Robots Alchemy Androids, Cyborgs,
and the Magic of Artificial Life
by Texe Marrs
9 Robots:
Be Part of the Beginning
“Ours is truly the first generation to experience the birth of a new life form, however primitive it
may now be, and no tale in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” or in a science fiction thriller could be more
exciting and breathtaking than the pleasure of taking an excursion down the robot road to the
present...”
—Texe Marrs The Personal Robot Book
“Be part of the beginning!” invited the promotional literature for the 1984 Albuquerque, New Mexico,
First International Personal Robot Congress and Exposition. The brochures proclaimed the arrival of the
Robotics Age and invited enthusiasts to come celebrate the momentous event. And come they did, to hear
Isaac Asimov speak from New York City via a satellite link, and to meet personal robot entrepreneurs
such as Joe Bosworth of RB Robot Corporation and Nolan Bushnell of the fledgling Androbot, Inc. The
attendees also met several score robots and enjoyed the promotions of exhibitors offering not only
complete machines but robot parts and software and books about the creatures.
The industrial robots also have their own show, staged each year in a large U.S. city by the Robotics
Industries Association and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. At this convention hundreds of sales
representatives approach potential customers eager to observe the latest technological advancements in
worker robotics.
These key robot shows tell us only the latest chapter of what is already a long story. At these trade
events we are able to observe the results of nearly 5,000 years of technological progress in robotics. We
can roughly divide the natural history of robot evolution into five time frames. During each of these eras,
significant advances were made that set the stage for subsequent progress.
The Dawn of Robotics (3000 B.C. to A.D. 1199)
From about 3000 B.C. to A.D. 150, craftsmen in many parts of the world created wood and metal figures,
toys, puppets, and talking heads that were operated by primitive gears, string pulls, levers, fulcrums,
axles, water power, and gravity. These objects were built primarily for the amusement of royalty, to
celebrate special events, or for use in religious ceremonies and other rituals.
In Africa, inventive priests built lifelike idols to be worshipped by superstitious tribes-people. One
such creation employed a draw cord attached to the idol’s jaw to cause its mouth to open; a speaking tube
or ventriloquist endowed the idol with speech.
In imperial Rome, priests and priestesses used string-controlled puppets to prophesy and to abet their
own aura as the earthly representatives of the gods.
In the third century B.C., Greek thinker Archimedes set forth theories about the use of steam for power.
From about 200 to 100 B.C.—in Egypt, Ethiopia, Persia, and China, engineers created automatons of
animals, birds, and people that operated by steam. Building on Archimedes’ work, Hero of Alexandria
(circa A.D. 100) wrote about the mechanics of automata. Hero proposed that pneumatics (air pressure)
could be used to power machines and he outlined the principles of the crank, the screw, the cogwheel, the
camshaft, the pump, and the piston. Hero also invented a heat transfer system that caused doors to open
automatically.
In the fourth century A.D., Chinese builders erected a golden statue of Buddha set on a carriage on
which were mounted animated figures resembling Taoist monks. As the carriage was drawn, the monks
revolved around the statue, bowing and depositing incense into a censer. Later, in 790, a Chinese inventor
constructed a wooden otter that could actually catch fish. The next century, in 890, another Chinese
craftsman built a wooden cat that, observers reported, could catch rats. Meanwhile, in nearby Japan, The
Prince Kaya supervised the construction of a mechanical doll that could raise a bowl of water and pour
the water over its own face.
The Age of Automata (1200 to 1821)
After a European hiatus of many hundreds of years, creative minds there labored to build automatons that
could move as if they had life. From A.D. 1200 to about 1821, many mechanical automata were
constructed, some after the human form, others in the shape of animals. Among the notables involved in
the quest to create mechanical life were Bavarian Albertus Magnus, Englishman Roger Bacon, and the
Italian Leonardo da Vinci.
Magnus (1193-1280) constructed the servant automaton mentioned earlier, which had a lifelike
appearance, supposedly possessed faltering speech, and was able to open doors for guests. Bacon (1214-
1294) was reputed to have created a talking head that was more than seven years in the making. The
renowned inventor-artist, da Vinci (1452- 1519), was inspired by the visit of King Louis to build a
mechanical lion to honor his majesty. Entering Milan, the king was astonished to see the lion stealthily
approach him. However, his astonishment turned into amusement and mirth when the lion suddenly
stopped, opened its chest with a yank of its paw, and pointed to the coat of arms of France emblazoned
there.
Beginning in the fourteenth century, workmen and inventors also began to build mechanical dolls,
statues, figurines, and clocks. Automatons in the shape of animals and birds were especially popular, and
nobility and the clergy requested that such devices be installed by architects and builders of civic
buildings and churches. An example of such handiwork is a fourteenth-century mechanical crowing
rooster perched atop the cathedral of Strasbourg, France. Each noon, the metal rooster flaps its wings and
sticks out its tongue. With minor repairs over the centuries, Strasbourg’s mechanical rooster continues in
its task.
In the eighteenth century, European automaton-makers Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen and Jacques de
Vaucanson gained a measure of fame. The latter built a realistic mechanical duck that “chattered,…swam,
splashed in water, and…spread its wings.” The fowl could smooth its feathers and swallow kernels of
corn fed to it by hand. Vaucanson also built a tiny walking mechanical asp for us in an eighteenth-century
production of Cleopatra. Baron von Kempelen was the creator of talking machines as well as of the
famed “Turkish Chess Player.”
The Jacquet-Droz Craftsmen
Perhaps the most famous of eighteenth-century makers of automatons were the father and son team of
Pierre Jacquet-Droz (1721-90) and Henri-Louis Jacquet-Droz (1752-91). Assisted by a very talented
mechanic, Jean-Frederic Lescho, the Swiss-born Jacquet-Droz proved they were master craftsmen of
unparalleled skill and vision by constructing a number of remarkable, humanlike automatons. In 1774, the
Jacquet-Droz showed to the public three of their finest creations. The Scribe (also called The Writer) is a
“child” about three years old. In his right hand is a goose quill. When he writes, his eyes follow the
tracing of each letter. The Draughtsman can execute a portrait of Louis XV, while The Lady Musician is
a charming young lady who graciously plays melodies on a small pipe organ. The Jacquet-Droz figures
are now on permanent display at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Neuchatel, Switzerland.
The fame of the Jacquet-Droz spread throughout Europe, encouraging many other clockmakers and
mechanics to try their hand at building complex automatons, most of which were sold to the wealthy and
the nobility. One such person was Henri Maillardet, an apprentice under the Jacquet Droz. Maillardet’s
impressive The Writing Child, built in 1815, is now on display at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia,
France’s King George III presented a Maillardet automaton doll to the Emperor of China as a gift. This
exquisitely crafted doll wrote its words in Chinese calligraphy.
The Age of Electricity and Machines (1822-1920)
Insofar as it relates to robotics, the Age of Electricity and Machines begins in 1822, when Englishman
Michael Faraday (1791-1867) invented the electric motor. However, even before Faraday’s innovation
there were a number of other discoveries of great significance to the development of practical robots.
James Watt’s steam engine (circa 1782) gave some promise of powering automatons. American Oliver
Evans also was a pioneer in the development of steam engines. In 1783 he built a flour mill in
Philadelphia that was almost totally automated.
Other innovations of significance to robotics during this period included the mass production in France
of the Jacquard loom, a machine programmed by punched cards (1801), and the development by
American Christopher Spencer of the automat, a cam-programmable lathe (1830). Further foreshadowing
the future of robotics and automation, in 1892 Spencer Babbitt designed a motorized crane and gripper to
remove hot ingots from steel furnaces.
Several nineteenth-century inventors attempted to put steam to use in powering automatons. One such
device was built by George Moore in 1893. This fascinating steam robot was propelled by a half horsepower motor that caused jointed rods to move the robot’s legs. Exhaust pipes protruded from the
robot’s mouth and head.
From 1822 to 1906, technological advancements using electricity came with increasing regularity. In
1838 the world saw the Samuel Morse telegraph; in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell gave us the telephone,
and in 1877 inventor par excellence Thomas A. Edison presented his phonograph machine. Then, only
two years later, Edison’s brilliance was again demonstrated by his invention of the first commercially
operable electric light bulb.
Edison also gave the world another invention: a talking doll (circa 1894). The doll, which by the use of
a crank and a phonograph cylinder was able to recite the nursery rhyme, “Mary Had a Little Lamb,”
caught the public fancy, mainly because of the popularity of its inventor. Soon, Edison’s factory in New
Jersey was producing and selling five hundred of the dolls per day.
A few years earlier, in 1877, U.S. inventor J. D. Hughson patented an automaton more useful than
Edison’s faddish doll. His device was an electric railroad signal in the shape of a man wearing a top hat.
Hughson’s automaton wasn’t a commercial success, but its invention proved a significant step toward
applying the technology of automata for purposes other than entertainment.
American immigrant Nikola Tesla (1856-1947) was also a pioneer in the field of electricity and
robotics. The inventor of the alternating current electric motor, Tesla worked feverishly on electric-driven
robotic devices. In 1898, to the utter amazement of thousands of people gathered at Madison Square
Garden, Tesla demonstrated a remote controlled electric submersible boat.
Tesla’s ultimate goal, never achieved, was to build machines that possessed intelligence. Tesla wrote:
“I think the time is not distant when I shall show an automaton which, left to itself, will act as though
possessed of reason and without any willful control from the outside.” Also, we come upon his bold
prediction: “Teleautomata will ultimately be produced, capable of acting as if possessed of their own
intelligence, and their advent will create a revolution.”
The Android Period (1921-1944)
Borrowing from the works of Faraday, Edison, Tesla, and others, and inspired by the coining of the term“robot” in 1921, inventors soon began to install electric motors and electrical relay devices in their
mechanical creatures. These electrical systems were joined with sophisticated mechanisms of pulleys,
belts, cables, gears, shafts, rollers, and levers to produce incredible new androids. They created a
sensation wherever they were displayed, which was exactly the purpose of their creators, companies such
as Westinghouse, which sought to show the public the ultimate possibilities of electricity.
In Great Britain in 1928, an “aluminum man” that could rise, bow, and make a speech was put on
display at the Royal Horticultural Hall in London. Recognized as the very first British robot, spectators
dubbed it the “Royal Knight.”
From 1927 to 1940, the Westinghouse Corporation presented three generations of mechanical men. In
1927, Televox was born, followed by Willie in 1931 and Elektro in 1939. Elektro had a pal, a robot dog
named Sparko, built in 1940.
The interesting story of Elektro and Sparko began when Westinghouse engineer J.M. Barnett built
Elektro as a publicity gimmick for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Elektro had a bag of twenty-six
tricks. He could walk forward and back, bow his head, and crane his head at a crowd. When in the mood,
he brought his hand to his head in a patriotic salute. The robot could count, one finger at a time, and
distinguish between the colors of red and green. He also was a fancier of cigarettes and cigars.
Elektro weighed 260 pounds and had 48 electric relays inside his huge body. The robot’s inventor,
Barnett, noted that Elektro was not capable of completely duplicating all the human body’s movements
because to do so “his brain would have to contain 1,026 electric relays, weigh approximately 1,000
pounds and occupy about 108 cubic feet of space.
According to Barnett, there wasn’t “the remotest possibility that such a gargantuan metal man will ever
be built.” Added the inventor, “No engineer would ever be so ridiculous as to imagine that any robot
could ever take the place of man.”
Given the impressive accomplishments of Elektro in 1939, one wonders what a topnotch robot builder
like Barnett could do today, using the marvels of the electronic computer, the microchip and the biochip as
building blocks.
The Computer and Robot Revolution (1944 to Today)
Today, less than fifty years after Elektro, science has provided robot brains, each so small that several
thousand of them could fit into the 108 cubic feet of space Barnett said would be required. The
microchip, a tiny sliver of silicon and integrated circuitry, is the heart of the modern electronic computer.
For some mental processes—such as calculating and recall—contemporary computers are superior to the
human brain. But in other respects, particularly in the realm of reasoning and logic, computers are
woefully deficient compared to the processes of the biological human brain.
Still, in another 25 years, as molecular computer chips, neural implants and high density microchips are
manufactured, the computer brain of the robot may well be the equal of or even surpass that of human
beings. Moreover, that superior machine brain may be much, much smaller than its human counterpart.
The Computer Revolution and the Microchip
The Computer Revolution and the Robot Revolution have developed in tandem. The computer epoch
began in earnest in 1944 when an American graduate student, Howard Aiken, invented the first digital
computer, Mark I, a behemoth of a machine that used electromagnetic relays. Two years later, an U.S.
Army research team at the University of Pennsylvania demonstrated ENIAC (Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Calculator). This first, all-electronic digital computer was the precursor to today’s sleek,
powerful—and much smaller—models.
ENIAC was so big that it filled a large, barn-sized room. It had 17,000 bulky vacuum tubes. But in
1948, William Shockley, a Palo Alto researcher, patented his invention, the transistor, a small electronic
component that soon made vacuum tubes obsolete and initiated the process of computer miniaturization
that continues today.[ what happened in 1947 in the American Southwest desert ? dc]
Also in 1948, scientist Norbert Weiner, founder of cybernetics, published his book, Cybernetics:
Control of Communication in Animal and Machine. Weiner’s theory suggested that the computer and the
human brain were somewhat comparable in that each employed systems of feedback and memory. His
fresh way of thinking about machine intelligence marked a turning point in robotics.
Five years later, in 1953, English scientist W. G. Walter’s important and provocative book, The Living
Brain (Duckworth, London) proposed that machine species could be classified much as are biological
species.
Another breakthrough in computers and robotics occurred in 1958 when Texas Instrument’s Jack Kilby
invented the integrated circuit on a semiconductor wafer of silicon: the microchip. A year later, Robert
Noyce improved upon Kilby’s microchip and the wheels were set in motion for the Computer Revolution.
Transistors gave way to microchips, and mainframe computers to micro computers and even pocket-size
computers. All that was necessary was to marry the computer to the robot.
Robots on the Assembly Line
While researchers were busy miniaturizing computer components, robot builders weren’t standing still. In
1954 George C. Devol, a Kentucky engineer and entrepreneur, patented a robot, called “Unimate,” for use
on assembly lines. It was the first commercial robot offered by Devol’s fledgling company, Universal
Automation (later, Unimation). Devol went on to patent thirty-nine other robotic products, but his robots
seemed like such a departure to factory managers of his time that few of them were sold.
Disappointed, Devol sold his patents to Consolidated Diesel Corporation (Condec). Enter Joseph
Engelberger, an enthusiastic and visionary engineer who took over Unimation and ran with it. Fighting
resistance from industry, the optimistic Engelberger barreled ahead. In 1961 the first Unimate robot was
installed on a General Motors assembly line. This first-generation machine was only a “dumb,”
automatic, pick and place robot, but its employment signaled the beginning of the Robotics Age. Industry
was changed forever.
Robots Come Home
The Computer Revolution also energized the development of the home and personal robot. The first
mobile robot controlled by a computer brain was Shakey, developed in 1968 by SRI International of
Menlo Park, California. SRI’s Charles Rosen endowed Shakey with the ability to wheel around the
laboratory, see with television eyes, and make modest decisions about obstacles in his path and how to
avoid them. Shakey was the forerunner of what will undoubtedly become hundreds of thousands—perhaps
millions—of home robots.
In the 1980s, sensing that the time was ripe as evidenced by the ongoing craze for personal computers,
a half-dozen companies in the United States introduced mass-produced computerized home robots to the
marketplace. Foremost among these firms were Androbot, headed by Atari Computer founder Nolan
Bushnell, and RB Robot, a small Colorado corporation led by Joseph Bosworth. The Heathkit Company,
a Zenith subsidiary, also produced a personal robot, HERO 1, that doubles as a robotics educational
system.
In 1985, I wrote my groundbreaking book, The Personal Robot Book (McGraw Hill/ Tab), which
became an instant classic and was chosen by the computer and electronic book clubs. The following year,
I authored the first book ever on robotic jobs, Careers With Robots (Facts on File).
The arrival of the home robot and the introduction of worker robots to replace human workers is
fulfilling the age-old dreams of visionaries, scientists, and philosophers. Surely, there are few
technological parallels with this achievement of the invention of machines that replicate human activity.
Aristotle, Archimedes, Hero, and even Edison would no doubt stand in awe of today’s robots, were they
to be brought to life for an instant to glimpse what their ideas and labors have helped bring to pass.
10
Humans Become Cyborgs—The Bionic Human
The use of artificial limbs and body replacement parts has been common for many centuries. In the
1570s, Ambroise Pare, a French surgeon, developed a variety of prosthetic devices for crippled persons.
And in the United States, in the nineteenth century, many an artificial leg and arm was sold by mail order.
Soon after his transatlantic flight in 1927, aviator Charles Lindbergh and a colleague invented an external
heart pump and demonstrated it to the public. However, all of these prior achievements pale when
contrasted with the incredible array of artificial limbs, replacement parts, and bodily function surrogate
equipment now in use or under development.
Today, we call this field bionics, (also biomimetics) indicating the combination of biology and
electronics. Bionics does concern itself with the biology of the human body and with electronics, but
more broadly, the field encompasses all the facets of medical technology concerned with bodily
functioning. This includes not only spare-parts medicine to replace damaged body parts with artificial and
natural substitutes but also the use of computerized sensors, prosthetic devices, and electromechanical
machines.
Biotechnologists, biomedical engineers, and bionics technicians are working with specialists in
neurology, chemistry, pharmacology, medicine, electronics, ceramics, mechanical engineering, and other
fields to build artificial human parts. Bionics professionals also develop new composite synthetic
materials, construct computers and microchip sensors that simulate and calibrate bodily functions, and
develop fiber optics, lasers, and biotechnology as well as other advanced technologies for application to
bionics.
Bionics Advances
Bionics technology is progressing rapidly. The Six Million Dollar Man—the bionic human—is edging
closer and closer to reality as scientists, engineers, medical doctors, and technicians team up. We now
have artificial substitutes for the heart, ear, lung, kidney, pancreas, joints, and external limbs. And almost
every other body part is being researched in the hope that workable artificial replacements can be
developed. We have also produced artificial neurons and neural networks. When we examine just a few
of the fascinating new developments in bionics we realize how dramatic and revolutionary this field is. A
look at the state-of-the-art in bionics is also relevant to the future of robots and robotics.
THE ARTIFICIAL EAR
The artificial ear is here. A cochlear implant, it may eventually restore or bestow the gift of hearing on as
many as one-third of all deaf people, many of whom are profoundly deaf. Symbion, the same medical
research firm that offers the Jarvik-7™ artificial heart and other organs, manufactures such an implant,
called the Ineraid™. The Ineraid™ consists of two parts: an implanted electrode assembly and an
external microphone with sound processor. Surgery is required to thread the electrodes into the existing
cochlea. The sound processor box is carried in the person’s pocket or worn on the belt.
The artificial ear works when sounds entering the microphone are relayed to the sound processor.
These sounds are then transmitted to the electrodes in the cochlea, which imitate the function of the
damaged biological cells. This electrical information is transmitted by the auditory nerve to the brain
where the sounds are interpreted as meaningful information.
ARTIFICIAL EYES
The first bionic eyes are here, and some blind people have limited sight.
ARTIFICIAL HEARTS
The artificial heart has been proved a huge success since December 9, 1982, when the first such implant
was installed in the chest of a man. That man, Barney Clark, later succumbed to complications
(pneumonia), but the operation was a success and the artificially implanted pumping device worked as
planned.
Artificial heart pioneers include Robert Jarvik, whose Jarvik-7™ model was implanted in Barney
Clark; Denton Cooley, a Texas physician; William DeVries, the surgeon who conducted four of the
world’s first five implants; and Willem Kolff, who also invented the artificial kidney (dialysis).
The Jarvik-7™ heart incorporates a pair of pneumatically driven blood pumps. It is fabricated of
polyurethane material and aluminum. Special drive lines link the implanted heart to an external power
source, the newest variety of which is the Heimes™ portable heart driver, a lightweight device inside a
briefcase like box that the wearer can carry with a shoulder strap. This allows the patient greater mobility
and freedom than did previous drivers, which were large, wheeled machines.
The artificial heart is nothing less than a marvel. Consider that such a device must beat forty million
times per year while reliably sustaining a human circulatory system and you begin to recognize just what a
miracle bionics has wrought.
ARTIFICIAL NOSES
Two University of Toronto chemists, Michael Thompson and Ulrich Krull are working on a bionic nose.
Equipped with biosensors, the nose works when a fatty compound is squirted through a tiny hole in a
specially treated membrane: a sheet of Teflon that is electrically charged. The nose is not yet ready for
use, but with additional computer modeling and the use of genetically engineered proteins, Thompson and
Krull expect to demonstrate a working model.
ARTIFICIAL LARYNX
At Little Rock researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences have invented a valve that
can restore speech to more than 60 percent of patients whose larynx, or voice box, has been surgically
removed. The valve is inserted in the neck in a surgical incision between the esophagus or feeding tube,
and the windpipe. The speech produced sounds almost identical to the speech the individual had before
having his or her larynx removed.
ARTIFICIAL JOINTS AND BONES,
TENDONS AND LIGAMENTS
Artificial joints in arms, hips, and legs are common. Such joints are usually made of an alloy of aluminum,
titanium, and vanadium and often fit into a polyethylene cup or socket. Biotechnologists have also
identified and are manufacturing a natural protein substance called CIF (cartilage induction factor) that
can stimulate the body to repair damaged bone. They may even be able to produce bone in the laboratory.
Electrical stimulation is also being used to help knit broken bones. Specialists have devised techniques
by which carbon fibers coated with a bioplastic substance become a base upon which scarred, damaged,
and torn ligaments and tendons may be healed and regrown. Within nine months of implantation,
connective tissue fills the gap in the ligament or tendon and it is once again sturdy and flexible. The three
who devised this method are an orthopedic surgeon, a mechanical engineer, and a materials engineer.
ARTIFICIAL VEINS, ARTERIES, AND NERVES
Dacron and polyethylene grafts have been in use as artificial veins and arteries for more than a decade
and are now implanted in over a million persons. More than five hundred medical firms and labs in the
United States and abroad are working on new types of artificial veins, arteries, nerves, and organs. One
such company is Carbomedics, an Austin, Texas, firm that uses carbon-based materials to reconnect
severed nerves.
The Biological Alternative: Living Organs and Computers
Today’s bionic body parts are made up of either metal, glass, plastic, cloth fibers, or a combination of
these. But the science of biotechnology is fast developing the capability to produce artificial body parts
and systems that are natural—that is, composed of biological material.
The biochip is almost a thousand times as dense as the most advanced silicon chips which they will
replace. Such biochips are so small that 6,200 of them will he able to fit within the width of a human hair,
and a preliminary Gorham report says that, “remarkable near-term applications for biochips include
biosensors, artificial intelligence, robot vision, advanced industrial process control, thin film TV tubes,
and defense applications.”
The biomolecular computer will be a fantastic innovation and create technological possibilities that are
almost impossible to envision. Nanotechnology is making this possible. Organic, self renewing biochips
many times as powerful as the silicon chips in today’s personal computers and cell phones could drive
supercomputers and be implanted in the human body.
In addition to the biochip, new biotechnology methods will actually permit the growth of natural body
organs in the lab. Skin is already being grown remotely and then grafted onto burn patients. Collagen
Corporation, a Palo Alto, California, firm, has developed a whole series of products that regenerate soft
tissue and bone. One product repairs the esophageal sphincter of patients who have suffered severe
chronic heartburn; another restores damaged vocal chords.
Two chemical and pharmaceutical industry giants that are working on organ regeneration are Monsanto
and Bristol-Meyers. Also, a number of smaller biotechnology firms are actively researching both
biochips and organ regeneration.
In the future, nano-sized computers implanted in the human body will scan for disease indicators,
diagnose diseases, and control the release of the appropriate drugs.
Bionics and Robotics
The fields of bionics and robotics are inextricably linked; indeed, they are fast becoming
indistinguishable. This close relationship was graphically noted recently by a top robotics researcher, Dr.
Susan Hackwood, former director of AT&T’s robotics program and head of the Robotics Institute at the
University of California at Santa Barbara and now executive director of the California Council on
Science and Technology. Said Doctor Hackwood, “There are two main goals of robotics that are really
different sides of the same coin. One is the goal of building a bio morphic, or lifelike machine. Many
roboticists are, in fact, engaged in building artificial limbs and human prostheses. The other goal is
building robots to improve productivity in the factory of the future.”
Generally, bionics is most important in its relationship to the study of anthropomorphic robots androids
and humanoids. An increasing number of experts view biological systems and nature as fruitful areas of
interest to industry. For example, George Piotrowski, associate professor of mechanical engineering at the
University of Florida in Gainesville, contends that the human body is “the ultimate machine.” In
Mechanical Engineering magazine, Piotrowski suggested that industrial engineers apply the biological
principles found in the human body to their design strategies. He pointed out that the human brain and
nervous system is an excellent example to follow in data processing design, that “the mechanical structure
of the body is built of optimally designed links made up of fatigue-resistant material;” and that “human
bearings— joints—allow motion with a minimal loss of energy to friction.”
Many others agree with Piotrowski. Biophysicist Helmut Tributsch, in his exceptional book, How Life
Learned To Live (MIT Press) explores the technology of all living things, including humans. Tributsch
holds that the human body’s biological systems encompass the basic principles of mechanics,
thermodynamics, acoustics, locomotion, and optics. He notes that we can find the biological counterpart
of cameras in the eye structure of animals and that our most sophisticated ultrasound technology cannot
compare with the natural equipment of bats and dolphins.
While Piotrowski, Tributsch, and others tout the human body as a viable example for the design of
machines, a growing number of engineers and scientists strive to apply engineering principles that aid the
human body. For example, robotics experts and biomedical engineers are developing robotic wheelchairs
and arm robots to serve the needs of paraplegics and quadriplegics. Meanwhile, the field of
biomechanics is an emerging movement oriented toward helping athletes and sports stars achieve optimal
physical performance. This is accomplished by studying how the human body can best function as a
machine. Video, computer analyses, sensors attached to the body, and other robots are used in
biomechanics to measure performance and suggest improvements to enhance hand, arm and leg movement,
and body position.
Robots for the Disabled
All individuals need independence, dignity, and the ability to operate in the world as it is. Many
physically disabled people are deprived of these needs because they do not enjoy the use of all their body
limbs and organs. Robotics and bionics research is producing a number of systems designed to assist
them. Robots have been built to assist the disabled in daily activities and to help restore the ability to
successfully interact with the world.
Currently, a number of robot devices are available. One robot device permits handicapped persons to
telephone without using their hands. Basic Telecommunications Corporation offers the Ability Phone,
which consists of a visual display, a keyboard and an optional voice synthesizer. A blind or arms/hands
impaired person can command the phone to dial a certain number. With the keyboard, a mute person can
type a message that will be transmitted by voice to a distant party. At Stanford University, Dr. Larry
Leifor has tested a robot that answers the telephone, operates a typewriter, and turns book pages.
Computerized robots are providing fresh hope to the handicapped. Carl Mason, head of research at the
Veterans Administration Center in New York state has demonstrated one machine that can shave an
armless man or one whose arms or hands are infirm. The man directs the robot through spoken words and
moves his face to improve the shave. The New York center also is experimenting with working robots that
assist disabled persons to eat, dress, and groom themselves.
Robotic wheelchairs are also proving to be a boon to the disabled. One model developed by the
Veterans Administration has a built-in robot arm. Using chin pressure, a person whose hands are
paralyzed can grasp objects and can even play games like chess. Another robotic wheelchair is
computerized and permits the quadriplegic to blow into or sip on a straw to command the wheelchair to
go forward or move in reverse.
In Dayton, Ohio, researchers demonstrated that a paralyzed paraplegic could use his/ her own body as
a sort of “robot platform.” A brave young woman named Nan Davis, a 22-year-old paraplegic and a
senior at Wright State University, was seen by millions on network TV news programs, as she stood and
took a half-dozen faltering steps. This miracle came about as a result of a micro computerized control
system developed by Dr. Jerold Petrofsky. An array of electrodes and sensors placed on Nan’s legs,
knees, and ankles fed information into a remote computer that sent back timed impulses to the limbs to
move. Said a smiling Ms. Davis after she had completed her short but breathtaking jaunt, “One step for
mankind.”
The Future
The host of complicated gadgetry used to help Nan Davis take those first miraculous steps is crude
compared to the devices that will be available to implant miniaturized control devices and prostheses in
the body of a crippled person to serve as an artificial spinal cord and nervous system. These devices may
not even be observable as the individual moves about in society. Organ regeneration will also provide
medical specialists with a continued supply of body parts, and biosensors made of natural, biotechnologically produced materials will assist bodily functions when appropriate. Joseph Moskal of the
National Institute of Health says that biochip devices will soon miraculously provide sight to many blind
persons and help paraplegics regain control of their muscles. Because of the minute size of the chips,
Moskal adds, they “could be implanted anywhere in the body.”
The wonderful possibility is that disabilities will be healed, lives will be saved, and wheelchairs may
become a thing of the past—a relic of early science and medicine. In effect, the fields of robotics, bionics,
and biomedical engineering will merge and once handicapped individuals may become our first cyborgs.
It also seems likely that continual progress in biotechnology, bionics, and robotics will serve to
provide humankind with robot systems that are made up of the best biological, mechanical, and electronic
components, processes, and structures. The likelihood is that if research and discoveries continue at their
current rapid pace, we will end up with vastly improved robots capable of independent thought and
flexible motion. Simultaneously, medical technology will make possible the replaceable person, with
hundreds of body parts available on the shelf.
next-204s
11“Your Slippers, Sire”—Personal and Home Robots At Your Service
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