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WHAT IS ROBOTICS?
Robotics is
the
branch
of mechanical engineering,
electrical engineering and computer science that deals with
the design, construction, operation, and application of robots
, as well as computer systems for their control, sensory
feedback, and information processing.
HISTORY OF ROBOTICS
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.
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.
COMPONENTS
POWER SOURCE
Electric motors
Linear actuators
Series elastic actuators
Air muscles
Muscle wire
Electroactive polymers
Elastic nanotubes
COMPONENTS
SENSING - Sensors allow robots to receive information
about a certain measurement of the environment, or internal
components.
Touch
Vision
Other common forms of sensing in robotics
use lidar, radar and sonar.
COMPONENTS
Manipulation - Robots need to manipulate objects; pick up,
modify, destroy, or otherwise have an effect. Thus the
"hands" of a robot are often referred to as end effectors.
Mechanical grippers
Vacuum grippers
General purpose effectors
Locomotion
Rolling robots
Two-wheeled balancing robots
One-wheeled balancing robots
Spherical orb robots
Six-wheeled robots
Tracked robots
Walking applied to robots
COMPONENTS
ZMP Technique
Hopping
Dynamic balancing (controlled falling)
Passive dynamics
Other methods of locomotion
Flying
Snaking
Skating
Climbing
Swimming (Piscine)
Sailing
COMPONENTS
Environmental interaction and navigation
Though a significant percentage of robots in commission today are
either human controlled, or operate in a static environment, there is
an increasing interest in robots that can operate autonomously in a
dynamic environment. These robots require some combination
of navigation hardware and software in order to traverse their
environment. In particular unforeseen events (e.g. people and other
obstacles that are not stationary) can cause problems or collisions.
Some highly advanced robots such as ASIMO, and Mein robot have
particularly good robot navigation hardware and software
COMPONENTS
The state of the art in sensory intelligence for robots will have to
progress through several orders of magnitude if we want the robots
working in our homes to go beyond vacuum-cleaning the floors. If
robots are to work effectively in homes and other non-industrial
environments, the way they are instructed to perform their jobs, and
especially how they will be told to stop will be of critical importance.
The people who interact with them may have little or no training in
robotics, and so any interface will need to be extremely intuitive.
Science fiction authors also typically assume that robots will
eventually be capable of communicating with humans
through speech, gestures, and facial expressions, rather than
a command-line interface. Although speech would be the most
natural way for the human to communicate, it is unnatural for the
robot. It will probably be a long time before robots interact as
naturally as the fictional C-3PO.
COMPONENTS
Speech recognition
Robotic voice
Gestures
Facial expression
Artificial emotions
Personality
Social Intelligence
CLASSIFICATION OF ROBOTS
In general, robots are classified based on their capabilities. Some standard
classifications of robots include their domain of operation, degree of autonomy,
and the goal they are designed to fulfill.
Domain of Operation - Robots can be designed and built for any environment
imaginable. One popular way of classifying robots is by what environments
they're designed to operate in. Some typical examples include:
Stationary - These robots are fixed in one place and cannot move. This
category includes robotic arms, computerized machine tools, and most other
Industrial Robots . Industrial Robots are robots used in mass production e.g.
welding robots, CNC plate cutters or CNC drills. The large majority of these
robots are stationary and tethered to a computer.
Ground - These robots are designed to operate on the surface of the earth
or other planet, and are usually sub categorized by their drive train:
Wheels
Tracks
Legs
CLASSIFICATION OF ROBOTS
Underwater - Also known as Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, these are
designed to operate underwater, possibly at great depth.
Aerial - Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are various kinds of robotic flying
machines, including planes and helicopters.
Microgravity - Robots that have been designed to operate in low-gravity
environments, such as earth orbit.
other specific Hazardous Environments
Degree of Autonomy
Autonomy is the quality of being self-controlled. One measure of autonomy
is the amount of human control that is required for the robot's operation. An
autonomous robot can operate properly without intervention indefinitely and
can deal with unexpected problems gracefully. Tele-operated robots
constantly require humans to send the robot control signals. These are only
the endpoints; there is a continuum of possibilities between them. A robot
can also be classified by how self-contained it is. Power, logic circuitry, and
other things may be located either on the main chassis or connected via a
cable tether or wireless link from another location.