Robots: What you need to know about the past, present and future of robotics | Future Technology - BBC Focus Magazine

Peter Bentley, computer scientist and author who is based at University College London  inform, Robotics has changed our lives in ways we couldn't possibly have imagined, but there is so much more you need to know about robots.

Robots: Everything about the past, present and future of robotics
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What are robots and what can they do? Robots are machines that can carry out complex actions automatically. They generally need three elements: sensors such as cameras, lidar, or microphones; actuators such as motors, pistons or artificial muscles, and controllers.

Robots may be remotely controlled by humans, but frequently they are partially or fully controlled by computers, making them autonomous.

Robots in fiction frequently resemble us, looking quite humanoid in appearance with two arms, two legs and a head with cameras for eyes. But in reality, the vast majority of robot forms are designed to fit their function...

What could robots of the future do? 
Robots have contributed massively to our industries, enabling most devices, appliances, transportation and processed foods to be made efficiently and cheaply. Today researchers are working towards even greater automation, with robots taking over more and more of the manufacturing processes.

3D printing using additive manufacturing may enable complex components to be made, and it is the ambition of many industries to even automate the repair process of machines, with faults being detected before they cause failures, and new parts being made and swapped automatically.

Eventually, this could even lead to machines that can build themselves and repair themselves – known as von Neumann machines (self-replicating machines) after the mathematician who imagined them back in the late 1940s.
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Source: BBC Focus Magazine