What is a Robot?

1. What is a Robot? A robot is a mechanical or virtual, artificial agent. It is usually electromechanical system, which, by its appearance or movements, conveys a sense that it has intent or agency of its own. It is a machine made in imitation of a human being. It is a mechanical device that does routine work in response to commands. World Book Encyclopedia/ www.wikipedia.com

2. Who was the first one to use the word robot? • The word robot was introduced to the public at large by Czec writer Karel Canec in his play R.U.R (Rossum’s Universal Robots) which premiered in 1920.[18] The play begins in a factory that makes 'artificial people' - they are called robots, but are closer to the modern idea of androids or even clones, creatures who can be mistaken for humans. They can plainly think for themselves, though they seem happy to serve. At issue is whether the "Robots" are being exploited and, if so, what follows? (see also Robots in literature for details of the play) [19]

3. writer Josef Capek, as its actual inventor.[18] In an article in the Czech journal Lidove noviny in 1933, he also explained that he had originally wanted to call the creatures laboři (from Latin labor, work). However, he did not like the word, seeing it as too However, Karel Čapek himself was not the originator of the word; he wrote a short letter in reference to an article in the Oxford English Dictionary etymology in which he named his brother, painter and artificial, and sought advice from his brother Josef, who suggested "roboti".

4. The word robot comes from the word robota meaning literally self labor, and, figuratively, "drudgery" or "hard work" in Czech, Slovak and Polish. The origin of the word is the Old Church Slavonik rabota "servitude" ("work" in contemporary Bulganian and Russian), which in turn comes from the Indo-European root *orbhRobot is cognate with the german word Arbeiter (worker). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot

5. Identify and describe the robotswho where in the "Robot Hall of Fame". Add Pictures if possible. • The Robot Hall of Fame inducted five robots on June 21, 2006, representing the best of both real and fictional robots. The Sony AIBO (1998-2005) and the SCARA industrial robot arm (1978) are brilliant robotic achievements in consumer entertainment and industrial assembly. • The three fictional robot inductees include a female icon, an android child, and a macho intergalactic bodyguard – Maria of Metropolis (1927), David of Artificial Intelligence:AI (2001), and Gort of The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951). These robots are among the most enduring and influential images in science fiction. • The third Robot Hall of Fame induction ceremony was held at the RoboBusiness2006 Conference, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Both celebrities and distinguished scholars participated in the event. Anthony Daniels, the British actor who portrayed C-3PO in the Star Wars film cycle, was master of ceremonies for the program. Daniel Wilson, author, How To Survive A Robot Uprising, presented his humorous vision of the ways robots will impact our world.

6. Gort’s induction included actor Billy Gray’s personal plea to keep the world safe from nuclear weapons. Scholars Sherry Turkle (MIT) and Anne Balsamo (Annenberg School of Communications, USC) praised the enduring influence of David and Maria. The AIBO was lauded by Sony’s Katsumi Muto and Carnegie Mellon University’s Manuela Veloso, professor of computer science and a leader in international RoboCup competition. SCARA’s distinguished inventor, Professor Emeritus Hiroshi Makino (University of Yamanashi) traveled from Japan to accept the honors on behalf of his creation. • AIBO, for the sophistication of your software that wins RoboCup competitions and the beauty of your design that wins our hearts … SCARA, for proving that less can be more on the assembly line and for revolutionizing electronics production … DAVID, for giving us a vision of emotional relationships between humans and robots … MARIA, for providing popular culture with one of the earliest female robotic images, unforgettable and powerful … and GORT, for your acceptance of the most famous command in science fiction to stop your mission of destruction…we welcome each of these landmark robots to the Robot Hall of Fame! • http://www.robothalloffame.org/inductees.html

7. Trace the origin of "lego" and what does the word lego mean. • The Lego Group had a very humble beginning in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter from Rillund, Denmark. Christiansen began creating wooden toys in 1932; the company began calling itself "Lego" two years later in 1934. The company expanded to producing plastic toys in 1947. In 1949, Lego began producing the now-famous interlocking bricks, calling them "Automatic Binding Bricks". These bricks were based largely on the design of Kiddicraft Self-Locking Bricks, which were released in the UK in 1947. The first Lego bricks, manufactured from cellulose acetae, were developed in the spirit of traditional wooden blocks that could be stacked upon one another; however, these plastic bricks could be "locked" together. They had several round "studs" on top, and a hollow rectangular bottom. The blocks snapped together, but not so tightly that they could not be pulled apart.

8. The company name Lego was coined by Christiansen from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means "play well". The name could also be interpreted as "I put together" or "I assemble" in Latin, though this would be a somewhat forced application of the general sense "I collect; I gather; I learn"; the word is most used in the derived sense, "I read". The cognate Greek verb "λέγω" or "lego" also means "gather, pick up", but this can include constructing a stone wall. • www.wikipedia.org/wiki/lego

9. describe Lego Mindstroms • Lego Mindstorms is a line of Lego sets combining programmable bricks with electric motors, sensor, Lego bricks, and Lego technique pieces (such as gears, axles, beams and pnuematic parts) to build robots and other automated or interactive systems. It embodies the constructionism learning theory described in the book Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas by Seymour Papert. • The first retail version of Lego Mindstorms was released in 1998 and marketed commercially as the Robotics Invention System (RIS). The current version was released in 2006 as Lego Mindstorms NXT. Lego mindstorms can use double motors from the same port which do the same thing.

10. The original Mindstorms Robotics Invention System kit contained two motors, two touch sensors, and one light sensor. The NXT version has three servo motors and four sensors for touch, light, sound, and distance. Lego Mindstorms may be used to build a model of an embedded systems with computer-controlled electromechanical parts. Many kinds of real-life embedded systems, from elevator controllers to industrial robots, may be modelled using Mindstorms. • Mindstorms kits are also sold and used as an leducational tool, originally through a partnership between Lego and the MIT Media aboratory. The educational version of the products is called Lego Mindstorms for Schools, and comes with the ROBOLAB GUI-based programming software, developed at Tufts University using the National Instruments Lahview as an engine. The only difference between the educational series, known as the "Challenge Set", and the consumer series, known as the "Inventor Set", is another included light sensor and several more gearing options. • www.wikipedia.org/wiki/lego_mindstorms

11. Describe the Major parts of a lego Mindstorm Kit • The first generation of LEGO Mindstorms was built around a brick known as the RCX. It contains a Renesas H8/300 microcontroller as its internal CPU. The brick is programmed by downloading a program (written in one of several available programming languages) from a PC or Mac to the brick's RAM via a special infrared (IR) interface. After the user starts a program, an RCX-enabled Mindstorms creation may function totally on its own, acting on internal and external stimuli according to the programmed instructions. Also, two or more RCX bricks can communicate with each other through the IR interface, enabling inter-brick cooperation or competition. In addition to the IR port, there are three sensor input ports and three motor output ports (also usable for lamps, etc). There is also an LCD that can display the battery level, the status of the input/output ports, which program is selected or running, and other information

12. Version 1.0 RCX bricks feature a power adapter jack to allow continuous operation instead of the limited operation time when using batteries. In version 2.0, the power adapter jack was removed. Power adapter-equipped RCX bricks are popular for stationary robotics projects (such as robot arms) or for controlling Lego Model trains. In the latter context, the RCX needs to be programmed with Digital Command control (DCC) software required for automated model train operation. • Each RCX, including 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0, has a unique number printed on it. Little is known about the reasoning behind this number, except for the use of technical support

13. LEGO Camera • The LEGO Camera on its own is technically not a robotic toy; rather, it is a normal webcam (a Logitech Quickcam Web) packaged into a LEGO shell. Being a normal webcam, the LEGO Camera is, unlike most Mindstorms products, not programmable and is only usable connected to a PC or some other device that supports USB webcams. • The LEGO Camera is meant to be used with the included Vision Command software which can also interface with an RCX and thus enables creating robots with "vision". The software is capable of detecting different lightings, motion, and colors. It can also be used with any other software that uses a webcam. The webcam is capable of recording up to 30 frames per second. It also contains a microphone to record sound for videos. • www.wikipidea.org/wiki/Lego_Mindstorms