Why do you build robots?

Answer 1

People build robots for many different reasons:

To perform repetitive tasksToday the industrial machines that people build called robots perform dull repetitive tasks that people do not like to do. People dream of robots that will vacuum the floor, do the dishes, wash the clothes, and mow the lawn. To learn about places when we don't know that it is safe for humansWhat is it like on Luna, Earth's moon?

What is it like on Mars?

What is like on the bottom of the ocean?

We've got a phone call that claims there is a bomb in the middle of this building -- is it really a bomb, or just an empty cardboard box?

Is there snow on the streets today?

By sending in a robot first, we can find out how much equipment a human needs to take to survive and work there.

Sometimes we find out we need relatively little equipment for a human to survive and work there -- perhaps some snow chains on the tires.

Other times we find out that a lot of expensive equipment is required -- space suits.

Other times and places are very dangerous for humans to work there, which brings us to our next point:

To work in dangerous placesThe main use of a human like robot will be to work in extremely dangerous situations. Nuclear reactors would be a much cleaner and more economical way to produce electricity than coal. However, if a nuclear power plant has a problem, it can be dangerous for a human to go in and repair it. Most of the needed repairs are quite simple and could be done in a few minutes if not seconds. One or more robots could do it with no damage. If we had good robots, we could solve our power problems. Right now we have a problem with our nuclear waste. It is illegal to reprocess it. We have the know how to reprocess it. Reprocessing it is not difficult. It can be dangerous. We could have a robot do the work. If A robot were accidently exposed to Plutonium he would not have a 100% chance of catching leukemia. Robots can not catch leukemia or any other human disease. They can break. They can wear out. They can not get sick. To test scientific hypothesisScientists want to learn many things about animals and people.

Sometimes building a robot can help them figure out things that no one knew before.

Robots have already been used to help figure out:

How do geckos run up walls?

Does the flexibility of insect legs improve their efficiency?

How difficult is it to balance on two legs, really?

Researchers often look at the animal, make some guess about which parts are important for walking, and guess what characteristics of those parts are important for walking, and then build a robot with parts with those characteristics.

With a robot, it's easy to detach some part to see if it's really necessary, and then later re-assemble it.

If the robot walks in the same way as the animal, then they know they guessed right.

Quite often, the robot can't walk at all -- the guess was quite wrong :-).