Robots are changing the world … but before we can begin to talk about them, we need to decide what a robot is. What distinguishes a robot from any other machine? The stereotypical robot is a mechanical humanoid that walks and talks like a person, but robots like that only exist – so far – in science fiction. In the real world, most robots neither walk nor talk, and are nothing like people.
Going back to the word’s origin is little help. The term ‘robot’ was first used in Karel Capek’s 1921 play R.U.R. for which he created a race of artificial industrial workers – Rossum’s Universal Robots – the word ‘robot’ is derived from a Czech word meaning ‘forced labour’. To make matters more confusing, Capek’s fictional robots were organic beings that were grown synthetically, more like clones than our idea of robots.
The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that a robot is ‘a machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically’. This would include machines like dishwashers and washing machines, which are – perhaps unfairly – not seen as robots. The International Federation of Robotics defines a robot as ‘an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator … which may be either fixed in place or mobile’. This may be useful in the industrial field, but misses many others; surgical robots, for example, are not programmable.
Early ideas of robots came from fiction, and developers played up the ‘mechanical man’ stereotype of literature’s invention. ‘Elektro the Moto Man’ was a metallic human 2m (6.5ft) tall, who gave demonstrations to packed houses at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. He could respond to verbal commands, answer questions in a suitably robotic voice, count on his fingers and even smoke a cigarette. Elektro was built by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation to showcase some of its most advanced technology: photocells and electrical relays were cutting-edge industrial technology. Elektro was a fake, his answers pre-scripted and his abilities limited to set tricks, but robotic devices using the same technology were doing real work.
Machines that took over the jobs of humans were often called robots. The first traffic signals were installed outside the Houses of Parliament in 1868, with red, green and amber gas lights for the nights, based on signals that directed trains. A policeman operated them manually. When automated traffic lights were introduced, in the 1920s, they were known as ‘robot policemen’.
In the 1940s, Nazi Germany fielded the V-1, a pilotless aircraft carrying explosives. These were known in the English-speaking world as ‘robot aircraft’ or just ‘robots’ (‘doodlebug’ and ‘buzz bomb’ were less common). We might now call them drones, a term that overlaps confusingly with robots.
For this book, we have accepted a broad definition of what makes a robot. Surgical and bomb-disposal machines that are universally known as robots are included, even though some might argue they are remote-controlled and not ‘real’ robots. There are plenty of robot vehicles – on the ground, on the water and in the air, as well as underwater and underground. There are also devices that require a human operator, that are unquestionably robotic in nature, such as prosthetic hands or complete exoskeletons. But, perhaps the robots that continue to fascinate us the most are the humanoids.
Serious efforts to build a human-like robot date back at least to designs sketched by Leonardo da Vinci for a mechanical knight in 1495, often cited as the ancestor of modern robots. Leonardo used his knowledge of human anatomy, the workings of joints and muscles to build an artificial human with levers and pulleys. The design, based on a suit of armour, could move its arms and legs and raise its visor. It even had a rudimentary form of programming, as it could be set to perform different actions by changing the settings of gears on a clocklike ‘controller’.
We do not know if Leonardo’s knight was ever built, but it shows a profound understanding of the issues of robotics, and how problems can be overcome by borrowing techniques from nature. Modern robot arms, with their wrist and elbow joints, bear more than a coincidental resemblance to Leonardo’s knight. Given the same challenge of articulation and moving a hand through three-dimensional space, engineers arrive at the same solution.
While robots may have been around for centuries, the current generation offer something entirely new. Now we are moving from the illusion of human capability to the reality. They may walk clumsily, and drive poorly, and lack human skill when it comes to picking up an apple, but robots are learning fast. The day is coming when they will rival and then surpass us in all sorts of fields. These robots are already starting to change the world. In the coming decades, they will do far more.