Robotics is wide field that design, construct and application of robots. Simply we can define robots as an "automated human", because actually we design robots to make our work easy and safety, to perform several or a specific work done by us. In present robots were used in various fields, various places for various purposes
- Industrial: Mostly robots were used in industrial assembly lines. Using robotic systems in assembly lines increase accuracy, precision, quality, speed and specially useful to produce uniform product with minimum defects. For example, in most manufacturing assembly lines uses robotic arms.
Robotic arms in vehicle assembly line |
- Military: In present every armed force uses robots in their military work. Specially they use for spying enemy forces and attacking. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are much popular in these day. Specially unmanned air-crafts are using to attack enemy forces.
Unmanned Air-craft used for military purposes |
- Medical: In medical field robotic systems are used from customer care to surgeries. In present there are robots manufactured to take care patients. Those robots were able to medicate, assist patients who are unable to walk or who are with other injuries. And also robots are developed that able to perform surgical operations.
The da Vinci Surgical system (robotic platform designed to expand the surgeon’s capabilities and offer a minimally invasive option for major surgery.) |
- Rescue: when accidents happened or after any natural disaster (like earthquake) rescue teams have big responsibility of saving people who still survived. They have to save them quickly, and the most hardest work is finding them. So they use robotic systems for rescue purposes. Such a robot is "The active scope camera" [It is a rescue robot that is designed for the purpose of searching for victims left behind in collapsed buildings. The scope camera can actively penetrate narrow paths as small as 3cm wide using a unique thrust mechanism and can take pictures using the camera mounted to the front of the scope.]
The active scope camera
- Exploration: Nowadays robots to guarantee safety in hazardous environment like underwater caves, nuclear disaster environments, areas affected by landmines etc. For example, during the "Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster" (on 11 March 2011), which is the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, robots were used to performed readings of temperature, oxygen levels, and radioactivity.
This is only brief outline of real world applications of robotics. Applications of robotics is very wide which revolutionize from automotive industry to medical field.
This is the end of the brief introduction to robotics.
The main purpose of this post is to introduce, how robotic equipments were used in real world applications and to encourage people who are interested in this awesome field.
In future posts we will discuss the basic theoretical stuff behind basic robotic systems.