Robotics

Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots.[3] Robotics is related to the sciences ofelectronics, engineering, mechanics, and software.[4] The word "robot" was introduced to the public by Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), published in 1920. The term"robotics" was coined by Isaac Asimov in his 1941 science fiction short-story "Liar!"

Stories of artificial helpers and companions and attempts to create them have a long history.
A scene fromKarel Čapek's 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), showing three robots

The word robot was introduced to the public by the Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's UniversalRobots), published in 1920.[6] The play begins in a factory that makes artificial people called robots creatures who can be mistaken for humans - though they are closer to the modern ideas of androids.Karel Čapek himself did not coin the word. He wrote a short letter in reference to an etymology in the Oxford English Dictionary in which he named his brother Josef Čapek as its actual originator.[6]In 1927 the Maschinenmensch ("machine-human") gynoid humanoid robot (also called "Parody", "Futura", "Robotrix", or the "Maria impersonator") was the first and perhaps the most memorable depiction ofa robot ever to appear on film was played by German actress Brigitte Helm) in Fritz Lang's film Metropolis.

In 1942 the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov formulated his Three Laws of Roboticsand, in the process of doing so, coined the word "robotics" (see details in "Etymology" section below).

In 1948 Norbert Wiener formulated the principles of cybernetics, the basis of practicalrobotics.

Fully autonomous robots only appeared in the second half of the 20th century. The first digitally operated and programmable robot, the Unimate, was installed in 1961 to lift hot pieces of...