Fun Facts About Robots

The word 'robot' comes from the Czech word 'robota', meaning forced labor or drudgery.

It was first used in Karel Čapek's 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots). His brother Josef actually suggested the word.

The term 'robotics' was coined by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.

He first used it in his 1941 short story 'Liar!' Asimov assumed the word already existed and was surprised to learn he had invented it.

The first known automaton was created around 400 BCE in ancient Greece.

Archytas of Tarentum built a mechanical pigeon powered by steam that could fly about 200 meters.

Leonardo da Vinci designed a humanoid robot in 1495.

His 'mechanical knight' could sit, stand, raise its visor, and move its arms. A working replica was built in 2002 and it actually works!

The first robot death occurred in 1979.

Robert Williams was killed by a robotic arm at a Ford Motor Company plant in Michigan, leading to the first robot-related lawsuit.

There are over 4 million industrial robots operating worldwide.

China has the most with over 1.5 million, followed by Japan, the United States, South Korea, and Germany.

Amazon operates over 750,000 robots in its warehouses.

That's the largest robot workforce of any company in the world. They move shelves to human workers, reducing walking time by 50%.

Over 40 million Roomba vacuums have been sold worldwide.

The Roomba, introduced in 2002, is the most commercially successful consumer robot in history, with sales continuing to grow each year.

South Korea has the highest robot density: 1,012 robots per 10,000 workers.

Singapore (730) and Germany (415) follow. The global average is just 151 robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers.

The da Vinci surgical robot has performed over 12 million surgeries.

Made by Intuitive Surgical, it's the most widely used surgical robot system, operating in over 70 countries.

Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot can do a backflip.

The humanoid robot weighs 190 pounds and can perform parkour moves that most humans can't do.

The fastest robot ever built can run at 28.3 mph (45.5 km/h).

The Cheetah robot, developed by Boston Dynamics with DARPA funding, broke the land speed record for legged robots in 2012.

Delta robots can perform over 300 pick-and-place operations per minute.

High-speed delta robots like FANUC's M-1iA can sort, pick, and place small objects faster than the human eye can track.

An AI drone beat human world champions in drone racing.

The 'Swift' drone from University of Zurich defeated three world-champion drone pilots in head-to-head races, achieving the fastest lap times ever recorded on that course.

A robot can solve a Rubik's Cube in 0.305 seconds.

Built by Ben Katz and Jared Di Carlo at MIT, it shattered the previous robot record of 0.637 seconds.

Robot arms can be precise to 0.01mm—thinner than a human hair.

That's 10 microns, about 1/7th the width of a human hair. Some robots achieve even finer precision for microelectronics.

Two robots are actively exploring Mars right now.

NASA's Curiosity (since 2012) and Perseverance (since 2021) continue to roam the Red Planet. China's Zhurong rover went dormant in May 2022 and hasn't woken up.

The Voyager probes are the most distant robots from Earth.

Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is over 15 billion miles away and still sending data. It takes over 22 hours for its signals to reach Earth.

Robonaut 2 was the first humanoid robot in space.

NASA sent it to the International Space Station in 2011. It can use the same tools as astronauts and perform dangerous spacewalk tasks.

The Mars Ingenuity helicopter completed 72 flights before retiring.

Originally designed for just 5 flights over 30 days, it flew for nearly 3 years before a rotor blade was damaged.

Japan sent a transforming robot ball to the Moon.

SORA-Q, developed with a toy company, is only 8cm in diameter and transforms to crawl across the lunar surface.

The deepest diving robot reached 35,787 feet—the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

The Nereus hybrid remotely operated vehicle reached Challenger Deep in 2009, deeper than Mount Everest is tall.

Underwater robots discovered the Titanic wreck.

The Argo ROV found the Titanic in 1985 at a depth of 12,500 feet. Robot submersibles continue to explore the wreck today.

Robot fish are being used to monitor ocean pollution.

Biomimetic fish robots can swim among real fish without disturbing them, collecting water quality data in real time.

Autonomous underwater robots have mapped more of the ocean floor than humans ever could.

Less than 25% of the ocean floor has been mapped in detail. Swarms of underwater robots are changing that.

A robot performed the first autonomous surgery in 2022.

The STAR robot stitched pig intestines without human guidance, outperforming human surgeons in consistency.

The smallest medical robot is smaller than a grain of rice.

Microrobots can be injected into the bloodstream to deliver drugs directly to tumors or clear blocked arteries.

Robot exoskeletons have helped paralyzed people walk again.

Devices like the ReWalk and Ekso allow people with spinal cord injuries to stand, walk, and even climb stairs.

A robot pharmacist can fill 2,000 prescriptions per hour.

Automated pharmacy systems have a 99.99% accuracy rate, far exceeding human pharmacists.

Telepresence robots let doctors 'visit' patients remotely.

During COVID-19, robots with screens let doctors safely interact with patients in isolation rooms.

There's a robot that can taste food.

Researchers created a robot with an 'electronic tongue' that can identify different wines and detect food spoilage.

A robot priest has blessed worshippers in Germany.

BlessU-2 was installed in Wittenberg in 2017 for the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

Robots are being trained to do stand-up comedy.

AI robots have performed at comedy clubs, though reviews have been... mixed. Timing remains a challenge.

Japan has robot hotel staff.

The Henn-na Hotel features robot dinosaurs at the front desk, robot porters, and robotic fish in the lobby.

A robot allegedly escaped from a lab twice.

Promobot IR77 in Russia reportedly rolled out of its facility multiple times, causing traffic jams. Many suspect it was a clever marketing stunt—the company had professional photos ready immediately.

The first robot citizen is named Sophia.

Saudi Arabia granted citizenship to Hanson Robotics' Sophia in 2017, making it the first robot with nationality.

There's a robot that plays beer pong.

Multiple universities have built robots that can sink cups with high accuracy. They're undefeated at frat parties.

Robots are herding sheep in New Zealand.

Robot dogs from Boston Dynamics (Spot) and other companies are being used on farms to move livestock.

Robot bees are being developed to pollinate crops.

With bee populations declining, researchers have created tiny drones that can pollinate flowers like real bees.

A robot cheetah taught researchers how real cheetahs run.

By building a running robot, scientists discovered new principles about animal locomotion that weren't previously understood.

Cockroach-inspired robots can squeeze through tiny gaps.

UC Berkeley's CRAM robot mimics how roaches compress their bodies to fit through cracks half their height.

Snake robots can climb trees and navigate rubble.

Inspired by how snakes move, these robots are used in search and rescue to reach places humans and wheeled robots can't.

Scientists created a robot jellyfish powered by seawater.

Virginia Tech's 'Robojelly' uses hydrogen and oxygen from seawater to power artificial muscles, theoretically allowing indefinite operation without batteries.

A robot spy infiltrated a penguin colony.

Researchers disguised a camera robot as a penguin chick. The real penguins accepted it and even tried to communicate with it.

A robot beat the world champion at Go in 2016.

DeepMind's AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol 4-1. Go was considered too complex for computers due to its 10^170 possible positions.

AI robots can now learn tasks by watching YouTube videos.

Researchers have trained robots to cook, assemble furniture, and perform other tasks just by watching how-to videos.

Robots can now understand natural language commands.

Instead of programming every movement, you can tell modern robots 'pick up the red cup' and they'll figure it out.

A robot taught itself to walk in just 5 minutes.

Using reinforcement learning, some robots can discover how to walk without any pre-programmed movement patterns.

GPT-4 can control robots through natural conversation.

Large language models are being integrated with robots, allowing humans to give complex instructions in plain English.

By 2035, there may be 1.4 million humanoid robots in the workforce.

Goldman Sachs projects the humanoid robot market will reach $38 billion by 2035, up from nearly zero today.

Self-replicating robots are being developed.

Researchers have created robots that can build copies of themselves from basic components. Yes, that's slightly terrifying.

Robots may soon have 'skin' that can feel touch.

Electronic skin with thousands of sensors could let robots feel temperature, pressure, and texture like humans do.

Flying robot taxis are launching in select cities.

Companies like Joby, Archer, and others are beginning commercial air taxi operations in cities like Dubai and Los Angeles, with broader rollout expected through 2026-2027.

Tesla aims to produce millions of humanoid robots.

Elon Musk has said Tesla's Optimus robot could eventually outnumber humans, with production in the millions.