澶栨枃鍘熸枃
Introduction to Industrial Robots
Industrial
robets
became
a
reality
in
the
early
1960鈥檚
when
Joseph
Engelberger and George Devol teamed up to form a robotics company they called
鈥淯nimation鈥?
Engelberger
and
Devol
were
not
the
first
to
dream
of
machines
that
could
perform the unskilled, repetitive jobs in manufacturing. The first use of the word
鈥渞obots鈥?nbsp;was by the Czechoslovakian philosopher and playwright Karel Capek in
his play
R.U.R.
(Rossum鈥檚 Universal Robot). The word 鈥渞obot鈥?nbsp;in Czech means
鈥渨orker鈥?nbsp;or 鈥渟lave.鈥?nbsp;The play was written in 1922.
In
Capek鈥檚
play
,
Rossum
and
his
son
discover
the
chemical
formula
for
artificial
protoplasm.
Protoplasm
forms
the
very
basis
of
life.With
their
compound,Rossum and his son set out to make a robot.
Rossum and his son spend 20 years forming the protoplasm into a robot. After
20
years
the
Rossums
look
at
what
they
have
created
and say, 鈥淚t鈥檚 absurd to spend twenty years making a man if we can鈥檛 make him
quicker than nature, you might as we
ll shut up shop.鈥?nbsp;
The
young
Rossum
goes
back
to
work
eliminating
organs
he
considers
unnecessary for the ideal worker. The young Rossum says, 鈥淎 man is something