La robotique soviétique, 1970-1983. Évaluation d'une technologie de pointe

Abstract

Automation in Soviet Industry, 1970-1983: an Assessment of the Present State of Robot Technology. With the outset of the next five-year plan, there should be a significant development in the use of robot technology in Soviet industry. Hovewer, this could be more illusory than real, a play on the definition of the word robot, which is a literary rather than a technological concept. Indeed, the Soviets have an ideological stake in the idea, representing as it does growth through technical and economic progress and the struggle against falling labor productivity. The fact that they have fallen behind in the mastery of advanced technologies, essentially electronics and automation, has forced them to resort to a production strategy which differs from that adopted in the USA. They are producing modular single-purpose robots, whereas the trend in America is towards sophisticated multi-purpose models. Thus, outside of showcase prototypes, the image of Soviet industrial robot technology that emerges is one of mass-production of machines of a rudimentary type.