Applications of robots
What do we use robots for? Dr Richard Mitchell discusses some of the typical applications of robots in this article.
© By ICAPlants (Own work) CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Clearly there are many types of robots and lots of areas where they can be used. Typical applications of robots are:
- Industrial – the main use of robots for many years
- Entertainment – increasingly more and more toys
- Military – such as UAV’s (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), UGV’s (Unmanned Ground Vehicle), triage and surveillance.
- Service, including dispensing food and cleaning
- Exploration, including in space
- Hazardous environments – sending robots to work where it is best for humans to stay away
- Cleaning, etc
- Laboratory specimens
- Surgery, rehabilitation, physiotherapy
As an indication of how these applications are changing, the Japanese Robotics Association has made projections of the sales of robots from 2010 – 2035. Their analysis shows that although industrial robots have been the mainstay for the robotics industry, there will be an increasing importance for service and medical robots.
Figure 1: “Trends in the market for the robot industry in 2012”. Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, July 2013 (Click to expand) © University of Reading
© University of Reading
