembles an astronaut 3 feet (1 m) high. This robot can run, walk up and down stairs, pick up and use objects, and respond to voice commands.

Atlas is a 6-foot (1.8 m) humanoid robot that has been engineered and programmed to walk like a human.

R obotic devices can be tiny, such as an insect-sized flying drone, or huge like a giant industrial robotic arm or even a coal-mining machine. However, they share several basic parts that together allow them to function. The simplest way to understand the parts is to think of them like the parts of human bodies.

Skeleton: Robots have a frame that suits what they are designed to do. Delicate flying robots might be made from light plastics, but bomb-disposal robots have a thick steel frame.

Muscles: Robots generally have springs, electric motors, or hydraulic rams that act like muscles to make the robots move.

Energy: Most robots that move around have onboard batteries. Some that work in places where replacement batteries are not easy to obtain, such as on Mars, have solar panels that recharge the batteries.

Senses: Sensors on robots allow them to detect the world around them. Many have cameras on board to detect changes in light and shapes with the aid of computers.