A robot in a modern world
Read the following text and fill in the gaps. Use the words from the boxes in each part:
| manufacturing century manipulate industrial earth machine dangerous create |
A robot is an automatically guided (1) __________ which is able to do tasks on its own.
The word robot can refer to both physical robots and virtual software agents, but the latter are usually referred to as bots. There is no consensus on which machines qualify as robots, but there is general agreement among experts and the public that robots tend to do some or all of the following: move around, operate a mechanical limb, sense and (2) __________ their environment, and exhibit intelligent behavior, especially behavior which mimics humans or other animals.
Stories of artificial helpers and companions and attempts to (3) __________ them have a long history but fully autonomous machines only appeared in the 20th (4)__________. The first digitally operated and programmable robot, the Unimate, was installed in 1961 to lift hot pieces of metal from a die casting machine and stack them. Today, commercial and (5) __________ robots are in widespread use performing jobs more cheaply or with greater accuracy and reliability than humans. They are also employed for jobs which are too dirty, (6) __________ or dull to be suitable for humans. Robots are widely used in (7)__________ , assembly and packing, transport, (8) __________ and space exploration, surgery, weaponry, laboratory research, and mass production of consumer and industrial goods.
| electric assembly countries definition controlled objects technological react |
Nowadays it is difficult to compare numbers of robots in different (9) __________ , since there are different definitions of what a "robot" is. The International Organization for Standardization gives a (10) __________ of robot in ISO 8373: "an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose, manipulator programmable in three or more axes, which may be either fixed in place or mobile for use in industrial automation applications." This definition is used by the International Federation of Robotics, the European Robotics Research Network (EURON), and many national standards committees.
Modern robots are usually used in tightly controlled environments such as on (11) __________ lines because they have difficulty responding to unexpected interference. Because of this, most humans rarely encounter robots. However, domestic robots for cleaning and maintenance are increasingly common in and around homes in developed countries, particularly in Japan. Japan hopes to have full-scale commercialization of service robots by 2025. Much (12) __________ research in Japan is led by Japanese government agencies, particularly the Trade Ministry.
While there is no single correct definition of "robot," a typical robot will have several, or possibly all, of the following characteristics: it is an (13) __________ machine which has some ability to interact with physical (14) __________ and to be given electronic programming to do a specific task or to do a whole range of tasks or actions. It may also have some ability to perceive and absorb data on physical objects, or on its local physical environment, or to process data, or to (15) __________ to the changes of its environment. This is in contrast to a simple mechanical device such as a gear or a hydraulic press or any other item which has no processing ability and which does tasks through purely mechanical processes and motion.
For robotic engineers, the physical appearance of a machine is less important than the way its actions are (16) __________ . The more the control system seems to have agency of its own, the more likely the machine is to be called a robot.
TYPES OF ROBOTS
Read the following text and fill in the gaps with the words from the box:
| tasks classified perform types designed welding sensors objects environment |
At present there are 2 main (1) __________ of robots, based on their use: general-purpose autonomous robots and dedicated robots.
General-purpose autonomous robots are robots that can (2) __________ a variety of functions independently. General-purpose autonomous robots typically can navigate independently in known spaces, handle their own re-charging needs, interface with electronic doors and elevators and perform other basic tasks. Like computers, general-purpose robots can link with networks, software and accessories that increase their usefulness. They may recognize people or (3) __________ , talk, provide companionship, monitor environmental quality with the help of (4) __________ , react to the changes in its (5) __________, pick up supplies and perform other useful tasks. General-purpose robots may perform a variety of functions simultaneously or they may take on different roles at different times of day. Some such robots try to mimic human beings and may even resemble people in appearance; this type of robot is called a humanoid robot.
Robots can be (6) __________ by their specificity of purpose. A robot might be (7) __________ to perform one particular task extremely well, or a range of (8) __________ less well. Of course, all robots by their nature can be re-programmed to behave differently, but some are limited by their physical form. For example, a factory robot arm can perform jobs such as cutting, (9)__________ , gluing, or acting as a fairground ride, while a pick-and-place robot can only populate printed circuit boards.
THE USAGE OF ROBOTS