Tulisan Softskill

The History of Robotics Learn about some of the fascinating moments that have helped define the history of robotics. This timeline features a number of historic events of the past as well as recent developments that have helped shape the world of robots and technology in general. Read about advances in artificial intelligence, changes in industrial robotics, research into robotic arms used in car manufacturing, mars rovers and much more. Follow the history of robotics from its humble but visionary beginnings right through to the complex robots of today. These robots tie together a range of interrelated areas such as computing, philosophy and engineering into increasingly impressive feats of human achievement.

320 BC Greek philosopher Aristotle made this famous quote: “If every tool, when ordered, or even of its own accord, could do the work that befits it... then there would be no need either of apprentices for the master workers or of slaves for the lords.”
1495 Around 1495 Leonardo da Vinci sketched plans for a humanoid robot.
1700 - 1900 Between 1700 and 1900 a number of life-sized automatons were created including a famous mechanical duck made by Jacques de Vaucanson that could crane its neck, flap its wings and even swallow food.
1913 Henry Ford installs the world’s first moving conveyor belt-based assembly line in his car factory. A Model T can be assembled in 93 minutes.
1920 Karel Capek coins the word ‘robot’ to describe machines that resemble humans in his play called Rossums Universal Robots. The play was about a society that became enslaved by the robots that once served them. This idea is now a common theme in popular culture, ie Frankenstein, Terminator, The Matrix etc.
1932 The first true robot toy was produced in Japan. The ‘Lilliput’ was a wind-up toy which walked. It was made from tinplate and stood just 15cm tall.
1937 Alan Turing releases his paper “On Computable Numbers” which begins the computer revolution.
1941 Legendary science fiction writer Isaac Asimov writes the short story ‘Liar!’ in which he describes the Three Laws of Robotics. His stories were recompiled into the volume “I, Robot” in 1950 – later reproduced as a movie starring Will Smith. Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
1950 Alan Turing proposes a test to determine if a machine truly has the power to think for itself. To pass the test a machine must be indistinguishable from a human during conversation. It has become known as the ‘Turing Test’.
1954 George Devol and Joe Engleberger design the first programmable robot ‘arm’. This later became the first industrial robot, completing dangerous and repetitive tasks on an assembly line at General Motors (1962).
1957 The Soviet Union launches ‘Sputnik’, the first artificial orbiting satellite. This marks the beginning of the space race.
1964 The IBM 360 becomes the first computer to be mass-produced.
1968 Stanley Kubrick makes Arthur C. Clark's, 2001: A Space Odyssey into a movie. It features HAL, an onboard computer that develops a mind of its own.
1969 The U.S. successfully use the latest in computing, robotic and space technology to land Neil Armstrong on the moon.
1977 The first Star Wars movie is released. George Lucas‘s movie inspires a new generation of researchers through his image of a human future shared with robots such as the now famous R2-D2 and C-3PO.
1986 The first LEGO based educational products are put on the market and Honda launches a project to build a walking humanoid robot.
1994 Carnegie Universities eight-legged walking robot, Dante ll, successfully descends into Mt Spur to collect volcanic gas samples.
1997 On May 11, a computer built by IBM known as Deep Blue beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov. The first Robocup tournament is held in Japan. The goal of Robocup is to have a fully automated team of robots beat the worlds best soccer team by the year 2050.
1998 LEGO launches its first Robotics Inventions System.
1999 Sony releases the first version of AIBO, a robotic dog with the ability to learn, entertain and communicate with its owner. More advanced versions have followed.
2000 Honda debuts ASIMO, the next generation in its series of humanoid robots.
2004 Epsom release the smallest known robot, standing 7cm high and weighing just 10 grams. The robot helicopter is intended to be used as a ‘flying camera’ during natural disasters.
2005 Researchers at Cornell University build the first self-replicating robot. Each ‘robot’ is made up of a small tower of computerized cubes which link together through the use of magnets.
2008 After being first introduced in 2002, the popular Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner has sold over 2.5 million units, proving that there is a strong demand for this type of domestic robotic technology.

Sumber                      : http://www.sciencekids.co.nz

Noun Phrase

Noun Phrases

A noun phrase (NP) can consist of one word (for example, the pronoun we or the plural noun cats), or it can consist of a noun with a number of dependents. The dependents occur before or after the noun head depending on their function. For example, the new boat that I bought yesterday is a noun phrase containing the determiner the, the adjective new, the head noun boat, and the relative clause that I bought yesterday.

Noun phrases often function as complements to the verb; for example, in the clause Many people run the marathon every year, the NPs many people and the marathon function as the subject and object respectively. The NP every year is an adjunct, which is an optional element in the grammatical structure of this clause.

a.      Noun Phrase heads

All noun phrases (NPs) have a noun or pronoun as the head. The noun is the anchor of the phrase and the phrase will not be grammatical without it. For example, the NP a really lovely dress from my favourite shop is ungrammatical if the word dress is omitted: * a really lovely from my favourite shop.

Pronouns can stand in place of an NP. An easy way to see how pronouns can substitute for larger constituents is to try substitution. We can substitute it for the NP that house on Plenty Road in the clause I have to paint that house on Plenty Road so that we have I have to paint it.

b.      Noun Phrase dependents

The Noun Phrase can also have different types of dependents, such as determiners (for example, those, the), adjectives (for example, beautiful, green), nominal modifiers (nouns which modify other nouns, for example, bluestone house), prepositional phrases (for example, in Eltham) and relative clauses (for example, which the magazine featured). The dependents modify the noun by adding information. The structure of the noun phrase the beautiful garden in Eltham which the magazine featured is given below:

A dependent in the Noun Phrase can also be categorised according to its position in the NP:

• Determiners, nominal modifiers and adjectives occur before the Noun Phrase head. (Determiners can have modifiers as well, for example, at least twelve eggs.)
• There is often restriction on the order of other pre-head constituents. For example, determiners always occur before adjectives: the long red satin ribbon, not *satin the red long ribbon.
• Some adjectives (often with their own complements) can occur as post-head modifiers, for example, someone skilled, or people taller than 180cm.
• Post-head modifiers in an Noun Phrase include prepositional phrases (for example, boats on the water), modifying NPs (for example, my sister Bertha, or children her age), relative clauses (for example, a friend [who/whom] I've known for fourteen years) and non-finite clauses (for example, swans floating on the lake).

c.      Function of Noun Phrase

Noun phrases often function as complements to the verb. This means that they fulfil specific grammatical functions required by the verb. The examples below show NPs functioning as subjects and objects in different clauses.

·         subject NPs typically appear before the verb, and control the verb's inflectional agreement (for example, Fenella sings well).

·         object NPs typically follow the verb and are affected by the situation described by the verb (for example, Atticus taught Felix).

We can see that a large NP such as in the diagram above behaves as a unit (constituent) in clause structure because we can use it as a subject or object in a sentence in a similar way to a NP with only one element, the head noun or pronoun:

(The beautiful garden in Eltham which the magazine featured]_SUBJECT is closed on Mondays.

[Parliament]_SUBJECT is closed on Mondays. [It]_SUBJECT is closed on Mondays.

We all loved [the beautiful garden in Eltham which the magazine featured]_OBJECT.

We all loved [dinner]_OBJECT.

We all loved [it]_OBJECT.

Other functions in the clause that an NP can fulfil include the role of complements and adjuncts.

There are a number of types of constituents that take NP complements. At clause level, an NP can function as a subject complement (for example, Georgia is an architect) or an object complement (for example, We voted Kerry class representative). NPs also funciton as complements in prepositional phrases (for example, under the bed).

Noun phrases can also function as adjuncts within a clause. Adjuncts are not essential to a clause but provide additional information (for example, We meet for lunch most Fridays).

Countable and uncountable nouns

Countable and uncountable nouns

You will learn about countable and uncountable nouns. but before you continue the lesson, look at the following chart and study the nouns.

Countable	Uncountable
books	money
friends	meat
teachers	juice
tables	milk

a.      Countable nouns (count nouns):

Countable nouns have a singular and a plural form. In plural, these nouns can be used with a number- they can be counted. (That's why they are called "countable nouns").

Example:

1 friend, 2 friends, 3 friends...

1 book, 2 books, 3 books...

Countable nouns take many.

Example:
100 friends – many friends

b.      Uncountable nouns (uncount / non-count nouns):

Uncountable nouns can only be used in singular. These nouns cannot be used with a number- they can't be counted. (That's why they are called "uncountable nouns").

Examples:

I have a lot of money. (Not 1000 money)

You say I drink a lot of milk. (Not 5 milk)

Uncountable nouns take much.

Example:

 100 money – much money

Note: Of course you can count money, milk, meat; but then you would use the currency, liter, kilo, glass,...and say that you have got:

• 5 euros or dollars... (but not 5 money).
• 2 liters, pints, glasses... of milk (but not 2 milk)
• 3 kilos... of meat (but not 3 meat)
• 10 bottles of mineral water... (but not 10 mineral water)

Indefinite articles - a and an (determiners)

A and an are the indefinite articles. They refer to something not specifically known to the person you are communicating with.

A and an are used before nouns that introduce something or someone you have not mentioned before:-

For example:

"I saw an elephant this morning." "I ate a banana for lunch."

A and an are also used when talking about your profession:-

For example:

"I am an English teacher." "I am a builder."

Note!

You use a when the noun you are referring to begins with a consonant (b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y or z), for example, "a city", "a factory", and "a hotel". You use an when the noun you are referring to begins with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) Pronunciation changes this rule. It's the sound that matters, not the spelling.

Definite Article - the (determiners)

There are two ways to pronounce "the". One "thuh" and the other "thee". To learn when we use them see the pronunciation files: How to pronounce "the".

You use the when you know that the listener knows or can work out what particular person/thing you are talking about.

For example:

"The apple you ate was rotten." "Did you lock the car?"

You should also use the when you have already mentioned the thing you are talking about.

For example:

"She's got two children; a girl and a boy. The girl's eight and the boy's fourteen."

We use the to talk about geographical points on the globe.

For example:

the North Pole, the equator

We use the to talk about rivers, oceans and seas

For example:

the Nile, the Pacific, the English channel

We also use the before certain nouns when we know there is only one of a particular thing.

For example:

the rain, the sun, the wind, the world, the earth, the White House etc..

However if you want to describe a particular instance of these you should use a/an.

For example:

"I could hear the wind." / "There's a cold wind blowing." "What are your plans for the future?" / "She has a promising future ahead of her."

The is also used to say that a particular person or thing being mentioned is the best, most famous, etc. In this use, 'the' is usually given strong pronunciation:

For example:

"Harry's Bar is the place to go." "You don't mean you met the Tony Blair, do you?"

Sumber            : - http://languagetools.info/grammarpedia/nounphrase.htm#nphead

-          http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-lesson-countable-uncountable-nouns.php

-          http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/articlestext.htm