01. Introduction to Robotics

🏛️ Ancient Dreams of Living Machines

Even thousands of years ago, people imagined machines that could act like humans or animals. Here's a quick look at early robotics ideas from around the world:

• 🇮🇳 Ancient India: Stories from Mithila mention “mechanical men” built with gears to guard treasures — showing early imagination of automated beings.
• 🕌 Islamic Golden Age (~1200 CE): Inventor Al-Jazari built water-powered machines, including a hand-washing robot with moving arms.
• 🐦 Ancient Greece (~300 BCE): Hero of Alexandria created steam-powered birds and temple doors that opened on their own.

These early ideas didn’t use electricity — just clever design. But they show one thing clearly: the dream of robotics has always been part of human creativity.

🧠 The Journey of Robots Through Time

• 1400s – Leonardo’s Robot Knight
  A design for a mechanical knight that could move! Modern engineers rebuilt it — and it worked.
• 1700s–1800s – Moving Toys
  Wind-up automata in Europe could draw, play music, or dance — the fancy tech of royal courts.
• 1900s – Real Robots Arrive
  1920: The word “robot” was born.
  1950s: Robots started working in factories.
  1970s–80s: Used in schools, industries, and space.
• 2000s–Now – Robots Everywhere
  They help in surgeries, clean homes, teach in schools, harvest crops — and now, you can build one too!