Category: Physical Robots

Until the past few years, robots were mostly for high-end manufacturing, such as for autos. But with the growth in AI and the lower costs for building devices, robots are becoming more widespread across a range of industries. As seen in this chapter, there are interesting use cases with robots that do things like clean…

Rodney Brooks is one of the giants of the robotics industry. In 1990, he co-founded iRobot to find ways to commercialize the technology. But it was not easy. It was not until 2002 that the company launched its Roomba vacuuming robot, which was a big hit with consumers. As of this writing, iRobot has a…

It is getting easier to create intelligent robots, as systems get cheaper and there are new software platforms emerging. A big part of this has been due to the Robot Operating System (ROS), which is becoming a standard in the industry. The origins go back to 2007 when the platform began as an open source project…

Cybersecurity has not been much of a problem with robots. But unfortunately, this will not likely be the case for long. The main reason is that it is becoming much more common for robots to be connected to the cloud. The same goes for other systems, such as the Internet of Things or IoT, and…

Isaac Asimov, a prolific writer of many diverse subjects like science fiction, history, chemistry, and Shakespeare, would also have a major impact on robots. In a short story he wrote in 1942 (“Runaround”), he set forth his Three Laws of Robotics: Note Asimov would later add another one, the zeroth law, which stated: “A robot may…

The popular cartoon, The Jetsons, came out in the early 1960s and had a great cast of characters. One was Rosie, which was a robot maid that always had a vacuum cleaner in hand. Who wouldn’t want something like this? I would. But don’t expect something like Rosie coming to a home anytime soon. When it…

OK then, let’s now take a look at some of the other interesting use cases with industrial and commercial robots. Use Case: Security Both Erik Schluntz and Travis Deyle have extensive backgrounds in the robotics industry, with stints at companies like Google and SpaceX. In 2016, they wanted to start their own venture but first spent considerable time…

The first real-world use of robots had to do with manufacturing industries. But these systems did take quite a while to get adoption. The story begins with George Devol, an inventor who did not finish high school. But this was not a problem. Devol had a knack for engineering and creativity, as he would go on to…

The origins of the word “robot” go back to 1921 in a play by Karel Capek called Rossum’s Universal Robots. It’s about a factory that created robots from organic matter, and yes, they were hostile! They would eventually join together to rebel against their human masters (consider that “robot” comes from the Czech word robata for forced labor). But as…