Robotics

A reprogrammable multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools or specialized

devices through various programmed motions for the performance of a variety of Tasks. --- Robot
Institute of America.
Robotics - Study and application of robot technology.
Robot - Mechanical device that performs human tasks, either automatically or by remote control.
Telerobotics - Robot that is operated remotely.

Laws of Robotics
Isaac Asimov proposed three Laws of Robotics and later added the zeroth law
Law 0: A robot may not injure humanity or through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm
Law 1: A robot may not injure a human being or through inaction, allow a human being to come
to harm, unless this would violate a higher order law
Law 2: A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would
conflict with a higher order law
Law 3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with a
higher order law

History of Robotics
In 1942 the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov created his Three Laws of Robotics.
In 1948 Norbert Wiener formulated the principles of cybernetics, the basis of practical robotics.
Fully autonomous robots only appeared in the second half of the 20th century. The first digitally
operated and programmable robot, the Unimate, was installed in 1961 to lift hot pieces of metal from a
die casting machine and stack them. Commercial and industrial robots are widespread today and used to
perform jobs more cheaply, or more accurately and reliably, than humans. They are also employed in
jobs which are too dirty, dangerous, or dull to be suitable for humans. Robots are widely used
in manufacturing, assembly, packing and packaging, transport, earth and space exploration, surgery,
weaponry, laboratory research, safety, and the mass production of consumer and industrial goods.
Date

Significance

Third century
B.C. and
earlier

One of the earliest descriptions of automata

appears in the Lie Zi text, on a much earlier
encounter between King Mu of Zhou (1023
957 BC) and a mechanical engineer known as
Yan Shi, an 'artificer'. The latter allegedly
presented the king with a life-size, humanshaped figure of his mechanical handiwork.
Descriptions of more than 100 machines and
automata, including a fire engine, a wind organ,
a coin-operated machine, and a steam-powered
engine, in Pneumatica and Automata by Heron
of Alexandria
A wooden, steam propelled bird, which was
able to fly
Created early humanoid automata,
programmable automaton band

First century
A.D. and
earlier
c. 420 B.C.E
1206

Robot Name

Inventor
Yan Shi

Ctesibius,Philo of
Byzantium, Heron
of Alexandria, and
others

Robot band, handwashing automaton,

[9]
automated moving
peacocks[10]

Archytas of
Tarentum
Al-Jazari

1495
1738

Designs for a humanoid robot

Mechanical duck that was able to eat, flap its
wings, and excrete
Nikola Tesla demonstrates first radiocontrolled vessel.
First fictional automatons called "robots"
appear in the play R.U.R.
Humanoid robot exhibited at the 1939 and
1940 World's Fairs

Mechanical knight
Digesting Duck

1946
1948

First general-purpose digital computer

Simple robots exhibiting biological behaviors

Whirlwind
Elsie and Elmer

1956

First commercial robot, from the Unimation

company founded by George
Devol and Joseph Engelberger, based on
Devol's patents
First installed industrial robot.
First industrial robot with six
electromechanically driven axes
The worlds first microcomputer controlled
electric industrial robot, IRB 6 from ASEA,
was delivered to a small mechanical
engineering company in southern Sweden. The
design of this robot had been patented already
1972.
Programmable universal manipulation arm, a
Unimation product
The first collaborative lightweight robotic arms
were distributed

Unimate

1898
1921
1930s

1961
1973
1974

1975
2009

Teleautomaton
Rossum's Universal
Robots
Elektro

Unimate
Famulus

Leonardo da Vinci
Jacques de
Vaucanson
Nikola Tesla
Karel apek
Westinghouse
Electric
Corporation
Multiple people
William Grey
Walter
George Devol

IRB 6

George Devol
KUKA Robot
Group
ABB Robot Group

PUMA

Victor Scheinman

UR5

Universal Robots

Rossums Universal Robots

The term "robot" was first used in1920 in a play called "R.U.R." Or" Rossums Universal Robots"
by the Czech writer Karel Capek.
The word Robot comes from the word Robota, meaning, in Czech, forced labor, drudgery.

R.U.R = Rossum's Universal Robots

The First Robot

After the technology explosion during World War II, in 1956, George C. Devol, Norman Schafler and
Joseph F. Engelberger and made a serious and commercial effort to produce a robot.
They started a firm named Unimation and succeeded in building the 1st robot named Unimate.
Joseph F. Engelberger is known as the 'Father of Robotics'

The Unimate
It was first used in General Motors
It basically to extract die-castings from die casting machines and to perform spot welding on auto
bodies, both tasks being particularly hateful jobs for people.
A variety of other tasks were also performed by robots, such as loading and unloading machine tools.
The Unimate started a revolution in the robotics industry and many robots of its type were built for
doing tiresome jobs for people.
Robots offer specific benefits to workers and industries. If introduced correctly, industrial robots can
improve the quality of life by freeing workers from dirty, boring, dangerous and heavy labor.

Robotic Aspects
There are many types of robots; they are used in many different environments and for many different
uses, although being very diverse in application and form they all share three basic similarities when it
comes to their construction:
1. Robots all have some kind of mechanical construction, a frame, form or shape designed to achieve a
particular task. For example, a robot designed to travel across heavy dirt or mud, might
use caterpillar tracks.

2. Robots have electrical components which power and control the machinery. For example, the robot
with caterpillar tracks would need some kind of power to move the tracker treads.

3. All robots contain some level of computer programming code. A program is how a robot decides
when or how to do something. In the caterpillar track example, a robot that needs to move across a
muddy road may have the correct mechanical construction, and receive the correct amount of power
from its battery, but would not go anywhere without a program telling it to move.

Types of Robots
Mobile Robots
Mobile robots are able to move; usually they perform tasks such as searching.
They are of two types:
1. Rolling robots - have wheels to move around. They can quickly and easily search. However they
are only useful in flat areas.
2. Walking robots - robots on legs are usually brought in when the terrain is rocky. Most robots
have at least 4 legs; usually they have 6 or more.

Industrial Robots
Most of these robots perform repeating tasks without ever moving.
Most robots are working in industries. Especially dull and repeating tasks are suitable for robots.
A robot never grows tire; it will perform its duty day and night without ever complaining.

Autonomous Robots
Autonomous robots are self-supporting.
They run a program that gives them the opportunity to decide on the action to perform depending on
their surroundings.
At times, these robots even learn new behavior. They start out with a short routine and adapt this routine
to be more successful at the task they perform. The most successful routine will be repeated.

Remote-controlled Robots
In case a robot needs to perform more complicated yet undetermined tasks an autonomous robot is not
the right choice.
Complicated tasks are still best performed by human beings with real brainpower. A person can guide a
robot by remote control. A person can perform difficult and usually dangerous tasks without being at the
spot where the tasks are performed.

Dante 2, a NASA robot designed to explore volcanoes via remote control.

Virtual Robots
Virtual robots dont exist in real life. Virtual robots are just programs, building blocks of software inside
a computer.
A virtual robot can simulate a real robot or just perform a repeating task.
Search engines use such kind of robots. They search the World Wide Web and send the information to
the search engines.

Educational Robots
Robotic kits are used extensively in education.
Ex. Robolab, Lego and RoboCup Soccer

Domestic Robots
Two types: Those designed to perform household tasks and modern toys which are programmed to do
things like talking, walking and dancing, etc.

Robot Components
Power Source - Though perhaps other power sources can be used, the main sources of electrical power
for robots are batteries and photovoltaic cells.
1. Photo Voltaic Cells or solar cells are well known for their use as power sources for satelites,
environmentalist green energy campaigns and pocket calculators.
2. Batteries are an essential component of the majority of robot designs.
3. Fuel Cells are a possible future replacement for chemical cells (batteries). They generate
electricity by recombining hydrogen gas and oxygen.
4. Mechanical Another way to store energy in a robot is mechanical means. Best known method is
the wind-up spring, commonly used in toys, radios or clocks.
5. Air Pressure
6. Chemical Fuel
Actuation - Actuation devices are the components of the robot that make it move (excluding your feet).
Best known actuators are electric motors, servos and stepper motors and also pneumatic or hydraulic
cylinders.

1. Motors Device that converts electrical or other energy into mechanical energy or imparts motion.
A.C. motor powered from alternating current (AC)
D.C. motor powered from direct current (D.C.)
Servo motor a rotary actuator that allows for precise control of angular position, velocity
and acceleration.
Stepper motor - an electromechanical device which converts electrical pulses into discrete
mechanical movements.
2. Shape Memory Alloys - an alloy that "remembers" its original shape and that when deformed
returns to its pre-deformed shape when heated.
3. Air muscle - It is a linear actuator, producing motion along a straight line and opening a whole new
range of design possibilities.
4. Linear Electromagnetic - consist of a hollow coil (solenoid) and a ferrometal rod. The rod is
mounted loose in the coil and can move up and down. When current flows through the coil, the rod
is pulled to the center of the coil. If the direction of the current is then reversed the solenoid will pull
in the ferrometal rod.
5. Piezoelectric Actuators - actuators that take advantage of the piezoelectric effect found in certain
materials.
6. Pneumatics/Hydraulics - actuators which provide linear movement. Hydraulic systems, especially,
can produce extremely high forces.
7. Miniature internal combustion engines - These are the small internal combustion engines used in
model cars and planes.
Gripper - a component of the robot used to manipulate an object loose from the robot itself. This can be
a ball it needs to pick up, or the dirty socks it was programmed to find and dispose of.
1. Scoops very simple 'grippers'. These can be flat, flat with raised edges or more complicated
shapes. These 'grippers' are easily to control as they can be build with minimal moving parts: being
able to move up and down is sufficient for many purposes.
2. Tongs are more complicated than scoops but allow better control over what is picked up. Tongs
differ in the number of fingers and their shape. Most tongs have 2 fingers, one of those could be
fixed.
3. Hands
4. Degrees of Freedom Grippers also differ in their degree of freedom. Basically there are 6 degrees
of freedom: 3 translations and 3 rotations.
Audio - parts that allow it to make sounds, either for entertainment purposes or to convey information.
This can be done through simple sound chips: cheap integrated circuits which allow certain sounds to be
played with very few external components. These are commonly used in toys.
1. Preamplifier This can be done through simple sound chips: cheap integrated circuits which allow
certain sounds to be played with very few external components. These are commonly used in toys.
2. Amplifier allow a low power signal to be outputed through a speaker with significant power.
3. Analog to Digital Converter ADC converts an analog signal to a digital value.
4. Digital to Analog Converter converts a digital value into a voltage level.
5. Oscillators generates a repetitive signal
Video - components split up in 2 categories. On one hand you have a video camera, some form of
transmission (wire or radio) and a display. On the other hand you have computer vision.
1. Camera, transmission, displays There are very small cameras, some even with built in wireless
connection, which are cheap and need hardly any external components. These cameras can be
mounted on a robot and let the user see through the robots "eyes". If the robot has an on-board
computer (single board or laptop) a webcam can be used. This allows robot control over a network
or even the internet.

2. Computer Vision a relatively new area. It tries to provide a computer with eyes and the ability to
"understand" what it sees. The first step is easy. Webcams have been around for quite some time.
However the second step, understanding the image, is the hard one. Image processing plays a
substantial part in robotics where computer vision is used. There are many aspects to image
processing including: demosaicing, image registration, differencing, recognition and segmentation.
3. Demosaicing an algorithm that takes the image after being processed by a color filter array (CFA),
such as a Bayer filters, and reconstructs a full color image.
4. Image Registration the process used to combine multiple images into a single coordinate system.
5. Image Differencing used to obtain the changes between two images and is done by comparing the
images pixel by pixel.
6. Image Recognition is the method of acquiring, analyzing, and understanding images to produce
numerical information.
7. Image Segmentation used to simplify other aspects of image processing. This includes breaking
an image down into smaller pieces making object detection and edge detection easier.

Computer Control
Control Architectures
1. Reactive Systems
2. Sense-Plan-Act
3. Brooks Subsumption Architecture
4. Hybrid Systems
5. Swarm Robotics
The Interface
1. Personal Computers
2. Single Board Computers and multichip modules
3. Microcontrollers
4. Remote Control
5. Networks

Sensors
Sensors that a robot uses generally fall into three different categories:
1. Environment sensors tell the robot what is happening around it
Thermal Sensors
Pressure Sensors
Ranging Sensors
Touch Sensors
2. Feedback sensors tell the robot what it is actually doing
3. Communication sensors allow a human or computer to provide a robot other information.

Navigation
Navigation comprises everything a robot needs to get from point A to point B as efficient as possible
without bumping into furniture, walls or people.
1. Localization
2. Collision Avoidance
3. Exploration
4. Mapping
5. Trajectory Planning

Advantages & Disadvantages

Advantages

Used to do repetitive (boring) actions or jobs

Perform a variety of tasks
Improve in quality
Increase in production
Perform dangerous tasks that humans can't do
Robots do not get sick, they can work 24/7 without complaining

Disadvantages

Expense
No guarantee
Expertise: training on to use robots takes time
Safety

Trivia
Where are most robots found?
= CAR FACTORIES. More than 50% of all robots are found in car factories
This robot is designed to help with heart surgery. Guess what its name?
=da Vinci

References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotics
http://www.slideshare.net/sivabenten1/ssr-16116198
http://www.slideshare.net/sivabenten1/ssr-16116198
http://www.slideshare.net/parthmullick/introduction-to-robotics
https://www.robots.com/education/robot-part-types
http://www.slideshare.net/aroobkazim/robots-presentation-11197492
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Robotics
http://ditto.us.com/what-is-image-recognition/
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/motor.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_motor
http://www.ohioelectricmotors.com/what-is-the-difference-between-an-ac-motor-and-a-dc-motor-673
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape-memory_alloy