ROBOTICS.

There are two essential characteristics of robots which distinguish them from other machines, at least as originally envisaged: they can do more than one kind of job, and they can do jobs which could formerly be done only by human beings. The earliest robots were built in the US by George Devol in 1954. They were essentially the 'pick and place' type, and were manually programmed. They had no sensory abilities. The next step was a kind of servo control robot, which you could 'teach' by physically guiding the robot's 'arms' through a series of steps, which the robot then would 'remember' and continue to repeat them. Then came the numerical, or computer controlled machines with a great advantage in flexibility, and a great improvement in precision and quality. There are great benefits to be obtained from robotics, but there is no doubt that there will be many short-term problems as well.