Imagine having a servant that will do every one of your biddings without even asking for salary? Even the menial tasks like fetching you a cup of water while you are working. How great would that be? No, I am not talking about re-establishing slavery, which took a lot of effort to abolish, but what we are talking about is far more interesting, and frankly, legal. Robots.
The term "Robot" originates from an old Church Slavonic word, robota, for servitude, or forced labour, and Robotics is a field that integrates Computer Science and Engineering. The whole purpose of robotics is to make machines to help us reduce work and help us solve dull and dangerous tasks more efficiently. We've come a long way from the first robot named Unimate (1954) that was meant to help out in factories, to a bot named Sophia which even got full citizenship in Saudi Arabia in 2017.
Aside from the spectrum, there are a lot of real-life scenarios where robots are life saviours, and in some cases, literally!
The whole point of having robots is being able to use them for tasks where sending humans would be too dangerous. What could be a better example than Mars? That's a planet where we can not just send humans before we have data about it, so to collect data, we just sent a mars rover.
And well, whenever you feel lonely, remember that Curiosity (Mars Rover) used to sing happy birthday to itself.
And well another case where robots are literally the life saviours are when used by the military. Military robots are autonomous robots or remote-controlled mobile robots designed for military applications, from transport to search & rescue and attack. Just imagine how many lives would be saved by just using a robot instead?
Some of the other dangerous tasks where use robots are:
- Robotic Welding. Manual welding is dangerous for the human body. It produces a lot of noise and intense hits. Robots are doing a great job in this section too.
- Waste from sewers is harmful to the human body. So, robots work as sewer scrapers.
- Some robots are now even working as firefighters!
- Robots are being used to arm and disarm bombs which were extremely life killing jobs for a human.
- In nuclear plants, robots clean the Nuclear waste that would be deadly for humans.
Aside from all the life-saving scenarios, there are a lot of other real-life use cases for robots too, which include domains like Homes, Education, Entertainment, Health, and even Transportation. Let's briefly go over some of them.
Health
In health care, robots are made use of to make doctors' jobs easier. The Da Vinci surgical system uses a surgeon's hand movements to control microscopic devices used during surgery within the patient's body. Exoskeletons are robotic devices used to help individuals who have had a stroke or suffered a spinal cord injury. During rehabilitation, these devices serve as guidance for patients.
Education
Many students have to drop out of school after coming in contact with some disease. An ill student is allowed to attend school remotely because of robotics. Several autistic kids are uncomfortable conversing with people and in such situations, a robot is considered to be of great use as it creates a friendly atmosphere and assists the child to converse and learn better.
Entertainment
One of the most popular applications of robotics lies in the entertainment sector. Robotic toys are very captivating and attract young minds. They provide several features that help the child to learn and enjoy simultaneously. Such products give rise to curiosity and build interest in the technology domain. If somebody is not into that, then that person will certainly enjoy watching robots fight each other!
Household
Well, there are many robots in the market, which roam around cleaning your home. What else could you possibly want?
Conclusion
Many people have reservations about using robots for such crucial things, and it's all because of the depiction of robots in Hollywood movies where the robot becomes self-aware and tries to destroy the world. While the concern is justifiable, we're still decades or even a century away from reaching that point, and well, it would be a mistake if we do not put use to their abilities.
Top comments (0)