10 APPLICATIONS OF ROBOTICS IN THE PRESENT AND FUTURE - TECHNOLOGY - 2024

The applications of robotics in the present and the future are in medicine, industry or education, among other areas. For centuries, man has devoted knowledge and effort to building machines that help him in his daily work or that enable him to perform actions that exceed the possibilities of the human body.

Robots have also been used for religious purposes, such as the Greeks, who built statues that operated with hydraulic systems and used to impact their temples.

The inventors of the 18th century created mechanical robots just for fun, in addition to all the machines that accompanied the Industrial Revolution. Towards the middle of the last century, the first computers began to appear in the world.

Industrial automation is linked to world economic events, and although the progress in recent times is notorious, it can be assured that the robotics industry is currently in its infancy.

What is a robot?

To understand what are the applications of robots and why they are important in the current and future world, it is necessary to know what exactly the term robot refers to.

The term "robot" derives from the Czech word "robota" which means servitude or forced laborer.

However, when we think of a robot, the image that comes to mind thanks to science fiction is that of a machine with human appearance and acting as such. In fact, the origin of the word "robotics" is attributed to Isaac Asimov, writer of great stories on the subject.

The definition of industrial robot today refers to a collection of mechanical and electronic components, with interrelated subsystems in software that is programmed to perform a specific task. They may or may not have humanoid features, and they generally move on wheels.

For the Robotics Industries Association (RIA), "an industrial robot is a reprogrammable multifunctional manipulator designed to move materials, parts, tools or special devices, by means of programmed variable movements to carry out a variety of tasks."

Robot applications

1- Medicine

Source: Nimur at the English language Wikipedia

Robots have important applications in surgery, since they compensate for deficiencies and limitations in the accuracy of the human being, thus improving surgical procedures.

Since the first telesurgery performed thanks to the engineer Philipe Green in the 80s, there have been great advances in this field, and valuable discoveries are also foreseen for the coming years, especially in the area of ​​urological surgery, in which he currently excels in robotics the Da Vinci system.

Below, you can see the variety of procedures (a total of 433) that have been carried out in the Urology Service of the San Carlos Clinical Hospital in the city of Madrid since 2001.

Experience of the Urology service in Robotic Urological Surgery (n = 433):

• Radical prostatectomy (350)
• Radical cystectomy (3)
• Radical nephrectomy (1)
• Stone Surgery (3)
• Bladder diverticulum (2)
• Pyeloplasty (20)

Its use in rehabilitation therapy is also being investigated, which includes artificial limbs and robots to provide personal assistance in hospitals. They are also helpful in some cases for people with disabilities, such as computers adapted for people with motor and speech difficulties.

Even in laboratories they carry out a large number of repetitive tasks such as placing test tubes inside measuring instruments. Its effectiveness has been proven by distributing drugs in pharmacies and hospitals.

An example of this is Yaskawa's Motoman robots, which can be programmed to perform blood tests.

2- Industry

Source: KUKA Roboter GmbH, Bachmann

The applications in the field of the so-called third generation are diverse: from moving a part from one position to another, or loading and unloading machines, to certain processing operations in which the robot performs work on the parts using a tool.

Some examples of operations currently performed by robots, especially in the automotive industry, can be: spot and arc welding; drilling, grooving and other machining applications; grinding, polishing brushed and others; riveted; waterjet and laser cutting and spray paints.

The nuclear industry uses robots to handle radioactive material through a technology called Telequerica, which consists of a remote manipulator or teleoperator controlled by a human being. This development was stimulated by the need to act remotely in disasters that occurred in nuclear plants.

3- Military applications

In this field, work is constantly being done on the development of prototypes that carry out military or exploration tasks that avoid putting human lives at risk.

To give an example, it can be mentioned that Boston Dynamics is building a headless humanoid robot called Atlas, whose function will be to walk through uneven terrain by crawling or turning on its side whenever it is necessary due to some risk or because the terrain requires it.

Other examples are the Cougar 20-H, a remote-controlled robot that can detect human respiration and search through concrete walls with its suite of ultra-high-frequency radio sensors.

The Phoenix40-A is a six-bladed helicopter that can detect movement and breath within a ground compound during flight, being remotely controlled at a great distance with a joystick or laptop.

4- Agriculture

The Australian Research Institute has invested a great deal of money and time in developing a machine that shears sheep. She is currently working on another project that consists of making an automated system for a workshop.

Also in France nowadays experimental applications are being carried out to include robots in the sowing and pruning of vineyards, in the same way as in apple harvesting.

5- Education

Although the field of education is very traditional in terms of the use of technology, there are already some cases of robots that are being used in different ways. For example, in the programming language, the Karel robot is used and in the learning of mathematics, the turtle robot in conjunction with the LOGO language.

Robots are also used in the classrooms of educational laboratories, although these models do not yet have great reliability in their mechanical system, and most lack software.

There are also new forms of learning and communication in the context of digital literacy, and attention must be paid to training citizens who are also critical users. Online tutoring is also expected to favor distance learning.

Hypertextual writing has advantages and disadvantages that must be carefully analyzed in order to understand them fully.

Books, faced with the threat of extinction that many authors proclaim, retain the advantage of being easily transportable and of being able to be read anywhere without the need for connections, electricity or other implements.

6- Space exploration

Outer space is very hostile to humans, but the degree of automation necessary to replace humans with robots has not yet been reached.

However, a type of robotic application has already been included in space shuttles, teleoperators, being their first experience in the Columbia shuttle in 1982.

7- Underwater vehicles

Its use is common in the inspection and maintenance of pipelines that carry oil, gas or oil in ocean plants. It is also used for maintenance in the laying of communication cables and to carry out geological and geophysical investigations on the sea floor.

It is known that they were used on extraordinary occasions such as in the recovery of the black box of airplanes in cases of air disasters, and in the discovery of the Titanic, four kilometers below the surface, where it had remained since its sinking in 1912.

8- Science and engineering

With regard to science and engineering, it is presumed that simulation programs will make scale models unnecessary when the time comes. The statistical processing of amounts of information will be increasing, which will contribute to planning and decision-making.

Currently, in research laboratories, what are called fourth generation robots are being developed.

It is also possible to mention, with regard to science, the study of the functioning of neural networks in the human brain, in order to be able to implant artificial intelligence techniques in computers and their subsequent application in robotics.

9- Business scope

In the future, business management will be fully automated, thus eliminating the manual work that employees do today, such as all data or document entry through optical readers.

10- New trends

There are certain robots that, due to their characteristics, are more similar to those we know from science fiction films, however they are real and have very specific applications.

Mechanical exoskeletons are structures that mimic the movement of human limbs by reading muscle signals. They have great applications in the medical field and are also useful for firefighters, in rescue situations, in construction and in military actions.

A distinction needs to be made between androids and humanoids. The former resemble a human being in their structure and behavior, and the latter only in their structure. As is the case with a mannequin, for example.

The ASIMO android from Honda company recognizes faces going up and down stairs and can grab small objects, and in its latest version it also runs. It is envisaged that it can be used in the field of medicine.

Another robot with very peculiar characteristics is NEXI from the MIT company, which is defined as the first robot capable of displaying human emotions.

Robots for domestic use are those that help with chores around the house. Developed by the iRobot company, so far there is one that mops and another that sweeps.

Finally, we cannot fail to mention those for personal and even sexual use, which are already part of the technological heritage that the future will bring us.

References

1. Autorino, R., Jihad H. Kaouk, Jens-uwe Stolzenburg, Inderbir S. Gill, Alex Mottrie, Ash Tewari, Jeffrey A. Cadeddu. European of Urology. 2012. In Press: dx.doi.org.
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4. Fareed, K., Zaytoun OM, Autorino, R., et al. Robotic singe port suprapubic transvesical enucleation of the prostate (R-STEP): initial experience. BJU Int. In Press: dx.doi.org.
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