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American robotics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NASA's ATHLETE hexapod

Robots of the United States include simple household robots such as Roomba to sophisticated autonomous aircraft such as the MQ-9 Reaper that cost 18 million dollars per unit.[1][2] The first industrial robot, robot company, and exoskeletons as well as the first dynamically balancing, organic, and nanoscale robots originate from the United States.[3][4][5][6]

History

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Televox and creator R. J. Wensley, 1928

In 1898 Nikola Tesla publicly demonstrated a radio-controlled torpedo.[7] Based on patents for "teleautomation", Tesla hoped to develop it into a weapon system for the US Navy.[8][9]

In 1926, Westinghouse Electric Corporation created Televox, the first robot put to useful work. In the 1930s, they created a humanoid robot known as Elektro for exhibition purposes, including the 1939 and 1940 World's Fairs.[10][11]

Unimate was the first industrial robot,[3] which worked on a General Motors assembly line in New Jersey in 1961.[12][13] It was created by George Devol in the 1950s using his original patents. Devol, together with Joseph F. Engelberger started Unimation, the world's first robot manufacturing company.[4]

In 2008 the U.S. Air Force 174th Fighter Wing transitioned from F-16 piloted planes to MQ-9 Reaper drones, which are capable remote controlled or autonomous flight, becoming the first all-robot attack squadron.[2][14][15]

Modern robots

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Roomba
Mars Exploration Rover
Da Vinci Surgical System
MQ-8 Fire Scout
MQ-9 Reaper
SWORDS

Domestic

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Entertainment

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Extraterrestrial

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Medical

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Military (offensive/multi-role)

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Aerial

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Terrestrial

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Military (non-offensive)

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Aerial

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Terrestrial

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Nanoscale

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Walker

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Non-autonomous (human operated)

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These machines are human operated and not autonomous. Therefore, they do fit the classical description of a robot.

Exoskeleton

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Military

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Research

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Software

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American robotics companies

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Reminiscing on the Roomba
  2. ^ a b The Rise Of The Droids
  3. ^ a b Nof, Shimon Y. (1999). Handbook of Industrial Robotics (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons. pp. 3–5. ISBN 978-0-471-17783-8.
  4. ^ a b 1961: The First Robot
  5. ^ A Brief History of Exoskeletons
  6. ^ Smallest Robot Archived December 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ Cheney, Margaret (1989). Tesla, man out of time. New York: Dorset Press. ISBN 978-0-88029-419-5.
  8. ^ US 613809, Tesla, Nikola, "Method of and apparatus for controlling mechanism of moving vessels or vehicles", published 1898-11-08 
  9. ^ "Tesla - Master of Lightning". PBS.org. Archived from the original on 28 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-24.
  10. ^ "Robot Dreams : The Strange Tale Of A Man's Quest To Rebuild His Mechanical Childhood Friend". The Cleveland Free Times. Archived from the original on October 23, 2007. Retrieved 2008-09-25.
  11. ^ Scott Schaut (2006). Robots of Westinghouse: 1924-Today. Mansfield Memorial Museum.
  12. ^ 1961: Installation of the First Industrial Robot
  13. ^ Menzel, Peter; Faith D'Aluisio (2000). Robo sapiens: evolution of a new species. The MIT Press. pp. 186–189. ISBN 978-0-262-13382-1.
  14. ^ MQ-9 Reaper
  15. ^ Unmanned Reapers bound for Iraq, Afghanistan
  16. ^ Dexter Walks
  17. ^ Building the Real Iron Man
  18. ^ Building the Real Iron Man
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