By Elmira Akhmetova
The term ‘Robot’ was first used to denote a fictional humanoid in a 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) written by the Czech writer, Karel Čapek. It was his brother, Josef Čapek invented the word ‘Robot’.
Two names of modern scientists, William Grey Walter and George Devol, are celebrated today as the founders of robotics. In 1948, the first electronic robots, named Elmer and Elsie, were created by Walter in England. In 1954, George Devol invented the first digital and programmable robot and named it Unimate. It was sold to General Motors where was used to lift pieces of hot metal from the die casting machines.
An interest in creating helpful devices for humans’ daily lives and for entertainment in the palaces began at very early stages of human civilization. The 20th century engineers Walter and Devol just continued this long-lasting idea and enhanced it significantly by making robots available for mass industry.
Engineers and inventors in ancient Chinese, Egyptian, Greek and Indian civilizations attempted to build self-operating machines, mainly resembling humans or animals/birds.
Yet, the person who enhanced the robotic engineering radically was Badi Az-Zaman Ismail Al-Jazari, a Muslim scientist, polymath, mathematician, mechanical engineer, inventor and artisan. Al-Jazari was born in 1136 and, like his father before him, served as chief engineer at the Artuklu Palace of a Turkish dynasty of Artukids who ruled in Eastern Anatolia and Jazira in the 12th and 13th centuries.
For more details go to: https://historiafactory.wordpress.com/2016/06/19/al-jazari-1136-1206-the-founder-of-robotics/
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