What are Robots?
2.1 So, what is a robot? robotics? roboticist? Does anyone know what they are talking about? 2.2 Origin of the word: Rossums Universal Robots 2.3 What is the growth rate of robotics? How many robot critters of each type are out there anyway? 3 A vocabulary for describing robots: gizbots and simbots and flightbots, oh my! 3.1 Summary and usage 3.2 How Modular Is Your ‘bot: Gizbots, Morphbots, and Unibots 3.3 Where does your ‘bot live? Stationbots, Floorbots, Terrainbots, and the Envirobots of air, sea, and space. 3.6 How independent is your ‘bot: Autobot, Taskbot, RCbot, and Telebot Controls 3.4 How big is your ‘bot: Microbot, Macrobot, and Megabot Sizes 3.5 How real is your ‘bot: Thoughtbot, Fantasybot, Simbot, Tinkerbot, and Workbot Development Phases 4 Getting started – Joining the People of Robotics 4.1 Watching the art: surveying robotics 4.2 A most enjoyable hobby: building your own robots 4.3 Studying for a living: universities and research 4.4 Working for a living: the robotics
The word robot is usually used to refer to a mechanical agent that performs one or more tasks in which it mimics a human or animal agent either through programming or commands. Another word used synonymously is automaton. Virtual robots exist, but are most often called by the abbreviated name bots. The name robot comes from the Czech word robota, which means drudgery or servitude. It was coined by Karel Capek, a Czech playwright, in his play R.U.R., which stands for Rossum’s Universal Robots. It was published in 1921, and entered English in 1923. The field of study of robots is referred to as robotics, and people who specialize in robotics are called roboticists. Robots can be classified in a number of ways. Robot creators may use the means of locomotion as their categories, differentiating their creations by whether they are static, on the one hand, or whether they have treads, a propeller, fins, legs, wheels, rotors, or other means of propulsion, on the other hand. The National Aeron
