Robot use in manufacturing

Abstract

Robots entered the English vocabulary with the translation of Karel Capek’s play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) in 1923. Capek was a Czech, and in his native language the word robot simply meant a worker. In the play, robots were the humanoid creations of Rossum and his son, constructed in the fond hope that they would perform obediently in the service of man. Now, thanks to Capek and a generation of science fiction writers, everyone knows what a robot is. The popular conception is a mechanical man, crammed full of near-miraculous components, and capable of clumsy imitations of human actions and speech. They are generally thought to combine superhuman strength with subhuman intelligence. Robots are often endowed with sinister intentions, so that the specter of a robot army marching against mankind has been a popular recurring theme in science fiction.