What is the background of the robot? Why develop robots?

First of all, I want to introduce the background of the emergence of robots and the development of robotics. It should be said that it is the comprehensive result of the development of science and technology, and at the same time it has a great impact on social and economic development. Its development is attributed to the fact that in the Second World War, countries strengthened their economic investment and their own economic development.

On the other hand, it is also the demand of productivity development and the inevitable result of human development. With the development of people's society, people are increasingly discussing the process of nature, the process of transforming nature and the process of understanding nature, in order to realize people's understanding and transformation of the unreachable world, which is also an objective need of people in the process of scientific and technological development.

So what is a robot? Generally speaking, a robot is a kind of mechanical and electronic equipment with some functions similar to human beings, or an automatic equipment. It is still a machine. It has three characteristics. One is humanoid function, such as working function, sensing function and walking function, and it can also complete various actions. Another feature is that it can work automatically according to human programming. A remarkable feature here is that it can change its work and action through programming. However, from the complete and far-reaching definition of robot, the intelligence of robot should be emphasized, so people put forward the definition of robot, that is, a machine that can perceive the environment, learn, feel and logically think about the outside world. Then this puts forward higher requirements for robots. Looking forward to 2 1 century, robots will be deeply applied in various fields, just like the popularization of computers in the 20th century. The first 20 years of 2 1 century is an important period for the development of robots from manufacturing to non-manufacturing, and it is also a key period for the development of intelligent robots.

Just now, we spent a short time talking about the development of robots and our views on robots, and gave a brief introduction. I believe that everyone can study robots with us in the future.

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First of all, I want to introduce the background of the emergence of robots and the development of robotics. It should be said that it is the comprehensive result of scientific and technological development. At the same time, it has a great impact on social and economic development. Its development is attributed to the strengthening of economic investment by countries in the Second World War, thus strengthening their own economic development. For example, Japan started the automobile industry after World War II. At this time, due to the shortage of manpower, there is an urgent need for a robot to manufacture in large quantities, improve production efficiency and reduce labor intensity, which is the demand of social development. On the other hand, this is also the inevitable result of the development demand of productive forces and the development of human beings themselves. With people's gradual social development, people are increasingly discussing the need for a slave who can liberate people in the process of nature, in the process of transforming nature and in the process of understanding nature. Then this kind of slave is to take the place of people to engage in complex and heavy manual labor and realize people's understanding and transformation of the unreachable world, which is also an objective need of people in the process of scientific and technological development. On the other hand, although people have all kinds of good ideas, it is also attributed to the development of electronic technology, computer technology and manufacturing technology, which provides a strong technical guarantee.

Then I will talk about why people should develop robots, which is a problem that people are very concerned about. To put it simply, we need to develop robots for three reasons: First, robots can do things that people don't want to do, free people from toxic, harmful, high-temperature or dangerous environments, and at the same time robots can do jobs that they can't do well. For example, in the automobile production line, we see that workers hold 100 kilograms of electrode holders every day and weld thousands of points every day, which leads to repetitive work. On the one hand, they are tired, but the products are poor. On the other hand, robots can do things that people can't do, which is also a very important reason for the development of robots. For example, people's understanding of space, when people can't get up, they call robots to go to the sky, the moon, the ocean and into the human body. Robots that move atoms and molecules in a microscopic environment are unattainable tasks. The three problems mentioned above are the three reasons for the development of robots.

So what is a robot? This question is very interesting. However, people usually understand that a robot is a mechanical and electronic device or an automatic device with some functions similar to human beings. It is still a machine. It has three characteristics: one is human-like function, such as homework function; Perceptual function; Walking function; It can also perform various actions. Another feature of it is that it can work automatically according to people's programming. A remarkable feature here is that it can change its work, actions, objects and requirements through programming. It is a man-made machine or mechatronics device, so this robot is still a machine. But at present, there is no unified definition of robot. Generally speaking, we think that robot is a programmable automatic machine controlled by computer that can accomplish some work or move at present, which is defined by American Institute of Engineers. However, Japan and other countries also have different views on robots. They think that from the perspective of the complete and far-reaching definition of robots, more emphasis should be placed on the intelligence of robots, so people put forward the definition of robots as being able to perceive the environment, learn, feel and think logically about the outside world. Then this puts forward higher requirements for robots. For example, robots can weld here instead of people. The welding environment is very complicated and can be transported. It can carry glass and various parts on the production line, and it can also be palletized on the production line. This is an example of liberating people from heavy manual labor.

So how did robots come into being? This was in 1920, when a Czechoslovakian writer named Capec wrote a science fiction novel called Universal Picture the Rosam Robot. In this novel, he conceived and fantasized about a robot. Its name is Robert, which is the robot in our English. It can work tirelessly without eating. 1920 as we all know, it was after the first world war, which was a period of relatively rapid industrial development in various countries. We watched the movie Modern Times, in which Chaplin's actor became a robot and worked on the production line every day. In this kind of irritable physical labor, people fantasize that there is an imagination and demand that can replace people to complete such work. This novel was spread to Japan, France and European countries in 1924 and 1927. It also became a puppet show and some dramas at that time, so the term "robot" spread all over the world. At that time, people thought it was a science fiction novel, but it had not been put into practice.

But through such a novel, a noun like Robert, it embodies a long-term desire of human beings, that is, to create a machine that can replace people in all kinds of work. This idea is the objective requirement of robots, so the development of real robots was in 1947. When studying nuclear fuel, Oak Ridge National Laboratory has known that nuclear fuel carries X-rays, which is harmful to human body. It needs a machine to complete the tasks of handling and transporting nuclear fuel. 1947, the world's first master-slave remote control robot was born. After 1947, as we all know, it was a period of rapid development of computer electronic technology, so all countries began to use some modern technologies at that time to study robots. Subsequently, in 1962, PUMA universal teaching and copying robot was successfully developed in the United States, which marked the maturity of the robot. It should be said that the first available robot was produced in 1947, and the real robot was produced in 1962. Soon after, Britain and other countries developed some robots. Then in the late 1960s, the Japanese combined the automobile industry of their national economy with robots, bought American patents, and re-developed and produced robots in Japan. By 1970s, this kind of teaching and copying robot had been industrialized in Japan, and many companies appeared, such as ABB, MOTOMAN, An Chuan and OTC. They have industrialized and mass-produced robots, and successfully applied them to the automobile industry, making robots formally applied.

From 1970s to early 1980s, after industrial robots became products and were widely used in the world, many research institutions began to study the second generation robots with sensing function. Swedish ABB Company, German KUKA Robotics Company, several Japanese companies and Japanese FUNAC Company all made great achievements in industrial robots. At the same time, we also see that the application fields of robots are constantly expanding. It has expanded from some industrial applications to service industries, expanded the workspace, and used it in marine space, medical services and other industries. So from this picture, we can see several processes of robot development.

So to sum up, we think robots have three stages of development, that is to say, we are used to dividing robots into three categories. One is the first generation robot, also known as teaching and reproducing robot. It controls a multi-degree-of-freedom machine through a computer. By teaching and storing programs and information, information is read at work and then instructions are issued. In this way, the robot can be trained repeatedly according to the results taught by people at that time. Reproduce this kind of action, for example, the spot welding robot of an automobile always repeats this kind of work as long as it has taught the spot welding process. It has no perception of the external environment, the magnitude of this force, the existence of this workpiece and the quality of welding. It doesn't know, so in fact, this kind of robot has its defects from the first generation. Therefore, in the late 1970s, people began to study the second generation of robots. It is called an emotional robot. This sensory robot is similar to human feelings in some functions, such as force, touch, sliding, vision and hearing. It has all kinds of feelings. For example, when a robot grabs an object, it can actually feel the force, and can visually feel and identify the shape, size and color of the object. Grasping an egg, it can know its strength and sliding through its sense of touch.

Then there is the third generation robot, which is also the most advanced stage we pursue in the field of robotics, called intelligent robot. So as long as we tell it what to do, it can complete the functions and functions of exercise, perceptual thinking and human-computer communication. So this current development is only relative to the concept and significance of this kind of intelligence in some parts, but the truly complete intelligent robot does not actually exist, but only exists with the continuous development of science and technology.

Then from the development of three generations of robots, on the other hand, we classify robots from the perspective of application, such as industrial robots, which include spot welding, arc welding, painting, handling and palletizing. We collectively refer to this kind of robot working in industrial places as industrial robot, so from different application fields, it is called underwater robot to space robot, and there are also agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry. Medical robots are called medical robots, including entertainment robots and robots used in buildings and rooms, so from the perspective of application classification, it includes industries and applications, and can also be classified in such a simple way.

Let me briefly introduce the basic situation of robot development in China. Just now I mentioned that Japan and the United States began to study robots in the 1960s, because there are many other factors and problems in our country. Our country is studying robots. In the late 1970s, we held an exhibition of Japanese industrial automation products in Beijing. At this meeting, there are two products, one is CNC machine tools, and the other is industrial robots. At this time, many scholars in China saw this direction and began to study robots, but the research at this time was basically limited to the theoretical discussion stage. Then the real time of robot research is during the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth five-year plans, with the fastest development. It is in 1986 that China established the 863 program, which is a high-tech development plan and takes robot technology as an important development theme. China has invested nearly hundreds of millions of dollars in robot research, which has made China develop rapidly in the field of robots.

At present, Shenyang Institute of Automation of China Academy of Sciences, Beijing Institute of Automation of former Ministry of Machinery, Harbin Institute of Technology, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Tsinghua University, Beijing Institute of Automation of China Academy of Sciences and other major institutions. I have done very important research work and achieved a lot of results. Moreover, in recent years, many institutions in China are engaged in robot research, and many graduate students and doctoral students are engaged in robot research. At present, China's representative research, including industrial robots, underwater robots, space robots and nuclear robots, should be at the world's leading level. Generally speaking, there is still a big gap between China and developed countries, mainly because China has no fixed and mature products in robot industrialization, but we have made many distinctive research results in these underwater, space, nuclear industry and some special robots.

Let me briefly introduce some information about industrial robots. Up to now, industrial robot is the most mature and widely used robot type. At present, the global cumulative sales volume is 165438+ 10,000 units, which is the statistical data of 1999, but this 165438+ 10,000 units have been equipped and used, and this amount is also 750,000 units. Generally speaking, Japan ranks first in the field of industrial robots, becoming a robot kingdom, and the United States is also developing rapidly. At present, it has surpassed Japan in terms of the number of newly installed robots. China has just entered the stage of industrialization, and many prototypes of industrial robots have been developed, but some of them are used for small batch production, which is also a comparison between Japanese, American and Chinese industrial robots.

This is a spot welding robot, which mainly aims at improving the production efficiency, improving the welding quality and reducing the labor intensity of workers in automobile production lines. Its characteristic is that when two steel plates are spot-welded by robots, it needs to bear a large electrode holder, which generally exceeds tens of kilograms, so its speed needs to move at a high speed of 1.5 to 2 meters per second, so it generally has five to six degrees of freedom, the load is 30 to 120 kilograms, and the working space is very large, about two meters. Such a spherical workspace has a high moving speed, so the concept of freedom, that is, it is the number of parts that move relatively independently, which is equivalent to our human body. The waist is a rotational freedom. Our big arm can be lifted and our small arm can be bent, so these are three degrees of freedom. At the same time, the wrist also has three degrees of freedom to adjust its posture. Therefore, the general robot has six degrees of freedom, and it can completely realize three positions and three postures in space. Of course, there are also robots with less than six degrees of freedom and more than six degrees of freedom.

Arc welding robot is also one of the most important aspects of industrial robot. For example, when welding the rear axle of our car, it is welded continuously, so its characteristic is continuous trajectory control, so it requires very high trajectory accuracy. Generally speaking, it also has five to six degrees of freedom. Because its welding torch is relatively small, it can be five to ten kilograms. On the one hand, it is a kind of robot widely used at home and abroad, on the other hand, it is like handling and riveting. In these workplaces, such as handling, robots mainly need to have high speed and great bearing capacity. For example, the Japanese Daku robot can carry 300 kilograms, grab, carry and palletize.

The second category is service robots. With the development of industrialization, especially in recent ten years, the application field of robot development has been expanding. At present, it is a very important function. As we all know, robots have gradually shifted from manufacturing to non-manufacturing and service industries. The automobile manufacturing mentioned just now belongs to the manufacturing industry, but the service industry includes cleaning, refueling, ambulance, emergency rescue and disaster relief. All belong to non-manufacturing and service industries. Then compared with industrial robots, it has a very important difference. It is mainly a mobile platform, which can move and move. There are some arms on it for operation, and it is also equipped with some force sensors, vision sensors, ultrasonic ranging sensors and so on. It judges its own movement and completes some work by recognizing the surrounding environment, which is a basic feature of the service robot.

For example, here are some pictures. This is in America. They developed a kind of cleaning work like a large passenger plane. If people do it heavy, then the huge body will be heavy and inconvenient to clean. Then they use this robot to achieve these cleaning tasks like airplanes, including the development of cleaning robots like high-rise buildings in some countries. These robots are also robots in the service industry, including robots used at home. There are also some hotels and some public places that use this cleaning robot to clean the ground, including tennis courts that can automatically collect scattered balls. These robots also exist.

On the other hand, the application of service robots in automobile refueling robots is also very interesting, including some gas stations, which use automatic metering devices to realize all these automatic metering, but they are still operated by people. However, we can see that on some highways in the United States, there is a lot of traffic, including refueling at night, and the work is very complicated. So many countries are now developing this kind of automatic refueling robot, which can automatically measure and release.

Considering the safety of the blind, the shape of the guide robot is similar to that of a puppy. It can judge some obstacles, moving vehicles and pedestrians on the road to guide the blind to walk safely, which is really necessary to improve the safety of the blind.

Then there is the tour guide etiquette robot, which is also a service robot, reflecting a kind of intelligence and representativeness. In many big companies, it needs to promote its products. It makes robots with various cartoon shapes, which can have simple conversations with people and introduce products. This can receive some guests in some hotels to increase the social influence of enterprises or hotels.

The housework robot is mainly embodied in that it can regularly clean and vacuum carpets and floors. It is an interesting robot, it has sensors, it can identify furniture and people, it can automatically clean the ground according to a law, which is also the performance of some robots in housework.

Nowadays, many countries are developing large gardens such as zoos, recreation centers and Disney. In order to increase the interest, it developed imitators and packaged them into various people. It can talk, sing and perform, so it can communicate with people. This kind of robot also includes packaging robots into various interesting animals, such as dinosaurs, elephants, lions and some cartoon-like animals. It imitates some actions like animals, imitates its voice and communicates with people at the same time. What is particularly interesting is a robot playing the piano. In the early days in Japan, it played a world-famous song, which caused a great sensation in the robot world at that time. Therefore, the characteristics of this robot need very flexible fingers and great freedom, and in the process of playing, it also needs strong control and sensory control, so this is relative.

Some players also like this robot, including its violin playing, which is the most complicated and difficult instrument. It can play the violin through music, and control, coordinate, speed and so on. Must automatically choose or judge the size, including this is also the robot performing and so on. It is a very extensive application field in service robots, and it is getting closer to people's needs. So to sum up, there are four key technologies. One is a mobile mechanism, which is different from industrial robots. Most service robots are mobile, including wheeled robots, crawler robots and walking robots, including combined robots. This kind of mobile mechanism has the ability to perceive the environment, which is also the most important feature of service robots, because its environment is not like the fixed environment of industrial robots. Fixed frame, fixed appearance, then the environment may be unknown, perhaps changing, including cleaning robots, the shape of the house, the appearance of each family, the placement of furniture are different, and even some people walk. These unstructured environments enable it to describe, perceive and judge accurately. In this respect, it shows that the service robot has certain human intelligence functions.

On the other hand, energy technology. As we all know, in the early days, humanoid robots were equipped with a "braid". Due to insufficient energy supply, the battery energy is very small. Therefore, this service robot now requires high density, relatively constant output voltage, low internal resistance, high temperature resistance and low cost, especially in high density. Therefore, energy technology is the key issue for the future development of mobile robots, and so is control technology. In the process of perceiving the environment, control technology also needs to interact with people. Since it is a service, people always contact it, so how to interact with people needs an open and friendly connection interface, including voice function and graphical programming method.

On the other hand, the world has made some significant progress in agriculture, forestry and livestock robots. We are also discussing whether agricultural robots and forestry robots are necessary in China. Then, for some developed countries, the agricultural population is very limited, including collecting some agricultural and sideline products and pine seeds, which is a very troublesome thing. In this case, the robot can handle fruits such as tomatoes and apples by shape and color. Judging its maturity and then picking it, this research has really improved one aspect of agricultural automation, including that our country has successfully developed a grafting robot, which can automatically connect two branches after grafting and robot picking, and then wind the branches. This research was successfully developed in China Agricultural University, and it also includes forestry robots, which mainly pick agricultural and forestry products, such as pine seeds and roots. When logging, it is necessary to pull it out and plant trees. More interestingly, there are many kinds of sheep and goats in animal husbandry, including Australia. An industry with the largest output in their country, such as sheep, has a large amount of shearing wool, so its manpower is limited, so it is committed to developing a shearing robot. First, it fixes a sheep by a manipulator and recognizes its shape by a camera. Using this so-called scissors, and then automatically picking out wool according to its shape, at the same time, it will not damage its skin, because a sheep looks like it, so its operation is very difficult, and its perception of the environment is very harsh, so this technology is also very complicated.

In foreign countries, the use and demand of construction robots are gradually increasing. Construction robots mainly solve this problem. Just like our road-building robots, they also need construction robots, including spraying and excavators, including modular prefabricated panels of some buildings, which need some automation devices, including home decoration, such as wall painting, which is also very big and dirty, which is harmful to human body. Now some foreign companies are developing family-oriented painting robots.

There are things like food packaging and sewing, that is to say, service-oriented families and food applications, including sausage packaging, actually improve the level of automation on the one hand, but also improve the level of hygiene on the other. Otherwise, if human beings participate, it will always bring some unsanitary factors, including clothing cutting. Now that we make clothes, people are increasingly pursuing individuality. So now some universities are studying it, including what you want. This includes scanning your body shape after you stand in this area. Robots can automatically design shapes suitable for your body shape. Through your selection and modification, the manipulator will automatically cut its fabric. Finally, some production lines can sew automatically. In Britain, many countries are also developing this kind of robot equipment.

It also includes fire rescue robots, which are more developed in Japan, so once a fire breaks out in a high-rise building, everyone knows that it is a very dangerous and painful thing. Then, with the help of the robot, people are rescued from the high-rise building, and then rescue is carried out, including when the high-rise building is on fire, it can use this machine to climb onto the building, spray water, or cut off some cables. This can be done by robots.

Therefore, medical robot is a new application field that has developed rapidly in recent five years, so we can also see several aspects, including that human beings are very precious creatures, so human eyes, nerves and blood vessels are very fine, so if one person is tired during surgery and the accuracy of manual operation by another person is still limited, then this is Germany, and some universities are oriented to human spine, such as lumbar intervertebral discs. There is also a rehabilitation robot. For example, the incidence of patients with hemiplegia and hemiplegia is relatively high. When he recovers from treatment, he needs to exercise and restore his limbs. If doctors are limited, it is impossible for doctors to massage or pull patients every day, then all family members are working and have no time to take care of them. Then you can use robots to influence his hands. It is dangerous to force him to exercise every day to achieve the best recovery of human muscles. Many universities and some hospitals are developing brain surgery like human beings. However, good examples have been obtained, including the work of locating and drilling the human brain by Beihang University, and more than 1000 robots operating on human eyeballs in the United States. This robot also includes remote control. In order to realize this operation of human gastrointestinal tract, you can see a finger-thick manipulator on TV, which is operated on the screen after being inserted into abdominal viscera, and at the same time, the lesion is treated with laser. In this case, people don't have to destroy people's bodies to a great extent, which is actually a kind of liberation for people, and it is a very good robot, and the medical robot is also very complicated. On the one hand, it is difficult to complete all kinds of work automatically. Generally speaking, people are involved. This is an example of Lindbergh operation developed in the United States. People control another manipulator through the remote controller on the screen to realize the operation of human abdominal cavity. At our national exhibition a few years ago, the United States has successfully achieved surgery and bypass surgery on human heart valves, which has always existed in the field of robots. It caused a great sensation, including Aesop's surgical robot, which can actually check some pathological changes of people through some instruments, and can operate some parts of people through manipulator, as well as remotely operate manipulator. Many doctors can operate with the participation of robots, including robots taking pliers, tweezers or knives for doctors to replace nurses' work, and automatically linking lighting with doctors' actions, doctor.

Then there are several examples, such as the operation of human shoulder joint, including neurosurgery and neurosurgery, so this operation should be very difficult and risky, but with the participation of people, it realizes accurate positioning, which is very beneficial to the recovery of human body. Another research that reflects the degree of robot application display is underwater robot. First of all, we have to answer why we should develop underwater robots. Then people have realized that with the continuous consumption of land resources, how can we get more resources? People have turned their attention to the universe and underwater, so the resources of the ocean are very rich. Including copper, manganese, nickel and cobalt and other mineral resources, these resources are thousands of times more than the ground resources, and this resource is very large, including space. Then, submarine exploration, salvage at sea, underwater investigation and elimination of dangers, including the movie Titanic we watched, probably we saw a small robot shooting underwater, including a Russian nuclear submarine. After the accident, in fact, many universities want to participate, and robots can be used for rescue and so on. On the other hand, robots play an important role in underwater applications because people's work under the sea is very dangerous. In this respect, it should be said that the research level of the United States, France and Russia is relatively high, so this is an underwater working robot in France. In Japan, the submersible "Hai Gou" has reached several kilometers underwater, and has carried out seabed exploration and collected some minerals on the seabed.