Robots – slaves at home and at work

Introduction

My broad aim throughout the videoconferences and the project work is to develop your thinking about robots. Currently a lot of young peoples’ thinking about robots is strongly influenced by science fiction-based films that portray robots as anthropomorphic men (have you ever seen a female robot?) or animals.

I will begin by introducing the view that robotic devices are made by people to take over a job that is boring, repetitive or dangerous. With this definition we can explore the development of robotic devices, starting from Neolithic times when a bear pit or snare was a device that went on ‘working’ in the absence of the maker – and made it safer to deal with the captured animal. We will then move on to look at windmills, then at modern robotic devices which help to make our lives easier today.

During your project work, you will have the opportunity to make your own simple robots, to make calculations about how a robot should be programmed to be both efficient and safe, and to evaluate the efficiency of a robot.

Your preliminary tasks:

1. Robot Hunt

   Instead of a nature walk which reveals aspects of the natural environment by classifying different plants, animals and insects, this version will be a ‘robot’ hunt in your classroom, home and local environment. Use the definition of a robot given above (in bold type) to identify some of the robotic systems that make our lives easier, quicker or safer. For example your loo is a robotic device that flushes and re-fills itself to the right level ready for use again; your washing machine and dishwasher are robotic devices that you use regularly. Try to find and classify as many different robotic devices as you can. You might classify them according to whether they make our lives easier, save us time, make us safer or a combination. Or you could classify them according to whether they are mechanical, electrical, electronic, or a combination. Or you could decide on your own way of classifying them.

2. Make your own robot

   Design a simple robotic device (meaning it operates on its own) to tell you when someone has been in your bedroom. For example, a book on the door, which falls when someone opens the door, is such a robot. Try to think up your own idea – it doesn’t need to be complicated, just a device you can leave to do the task while you’re at school, or out.

3. What about the future?

   Speculate about what robots you think will be devised in the future. What do you think people will want robots to do for them? (I'd like robots which could put a fresh cover on a duvet, which could empty and stack the dishwasher, and which could empty the washing machine, hang the washing out, then put it away when it's dry). What would you want done for you? How about your parents? Perhaps you could do a quick survey of what people of different ages would like robots to do for them. How do you think robots might do some of these things? What do you think about robots which put people out of a job, such as burglar alarms on factories which mean they no longer employ night watchmen?