The Development of Humanoid Robotics

There is no definition of a robot that satisfies everybody. International standard ISO 8373 defines a "robot" as 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 works well for ISO's main concern, industrial robotics, but it doesn't really take care of other realms. Joseph Engelberger, a literal pioneer in industrial robotics, once said, "I can't define a robot, but I know one when I see one." Robots can also be defined in a different way. A robot can be described as a mechanical or virtual, artificial agent, where an agent is defined as one who exerts power, or one who has the power to act, and as some kind of automatic process which can communicate with other agents to perform some collective task on behalf of one or more humans. We can see how this definition fits industrial robots, CNC machine tools, hazardous location robots, and other mechatronic devices that help us in our daily lives. Everyone also has seen science fiction films where robots walk and talk like humans, make intelligent decisions based on infallible logic, and carry out tasks on their own volition. Until recently, this has been science fiction for the most part. Between 1937 and 1938, Westinghouse produced a humanoid robot for the 1939 New York world fair called Elektro. Elektro could walk by voice command, talk (using a 78-rpm record player), smoke cigarettes, blow up balloons, and move its head and arms. It also had photoreactive eyes that could differentiate between red and green light. Realistically though, this robot was useless, and as such in the 1960's its head was given to a retiring engineer and its body was sold for scrap. Humanoid robots were all about the same until the early 1970's. The Wabot-1, developed at Waseda University between 1970 and 1973, is known as the first (real) humanoid robot in the world.