Exploring the World of Robotics: Definitions, Functions, and Applications

1. Robotics

2. What is your favorite robot? Robby – Forbidden Planet Robocop Tobor

3. Find some good robotics videos. • Swimming fish: • http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~jliua/videogal.htm • Robot wars: • http://robogames.net/videos.php • http://www.metalmunchingmaniacs.com/combat-robot-videos.t • Japanese robots: • http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~renner/Teaching/Robotics/videos.html • http://www.plyojump.com/qrio.html • Miscellaneous robots: • http://www.roboticsonline.com/public/articles/articles.cfm?cat=298

4. “A robot is a reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through variable programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks.” (Robot Institute of America) What is a robot? Definition: Alternate definition: “A robot is a one-armed, blind idiot with limited memory and which cannot speak, see, or hear.”

5. What are robots good at? • What is hard for humans is easy for robots. • Repetitive tasks. • Continuous operation. • Do complicated calculations. • Refer to huge data bases. • What is easy for a human is hard for robots. • Reasoning. • Adapting to new situations. • Flexible to changing requirements. • Integrating multiple sensors. • Resolving conflicting data. • Synthesizing unrelated information. • Creativity.

6. What tasks would you give robots? • Dangerous • Space exploration • chemical spill cleanup • disarming bombs • disaster cleanup • Boring and/or repetitive • Welding car frames • part pick and place • manufacturing parts. • High precision or high speed • Electronics testing • Surgery • precision machining.

7. What does building robots teach us about humans? • How do our sensors work? • eyes • brain • How do we integrate sensors? • How does our muscular-skeletal system work? • How do we grab and hold an object? • How does our brain process information? • What is nature of intelligence? • How do we make decisions?

8. What subsystems make up a robot? • Action • Stationary base • Mobile • Sensors • Control • Power supply Robert Stengel, Princeton Univ.

9. Action – do some function. • Actuators • pneumatic • hydraulic • electric solenoid • Motors • Analog (continuous) • Stepping (discrete increments) • Gears, belts, screws, levers • Manipulations

10. Three types of robot actions. • Pick and place • Moves items between points. • Continuous path control • Moves along a programmable path • Sensory • Employs sensors for feedback

11. How do robots move? • Simple joints (2D) • Prismatic — sliding along one axis • square cylinder in square tube • Revolute — rotating about one axis • Compound joints (3D) • ball and socket = 3 revolute joints • round cylinder in tube = 1 prismatic, 1 revolute • Degrees of freedom = Number of independent motions • 3 degrees of freedom: 2 translation, 1 rotation • 6 degrees of freedom: 3 translation, 3 rotation

12. Mobility • Legs • Wheels • Tracks • Crawls • Role

13. What sensors might robots have? • Optical • Laser / radar • 3D • Color spectrum • Pressure • Temperature • Chemical • Motion & Accelerometer • Acoustic • Ultrasonic

14. What use are sensors? • Uses sensors for feedback • Closed-loop robots use sensors in conjunction with actuators to gain higher accuracy – servo motors. • Uses include mobile robotics, telepresence, search and rescue, pick and place with machine vision.

15. Control - the Brain • Open loop, i.e., no feedback, deterministic • Instructions • Rules • Closed loop, i.e., feedback • Learn • Adapt