What are the basic ideas of Robotics.

The word ‘robot’ comes from the Czech robota, meaning compulsory service. Robotics is the study of the design and sue of robots or machine programmed to carry out a series of operations without human guidance. They perform simple and repetitive jobs more steadily, more reliably and more uncomplainingly than a human being. Robots are means of maximizing productivity. Industrial robots are being increasingly used in several engineering applications including manufacturing. Tasks such as welding spray painting, matching, loading, material handling and assembly constitute the major uses of Robots on the factory floor. Artificial intelligence based robots are quite versatile and have become integral parts of the automated factory. There is also a widespread use of robots in hazardous environments such as toxic chemical industries, assembly of explosives, deep sea, underground, high altitude, cold climate and nuclear reactors. Remote handling in these place avoid the risking of human life. Use of ultrasonic sensors, specialized software and special alloys would enable them to alter their course of action as per specific requirement. Common sense which is a attribute of men (not robots) is being gradually inculcated  in robots through different technological innovations.

There are two broad techniques namely top bottoms or bottom-up. The former starts with a block of material and etching or milling it down to the desired nano shape. The later involves the assembly of smaller sub-units (atoms or molecules0 to make a large structure. The main challenge for top-down manufacture is the creation of increasingly small structures with sufficient accuracy, whereas for bottom up manufacture, it is to make structures large enough and of sufficient quality to be used as materials. The current and potential use of nano-technology includes carbon nanotube based tennis rackets, burn dressing, dental materials, sunscreens, composite materials , coatings, molecular methods of disease diagnosis, targeted drug delivery and virus detection, sensors, pollution control, better photo voltaic devices for renewable energy sources, telecommunication, high density data storage etc.