History of Robotics

This paper aims to show the possible and actual synergies between social robotics and sociology. The author argues that social robots are one of the best fields of inquiry to provide a bridge between the two cultures – the one represented by the social sciences and the humanities on the one hand, and the one represented by the natural sciences and engineering on the other. To achieve this result, quantitative and qualitative analyses are implemented. By using scientometric tools like Ngram Viewer, search engines such as Google Scholar, and hand calculations, the author detects the emergence of the term-and-concept ‘social robots’ in its current use, the absolute and relative frequencies of this term in the scientific literature in the period 1800-2008, the frequency distribution of publications including this term in the period 2000-2019, and the magnitude of publications in which the term ‘social robots’ is associated to the term ‘sociology’ or 'social work'. Finally, employing qualitative analysis and focusing on exemplary cases, this paper shows different ways of implementing researches that relate sociology to robotics, from a theoretical or instrumental point of view. It is argued that sociologists and engineers could work in a team to observe, analyze, and describe the interaction between humans and social robots, by using research techniques and theoretical frames provided by sociology. In turn, this knowledge can be used to build more effective and humanlike social robots.

The activities at the Robotics Laboratory at the Institute “Mihailo Pupin”, headed by professor Vukobratović, and their pioneering achievements covered virtually the entire traditional robotics in all its segments in '60s and ' 70s, from automatic creation of dynamic models for spatial active mechanisms, dynamic control of robotic mechanisms, decentralized control of tightly linked active mechanisms31, introduction of centralized
control of feedback32, introduction of centralized control of
negative feedback in robotics, introduction of practical stability
tests in decentralized control of robotic mechanisms, unique
approach to the synthesis of the law on control of position/
force for robots interacting with dynamic environment and
new approach to modelling and control of multi-arm robots
that interact with each other and dynamic environment as well.
Robotics Laboratory at the Institute “Mihailo Pupin” became
the foundation and the place of birth for numerous productive
and creative researchers in robotics and mechatronics.

Активношћу тима Лабораторије за роботику Института "Михајло Пупин", на челу са професором
Вукобратовићем, и њиховим пионирским достигнућима
практично је покривена традиционална роботика у свим
сегментима током шездесетих и седамдесетих година 20. века, од аутоматског добијања динамичких модела
за просторне
активне механизме, преко динамичког
управљања роботским механизмима, децентрализованог
управљања чврсто повезаним активним механизмима31,
увођења повратне силе у динамичко управљање манипулацијом
и локомоторним роботима, увођења централизованог
управљања
повратном спрегом32, увођења централизованог
управљања негативном повратном спрегом
у роботику, увођења практичних тестова стабилности у
децентрализованом управљању за роботске механизме,
до јединственог приступа синтези закона о управљању
положајем/силом за роботе у интеракцији са динамичким
окружењем и новог приступа моделирању и управљању
роботом са више руку које су у међусобној интеракцији и
интеракцији са динамичким окружењем.

In this paper, the early decades of the history of industrial robots (from the 1950's to the beginning of the 1990's, approximately) will be described. The history of industrial robotics can be considered starting with Unimate, the first industrial robot designed and built by Devol and Engelberger. The subsequent evolutions of industrial robotics are described in the manuscript, taking into account both the technical and the economic point of view, until the beginning of the 1990's, when new kine-matic structures (parallel robots) appeared, allowing high-speed operations.

Vor einiger Zeit habe ich ein 35 Seiten Dokument geschrieben, was die Geschichte der Robotik erläutert. Darin gibt es ein eigenes Kapitel über die MIT/Utah Hand sowie ein wenig überraschend auch eines über die Geschichte der Siggraph-Konferenz, welche als Ideengeber für viele Projekte der Künstlichen Intelligenz diente. Der Text ist auf Deutsch geschrieben. Abbildungen sind übrigens keine enthalten;  es ist eine reine Bleiwüste. Dafür aber in ordentlichem LaTeX formatiert und mit einem hübschen Literaturverzeichnis.

Industrial robotics is a branch of robotics that gained paramount importance in the last century. The presence of robots totally revolutionized the industrial environment in just a few decades. In this paper, a brief history of industrial robotics in the 20th century will be presented, and a proposal for classifying the evolution of industrial robots into four generations is set forward. The characteristics of the robots belonging to each generation are mentioned, and the evolution of their features is described. The most significant milestones of the history of industrial robots, from the 1950's to the end of the century, are mentioned, together with a description of the most representative industrial robots that were designed and manufactured in those decades.