Primer (Click to read) 
Although robotics is not new, the underlying technology and its capabilities have significantly evolved over the years.
- The concept of 'Robot' was first introduced almost a century ago, and it has since been a subject of public discussion and fascination.
- In the 1950s[1], businesses had already begun to adopt and explore basic robotic applications.
- In the subsequent decades, academic[2] and corporate research institutions[3] across the world continued to invest and innovate on the design, construction, operation and use of robots.
- Since the 2000s[4], the advancements in the field of autonomous vehicles, robotic hardware, sensing technologies and artificial intelligence has expanded the scope and scale of robotic capabilities. And, it has boosted the range of commercially available robotic applications
- As of early 2020, businesses across a broad range of verticals have deployed or are actively exploring the use of robotics.
Robotic applications rely on a complex array of software and hardware components to function efficiently.
- Robot is a popular word yet defining ‘robotics’ or ‘robots’ is tricky, as the terms are used to refer to a variety of technologies. Also, the expectation and scope of robotics seems to evolve with the advancements in technology and capabilities.
- Robotics refers to the study and development of programmable machines or systems (i.e. robots) that have a physical presence. In addition, robots have the capabilities to sense the environment, and to assimilate and evaluate the sensory data, and also the ability to perform tasks autonomously or semi-autonomously[5].
- Software bots or software robotics that refer to AI-powered software programs that target to automate virtual or manual tasks are not included in the scope of Robotics as these bots don’t exist in the physical world[6]. Remote-controlled machines (e.g., toy drones) are also not classified as robots as they are not geared to perform tasks autonomously or semi-autonomously.
