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Benjamin Brickner
What is Robotics?
Robots. What really are they? Robotics is not something that is put into a few simple
words. In the end robotics is a broad term. The book Integrated Robotics puts it as, “This is
because the word “robot” is not one that has developed over hundreds of years. It doesn’t have
an etymology that can be traced to an ancient Latin root that has sprouted tons of words familiar
to readers of the English language today.” (Chow-Miller 2016) Robotics is a new term that is
still just getting into in the past decade or two. Throughout history there has been many things
made that have been considered to fall into the robotics category but in this day and age people
mainly see robotics as something that involves some type of electronics that in the system for it
to work. Nasa defines a robot as, “Robots are machines that can be used to do jobs. Some robots
can do work by themselves. Other robots must always have a person telling them what to do.”
(Dunbar 2015) How a robot is controlled usually is only a binary choice. A robot can usually be
either controlled by a human directly or some type of wireless communication and a robot can be
programmed internally or externally in some sort of way to be able to work without any human
interaction involved. Also, in some cases many people can choose to make a robot that are at
some parts controlled by human interaction and use programmed material to allow the robot to
be able to use assistance in more advanced or specific needs situations. In Nasa’s case, they
implement all three of these techniques. They use Rovers that operate all by themselves, they
have robotic space arms that need human assistance in order to work, and spacecrafts that require
both human and self control to be able to get into space. (Dunbar 2015) For a robot to work on
its own it either has very specific programming and trustworthy components (That mechanical
parts that make up the robot.) or by using one or more sensors that are put on the body of the
robot. A sensor on a robot allows it to be able to “see” its environment. It is almost the same as
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giving a blind man a walking stick so he can know what to expect when he is walking but in this
case it is using many scientific principles and advanced technology to allow the robot map out its
surroundings. Some sensors include Infrared sensors (Senses light), Ultrasonic sensor (Uses
Why do we do robotics?
Robotics are a lot of the time thought of as a thing that lazy people create to avoid doing
basic tasks that are in their routine. Now they can end up doing basic tasks for the lazy, such as
rolling a soda over to a person on a couch watching their favorite TV show. This is a brilliant
idea that someone should try to sell but robots have so much more potential and have
accomplished great things throughout history. They can be used to make process go faster, keep
people more safe, do hard tasks, and a lot more. If a person had to vacuum inside their house
every morning before they head to work they waste so much time just trying to keep their house
clean it would create a big toll on a person. Plus this leaves no room for error in the morning if
the person woke up late or had to do something else that morning. This is where robots can be
implemented. If the person had a robot that vacuumed everything up by itself it leaves lee way
for the person to do anything else they wish to do during the time they use to have to vacuum.
Moving back over to reality we have vacuum robots that do get floors squeaky clean. We use this
methodology of the person having to do a repetitive task in a lot of more practical sense. We use
robots in factories to do very repetitive task. In a car factory it is very common to see a robot
attach windshield or attach the car door to the frame of a car because of two reasons: one, these
tasks require assistance if humans were to do it and two, a robot would create less error than a
human would. Robots also can help do tasks humans are unwilling to do and that are too
dangerous for humans to do. If a there was a bomb threat inside a building and someone had to
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go in to defuse it, what would be the best option? Send in a person to defuse it and risk losing a
life, or send in a robot that can be controlled from the outside to do the job and risk only the
If robots can be used to help do repetitive and dangerous task then people should be able
to use them to help the environment. Robots could help the world even without doing anything
physical with it. A robot can collect certain data that could help further studies and make
necessary changes that are needed for the environment. They also can remove water pollution by
filter microbes in the water to remove certain chemicals from tankers and pick up floating trash
in the water. Also they are able to kill invasive species in certain areas depending on the species.
(Dodge 2018)
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References
Adrian, L. (2011). Preliminary Circuit Design for Robotics Environment Mapping Utilizing
Ambient Light, Reflected Light and Stationary Infrared Radiation. Scientific Journal of
Riga Technical University. Power and Electrical Engineering, 29(1), 123–128.
https://doi.org/10.2478/v10144-011-0021-y
Chow-Miller, I., & Chow-Miller, I. (2016). Integrated robotics. Retrieved from
https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.librarylink.uncc.edu
Dodge, A., Dodge, A., & Amanda Dodge. (2018, August 28). How Robots Are Helping in the
Fight Against Climate Change. Retrieved from
https://blog.ozobot.com/2018/08/28/robots-helping-fight-climate-change/
Dunbar, B. (2015, June 16). What Is Robotics? Retrieved from
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/nasa-
knows/what_is_robotics_58.html