TABLE OF CONTENTS Automaton 4 Radio-Controlled Boat 6 Cybernetic Tortoise 8 Industrial Robot 10 Artificial Intelligence 12 Robotic Spacecraft 14 Humanoid Robot 16 Mars Rover 18 Social Robot 20 Robotic Pet 22 Home-Cleaning Robot 24 Robotic Car 26 Fact Sheet 28 Glossary 30 For More Information 31 Index 32 About the Author 32
1 AUTOMATONS PROVIDE INSPIRATION FOR FUTURE ROBOTS Jaquet-Droz made two others The Musician could play five songs on an organ The Draughtsman could be programmed to draw simple pictures such as a dog or a man ROBOTS A robot is a type of machine that carries out a complex set of tasks automatically Early robots called automatons were purely mechanical They had moving parts similar to a clock Later robots were controlled by computers Some robots are made to resemble people Others are built for specific tasks In 1768 Swiss watchmaker Pierre Jaquet-Droz introduced The Writer It was like a wooden doll but with mechanical parts that moved on their own The 28-inch 0 7-m figure was carved from wood Approximately 4,000 cams gears and rods turned inside It sat at a table and wrote up to three lines of text The Writer dipped a quill into a pot of ink Its eyes and head followed its hands as they moved Its motions made it appear lifelike A wheel could be changed to make it write different words Automatons such as The Writer were an early kind of robot An automaton is a machine that can move by itself in a repetitive manner The Writer could be programmed to write different text This set it apart from other automatons of the time 4
40 The number of letters or symbols The Writer could be programmed to write at a time Automatons became popular in the 1700s First mechanical device that could be programmed Created interest in robotics Kings and queens all over Europe invited Jaquet Droz to demonstrate his creations People were amazed to see what they did As word spread inventors were inspired to see what else automatons could do An automaton created by eighteenth-century Swiss watchmaker Pierre Jaquet-Droz has the ability to sketch pictures and write poems 5
