ABSTRACT
Malone (1978) mentions that Aristotle was the first to discuss the concept of automation as a means to avoid the need for servants. The first versions of robots mostly consisted of clocks, such as the clepsydra (the water clock that measures time through a graduated flow of liquid passing through a small opening [Bedini, 1962]), pioneered by Ctesibius of Alexandria (c. 270 BC) (Rosheim, 1994), subsequently followed by self-moving machines or automatons. The use of automatons was also related to clocks, such as the case of 1497, where two bell-striking giants decorated the clock tower in Piazza San Marco, Venice. Later in history, cuckoo clocks emerged and gained popularity, especially in Germany. Leonardo da Vinci did considerable and notable work on robotics, mostly found in his renowned book Codex Atlanticus. Da Vinci planned to build an anthrobot, though a proper source of energy or the necessary highprecision part manufacturing to build such a robot did not exist in contemporary technology (Pires, 2000). The invention of the textile machine in 1801 by Joseph Jacquard was one of the catalysts and symbols of the Industrial Revolution, which took place in 17501850. The first industrial robot was designed by Seward Babbitt in 1892. This was a motorized crane with a gripper for the removal of
ingots from a furnace. Tesla (1898) gave his precious contribution in robotics through his patented remotely controlled device, the first of its kind, among many other inventions that are products of his work. The word “robot” seems to have first become popular when the Czech playwright Karel Capek’s play, entitled “Rossum’s Universal Robots” (RUR), was first performed in Paris, France, in the 1920s. In that play, small, artificial, and anthropomorphic creatures strictly obeyed their master’s orders. In Czech and Russian these creatures were called robotnic, from robota, which are the Czech and Russian words for “drudgery” and “hard work.” “Robotics” as a term, on the other hand, was introduced later, in 1942, by Isaac Asimov in the story “Runaround,” in which the author also submitted the laws of robotics (Asimov, 2012). These laws can be summarized as follows:
(a) Law 1: A robot may not harm a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
