The history of robots is not long. The history of robots really began in 1959 when engelberg and Devall in the United States made the world's first industrial robot. Engelberg University studied servo theory, which is a theory to study how the motion mechanism can better track the control signal. De Waal invented a system in 1946, which can "repeat" the recorded machine actions. 1954, Dewar obtained the patent of programmable manipulator. This kind of manipulator works according to the program and can make different programs according to different work needs, so it has universality and flexibility. Both engelberg and Dewar are studying robots, and think that robots are most suitable for the automobile industry, because it works with heavy machines and the production process is relatively fixed. 1959, engelberg and Dewar cooperated to produce the first industrial robot. Become the world's first truly practical industrial robot. Since then, engelberg and De Waal have established "Unimason" company and set up the world's first robot manufacturing factory. The first industrial robots were called "Unimet", which means "universal automation". Therefore, they are called the father of robots. 1962, American machinery and foundry companies also produced industrial robots, which were called "Wale Satran", meaning "universal movement". "Unimet" and "WalSatran" became the earliest industrial robots in the world and are still in use today.

Robots developed in the past 100 years have roughly experienced three growth stages, that is, three times. The first generation is a simple individual robot, the second generation is a group labor robot, and the third generation is an intelligent robot similar to humans. Its future development direction is conscious, thinking and talking with people. The first generation robot belongs to the teaching replication type, the second generation has the perception ability, and the third generation robot is an intelligent robot, which not only has the perception ability, but also has the ability of independent judgment and action. The industrial robot made by engelberg and De Waal is the first generation robot, which belongs to the teaching reproduction type, that is, people hold the manipulator and re-do the tasks that should be completed, or people use the "teaching control box" to issue instructions to make the robot's manipulator move and complete the actions that it should complete step by step.

The first generation robot

In the 1970s, the second generation of robots began to develop greatly, and the second generation of robots was applied to the external environment and became popular. The third generation robot is an intelligent robot. It not only has the ability of feeling, but also has the ability of independent judgment and action, and has the ability of memory, reasoning and decision-making, so it can complete more complicated actions. The central computer controls the arm and the walking device, so that the robot's hands can finish the homework, the feet can move, and the robot can talk to people in natural language. When the intelligent robot fails, it can self-diagnose and self-repair the failed part through the self-diagnosis device. Nowadays, the application scope of intelligent robots has been greatly expanded. In addition to industrial and agricultural production, robots have been applied to all walks of life, and robots have already possessed human characteristics. There is no end to the development of robots towards intelligence and personification.

Robots are machines that can work automatically instead of humans, although they may not look like humans and do not operate in a human way. Later, isaac asimov, a famous American popular science writer, put forward three principles for robots, namely, "three laws of robots": the first law-robots must not hurt people, or make people hurt and do nothing; The second law-robots should obey all human commands unless these commands conflict with the first law; The third law-the robot must protect itself, but it must not contradict the first and second laws. These "laws" constitute the moral standards for managing robot behavior. Robots must act according to human instructions and serve human production and life.

According to the use of robots, they can be divided into two categories: military robots and civilian robots.