The Beginning of Robotics
The term “robot” has its origins at the Czech word “robota”, whose literal translation is “slave” (Brum, 2016). Karel Capek, the playwright that wrote a science fiction narrative called “Rossum’s Universal Robots”, first used this word on 1921. Then, “robot” was spread out when the writer Isaac Asimov introduced the “Three Laws of Robotics” on 1942. Nevertheless, the ambition to make machines with human being movements can be observed since antiquity – either when the Egyptians built mechanical bodies in statue shapes, or when puppets could be driven by pulley systems in Ancient Greece.
The robot control by computers became possible only on 1948, after the invention of the transistor. Six years after, George Devol applied for the first patent of an industrial robot with digitally programmable operations. The Unimate had born, and was considered the first industrial robot commercialized, after being installed at General Motors on 1961. From then on, the use of robotics has grown really fast not only in industrial environments, but also in other sectors, like services, safety, health, entertainment and household tasks.
In that way, robotics has gradually become an interdisciplinary science. According to Mccomb (2011), it embraces engineering, electronics, psychology, sociology, physics, artificial intelligence, design, programming, mechanical architecture, among others.