Rhode Island PBS
Robots in the Workplace

What You Will Learn

 

Goals

These are some of the big ideas you will learn:

  • Robots are a form of technology that can serve a variety of needs.

  • Robots have the potential to automate a large number of jobs in the future.

Strategies 

You will be using multiple strategies to complete this lesson, including:

  • Making inferences

  • Determining important information

  • Establishing cause and effect

  • Comparing and contrasting

robotic arm

In the early 1950s George C. Devol, an American inventor and engineer created the “Unimate”. This robot was designed to move hot pieces of metal in a factory, a job that would be dangerous for humans.

A somewhat rusty industrial robotic arm standing still.

Vocabulary

Review and click or tap on the follwing words to read the definition now or when you see them later on in the lesson. You may view the definitions in the "GLOSSARY" menu.

Artificial Intelligence - The ability of a machine or computer-controlled system to think in a manner similar to humans.

Automation - The method of making a machine, a process, or a system work without being directly controlled by a person.

Autonomous - The ability to perform tasks without direct human control.

Ethics - A  sense of what is right and wrong.

Robot - A machine that can be programmed to perform tasks independently.