Various robotic concepts and designs have been developed and applied in many industries for almost a century. Even with the robotics longevity, it still is important to understand what is meant by “robots” or “robotics” during discussions assessing current and future applications. Using the best dictionary definition, robotics is “a mechanism guided by automatic controls.” This description is rather general; however, as the creators probably intended, there was need to have a universal definition for these newly developed automatically controlled machines that replicated a robot (a mechanical man).
Where robotic concepts originated has been claimed, debated and analyzed; however, the significant question is why the ideas were born, developed into concepts and tested in applications. From an operations perspective, including studies, evaluations and design criteria, the universal robotics intent had three focuses: to replace manual task effort, to reduce operating time and to increase output.