The evolution of
electronic toys provides a striking resemblance to that of the evolution of
Robotic technological advancement. From its initial stages of simple robots
that are programmed to perform monotonous actions to highly sophisticated
robots with artificial intelligence, we have come a long way in improving the
quality of robots.
Commercially, Sony and Tiger electronics have
released popular 'robo-pets', which were highly successful. In the virtual
world, automated programs built for specific purposes are popular. General
consensus is that any machinery which is adaptable, can interact and manipulate
its surroundings is considered as a robot. Bill gates latest vision of 'a robot
in every home' could be as prophetic as his earlier vision of 'a computer in
every home', which is now a true scenario.
There have been rough
prototypes of robots since ancient times. These included robots, which operated
on steam, wind and water. Greek mathematician Arkittas had made a machine
operated dove which could gain momentum using steam power. Alexander was
reputed to have many self-operated machines, which were working using wind
pressure and steam.
In 1088, Su Sang had created a clock tower,
which shows the time automatically in some part of China. In 1136 and 1206 AD a
Muslim inventor named Al Zazari had developed a number of self operated machines
like cooking equipments and water operated musical instrument. This human like
robot had been used as a singer in boats and as an entertainer in the court of
the king.
