AI.Robotics.Design
The story of Golem
12th century
Golem is a Hebrew word and means doll.
A Golem is a creaturein Jewish mysticism.
Mysticism is a special form of religious belief.
The story of Golem is over 900 years old.
It says: Golem is made of clay.
It also tells us about the wish to have a servant
who looks like a human.
Today, we fulfil this wish
by developing robots and artificial intelligence.
Intelligence means brainpower.
Artificial intelligences wants to imitate human intelligence
with machines.
Robots are machines
that can do certain jobs instead of humans.
Leonardo da Vinci
1452 to 1519
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian scientist, thinker and painter.
He lived over 600 years ago.
Da Vinci is pronounced like this: Dah Win-chee.
He was very interested in the human body.
He opened dead bodies
and made drawings of what they looked like under their skin.
This way, he gained new knowledge.
For example:
He found out how the muscles and the bones work.
He used this knowledge
to develop machines that can move certain parts.
Leonardo‘s knight
around 1495
About 600 years ago,
Leonardo da Vinci drew a mechanical knight.
A knight was a soldier in armour on a horse.
Mechanical means that something moves.
Leonardo da Vinci wanted his knight
to be able to walk, sit and move his arms.
Leonardo da Vinci probably built the knight
for the duke of Milan.
The duke of Milan gave money
to Leonardo da Vinci to support him.
The drawings of Leonardo’s knight
have been discovered only around 70 years ago.
The knight was named Automa cavaliere.
This is Italian.
It means: Automaton knight.
Cavaliere is pronounced like this: Cah-wal-yeh-reh.
Over the last years,
many people have copied the knight.
Here you can see a copy from 2021.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
1646 to 1716
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German scholar.
He did research in many different fields.
And he was a great thinker.
He lived about 300 years ago.
At that time, a new age began: the Enlightenment.
Enlightenment meant:
Reason should replace the old half-knowledge and superstition.
Leibniz thought about the souls of humans and machines.
He called the souls “monads”.
This is why his book on the science of souls
is called Monadology.
On one page of the book,
Leibniz described his idea for a new numeral system.
It is called binary numeral system.
Binary means: only 2 numbers.
It does not have all the numbers from 0 to 9.
Today’s computers also work
with 2 numbers only: with 0 and with 1.
With this system,
Leibniz established the basis for today’s computer science.
Computer science deals with the way
that computers process data electronically.
Leibniz also invented the integral symbol.
That is an important symbol in mathematics.
The symbol looks like this: ∫
It is based on a long S.
With integral, you can calculate the area
of a shape that has a curved side.
Leibniz’s calculator
1673
In 1673,
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz also invented a mechanical calculator.
Mechanical means here:
A crank moves wheels and rolls.
The calculator can do the 4 basic operations:
it can add, subtract, multiply and divide.
Leibniz called the calculator Machina arithmetica.
This is Latin.
It means counting machine.
With this calculator,
Leibniz wanted to make calculating easier.
He thought:
People should not be bothered with mental calculation.
Here you can see an exact copy of the calculator.
The copy belongs to a museum in Munich:
the Deutsches Museum.
Turing machine and cellular automaton
1936 and 1948
Alan Turing was an English mathematician.
He asked himself: How can a machine solve math problems?
In 1936, he developed an idea,
but he did not build a real machine.
His idea was called Turing machine.
It helped a lot when computers were developed later.
The Turing machine can solve math problems
with exact instructions.
Today, we call this series of instructions algorithms.
We need algorithms for today’s computers and smartphones.
In 1948, John von Neumann developed the idea
for a cellular automaton.
A cell is a very small unit in our body.
A cellular automaton explains in simple mathematical patterns
how the processes of nature
are connected in many different ways.
It explains for example
how cells divide and multiply by themselves.
It also explains the effect of processing information together.
Industrial robots: the first level of development
1983
The first industrial robots are called PUMA.
PUMA stands for:
Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly.
To program means: to plan a process.
Universal means: extensive or broad.
To assemble means: to put together.
PUMA describes a series of industrial robots
that put machines together, for example.
The movements of these robots can be planned precisely.
And they can be repeated endlessly.
Oussama Khatib has developed 2 robots.
Oussama Khatib was born in Syria.
He is a professor of mechanics.
His robots are called Romeo and Juliet.
These robots can work together with other robots
and even with humans.
Here you can see robot Juliet from 1983.
The robot belongs to Stanford University in America.
Deep Blue versus Garri Kasparov
1996 and 1997
In 1996,
a person played chess against a computer.
This person was Garri Kasparov.
He is from Russia and a world champion in chess.
The chess-playing computer was called Deep Blue.
In 1996, Garri Kasparov won after 6 games.
But only 1 year later,
Kasparov lost against a newer and better computer.
This computer was also called Deep Blue.
Industrial robots: the second level of development
1990 to this day
For about 30 years, modern industrial robots
have been used in big workshops and factories.
They replaced humans at work
and they do many dangerous tasks instead of humans.
For example: They weld metal pieces
and they paint cars.
Here you can watch several films
to see how these robots work.
It almost looks like they are dancing.
Industrial robots: the third level of development
today
Today, there are completely new developments
when it comes to computers.
They started with an industrial robot
called Franka Emika Panda.
These new robots have a sense of touch.
This means that they can feel things like humans.
They are very precise and they work well together.
They can also learn new things.
Apps control these robots.
Apps are computer programmes.
