The Different Species of Robots

 We live in a digital era, where new gadgets and devices are being launched every day.  Each morning there’s a new phone, a new TV, a new car, and even, a new replacement for us.  Robots have existed for a long time, even if you don’t notice them, they are there.  They go from security cameras to vacuums, to humanoids.  Robots are used in almost every single industry.  They can perform surgery, they can build skyscrapers, and even save lives after a disaster.  But they are also classified in different categories, they all belong to different kinds of “species”.

 

Industrial robots consist of machines design to perform repetitive tasks.  They facilitate dangerous jobs in factories and can work alongside humans.  Industrial robots are automated, programmable, and capable of movement on three or more axes.  One example is the Unimate, considered the grandfather of all factory robots.  It was the first industrial robot and it worked at General Motor’s assembly line.  It was developed by George Devol during the 1950s and patented in 1961.  It was estimated that in 2020 there were 1.64 million operating industrial robots worldwide according to the IFR

 

Medical robots are another kind of robot that has become extremely useful. Medical and health-care robots include systems such as bionic prostheses and robotic exoskeletons, or the da Vinci robot, is a system that helps perform minimally invasive surgery.  Or the Endoscopy-Bot, they are used to look for damage or foreign objects in the body, and there’s also the Orthoses, an exoskeleton that helps correct malformations or helps patients that are going through rehabilitation.

 

One of the most intriguing kinds, in my opinion, is humanoids.  This is what most of us think when we think of robots.  They specifically designed to look like people, one example is Sophia, a creation of Dr. David Hanson, who is the creator of Hanson Robotics.  Sophia has appeared in TV shows like Ellen, and magazines such as Cosmopolitan.  Junko Chihira is another example of a world-famous humanoid.  She is described as a trilingual android, that is being developed by Toshiba.  Junko mostly works at a touring information center in Tokyo, greeting visitors from all around the world.  Robots have been around for a long time now, and I don’t they will go soon, so we better get along with them