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"[Science fiction is ] That branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance upon human beings."
- Isaac Asimov
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| Repair Robots | ||
| Autonomous robots that carry out maintenance functions on a space ship. |
"Doc" was a repair robot:
As far as I know, this is the first use of "repair robot".
Doc rolled in. He was an adaptation of the same model as Sinner and Adder, with digits specialized for repairing machinery, including other robots. His cylindrical body housed a “memory” file of repair instructions recorded on tape.
| “Didn’t I ask you to do something about Liar?” [William "Ed" Moran, editor of Stupendous Stories] demanded when the repair robot rolled in. “You were supposed to find a way weeks ago to stop his editing stories as he works.” Doc hesitated a moment in acute embarrassment. “To tell the truth,” he said, “I fear to tamper with as complex a mechanism as Liar. I am only a Model 255-C.” "Oh, get out!" growled Ed, discouraged. |
| From The Well-Oiled Machine,
by H.B. Fyfe. Published by Fantasy Science Fiction in 1950 Additional resources -
|
In Stanislaw Lem's 1954 novel The Invincible, a heavy cruiser powered by photon drive, came within range of a star system worthy of exploration, the crew was brought out of hibernation and the ship prepared for their use.
Interesting early use of this concept; we all remember the helpful droids from Star Wars, like R2D2.
Compare to the Self-Maintaining Circuit Monitoring and Repair from Gramp and his Dog (1952) by Frank Quattrocchi, the
self-repairing robot from Accidental Flight (1952) by W.F. Wallace, the blue collar robot from The Velvet Glove (1956) by Harry Harrison, the
service drones from The Two Faces of Tomorrow (1979) by James P. Hogan and the repair drone from Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson.
Faint rattling noises came from inside the hull as if swarms of tiny animals were busily scurrying about scratching the metal walls with their sharp little claws. This was the sign that the repair robots had started out on their rounds, checking the solidity of the braces of the ship's framework; making sure that the hull had not been damaged anywhere and that all seams were still welded tight. The entire ship came to life, filled with myriad noises and activities . . . only the crew had not yet awakened...
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Well-Oiled Machine
More Ideas
and Technology by H.B. Fyfe
Tech news articles related to The Well-Oiled Machine
Tech news articles related to works by H.B. Fyfe
Repair Robots-related
news articles:
- SRI International's Speedy, Ant-Sized Microrobot Swarm
- Bridge-MINDER Repair Robot
- SPIDER Repair Robots From Lockheed Martin Blimps
- Rolls Royce 'Cockroach-Sized' Repair Robots To Crawl Inside Engines
| Toy-Like Robot Well-Being Coaches Are The Best |
| Scent-Identifying Robot Uses Machine Learning |
| Robot Imagines Itself (Not The First Time This Has Happened) |
| Intelligent Trash Sorting By Robots Predicted Long Ago |
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'LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE.'
'...a rolled-up sheet of a thin, dark metal strange to them.'
'... his contract with Space Industries required him to work summers in their orbital factory complex.'
'Space-weather men had been placed at their disposal...'
With each successive print, our model needed to incorporate more structural ingredients to minimize print failures.
'... Wendis stared thoughtfully at the brilliant lines on the spectroscope screen.'
'A special spot-wavex scrambler also caused his televised image, in the area immediately about his lips, to mouth the vowels and consonants beautifully.'
'... it was as if the upper part had been removed, like a cut deck of cards.'
Sumomo will get those office workers into good shape!
