A Short History of Robots

Robot Timeline

• ~270BC an ancient Greek engineer named Ctesibus made organs and water clocks with movable figures.
• 1818 - Mary Shelley wrote "Frankenstein" which was about a frightening artificial lifeform created by Dr. Frankenstein.
• 1921 - The term "robot" was first used in a play called "R.U.R." or "Rossum's Universal Robots" by the Czech writer Karel Capek. The plot was simple: man makes robot then robot kills man!
• 1941 - Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov first used the word "robotics" to describe the technology of robots and predicted the rise of a powerful robot industry.
• 1942 - Asimov wrote "Runaround", a story about robots which contained the "Three Laws of Robotics":
  • A robot may not injure a human, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  • A robot must obey the orders it by human beings except where such orders would conflic with the First Law.
  • A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict withe the First or Second Law.
• 1948 - "Cybernetics", an influence on artificial intelligence research was published by Norbert Wiener
• 1956 - George Devol and Joseph Engelberger formed the world's first robot company.
• 1959 - Computer-assisted manufacturingg was demonstrated at the Servomechanisms Lab at MIT.
• 1961 - The first industrial robot was online in a General Motors automobile factory in New Jersey. It was called UNIMATE.
• 1963 - The first artificial robotic arm to be controlled by a computer was designed. The Rancho Arm was designed as a tool for the handicapped and it's six joints gave it the flexibility of a human arm.
• 1965 - DENDRAL was the first expert system or program designed to execute the accumulated knowledge of subject experts.
• 1968 - The octopus-like Tentacle Arm was developed by Marvin Minsky.
• 1969 - The Stanford Arm was the first electrically powered, computer-controlled robot arm.
• 1970 - Shakey was introduced as the first mobile robot controlled by artificial intellence. It was produced by SRI International.
• 1974 - A robotic arm (the Silver Arm) that performed small-parts assembly using feedback from touch and pressure sensors was designed.
• 1979 - The Standford Cart crossed a chair-filled room without human assistance. The cart had a tv camera mounted on a rail which took pictures from multiple angles and relayed them to a computer. The computer analyzed the distance between the cart and the obstacles.

What is DARPA Robotics Challenge?

The DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) is a prize competition funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Held from 2012 to 2014, it aims to develop semi-autonomous ground robots that can do "complex tasks in dangerous, degraded, human-engineered environments." The DRC was conceived of and is being managed by Dr. Gill Pratt, in DARPA's Tactical Technology Office (TTO). The DRC follows the DARPA Grand Challenge and DARPA Urban Challenge. It began in October 2012; it is to run for about 27 months with three competitions, a Virtual Robotics Challenge (VRC) that took place in June 2013 and two live hardware challenges, the DRC Trials in December 2013, and the DRC Finals in December 2014.
Besides spurring development of semi-autonomous robots, the DRC also seeks to make robotic software and systems development more accessible beyond the end of the program. To that end, the DRC has funded the development of the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF) GAZEBO simulator and the construction of six Boston Dynamics ATLAS robots that are being given to the teams that performed best in the VRC

Challenge details of 2013:-

The Robotics Challenge will focus on disaster or emergency-response scenarios. Although the requirements may change as the contest progresses, the initial task requirements for robot entries is:

1. Drive a utility vehicle at the site.

2. Travel dismounted across rubble.

3. Remove debris blocking an entryway.

4. Open a door and enter a building.

5. Climb an industrial ladder and traverse an industrial walkway.

6. Use a tool to break through a concrete panel.

7. Locate and close a valve near a leaking pipe.

8. Connect a fire hose to a standpipe and turn on a valve.

The competition has been broken into multiple tracks. Tracks A and B receive DARPA funding, while Tracks C and D will receive no DARPA funding initially. Tracks B and C will go through the Virtual Robotics Challenge (VRC), after which successful teams may receive funding for subsequent stages. Applications for tracks A and B closed in May 2012. The track C application window closed on 18 December 2012, though late applications were still being considered as of January 2013, though participants may still download the DRC Simulator, an open source application created by the Open Source Robotics Foundation. Track D is open for registration through October 2013.

What is DARPA?

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technologies for use by the military. DARPA has been responsible for funding the development of many technologies which have had a major effect on the world, including computer networking, as well as NLS, which was both the first hypertext system, and an important precursor to the contemporary ubiquitous graphical user interface.

DARPA began as the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) created in 1958 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower for the purpose of forming and executing research and development projects to expand the frontiers of technology and science and able to reach far beyond immediate military requirements. The administration was responding to the Soviet launching of Sputnik 1 in 1957, and ARPA's mission was to ensure U.S. military technology be more sophisticated than that of the nation's potential enemies.