Joan Cartan-Hansen, Host: A
robot is a machine designed to
automatically perform a complex
series of actions.
How much do you know about
robots?
[MUSIC]
Student 1: Thank you MiP.
What's our assignment for
science this week?
Student 2: We're supposed to
learn about robots.
Student 1: Great.
Can you help us learn about
robots?
Cartan-Hansen: Robots are
human-made machines that perform
work and other actions.
Some work automatically.
Some by remote control.
Robot comes from the Czech word,
Robotta.
It was first used in a play in
the 1920s.
Inventors have been building
self-operating machines for
centuries.
These automata were run by
clocks, or moving water.
The first electronic robots were
created in England in the 1940s.
By the 1960s, robots were used
to move things around, like in a
car plant.
Robots generally have three main
parts.
A controller or a brain, this is
the part that tells the robot
what to do, or where to go.
Next are the mechanical parts.
These are the motors, wheels,
gears, grabbers, whatever, that
make the robot do its work to
grab or turn or to lift.
The third are the sensors.
These are the devices that allow
the robot to figure out size and
space, where to go or how
tightly to grip.
Together, these three basic
parts make up a robot.
Robots are sometimes used where
work is repetitive, that is, the
same task being done over and
over again.
They are also used in places
that would be dangerous for
people.
NASA uses all sorts of different
robots to help us explore space.
Rovers on Mars are mini
laboratories helping humans
learn about the Martian soil.
These robots at the Johnson
Space Center help teach new
astronauts how to do things in
space.
Robots come in all shapes and
sizes.
Some are as small as insects.
These are called nano-bots or
kilobots.
Some scientists are designing
robots that show emotion, and
some are working on robots that
think.
Scientists are just starting to
figure out all the different
things robots can do.
So whether they are helping us
out at home or traveling deep
into space, robots are changing
our lives.
Student 1: Well, that was very
interesting.
MiP, stop bothering the Roomba,
you know that can't dance.
Cartan-Hansen: If you want to
learn more about robotics, check
out the science trek website.
You'll find it at science trek
dot org.
[MUSIC]
ANNOUNCER: Presentation of
Science Trek on Idaho Public
Television is made possible
through the generous support of
the Laura Moore Cunningham
Foundation, committed to
fulfilling the Moore and Bettis
family legacy of building the
great state of Idaho.
By the Idaho National
Laboratory, mentoring talent and
finding solutions for energy and
security challenges, by The
Friends of Idaho Public
Television and by the
Corporation for Public