In the last few years, you hear about robots and robotics more and more. This is because, for the first time since the debut of GM Unimate in 1961, considered the first industrial robot, the field is changing world economies again.This time the impact can be much wider. This is especially true in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has helped accelerate the adoption of automation across industries.
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Robots are increasingly appearing in offices, hospitals and schools - definitely in non-industrial environments - as well as in warehouses, logistics centers, and small production centers. More and more often they are on our roads and fly over our heads. And these are just a few of the areas where robots are gaining momentum quickly, getting their jobs done more efficiently, reliably, with fewer interruptions and for less money than previously possible. This excited many people, but also caused a lot of worry.
Why has the field of robotics developed so much in the last few years?
There are four reasons:
Falling sensor prices
The demand for mobile computers has been a boon to the advancement of robotics, which has led to falling prices, rapid advances and miniaturization of sensor technology. Likewise, the prices of lidars and infrared sensors, which were previously the most expensive homing robot detection devices, have dropped by 90% largely thanks to Google Waymo's aggressive development of self-driving cars. 3D cameras, which were once beyond the reach of many people, are now available immediately thanks to intelligent work with algorithms.
Open source software development
In 2009, an article presented at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) IEEE introduced the world to the Robotic Operating System (ROS). ROS is the first standard operating system for robotics development. Open source freed robotics programmers from the time-consuming task of creating an operating system from scratch.
Rapid prototyping
3D printing enables the creator to move from a surprising idea to a solid product within hours. Printers in production rooms and in the engineering departments of universities, some of which allow multi-material and metal printing, have significantly lowered the barrier to entry to the development of robotics.
Technology convergence
As sensor prices fell, the tremendous success of notebook computers spurred advances in voice and object recognition that have distinct applications in robotics. This is accompanied by a predictable increase in computing power from year to year with the advent of the cloud and IoT technology.
source: zdnet
