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Robotics Report

Delivered July 7, 2020. Contributor: Ashley N.

Goals

To determine what factors are needed to qualify something as a 'robot', according to industry experts (6-10 factors). Additionally, to address the following:
  • A timeline of robotics, from how/why the first robot was invented to major advancements and industry achievements throughout the decades since.
  • A market analysis of robotics, including what's changing technologically, major factors that are changing and predictions for the market (e.g. lower sensor costs, higher sensor fidelity, more component availability via online channels, etc).
  • To understand in which industries are robotics growing the most.
  • To understand what factors industry experts believe need to improve the most in the robotics industry.

Early Findings

  • Mel Siegel is an associate research professor at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. According to Seigel, a robot is classically thought of as a machine that senses, thinks, and acts. He adds that within the past decade, himself and many others have added 'communicates' among these factors.
  • The concept of artificial beings dates back thousands of years, but the term 'robot' wasn't coined until 1921. A mechanical bird was built in 400 B.C. by Archytas of Tarentum, and Leonardo DaVinci published a design for a mechanical knight in 1485. However, "the first modern programmable robot was the Unimate. General Motors installed the first robot to work in a factory in 1961 to move pieces of hot metal. Unimate was an autonomous, pre-programmed robot that repeatedly performed the same dangerous task." But even before this, Westinghouse built the Televox robot in 1927, which was capable of lifting a telephone receiver. The Consortium on Cognitive Science Instruction has published a fascinating report on the history of robots which can be found here.
  • According to a 2019 market report, the robotics market is "experiencing a significant transformation, with robots growing beyond the workhorses of industrial shop floors and beginning to adopt the roles of personal assistants, surgical assistants, delivery vehicles, autonomous vehicles, exoskeletons, and crewless aerial vehicles, among many other uses."
  • According to a 2019 market report, the global market for healthcare robotics is expected to grow at a rate of 12.64% CAGR between 2018 and 2023.

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