25€ Robotics Silver & Niobium BU

Celebrating the exciting and innovative world of robotics is the 2011 release in the equality ingenious and globally popular series of Silver & Niobium coins issued by the Austrian Mint. The Silver & Niobium series has gone from strength to strength over the years as each new release is issued and word spreads about the eye-catching appeal and detailed craftsmanship of these truly unique commemorative coins.

Each silver coin is encapsulated and supplied in an official Austrian Mint presentation case, accompanied by a numbered Certificate of Authenticity.

Obverse:
A robot in a humanoid form, reflecting the Vitruvian man of Leonardo Da Vinci, recognizing the advanced thinking of this great man, and reminding us all that we are a product of centuries of thinking. The perfectly proportioned Vitruvian man is easy to replicate in the man-made world of robotics. The "robot's" arms in the two positions are exactly proportioned to fit right to the edge of the niobium core. The Vitruvian-like robot is standing on lines of zeros that run from the outer silver ring across the niobium core and onto the other side of the silver ring, representing the thousands of lines of binary code that are required to program a robot. The binary code and the cogwheels, represent the electronic and mechanical worlds that are required for development in robots. Also on the obverse of the coin and located in the silver ring is the country of issue, Republic of Austria, and the year of issue. The face value of the coin, 25 euros, is located in the left quadrant of the pure niobium design field.

Reverse:
A robotic lander on the surface of Mars - hence the deep reddish-pink colour of the 2011 niobium coin. The mars lander is based on a design by the European Space Agency. The six-wheeled lander operates on solar power collected by large panels and shown in the middle third of the coin design. The lander is also equipped with a camera seen in the middle of the silver ring at the top of the coin. In the background is a mountainous Martian landscape covered with boulders. At the top and the left of the silver ring stars are depicted. Earth is noted in the lower part of the silver ring.

Artists:
Helmut Andexlinger, Thomas Pesendorfer

Robotics is a branch of science and engineering dealing with the study of robots. It is involved with a robot's design, manufacture, application, and structural disposition. The word 'robot' has been around since 1921 when Czech playwright Karl Capek coined the word in his play "Rossum's Universal Robots, R.U.R". The word comes from the Czech word 'robota' meaning forced labour, and repetitive work. Robots early on were found in manufacturing facilities completing simple repetitive work. Now robots are used for much more complex and intricate work completing several tasks in one smooth and efficient motion. The sophistication of robots is ever increasing, such that today cognitive computing is used more and more to program them. The fields of psychology, neuroscience, computer science and mathematics are all coming together with the science of electronics and mechanics. Robots have "learned" to "play" sports such as soccer and ping-pong, and are very dexterous at conducting complex operations on humans in hospitals. We can hardly imagine how robots will continue to evolve and how robots will bring the world to us in the future.