Robot, computer-controlled machine programmed to move, manipulate objects and perform work while interacting with their environment. The robots are capable of performing repetitive tasks more quickly, cheaply and accurately than humans. The term comes from the Czech word robota, meaning compulsory labor ', was first used in the 1921 play RUR (Rossum's Universal Robots) by Czech novelist and playwright Karel Èapek. Since then it has used the word robot to refer to a machine doing work to help people or make difficult or unpleasant tasks for humans.

History The concept of automated machines goes back to antiquity, with mechanical beings living myths. Automata, or machines like people, and clocks appeared in

medieval churches and eighteenth-century watchmakers were famous for their clever mechanical creatures. Some of the first robots used feedback mechanisms to correct errors, mechanisms that are still used today. An example of feedback control is a drinker who uses a float to determine the water level. When the water falls below a certain level, float low, a valve opens and lets more water in the drinker. Going up the water, the float rises too, and at a certain height the valve is closed and cut off the water.

The first real feedback controller was the Watt regulator, invented in 1788 by the British engineer James Watt. This device consisted of two metal balls attached to the drive shaft of a steam engine and connected to a valve regulating the flow of steam. As we increased the speed of the steam engine, the balls are moving out of the shaft due to centrifugal force, thereby closing the valve. This caused a decline in the flow of steam to the engine and therefore speed.

The feedback control, the development of specialized tools and division of work into smaller tasks that might make workers or machines were essential ingredients in the factory automation in the eighteenth century. As technology improved, specialized machines were developed for tasks such as putting caps on bottles or pour liquid into molds for rubber tires. However, none of these machines have the versatility of the human arm and could not reach distant objects and place them in the desired position.

The development multijointed artificial arm, or manipulator, led to the modern robot. The American inventor George Devol developed in 1954 a primitive arm could be programmed to perform specific tasks. In 1975, American mechanical engineer Victor Scheinman, while studying at a University Stanford, California, developed a truly flexible multipurpose manipulator known as the Programmable Universal Manipulator Arm (PUMA, an acronym in English). The PUMA was able to move an object and place it in any desired orientation in a place that was within reach. The basic concept multijointed PUMA is the basis of most current robots.