what do you picture in your mind when
you think of robots do you think of a
walking talking piece of metal like this
a lot of people do because some robots
really do look sort of like people but
despite what you see in the movies most
real-life robots don't look like us they
can look like animals like squeaks here
or like things you've never even seen
before
robots come in all different shapes and
sizes because they all have different
jobs to do and if you're wondering what
robots really are and what they can do
you're not alone seven-year-old Rowan
recently emailed us to ask what gives a
robot and how do robots work squeak says
great question Rowan a robot is a
machine that's designed by people to do
a specific job and the scientists who
design and build robots are called robot
assists most robots do jobs that people
can't do or don't want to do if a job is
kind of boring like if it involves doing
the same thing over and over or if a job
is very dangerous and it means going
places where people could get hurt then
chances are a robot has been built to do
it instead
the very first robot was built over 50
years ago
to help build cars in a factory today
car factories still depend on robots a
lot like that one to do all kinds of
jobs from putting the pieces of a car
together to spraying them with paint
when they're finished and robots work in
lots of other kinds of factory jobs -
like building computers and even putting
candies in their wrappers robots are
good at jobs like these because unlike
humans they're less likely to make
mistakes when they're working and they
don't go on vacations or even take lunch
breaks plus they never get bored they
can keep going and going and going
this makes nighttime jobs the perfect
fit for BOTS they can do things like
control city train after dark while we
get our sleep robots can also work in
places that humans would have a tough
time adjusting to or where we could
never go there are robots that work in
really hot places like volcanoes and
really cold places like deep underwater
in the ocean and even in really smelly
places like zoo
plan they're even robots doing jobs for
us on other planets
yep that means there are robots in space
there are two robots on wheels named
opportunity and curiosity that are
cruising around on Mars right now
scientists call them Rovers and they
might look like cars or go-karts but
they're considered robots too because
they get instructions from scientists
here on earth to do all kinds of
important work like studying the plants
air digging up soil and even drilling
into rocks to see what they're made of
scientists hope that the discoveries
that are made by opportunity and
curiosity will help us figure out how we
can one day send humans to Mars another
robot called r2 was sent to the
International Space Station making it
the first human-like robot in space even
though they're not very common there are
other robots like r2 that look and act
sort of like people one of them called
ASIMO has been built to do some amazing
lifelike things although he hasn't been
to space yet ASIMO can walk run climb
stairs and even dance robots like
awesomo show us just how far robots this
have come since they built the very
first robot over 50 years ago it'll
probably be a long time before a robot
can do your homework with you or fly you
to school every morning but they're
already showing up in a lot of homes
doing ordinary chores like mowing the
lawn or vacuuming the house all we have
to do is plug them in or push the start
button so who knows what super cool
robots there will be in the next 50
years I can't wait to find out thanks to
Rowan for asking such a fun question and
thanks to you for learning about robots
with squeaks and me and remember if you
have a question about anything you'd
like to learn more about just let us
know by getting help from a parent and
leaving a comment below or emailing us
at kids at the scishow comm see you next
time