ROBOTS

FIGURE HUMANOID KNOW ROBOT WORK BECOME KAREL PLAY PERSON MICROCHIP DEVELOP FACTORY MEDICAL ARM

We think of robots ___ modern inventions, but people ___ imagined and created versions ___ these machines for centuries. ___ were clocks with moving ___ in ancient Greece. In ___ late 1400s, Leonardo da ___ drew plans for a ___ robot, but we don’t ___ if he ever built ___. In 1818 a humanoid ___ figure appeared in the ___ Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. ___ word “robot” comes from ___ Czech word for “hard ___”. But it wouldn’t have ___ popular if Czech writer ___ Capek hadn’t written a ___ called Rossum’s Universal Robots. ___ play was about artificial ___, or robots, that rebel ___ humans. The word “robot” ___ been used everywhere since ___. The invention of the ___ in the 1950s helped ___ robotics industry continue to ___. By the early 1960s, ___ were special robots for ___ work, space exploration and ___ interventions. These were not ___ robots – they were mechanical ___ controlled by a computer.
   Later, scientists created Shakey, the first moving robot that could interpret and store information from its environment. That was the beginning of artificial intelligence, or making a computer “think” like a person. Since Shakey’s creation robots have become much more advanced. There are now robotic arms that are precise enough to be used for delicate medical operations. There are robots that explore volcanoes and oceans and robotic vacuum cleaners and pets. And in Japan humanoid robots are being used successfully in classrooms and offices. If Leonardo were here, he’d be amazed by our progress!

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Have fun....and take care!