"DANGER, DANGER, Will Robinson!" I’m sure this quote conjures memories of a tall, metallic, robot wildly waving its arms, to warn his master of impending danger, or what about "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!," said by the Dileks from Dr. Who. Then there is Data from Star Trek, R2D2 and C3PO from Star Wars, Terminator from the movie of the same name, and "Rosy" from The Jetsons. And of course there was the crazed supercomputer/robot Hal from A Space Odyssey 2001. For years, people have been fascinated by robots, but to most people, the idea of a robot outside of the movies, is pure science fiction. The truth of the matter is that robots are increasingly being integrated into our economy and industry. Donald Vincent, who is the president of the Robotics Industries Association said that, "Robotics is one of the key technologies leading the charge, as we head into the Twenty First Century" (Vincent). But in our ever changing, and increasingly complex world, it is important to understand how robotics was started, what robots can and are doing for us now, and what they will do for us in the future.

One of the many "mysteries" surrounding robotics is the origin of the word "robot." The truth of the matter is that "robot" is derived from the Czechoslovakian word "robotit," which means "to drudge." The first use of the word "robot" is attributed to the Czech playwright Karel Capek, in his play R.U.R, which stands for Rossum’s Universal Robots (Yates 347).

Actually defining what a "robot" is, is much harder. There is some animosity between robot manufacturers and scientists. Many scientists believe that simple machines that do tasks, such as attach car fenders or screw on lids, are simply too stupid to deserve the name "robot." They prefer to limit the use of the name to more sophisticated creations (Wickelgren 13). Mobile Robots defines a robot as "… an intelligent connection of perception to action" (Flynn 1). I feel that a more accurate description, based upon Mobile Robots, is "an electromechanical union of perception to action, dictated by the rules set forth by the programmer." Generally, most people would agree that a robot is a machine that makes some output based on some input, and has locomotion, although even that can be disputed. Another key factor in defining a "robot," is the element of intelligence. "What is intelligence?" Is it playing chess? Trying to keep gnats from your eyes on a hot afternoon? Is it common sense reasoning use in deciding what to eat for breakfast? (Flynn 1). As you can see, actually defining what "intelligence" is, is just as complicated as defining what a "robot" is! This just adds another factor, in coming to a reasonable conclusion and definition for a "robot."
The very first embryonic forms of robotics, started in the 1700’s. "During [this era] inventors used clockwork to create sophisticated animated objects… One of the most celebrated automatons was a mechanical duck created by Jacques de Vaucanson in 1738 … [which] quacked, walked, bathed, and appeared to eat and drink … another … creation was a boy scribe…the…boy dipped a pen in ink and wrote short messages" (Wickelgren 16). De Vaucanson also invented a mechanical loom in 1745, that used punched cards, very much like the early computers, to dictate the pattern the loom was to weave (Wickelgren 17).

Advances in industrial automation continued to move forward into the 1800’s. The first computer arrived on the scene in the 1880’s, when Herman Hollerith invented a machine that received its data from punched cards, much like its later predecessors. Hollerith’s computer also used electricity to perform computations, which was a great advancement over other counting machines of his day (Wickelgren 19).
The first true robots came into being, after the digital computers came in use, in the 1950’s. "The first industrial robot patent was granted to George Derol Jr, in 1954. He called its control system "unimation." He sold his idea to Joseph Engelberger, who transformed his machines into what he called ‘Unimates’ (Wickelgren 23). Yet, "One of the first true robots was…called Shaky, designed…at Stanford Research Institute in the late 1960’s. It was capable of arranging blocks into a stack through use of a TV camera…processing its information in a small computer" ("Robots"). But even with these advances, "American companies remained unconvinced about the benefits of robotics" (Vincent). Yet half-way, around the globe, the Japanese companies were embracing robotics. Because of the huge Japanese market this created, "Japan emerged as … the dominant manufacturer of industrial robots" (Vincent), and "Japan is the forefront of nation exploring robot technologies" ("Robots"), although the past few years have shown a slowdown.

Even after this slow start in America, amazingly enough, robotics started to quickly to take hold of a large market. "During the 1970’s, robots entered the workplace by the thousands. The robot workforce included Unimates and smaller robots called PUMAs made to handle small parts on assembly lines. Such robots revolutionized the auto industry, increasing production and reducing error rates " (Wickelgren 25). This market reached its frenzied climax from 1980 to 1985, when it was hailed as the "next industrial revolution." A gigantic surge of people became interested in personal robotics. People thought that robots, aside from taking over our industries, would cook, clean, and take care of us. "Companies rushed in to buy robots, often without taking the time to fully understand what would be required to implement them" (Vincent). This lack of foresight quickly reversed all the advances that the robotic industry had created.

The years from 1980 to 1987 can be viewed, from industrial standpoint, as the "death" of robotics. "The ‘boom’ of the early 80’s turned into a ‘bust’ in the mid- 80’s…as the huge market failed to materialize" (Vincent). Although science had made great advances in the robotics field, it still was not ready for the stress-test of real-world use, and therefore collapsed on itself. "The press which had been quick to hail robotics industry, was just as quick to write its obituary" (Vincent). But the robotics industry didn’t totally disappear, mostly because of the auto industry. The auto industry during this time held about 70% of all robots in American industry (Vincent). This dependency on the auto industry proved hard on the robotics industry. Whenever the auto manufacturers cut back, the robot companies had to follow suit (Vincent). But during these years of almost no growth the robotics industry finally got it act straight, and began to redesign and restructure, and slowly pull out of the slump (Dowling).

Robots now…