Robots–A Kid’s New Best Friend

From science fiction tales to real-life applications, robots have captured our imaginations and are shaping the world we live in. They have been around since the middle of the last century and some of us even have them in our homes in the form of mobile vacuum cleaners. (If your family has one, I bet you didn’t know that it was a robot.)

What is a robot and what is robotics?

First, the modern term robot is derived from the Czech word robota, which means “forced labor” or “serf.” It was first used by Czech playwright Karel Čapek in his 1920 stage play R.U.R.

A robot is any automatically operated machine that replaces human effort. Robots come in many different shapes and sizes from very tiny to very large. One of the most famous robots that you know about is the Mars Rover. It is collecting and analyzing samples, along with data, from the Red Planet and transmitting the information back to us here on Earth.

The car industry is one of the biggest, and longest, users of robots in their assembly plants. In fact, robotic arms assembled most of your family’s car on the assembly line.

Robotics, on the other hand, is the engineering and research that deals with the design, construction, and operation of robots. Engineers, coders, designers, and even kids are involved in robotics today.

The first common robots were the mechanical assembly arms used in the manufacturing assembly line. But today we have far more human-like robots to help and entertain us. They range from droids, like C3PO in Star Wars, to combat drones being used in the war in Ukraine.

The word droid comes from the term android. A droid is a robot with some physical resemblance to a human, like C3PO. While an android is a robot designed to look and act like a human, like the Terminator. (Okay, the Terminator started out acting like a “evil human.” But eventually he turned out to be a “good” guy by helping the heroine.)

Thanks to the lightning-fast advances being made in computer processors today. Robot development is making great strides towards becoming more and more human-like. Especially when they are paired with artificial intelligence.

Like computers, robots are becoming so commonplace in our lives that we are learning about them in school where kids are learning about robotics. Because STEM literacy is so important nowadays in our lives, students are encouraged to start learning about robotics as early as possible.

Robotics can help you gain skills like coding, problem-solving, communication, teamwork, and creativity. It provides you with the skills needed for almost any kind of education or job that you might want to pursue when you get older.

Some people are afraid of robots because they fear that, along with A.I., they will some day take over the world and enslave humans. But, like A.I., it is our responsibility as their creators to teach them how to get along with us.

Besides being helpful, robots can entertain and amuse us as toys, TV shows, and movies. To get an idea of what is out there, all you have to do is a computer search for “robots.” It is interesting and fun to see what is out there already. And to imagine just what kind of new robots the experts are going to come up with in the future.

Who knows? Your robotics classes could lead to you inventing the next great robot.

AIME