Friday, 18 January 2019

Another interview with Guardian Newspaper

https://guardian.ng/features/naerls-advocates-ict-to-enhance-extension-service-delivery/

As a way of reducing cost of extension service delivery across the country, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) must be widely adopted by all the Agricultural Development Projects (ADPs) and reduce physical visit to farmers.
Executive Director, National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS), Prof. Mohammed Khalid Othman, who disclosed this in an exclusive interview with The Guardian said there must be a change of strategy in extension delivery services.
“On this aspect, NAERLS is leading in the use of ICT to deliver extension services directly to farmers. We have completed National Farmers Helpline Center, a telephone based platform for reaching out to farmers individually and collectively.”

“While it is desirable to have adequate and quality manpower for effective extension service delivery, the number of personnel required per number of farmers 10 years ago is higher than what is required today because of possible use of e-Extension model.
“Capacity development through training and retraining of farmers, processors, marketers and up-takers is a critical area that state and Federal Government should focus and properly fund. This way, agricultural productivity will be enhanced without necessarily bridging the gap to achieve the ratio of one EA to 1000 farmers.”
Othman said it is very difficult to give exact number of farmers and EAs in the country, saying from the result of 2018 Agricultural Performance Survey (APS) conducted by NAERLS, presented by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh during the World Food Day celebration on October 16, 2018, many states did not provide data on their farmers and extension agents.
“However, among the states that provided information on farm families in 2018, Kano State recorded the highest number of farm families, with 1,620,000 followed by Bauchi (987,925), Katsina (965,536), Niger reported 816,575 farm families, and Akwa-Ibom State had 685,095 farm families, while Bayelsa had the least number of farm families with 95,465.
“In the same 2018 APS report, Kano State recorded the highest number of Village Extension Agents (VEA) of 1,118; Plateau State recorded 467 VEAs; Ebonyi State recorded 103 VEAs, while Benue and Lagos States recorded 27 and six VEAs respectively. The number of VEAs is grossly inadequate to deliver extension delivery service to farmers. Most of the states have not conducted agricultural resources survey in the last 20 years.”

Drone Technology: Invention and AdvancesDrone Technology: Invention and Advances

Drone Technology: Invention and Advances

This article is a corollary to my article two weeks ago, titled “Robot Technology: Invention and Advances”. The two articles have similarities and amazing display of human effort in inventing a technology that mimics human intelligence in functions. While robots are made to undertake repetitive functions in the industry, assist medical operation, therapy, work in an environment too dirty or dull to be suitable for human beings, drone is mostly made to undertake jobs too dangerous or risky for human being. In fact, drone is one of the classifications of robotic technology.

Drone is technically referred to an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), which includes autonomous drones and remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs). Drone is capable of controlled, sustained level flight and is powered by a jet, reciprocating, or electric engine. Drone differs from a cruise missile because it is is intended to be recovered after its mission, while a cruise missile impacts its target, damage both the target and itself. A military drone may carry and fire munitions on board, while a cruise missile is simply ammunition for a target.

Historically, the first recorded use of drone for war fighting occurred in 1849 when Austria attacked Venice using unmanned balloons stuffed with explosives. Austrian forces besieged Venice with about 200 incendiary floating balloons, each carrying 10 kg bomb that was to be dropped from the balloon with a time-controlled fuse over the besieged city. The balloons were launched mainly from land, however some were also launched from the Austrian ship SMS Vulcano. The Austrians used smaller pilot balloons to determine the correct fuse settings. However, these balloons do not meet the current definition of drones, which according to The Oxford English Dictionary is “a remote-less controlled piloted aircraft or missile”.

Another attempt of using drone was during the World War in 1916 when US Army developed the first pilotless aircraft. The U.S. Army built the Kettering Bug, intended to be used as “aerial torpedoes” using gyroscopic controls. Gyroscope is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. The first Kettering Bug flew in 1918, but the war ended before it could be used and thus could not be fully developed and tested as drone.

After the World War I, there were several attempts to develop drone by different people. The first successful, large-scale production, purpose-built drone was the product of Reginald Denny. He was World War I veteran who served with the British Royal Flying Corps during the war. After the war in 1919, Denny migrated to the United States and joint Hollywood as an actor. He made a name for himself as an actor, and between acting jobs, he pursued his interest in radio control model aircraft in the 1930s. He and his business partners formed "Reginald Denny Industries" and opened a model plane shop in 1934 on Hollywood Boulevard known as "Reginald Denny Hobby Shops".

The shop evolved into the "Radioplane Company". Denny believed that low-cost RC aircraft would be very useful for training anti-aircraft gunners, and in 1935 he demonstrated a prototype target drone, the RP-1, to the US Army. Denny then bought a design from Walter Righter in 1938 and began marketing it to hobbyists as the "Dennymite", and demonstrated it to the Army as the RP-2. He modified it as the RP-3 and RP-4 in 1939. In 1940, Denny and his partners won an Army contract for their radio controlled RP-4, which became the Radioplane OQ-2. They manufactured nearly fifteen thousand drones for the army during World War II

Motivation to expedite action on the perfection of drone technology appeared during the Vietnam War of the late 1950s. Then, the only spy plane available to the US was the “U-2” at the time when the spy satellite technology was yet to be developed. Then, there was also serious concern on consequences, if the pilot of the U-2, spy plane is captured. This fear came to pass when U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the USSR territory during operation. This made the work on an unmanned drone intensified because of its capability to penetrate deeply into enemy territory, and return with precise military intelligence. Within three months after the shot of the U-2, the highly classified drone (called RPV back then) program was born, under the code name of Red Wagon. This drone was quite handy during the war as it could cross into a new frontier of military affairs: an area of entirely risk-free, remote and even potentially automated striking the enemy while completely detached from human behavioral cues. How is the drone launched?

During the war, targeted drones are sometimes launched from aircraft; or off a rail using solid-fuel rocket assisted takeoff (RATO) boosters; or hydraulic, electromagnetic, or pneumatic catapult. An elastic bungee catapult can launch very small target drones.

The most successful militarily drone known in the last thirty years is General Atomics MQ-1 Predator. It is an American remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) built by General Atomics that was used primarily by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It was originally conceived in the 1990s for aerial reconnaissance, capture data and transmit feedback. It is equipped with cameras and other sensors. Predator was later modified and upgraded to carry and fire two AGM-114 Hellfire missiles or other munitions. The aircraft entered service in 1995, and saw combat in the war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the NATO intervention in Bosnia, Serbia, the Iraq War, Yemen, the 2011 Libyan civil war, the 2014 intervention in Syria, and Somalia.

In the seven decades, drones have undergone a rapid transformation in consumer electronics with advances in technology. Hitherto, these unmanned aircrafts were originally built for military purposes, especially, as weapons in the form of aerial missiles guided by remote controls through radio waves. Today, drones are widely used in series of applications for the civilian utility in the form of small quadcopters and octocopters. They are used today for wide range of functions such as monitoring climate change and delivering goods to carry out search operations after natural disasters and for filming and photography.

Militarily, UAV is becoming an increasingly important air power component for more than 80 countries today. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which include a UAV, a ground-based controller, and a system of communications between the two. Modern military drones typically serve one of two purposes. The first is combat surveillance, in which a human pilot uses radio control to fly a drone to different waypoints to scan and mark enemy positions. The second is tactical reconnaissance, in which a mini drone (not much larger than the commercial drones we write about here in most cases) flies on autopilot to predesignated targets to take pictures before returning to a home base.

The flight of UAVs may operate with various degrees of autonomy: either under remote control by a human operator or autonomously by onboard computers. While UAVs originated mostly in military applications for missions too "dull, dirty or dangerous", their use has rapidly expanded to cover commercial, scientific, recreational, agricultural, and other applications. Some of the applications include environmental policing, peacekeeping and surveillance. Others are product deliveries, aerial photography, agriculture, boarder surveillance, and drone racing. Today, drones or UAVs are immeasurably used for civilian purposes compared to military usages. In 2015, an estimated millions of UAVs were sold for non-military uses for commercial applications of autonomous utilities. Soon autonomous car and home robots surfaced for utilities and recreations. What are the current advances of drone technology?

One of the advances in drone technology was introduction of DJI’s Phantom 4 in 2016 by one of the best drone makers on the marketplace: DJI’s Phantoms. They are the most celebrated drone makers. DJI’s Phantom 4 was one of the most popular drones on the planet, packed with high-end features and functionality. DJIs always have the latest models in their focus and they are always at the top of their class. Again, DJIs also release new models at a steady rate, packing even better features into a nearly identical form factor. DJI’s Phantom 4 drone was a smart computer vision and machine learning technology. This drone had the ability to avoid obstacles and intelligently track and photograph people, animals, or objects — rather than being limited to following a GPS signal. The resulting UAV was a major milestone for drone photography and consumer drones in globally.

Generally, the uses of drones or UAVs have multiplied in the last two decades. American armed forces alone were reported to acquire a fleet of 11,000 drones in 2017 compared to less than 100 in 2001. Now that the technology’s growing exponentially, it is hard to predict the different functions the future drones will be doing. Your conjecture is as good as mine.

Tuesday, 1 January 2019

Extension agents grossly inadequate to deliver services to farmers

https://guardian.ng/saturday-magazine/cover/extension-agents-grossly-inadequate-to-deliver-services-to-farmers

Extension agents grossly inadequate to deliver services to farmers

By Gbenga Akinfenwa

30 December 2018 | 4:19 am

Prof MK Othman, Executive Director of NAERLS
Executive Director, National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS), Professor Mohammed Khalid Othman, told
GBENGA AKINFENWA the challenges facing agricultural extension service delivery, what the government needs to do to bridge the farm families’ ratio gap, and the importance of adopting ICT by all Agricultural Development Projects (ADPs) in order to reduce physical visit to farmers and cost of extension service.
It’s Time To Use Technology To Improve Productivity, Yield, Higher Profit Margin
Agricultural extension services in the country are near moribund, just how did we get here?
In the early 1970s, Agricultural Development Project (ADP) was introduced in the country, with the support of the World Bank. As a platform for effective extension of delivery services, using the Training and Visit (T&V) model, the ADP project recorded resounding success as extension personnel were recruited, trained and retrained with the bank’s support.
The success of the ADP system made all state governments, as well as, the Federal Government to adopt it all over the country. Today, there are 37 ADPs in the 36 states and Abuja.
After the World Bank’s support (counterpart funding) elapsed in the late 1980s, state governments became the major source of funding for the ADPs. Over the years many staff left the services of the ADPs as a result of retirement, resignation and deaths. Even though the state governments were also recruiting new staff, the ADP system with time became moribund, and with very serious consequences for productivity, and income to smallholder farmers, who constitute the over 80 per cent of the farming population.

Agricultural resource survey such as village listing, agricultural diagnostic survey, livestock census, farm families’ census, cultivated land areas, arable areas, and others are very important to the nation, but state governments over the years have failed to carry out such surveys.
With this number, the average farm families’ ratio in the country stands at 1:5,000, against FAO’s recommended 1:800. What is the problem?
The number of extension agent to farm families is a measure of ADPs’ ability to effectively reach out to all farm families. In Nigeria, the effort is to achieve a ratio of one extension agent to 1,000 farmers. As you are aware, EAs/farmers’ ratio is dependent on a number of extension agents that are working in states.
From the same 2018 APS report, the record showed that the desire to achieve a ratio of one EA to 1,000 farmers is very far from being a reality, as reports from all the states indicated very high EAs/farmers ratio.
Rivers State recorded the highest ratio of one EA to 18, 429 farmers, while Ondo State recorded the lowest ratio of one EA to 6, 600 farmers.
No doubt, funding appears to be one of the major challenges plaguing extension service delivery, but are there policies in place that mandate states to adequately fund the ADPs?
To the best of my knowledge, no state in the country has a policy or law that compels the state government to fund ADPs. Some years back, Bauchi State government was using part of local councils’ statutory allocation to fund extension activities of the state ADP, which I think is no longer happening. There is a strong desire by concerned Nigerians that funding of extension activities should be deducted from states/LGAs statutory monthly allocation, in order to revamp agricultural activities nationwide.
This is possible if states and the Federal Government discuss the issue on the platform of the National Council of States of which all state governors are members. Once, they agree, agriculture will get a boost and Nigeria can achieve food security sooner than later.
However, the political will of all leaders in this country is needed to realise this feat.
Extension service delivery system played a role in the country’s massive food production in the past. Can we return to this path?
There are many ways Nigeria can return to the glorious path of revamping agriculture. First, all states and local councils must invest in agriculture. The Federal Government’s investment is not enough and the farmers belong to LGAs and states. We have 774 departments of agriculture in the 774 council areas, 36 ministries of agriculture, as well as, 37 ADPs. So, there must be massive investment in these organisations, proper planning, monitoring and evaluation. Nigeria’s investment in agriculture is less than three per cent of the states’ and Federal Government’s budgets.
Secondly, the private sector must be encouraged to participate in investment in agriculture. There must be a change of strategy in extension delivery services. In this regard, NAERLS is leading in the use of ICT to deliver extension services directly to farmers.
We have completed the National Farmers Helpline Centre, a telephone-based platform for reaching out to farmers individually and collectively. Farmers can reach us through our centre’s number, which is +2347034863961 from 8:00am to 4:00pm from Monday to Friday.
We are currently test-running the centre with our adopted villages across the nation, but we also welcome questions from farmers and interested persons. The use of ICT must be adopted by all ADPs in order to reduce physical visit to farmers and thus, reduce cost of extension service.
Thirdly, we must reorient farmers to take farming as a business, which requires careful planning and investment. Farmers have to acquire knowledge to use modern technologies and practices to improve their productivity, increase yield per area, higher income and higher profit margin. Farmers have to be taught to produce according to international standards so that the prices of their produce can attract international prices. This will attract more people into agriculture and thus create wealth massively for the nation, as well as, create employment opportunities.
How can the federal and state governments effectively address the extension agents’ deficit?
While it is desirable to have adequate and quality manpower for effective extension service delivery, the number of personnel required per number of farmers 10 years ago is higher than what is required today because of possible use of an e-Extension model.
We don’t need a high number of extension personnel, but highly qualitative personnel with necessary infrastructure (Internet services, communication gadgets, social media platforms, etc) and the right motivation to be very effective.
Capacity development through training and retraining of farmers, processors, marketers and up-takers is a critical area that state and the Federal Government should focus and properly fund. This way, agricultural productivity will be enhanced without necessarily bridging the gap to achieve the ratio of one EA to 1, 000 farmers.
Over 100, 000 N-Power graduates are to be engaged in rural agriculture extension service, do you think this can make any impact?
I am happy to tell you that NAERLS trained these 100, 000 N-Power (agro volunteers) across the nation. NAERLS is also preparing to train the newly recruited volunteers this year. In 2017, NAERLS provided the extension manuals currently being used by the volunteers. The Federal Government intervention in recruiting the 100, 000 volunteers is a right step in the right direction.
After the training, the volunteers were handed over to the states’ ADPs that assigned them to their respective LGAs. Each volunteer is to spend two years under the Federal Government’s payment. The idea is to make the programme attractive to state governments so that they can retain the volunteers after a two-year volunteering service. Some of the volunteers can become private extension service providers, or engage in farming activities and become employers of labour. It is a laudable programme.
In what areas can the private sector help to reinforce what government is doing?
When we talk of the private sector, it should be clear that farmers are individually and collectively part of the private sector. NAERLS is already working with over 50, 000 farmers in groups of 25-30 members, and we are making them to share the cost of extension services, such as the establishment of demonstration plots, establishment of agricultural research outreach centres and many other things that help to improve farmers’ productivity.
They are voluntarily bearing these costs because of the immense benefits from the services after realising our predicament regarding funding limitation. As of today, we receive applications from various groups requesting NAERLS to join them as one of their adopted villages. In fact, the requests are overstretching our manpower/capacity, but we cannot turn down such requests. We need to face the reality that if farmers can buy fertiliser as input for their production, then, they can as well partly bear the cost of acquiring necessary information and capacity development to enhance their productivity.
Farming is a business; the rule of a good business is that one must invest resources (finance, skills, time, etc) and the income generated from the business should pay for the investment and bring out a large profit margin.
Similarly, the organised private sector can play the role of extension service providers for commodities that they are up-taking for industrial use or export. They can help farmers with improved inputs, production practices and purchase the produce with premium price.
However, government has to come out with a clear regulation to protect farmers, the nation and to encourage private investments in agriculture, as well as, provide rural infrastructure and security.

Robot Technology: Invention and Advances II

Robot Technology: Invention and Advances II

In the first part of this article, published last week, exponential advancement of robotic science, driven by ICT is leading the World to unimaginable level where robots take over laborious actions – too drudgery, dangerous, risky or costly to humanity. Some of the emerging trends in robotic technology are providing insight to the direction in which robotic development is heading in a near future. The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) expo in Las Vegas in January 2018 showcased robotics breakthroughs, which raised the public expectations on the type of robots likely to be in the market, pretty soon. Among the robots displayed were Domestic cleaning robots, Companion robots, Self-driving cars and Artificial-Intelligence-powered health and wellbeing technology. What are these advances in robot technology? Can robot replace human being in companionship?

Before going through some of the advances in robot technology, it must be pointed out that robotic services are sometimes very necessary as there are many jobs, which are better left for robots to accomplish. Some jobs are boring, such as domestic cleaning, or dangerous, such as exploring in a dangerous environment such as volcano or space. Other jobs are physically inaccessible, such as exploring another planet, cleaning the inside of a long pipe, or performing laparoscopic surgery and the likes. This necessitated the continuous advancement in robotic sciences.

One of the most amazing recent advances in Robot technology is the creation of a robot called "Sophia," developed by Hanson Robotics (HR). The robot has a pale-skinned face and human-like appearance with features resembling a complete human being, highly mobile with expressive capability and ability to display a range of emotions like ordinary human being. Sophia was recently upgraded to a step closer to human status, when it was granted a citizenship to Saudi Arabia at the tech summit Future Investment Initiative. According to the BBC News “Sophia was such a hit she was immediately given Saudi citizenship in front of hundreds of delegates at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh on 25 October 2017”. "I am very honored and proud for this unique distinction," Sophia said during her onstage appearance, which was shared on YouTube by Arab News. "This is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with a citizenship," the robot said. The makers of Sophia continued to improve the human-like robot and made her to respond to varieties of questions posed by people. This was attested during a festival of the future called ‘Brain Bar’ in Budapest, Hungary in June 2018. While Sophia could hardly be mistaken for a real human, her facial mannerisms and speech patterns are exceptionally human-like. She laughed, smiled, and even cracked a joke or two. The robot was quoted in a YouTube saying, "just a few months ago, I couldn't distinguish a human's face from a dog's face, but now I can. It has already saved me from a few embarrassing situations."

Livescience media (www.livescience.com/63023-sophia-robot-citizen) reported Sophia ability to discuss a variety of subjects and didn't shy away from difficult questions at the Brain Bar festival. When asked about an imagined situation in which she had to choose between saving the life of an adult and that of a child, she said, "I'm not ready to respond to that hypothetical question." However, Sophia did add that "I'm learning first to be a good social robot" and that she would "of course" sacrifice herself to save a human's life. While completely robotic, Sophia also addressed questions about gender and robots. When asked if she believed that robots could have gender, she answered, "I think so. After all, I am a social robot, and gender is mostly a social construction." Another question on her gender being a woman was posed. Sophia responded, "I'm a robot, so technically I have no gender, but identify as feminine and I don't mind being perceived as a woman." When you look at Sophia and hear her talk about herself and her place in the world, it makes people know the level of consciousness of Sophia as a creature mimicking human being. Sophia, responded that she is "not fully self-aware yet. I am still just a system of rules and behaviors. I am not generative, creative or operating on a fully cognitive scale like you." Sophia is certainly an amazing mystery of technological advancement in this century. Bravo to the makers of Sophia!

Sophia is in the class of Android, humanoid robots, which resemble the shape or form of a human. There are several classifications of robots depending on the intended functions and utilizations. However, one of the handiest robots is telerobot or Tele-operated robot. Telerobot is a device remotely operated from a distance by a human operator rather than following a predetermined sequence of movements, but which has semi-autonomous behaviour. This robot is used when a human cannot be present on site to perform a job because of apparent danger, too far away, or inaccessible. The robot may be in another room or another country, or may be on a very different scale to the operator. For instance, a laparoscopic surgery robot allows the surgeon to work inside a human patient on a relatively small scale compared to open surgery, significantly shortening recovery time. The robot can also be used to avoid exposing workers to the hazardous and tight spaces such as in duct cleaning. When disabling a bomb, the operator sends a small robot to disable it. An example, U.S. Marine Corps technician prepared to use a telerobot to detonate a buried improvised explosive device near Camp Fallujah, Iraq. According to Wikipedia, hundreds of robots such as iRobot's Packbot and the Foster-Miller TALON were used in Iraq and Afghanistan by the U.S. military to defuse roadside bombs or improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in an activity known as explosive ordnance disposal. Another example of telerobot is the Teleoperated robot aircraft, like the Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, are increasingly being used by the military. These pilotless drones can search terrain and fire on targets.

Mining robot is yet another handiest robot. Mining robots are designed to solve a number of problems currently facing the mining industry. These include skills shortages, improving productivity from declining ore grades, and achieving environmental targets. As a result of the hazardous nature of mining, especially underground mining, the prevalence of autonomous, semi-autonomous, and tele-operated robots have greatly increased in recent times. A number of vehicle manufacturers provide autonomous trains, trucks and loaders, which load material, transport it on the mine site to its destination, and unload without requiring human intervention. According News report, one of the world's largest mining corporations, Rio Tinto, has recently expanded its autonomous truck fleet to the world's largest, consisting of 150 autonomous Komatsu trucks, operating in Western Australia.

Autonomous robots are also engaged as drilling, longwall and rock-breaking machines. An example is the Atlas Copco Rig Control System, which can autonomously execute a drilling plan on a drilling rig, moving the rig into position using GPS, set up the drill rig and drill down to specified desired depths. These robots have no doubt greatly enhanced the safety and efficiency of mining operations.

Robot technology has certainly advanced beyond the imagination of the ordinary mind making some of us to be uncomfortable as robots may replace labour in some industries. This is likely to cause technological unemployment. Consequently, some studies have already shown that technological unemployment is increasing worldwide. Oxford Professors Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne have estimated that 47 percent of U.S. jobs are at risk of automation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_unemployment). A typical example of human replacement by robots is the case of Taiwanese technology company Foxconn, which announced a three-year plan to replace workers with more robots from ten thousand robots to a targeted increase of a million robots over a three-year period.

While the robot technology is advancing in the developed countries, Africa is far left behind for obvious reasons; low government investment in research and technological development, poor infrastructure and lack of deliberate policy to encourage and support private investment in technological development. The result of this backwardness is shown in the population of robots in the World. Africa can account for 1% of the robots in the World while Asia accounts for 50%, Europe and North America account for 32% and 17%, respectively. Among the 50% in Asia, Japan alone accounts for the 80% leaving 20% for the rest of Asian countries making Japan the country with the highest number of robots in the World. What will be the status of Robots in the next 50-100 years? Time will tell.

Robot Technology: Invention and Advances

Robot Technology: Invention and Advances

Robot is a mechanical device capable of moving independently such as walking, rolling on wheels and similar actions performed by a living creature. Robot is built to resemble a human being or animal in appearance and behavior, thus, Robots may be constructed to take on human form but most robots are machines designed to perform a task regardless on how they appear. Generally, a robot is a computer-programmed machine developed to carry out a complex series of actions automatically. An external control device can guide robot or the control may be embedded within the body of the robot.

Today, there are different classifications of Robots. Robots can be autonomous or semi-autonomous; they can be humanoids or non-humanoids. The most popular is a humanoid robot. A humanoid robot is a robot with its body shape built to resemble the human body. The design may be for functional purposes, such as interacting with human tools and environments, for experimental purposes, such as the study of locomotion, or for other purposes. A typical example of humanoid robot is Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility (ASIMO) developed by Honda in the year, 2000. Another example is "TOSY Ping Pong Playing Robot" called TOPIO, which was designed to play table tennis against a human being. It was developed by TOSY, a robotics firm in Vietnam in 2005. It was publicly demonstrated at the Tokyo International Robot Exhibition (IREX) on November 28, 2007. Other classifications are the industrial robots, medical operating robots, patient assist robots, dog therapy robots, collectively programmed swarm robots, UAV drones such as General Atomics MQ-1 Predator, and even microscopic nano robots. By mimicking a lifelike appearance or automating movements, a robot may convey a sense of intelligence or thought of its own. Autonomous things are expected to proliferate in the coming decades with home robotics and the autonomous car as some may be driven by robots drivers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot )

Ostensibly, robot technology deals with the design, construction, operation, and application of robots to undertake functions ordinarily performs by human being. Additionally, the technology covers computer systems for robots control, sensory feedback, and information processing as robots perform their assigned tasks. Thus, robot technology may also deal with automated machines that can take the place of humans in dangerous environments or manufacturing processes, or resemble humans in appearance, behavior, or cognition. In the last two decades, Robots have replaced humans in performing repetitive and dangerous tasks, which humans prefer not to do, or are unable to do because of size limitations, or which take place in extreme hostile environments to human beings such as outer space or the bottom of the sea.

Efforts in developing robot technology are largely focused on the production of commercial and industrial robots. Obviously the industrial sector has relatively high demands of robotic services as it grows proportionally with the population growth. Thus, the commercial and industrial robots are now in widespread use to perform jobs more cheaply or with greater accuracy, reliability and efficiency than humans. They are also employed for jobs, which are too dirty, dangerous or dull to be suitable for humans. Robots are widely used in manufacturing, assembly and packing, transport, earth and space exploration, surgery, weaponry, laboratory research, and mass production of consumer and industrial goods. Now, who invented robot technology?

According to Wikipedia, the term 'robot' originates as one of the Czech words “robota” in the Slavic language, which means forced laborer, a word used to refer to those peasants compelled to render compulsory service under the feudal system. The feudal robota class depicts the imagination of a new class of manufactured, artificial workers who toil daily for a peanut.

George Devol, an American was the first inventor of industrial robot. Devol was born in the year, 1912 at Louisville, Kentucky, USA to the family of George Charles Devol, Jr. During his basic education at Riordan Prep, he gained experience through operation of the school’s electric light plant but didn’t go to an engineering school after the college and ended up establishing a private company. Devol died on August 11, 2011, at the age of 99 years, he was reputed to be a highly prolific inventor and entrepreneur. His immense contribution led to the development of the first industrial robot, called Unimate, a precursor of the machines that now automate assembly lines all over the world. However, the industrial robot was only one of his numerous contributions as he was reported to acquire over 40 patents during his lifetime. Devol was one of the few personalities who spent their entire lifespan transforming ideas from mere conception to actual reality. Some of his inventions were radar systems, counter-radar devices and microwave test equipment, microwave oven product, the popular Speedy Weeny, which automatically cooked and dispensed hotdogs. There were several others.

On perfecting robot technology, Devol found an inspiring partner by the name of Joseph Engelberger, an executive with engineering degrees from Columbia University. Engelberger had a deep-hearted passion for science fiction similar to Devol. They worked as a team to perfect their device from “programmed article transfer” to “manipulator” to “robot.” Devol and Engelberger worked hard to produce the first Unimate, a product of their new Unimation Corp., Their product was hydraulically powered with digital control, a magnetic drum memory, and discrete solid-state control components. In 1961 the first Unimate was installed at a GM plant in Trenton, New Jersey, to assist a hot die-casting machine. Over the next few years, some modifications were carried out to perfect the product, their company, Unimation Corp was able to develop robots for welding and other applications in manufacturing industries across America. Devol and Engelberger obtained a Patent Number 2,988,237 for their Unimate issued in 1961. This sow the seed that spawned the robot industry across the globe (https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics). Thus, Devol's patent for the first digitally operated programmable robotic arm in the 1960s represented the foundation of the modern robotics industry.

In the last five decades, from Unimation to the present – day robot, the technology has undergone series of improvements as a result of interest generated among the scientists. Consequently, various techniques have emerged in developing the science of robotics and robots. One method is evolutionary robotics, in which a number of differing robots are submitted to tests. Robot with best performance is used as a model to create a subsequent "generation" of robots. Another method is developmental robotics, which tracks changes and development within a single robot in the areas of problem-solving and other functions. Another new type of robot is just recently introduced, which acts both as smartphone and robot, this variety of robots are named “RoboHon”.

As robots become more advanced, higher institutions of learning were not left out as they immensely contribute their efforts in advancing the robot technology. In this regard, a computer-aided operating system was designed mainly for the development of robots. Among these advances is Robot Operating System (ROS), an open-source set of programs, which were partly developed at Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Technical University of Munich, Germany, among others. ROS provides ways to program a robot's navigation and limbs regardless of the specific hardware involved. It also provides high-level commands for items like image recognition and even opening doors. When ROS boots up on a robot's computer, it would obtain data on attributes such as the length and movement of robots' limbs. It would relay this data to higher-level algorithms. Microsoft is also developing a "Windows for robots" system with its Robotics Developer Studio, which has been available since 2007.

No doubt, as technology is generally and exponentially advancing, driven by ICT to reach zenith level, robot technology is similarly advancing. Some of the emerging trends in robotic science are providing insight to the direction in which robotics development is heading in a near future. The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) expo in Las Vegas in early this year (January 2018) showcased robotics breakthroughs, which raised the public expectations on the type of robots likely to be in the market, pretty soon. Among the robots displayed were Domestic cleaning robots, Companion robots, Self-driving cars and Artificial-Intelligence-powered health and wellbeing technology. What are these advances in robot technology? Can robot replace human being in companionship? (To be continued next week)