Robotics

Technologies used to develop machines that can substitute for people and copy human actions are called robotics engineering. Robots can be used in various positions and for lots of purposes, but nowadays several are used in unsafe environments (like bomb detection and deactivation), industrial manners, or where people cannot persist (like in space). Robots can take on any form but some are made to look like humans in appearance. A lot of today’s robots are stirred by nature, subsidizing the field of bio-inspired engineering.

Robotics is an interdisciplinary subdivision of engineering and science that contains mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering, computer science, and others. Robotics is a field that deals with the design, construction, operation, and use of robots, similarly as computer systems for their control, sensory feedback, and information processing.

History

The concept of building machines that can work autonomously days back to old times, however, studies into the functionality and potential uses of robots did not develop essentially until the 20th century. Throughout history, it has been frequently assumed by various scholars, inventors, engineers, and technicians that robots will one day be able to mimic human behavior and accomplish tasks in a human-like fashion.

In 1948, Norbert Wiener expressed the principles of cybernetics, the foundation of real-world robotics.

Completely autonomous only seemed in the second half of the 20th era. The first digitally functioned and programmable robot, the Unimate, was installed in 1961 to lift warm pieces of metal from a die manufacturing machine and stack them.

1946: Whirlwind, the first general-purpose digital computer invented by many people.

1948: Elsie and Elmer, Simple robots exhibiting biological behaviors invented by William Grey Walter.

1956: Unimate, the first commercial robot, from the Unimation company invented by George Devol.

1961: Unimate, first installed industrial robot invented by George Devol.

1967-1972: WABOT-1, first full-scale humanoid intelligent robot, Its limb control system allowed it to walk with the lower limbs, and to grip and transport objects with hands, using tactile sensors. Its vision system permitted it to measure the distances and directions to objects via external receptors, artificial eyes, and ears. And its conversation system permitted it to talk with a person in Japanese, with an artificial mouth developed by Waseda University.

1974: IRB 6, The world’s first microcomputer-controlled electric industrial robot, IRB 6 from ASEA, was delivered to small mechanical engineering invented by ABB ROBOT Group.

1978: Freddy I and II, RAPT robot programming language, First object-level robot programming language, allowing robots to handle variations in object position, shape, and sensor noise invented by Patricia Ambler and Robin Popplestone.

Commercial and industrial robots are well-known today and used to accomplish jobs more economically, more perfectly and more consistently than humans.

Today, robotics is a fast-rising field, as high-tech advances continue; researching, designing, and developing new robots function various practical purposes, whether nationally, commercially, or militarily. They are moreover working in some jobs which are too dirty, dangerous, or dull to be right for humans. Robots are broadly used in the industrial, assembly, packing and packaging, mining, transport, earth and space investigation, surgery, weaponry, laboratory, safety, and research.

Definition

          A machine that deals with the complex series of tasks that are performed automatically. Robots are programs according to task that we want to automate.

A machine with a computer program and some body parts to perform actions on the environment.

Components of Robot

• Body
• Actuator
• Power Source
• Electric Motors
• Sensing
• Effectors
• Touch
• Vision
• Controller
• Software

Body:

          For considering a robot, the device must contain a body that helps to move in reaction to feedback from its sensors. Robot bodies are made up of metal, plastic and similar materials. Inside of these bodies is small motors called actuators. Actuators simulate the action of human muscle to move parts of the robot’s body

Actuator:

A robot apparatus that enables the effector to fulfill an action.

Example: Motors of many types, brake, steering, etc.   

Power Source:

Planning a battery-powered robot wants to take into account aspects such as safety, cycle lifetime and weight. Generators, frequently some type of internal burning engine, can also be used. On the other hand, such designs are often mechanically difficult and need fuel, need heat dissipation and are comparatively heavy.

Electric Motors:

Many kinds of electric motors are used to done different tasks. A motor may be used for the motion of arms & legs. DC motors are used in portable robots while AC motors use in industrial level robots.

Sensing:

Sensors allow robots to obtain information about a certain dimension of the environment, or internal modules. This is necessary for robots to accomplish their tasks, and act upon any variations in the environment to determine the suitable response. Sensors are used for different forms of measurements, to give the robots warnings about safety or breakdowns, and be responsible for real-time information on the task it is executing.

Example: Camera, sonar, GPS, Speedometer, odometer, accelerometer, engine sensors, keyboard, etc.

Effectors:

Any device that has an impact on the environment. Effectors must match a robot’s task. Controllers command the effectors to achieve the desired task. Robot effectors are very different than biological ones.

Example: Robots tracks, wheels, grippers, legs, etc.    

Touch:

Touch sensors make available robots with the facility to interact with humans and the environment with great accuracy, yet technical challenges remain for electronic-skin systems to reach human-level performance. Researchers from some European countries and Israel established a prosthetic hand in 2009, called Smart Hand, which functions like a real one—allowing patients to write with it, type on the keyboard, play piano and accomplish further fine movements. The prosthesis has sensors that enable the patient to sense the real feeling at its fingertips.

 Vision:

Computer vision is the discipline and technology of machines that can see. According to science, computer vision is concerned using the theory behind artificial systems that mine information from pictures. The image data can yield many forms, like video and views from cameras.

In most real-world computer vision applications, the computers are pre-programmed to perform a particular task, however, systems based on learning are these days becoming progressively more common. There is a subdivision inside computer vision where artificial systems are planned to copycat the processing and behavior of biological systems, at diverse levels of difficulty. Also, some of the learning-based systems developed inside computer vision have their background in biology.     

Controller:

The modern computer (in cooperation with the hardware and the software) works as a controller to the robot. The controller functions in a way similar to the human brain. By the support of this controller, the robot is capable to carry out the allocated tasks. The controller directs and controls the movement of the Exploiter and the End effector. In simple words, the controller controls the robot.

Software:

Software robotics is the procedure of bot programs to computerize computer tasks usually executed by people. Software robotics is identical by robotic process automation (RPA) and is not as much widely used term, except in the financial services industry.

Applications of Robot

Robots are designed for particular tasks this technique of classification comes to be more relevant. For example, various robots are intended for assembly work, which might not be readily flexible for other applications. They are named as “assembly robots”. Some robots are specially designed for heavy load operation, and are categorized as “heavy-duty robots”.

• Collaborative Robots
• Robotic Vision
• Robotic Hand
• Robotic Painting
• Robotic Welding
• Robotic Assembly
• Military Applications
• Material Removal
• Intelligent Home Applications
• Industry

Programing Language

Many programming languages are used to program robotics. Each programing language has some pros and cons that depend on the development of robots. Most widely used programming languages are

• Python
• C/C++
• Java
• C#/ .NET ML
• MATLAB
• Assembly
• LISP
• BASIC
• PASCAL

Hardware Description Languages (HDLs)

Expert Systems in A.I