I. Copy the underlined words and word-combinations, translate them into Ukrainian and learn them.

III. Answer the following questions.

1. What does automation reduce?

2. Can processes and systems be automated?

3. What do engineers strive to do?

4. What do specialised hardened computersdo?

5. What are HMI and CHI?

Robots

The word “robot” was first used in 1922 by Czech playwright Karel Capek in his hit science-fiction play R.U.R. (Possum’s Universal Robots). (Capek combined the Czech words “robota”, meaning obligatory work, and “robotnik”, meaning serf.) In Mr. Capek’s play, the robots were artificial creatures that gained control over human beings and eventually destroyed them. Then in 1936, the term automation (short for automatic operation) was coined by Delmar Harder, a plant manager at General Motors. A robot is a computer-controlled machine that can sense and react to input and can perform tasks with little or no human supervision. Robots in the factory are replacinghard automation, that is, dedicated equipment that can perform only a single operation under a carefully controlled set circumstances. Hard-automation equipment is very specialized and, therefore, not adaptable to a wide variety of tasks. Robots, on the other hand, have computer programs that can change. They can be programmed to perform a wide variety of tasks such as first assembling parts for one model of car, and then assembling different parts for another car model.

Robots are beginning to play a major role in automated materials handling. One such device, called a bin-picking robot, combines a vision system and a touch-sensitive gripper. Avision system uses a television camera with image-processing software. The robot is trained to recognize objects by presenting samples to the camera that are then stored and used for matching when the robot is in use.

Such systems are useful in applications where parts are stored randomly.

Examples of bin picking include loading machine tools, assembling products, sorting parts of similar size or shape, and loading or unloading materials from storage.

Programmable robots can perform a wide variety of assembly tasks and, therefore, are more flexible and adaptable. Inspection robots can go where it is impractical for people to go. For example, mobile robots are used to inspect radioactive areas of nuclear power plants.