Industrial robots

A robot is a programmable machine that does part or all of a job in place of a person; it is especially useful where conditions are dangerous for people (radiation, toxic surroundings) or places are hard to reach (the sea bed, space). A robot gathers information about its surroundings with sensors — light, distance, touch and temperature sensors. By structure the textbook divides robots into androids, built to look like people, and biorobots, which combine a living organism with a technical device; biorobots are so far mainly a subject of scientific experiments and debate. Robotics develops in two big directions: industrial robots in production and robots that work in extreme conditions. An industrial robot has two main parts: the manipulator, which makes the movements, and the control system, which gives it commands. Like a human hand, a manipulator can pick up, turn and move objects; drives set it in motion, transmission mechanisms carry the motion to its joints, counterweights keep it stable and the gripper holds the object. In car plants robots weld, paint and assemble car bodies; the working zone of a running robot is fenced off and an emergency stop button is fitted.