Types of Robots

Robots are divided into two major groups: industrial and domestic. Both types have been around since the 1950s. These robots have made life easier at the workplace and at home. Since the introduction of robots, humans have become more dependent on them for doing household chores and helping complete industrial tasks quicker and more efficient.

Industrial robots are used in workplaces such as factories (car, computer, food etc.). Industrial robots have made work in places such as car factories a lot easier and faster, making the industries boom. They have various jobs that need to be completed and for certain jobs they have various forms. Among industrial robots there are such as:

1) robotic arms are used in assembly lines. These robotic arms are usually used in car factories to weld frames of cars or to spray paint cars. The robotic arm is a very useful robot and is one of the most commonly used industrial robots today;

2) agricultural robots are very new and sometimes do a farmer's job of cutting grass. Agricultural robots can navigate themselves using GPS (Global Positioning System) and use cameras and sensors to find any weeds that may be around. These robots can cut grass at a predetermined length and usually do their job on a daily or weekly basis.

Domestic robots are robots that are used in the home. They mostly perform repetitive tasks on a daily basis. Mowing the lawn, scrubbing plates, cleaning up rooms, vacuuming floors and doing chores that people may find to be hard and long to complete are some of the various repetitive tasks domestic robots are programmed to do. There are different classes of domestic robots: low level which is a basic robot that can be used around the home, this can include entertainment robots such as the popular "Robosapien"; care and chore robots are used to do household chores such as cleaning, washing plates and vacuuming floors. As examples of domestic robots one can mention the following ones:

1) vacuum robots clean the floors on a daily basis. It has motion sensors so it can avoid running into any objects and it can pick up any hair like pet hair for instance;

2) automower is similar to a vacuum robot. But it mows the lawn instead of cleaning house floors. They have sensors to detect edges of grass and have a child proof safety system so its settings cannot be changed if a child is playing around with it.

There also robots used for entertainment, for example, the iDog is a robotic dog made by Hasbro in North America and by Sega Toys in other countries. It can connect with any MP3 player, including the iPod. It can play music while it is connected to an MP3 player and has flashing lights on its head. The iDog is small and can fit in your hand and can even develop a personality. The Robosapien is a remote controlled robot made by Wow Wee. It can do many different things, like walking, dancing and throwing. It can be hacked and people who do hack it modify and program the Robosapien with new functions. The Robosapien has been remade as Robosapien V2 and has better features than the original one.