• Question: Why do people make robots?

    Asked by mizzlily to Dilwar, Lou, Rachel, Simon, Susan on 16 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Susan Skelton

      Susan Skelton answered on 16 Nov 2013:

      Hi mizzlily,
      People make robots because they’re really useful! Robots are machines that can be used to do jobs.

      Robots are really useful in space! Robotic spacecraft can visit other worlds and robotic airplanes can fly without a pilot aboard. So we can use robots to explore areas of space that are just too far for an astronaut to visit and do jobs that would be too dangerous for an astronaut to do, like fixing a problem on the outside of a space rocket.

      If an astronaut was seriously hurt, a doctor based on Earth could operate on the astronaut using a robotic arm. This technology could also be useful on Earth: doctors could help people in far away places where there are no doctors.

      Robots can also be really useful much closer to home. Lots of robots are specially designed to help old people with their lives. Some robots can prepare meals, others give out medicine, and there are even seeing robots to help blind people.

    • Photo: Simon Langley-Evans

      Simon Langley-Evans answered on 16 Nov 2013:

      Robots are perfect to do jobs where it would be too difficult or dangerous for humans to work. Robots do a lot of work under the sea for example, working on oil pipelines, or could operate machinery inside a nuclear reactor.

      Robots are also useful for repeating the same job over and over again, completing the task in exactly the same way. This makes them useful in factories working on assembly lines to build cars and other machinery.

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