The Remarkable World of Robots

     Everybody has some picture of robots in their head.  But is that picture really accurate and realistic?
     If you would like to see robots in roboticists' vision, then I would recommend Mighty Robots by David Jones.  It describes the range of categories that robots encompass.
     Robots evolved from automatons, which surprised me, because automatons weren't entirely self sufficient and weren't following an intentional sequence; they worked a lot like clocks. One example is the automaton in the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret which could only follow the one sequence based off of its clockworks:

Unmanned aerial vehicles can be
used for surveillance and attack.

But robots are self sufficient, can perform multiple functions, and do what they're doing intentionally. Today, there are so many types of robots in front of your face!  Think about all the toys in your house.  Do any of them physically react to a certain motion on them or around them?  If so, they're robots.  Robots are also assisting construction crews on large projects and exploring areas of the world where humans cannot.  Robots are even taking over the duties of human fighters in modern warfare.

     I liked this book, because it really opened me up into the world of robots, not just the exaggerated depiction of sci-fi robots in movies and on TV.  I learned the origin of robotics, the evolution of robotics thus far, and the projected future of robotics.  This was a great wake up call for me to look at the past, present, and move into the future with robotics.

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