Short answers, pulled from the story.
Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. A roboticist is someone who specializes in robotics. The field usually combines four aspects of design: a power source, mechanical construction, a control system, and software.
Robotics usually combines four aspects of design to create a robot: a power source such as a battery, mechanical construction, a control system of electrical circuits, and software. The software can run by remote control, artificial intelligence, or a hybrid of the two.
Honda's ASIMO uses the zero moment point algorithm, keeping inertial forces opposed by the floor's reaction force so no moment tips it over. In the 1980s, Marc Raibert built robots at the MIT Leg Laboratory that walked dynamically by hopping like a person on a pogo stick. The most promising approach uses passive dynamics, which may be ten times more efficient than the zero moment point method.
As of 2022, China had the greatest number of industrial robots in operation, with 1.5 million units, and was increasing that figure by more than 20% annually. Robots have been used in manufacturing since the 1960s.
A 2017 study found that automation alone puts 47% of US jobs at eventual risk, and robotics is often used as an argument for basic income to replace lost wages. In 2016, Stephen Hawking observed that artificial intelligence was likely to extend job destruction deep into the middle classes, leaving mainly caring, creative, or supervisory roles.
According to a September 2021 GlobalData report, the robotics industry was worth USD 45 billion in 2020. It is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 29% to reach 568 billion by 2030, driving jobs in robotics and related industries.