ABSTRACT
In days of old, the breath of life into the inanimate was a mystery that extolled the powers of magic and gods. But it is science that brings the fantasy. To begin with, the creation of life by science had supernatural overtones and Gothic consequences as in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. Even the word robot, from the Czechoslovakian word robota meaning compulsory labor, comes from literature. There have been many attempts at definition in the literature. From Robbie to Hal to the Terminator, robots have been empowered with super intelligence and special powers. Robots in the real world of industry are a pale reflection of their screen counterparts. They can rivet and they can paint, often with superhuman speed and certainly without boredom, but they are usually confined to a fixed point, with a limited scope for largely repetitive actions.
