INTRODUCTION TO ROBOTICS

Collected and Edited Slides

Lectures
By
Dr. J.P. Sharma
203 Carrier Hall
University of Mississippi
Fall 2015

Outline
Introduction

What is a Robot?
Why use Robots?
Robot History
Robot Applications

What is a robot?
Origin of the word robot
Czech word robota labor, robotnik workman
1923 play by Karel Capek Rossums Universal Robots

Definition: (no precise definition yet)

Websters Dictionary
An automatic device that performs functions
ordinarily ascribed to human beings washing
machine = robot?

Robotics Institute of American

A robot (industrial robot) is a reprogrammable,
multifunctional manipulator designed to move
materials, parts, tools, or specialized devices,
through variable programmed motions for the
performance of a variety of tasks.

What is a robot?
By general agreement, a robot is:
A programmable machine that imitates the
actions or appearance of an intelligent
creatureusually a human.
To qualify as a robot, a machine must be
able to:
1) Sensing and perception: get information from its
surroundings
2) Carry out different tasks: Locomotion or manipulation, do
something physicalsuch as move or manipulate objects
3) Re-programmable: can do different things
4) Function autonomously and/or interact with human beings

Types of Robots
Robot Manipulators

Mobile Manipulators

Types of Robots
Locomotion

Aerial Robots

Wheeled mobile robots

Legged robots

Humanoid

Underwater robots

Mobile Robot Examples

Hilare II

http://www.laas.fr/~matthieu/robots/

Sojourner Rover

NASA and JPL, Mars exploration

Autonomous Robot Examples

Why Use Robots?

Application in 4D environments

Dangerous
Dirty
Dull
Difficult

4A tasks

Automation
Augmentation
Assistance
Autonomous

Why Use Robots?

Increase product quality
Superior Accuracies (thousands of an inch, wafer-handling:
microinch)
Repeatable precision Consistency of products

Increase efficiency
Work continuously without fatigue
Need no vacation

Increase safety
Operate in dangerous environment
Need no environmental comfort air conditioning, noise
protection, etc

Reduce Cost
Reduce scrap rate
Lower in-process inventory
Lower labor cost

Reduce manufacturing lead time

Rapid response to changes in design

Robot History
1961
George C. Devol obtains the first U.S. robot patent,
No. 2,998,237.
Joe Engelberger formed Unimation and was the
first to market robots
First production version Unimate industrial robot is
installed in a die-casting machine

1962
Unimation, Inc. was formed, (Unimation stood for
"Universal Automation")

Introduction
Historical perspective
The acclaimed Czech playwright Karel Capek (1890-1938)
made the first use of the word robot, from the Czech
word for forced labor or serf.
The use of the word Robot was introduced into his play
R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) which opened in
Prague in January 1921. In R.U.R., Capek poses a
paradise, where the machines initially bring so many
benefits but in the end bring an equal amount of blight in
the form of unemployment and social unrest.

Science fiction
Asimov, among others glorified the term robotics,
particularly in I, Robot, and early films such as Metropolis
(1927) paired robots with a dystopic society

Formal definition (Robot Institute of America):

"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 History
1968

Unimation takes its first multi-robot order

from General Motors.

1966-1972

"Shakey," the first intelligent mobile robot

system was built at Stanford Research
Institute, California.

Robot History
Shakey (Stanford Research
Institute)
the first mobile robot to
be operated using AI
techniques
Simple tasks to solve:
To recognize an object
using vision
Find its way to the object
Perform some action on
the object (for example,
to push it over)

http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/book98/fig.ch2/p027.html

Shakey

Robot
History

1969

Robot vision, for mobile robot guidance, is

demonstrated at the Stanford Research
Institute.
Unimate robots assemble Chevrolet Vega
automobile bodies for General Motors.

1970
General Motors becomes the first company to
use machine vision in an industrial application
The Consight system is installed at a foundry in
St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada.

The Stanford Cart

Hans Moravec

1973-1979
Stanford Cart
Equipped with stereo
vision.
Take pictures from
several different
angles
The computer
gauged the distance
http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/users/hpm/
between the cart and
obstacles in its path

Robot History
1978

The first PUMA (Programmable Universal

Machine for Assembly) robot is developed
by Unimation for General Motors.

1981

IBM enters the robotics field with its 7535

and 7565 Manufacturing Systems.

1983

Westinghouse Electric Corporation bought

Unimation, Inc., which became part of its
factory automation enterprise.
Westinghouse later sold Unimation to
Staubli of Switzerland.

Industrial Robot --- PUMA

Installed Industrial Robots

Japan take the lead, why?

Shortage of labor, high labor cost

01_02
Robots in everyday use and popular culture

100s of movies
Chances are, something
you eat, wear, or was
made by a robot
http://www.robotuprising.com/

Roomba: $142M in sales for 2005

How are they used?

Industrial robots
70% welding and painting
20% pick and place
10% others

Research focus on
Manipulator control
End-effector design
Compliance device
Dexterity robot hand
Visual and force feedback
Flexible automation

Robotics: a much bigger industry

Robot Manipulators
Assembly, automation

Field robots
Military applications
Space exploration

Service robots
Cleaning robots
Medical robots

Entertainment robots

Field Robots

Service robots

Entertainment Robots

MEMS and Microrobotics

Difficult definition(s):
Robotic systems with feature sizes < 1mm
Robotic systems dominated by micro-scale
physics

MEMS: Micro ElectroMechanical Systems

Modified IC processes to use silicon as a
mechanical material

Fearing; Berkeley

Donald; Dartmouth
Pister; Berkeley

Surgical robotics
Minimally invasive surgery
Minimize trauma to the
patient
Potentially increase
surgeons capabilities
Force feedback necessary,
tactile feedback desirable

Biomimetic Robots
Using biological principles to reduce
design space

BigDog; Boston Dynamics

MFI; Harvard & Berkeley

Ayers; Northeastern

Common applications
Industrial
Robotic assembly

Commercial
Household chores

Military
Medical
Robot-assisted surgery

Picture of Roomba

Common applications
Planetary Exploration
Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control
Mars rover

Undersea exploration

JHUROV; Johns Hopkins

01_18

Parallel manipulators
some of the links will form a closed chain with ground
Advantages:

Motors can be proximal: less powerful, higher bandwidth, easier to control

Disadvantages:

Generally less motion, kinematics can be challenging

6DOF Stewart platform

ABB IRB6400

ABB IRB940 Tricept

01_03

Representations of linkage joints

For the majority of this class, we will consider robotic manipulators as open or
closed chains of links and joints
Two types of joints: revolute () and prismatic (d)

Kinematics: Example
1= , 2=r
r

1 r 4.5
0 50o

x = r cos
y = r sin
workspace

The Course at a Glimpse:

Kinematics
F(robot variables) = world coordinates
x = x(1,, n)
y = y(1,, n)
z = z(1,, n)
In a cascade robot, Kinematics is a singlevalued mapping.
Easy to compute.

Inverse Kinematics
G(world coordinates) = robot variables

1 = 1(x,y,z)

1 = 1(x,y,z)
The inverse problem has a lot of geometrical
difficulties
inversion may not be unique!

Inverse Kinematics:
Example
Make unique by constraining angles

 Multiple experiments with a 6-axis

industrial robotic arm (RRR)
Forward/inverse kinematics
Velocity kinematics
Control
Path planning
Manipulation

Equipment:
Open architecture industrial arm from CRS
(Catalyst-5), retrofitted by Quanser with a
Matlab interface

Will require extensive use of

Matlab/Simulink

01_01

Industrial robots

High precision and repetitive tasks

Pick and place, painting, etc

Hazardous environments

Definitions
End-effector/Tool
Device that is in direct contact with the environment. Usually very task-specific

Configuration
Complete specification of every point on a manipulator
set of all possible configurations is the configuration space
For rigid links, it is sufficient to specify the configuration space by the joint angles

State space
Current configuration (joint positions q) and velocities
q q1 q2 ... qn

Work space
The reachable space the tool can achieve
Reachable workspace
Dextrous workspace

01_06

Common configurations: wrists

Many manipulators will be a sequential chain of links and joints

forming the arm with multiple DOFs concentrated at the wrist

01_07

Example end-effector: Grippers

Anthropomorphic or task-specific
Force control v. position control

Utah MIT hand

01_09Common configurations: elbow manipulator

Anthropomorphic arm: ABB IRB1400
Very similar to the lab arm (RRR)

01_12 Common configurations: Stanford arm

(RRP)

Spherical manipulator (workspace forms a set of concentric

spheres)

01_15
Common configurations: cylindrical robot (RPP)
workspace forms a cylinder

Seiko RT3300 Robot

01_14 Common configurations: SCARA (RRP)

Adept Cobra Smart600 SCARA robot

01_16
Common configurations: Cartesian robot (PPP)
Increased structural rigidity, higher precision
Pick and place operations

01_10

Workspace: elbow manipulator

01_17
(a) spherical
(b) SCARA
(c) cylindrical
(d) Cartesian

Workspace comparison

01_19
Simple example: control of a 2DOF planar manipulator

Move from home position and follow the path AB with a constant contact force F
all using visual feedback

01_20Coordinate frames & forward kinematics

Three coordinate frames: 0 1

Positions:
x1
a1 cos1

a sin
y 1
1
1
x2
a1 cos1 a2 cos1 2 x

a sin a sin y
y 2
t
1
2
1
2
1
Orientation of the tool frame:

1
0
x 0 , y 0
0
1
cos(1 2 )
sin(1 2 )

x 2
,
y

2 cos( )
sin(

)
1
2
1
2

x x
R20 2 0
x 2 y 0

y 2 x 0 cos(1 2 ) sin(1 2 )

y 2 y 0 sin(1 2 ) cos(1 2 )

01_21

Inverse kinematics
Find the joint angles for a desired tool position

xt2 y t2 a12 a22

cos( 2 )
D sin( 2 ) 1 D 2
2a1a2

a2 sin( 2 )
1 D 2 tan 1 y tan 1
1

2 tan
1
a a cos( )
x

D
2
2
1

Two solutions!: elbow up and elbow down

01_23

Velocity kinematics: the Jacobian

State space includes velocity

a1 sin(1 )1 a2 sin(1 2 )(1 2 )

x 2

y
a cos( )( )
a
cos(

2
1 1
2
1
2
1
2
1
a1 sin(1 ) a2 sin(1 2 ) a2 sin(1 2 )

a1 cos(1 ) a2 cos(1 2 ) a2 cos(1 2 )

Jq

Inverse of Jacobian gives the joint velocities:

q J 1x

a2 cos(1 2 )
a2 sin(1 2 )

1
a1a2 sin( 2 ) a1 cos(1 ) a2 cos(1 2 ) a1 sin(1 ) a1 sin(1 2 )

x
y

This inverse does not exist when 2 = 0 or , called singular configuration or

singularity

01_24

Path planning
In general, move tool from position A to position B while avoiding
singularities and collisions
This generates a path in the work space which can be used to solve for joint
angles as a function of time (usually polynomials)
Many methods: e.g. potential fields

Can apply to mobile agents or a manipulator configuration

01_24

Joint control
Once a path is generated, we can create a desired tool path/velocity
Use inverse kinematics and Jacobian to create desired joint trajectories

desired trajectory
error

controller

measured trajectory (w/ sensor noise)

system dynamics

actual trajectory

Other control methods

Force control or impedance control (or a hybrid of both)
Requires force/torque sensor on the end-effector

Visual servoing
Using visual cues to attain local or global pose information

Common controller architectures:

PID
Adaptive
Repetitive

Challenges:
Underactuation
Nonholonomy (mobile agents)
nonlinearity

General multivariable control

overview
manipulator
dynamics

joint
controllers

desired
joint
torques
inverse
kinematics,
Jacobian

motor
dynamics

state
estimation
sensors
estimated
configuration

desired
trajectory

Sensors and actuators

sensors

Motor encoders (internal)

Inertial Measurement Units
Vision (external)
Contact and force sensors

motors/actuators
Electromagnetic
Pneumatic/hydraulic
electroactive
Electrostatic
Piezoelectric

Basic quantities for

both:
Bandwidth
Dynamic range
sensitivity

Mobile Agents and SLAM

For untethered and autonomous applications, the
performance of a robotic system (P), whether defined by
capability or robustness, can be related to an agents
intelligence (I), mobility (M), and multiplicity (N):

P I M f N ,

I 0,1, M 0,1, N 0,1,2,..., f : N n R

Whegs; CWRU

RHex; Michigan

MicroBat; UCLA

Mobile Agents and SLAM

Monte Carlo localization

SLAM: Simultaneous locomotion and Map-building

Computer Vision
Simplest form: estimating the position and orientation of
yourself or object in your environment using visual cues
Usually a statistical process
Ex: finding lines using the Hough space

More complex: guessing what the object in your environment

are
Biomimetic computer vision: how do animals accomplish
these tasks:
Obstacle avoidance
Optical flow?

Object recognition
Template matching?
ES159/ES259

Humanoid robots
For robots to efficiently interact with humans, should
they be anthropomorphic?

QRIO Sony

Asimo; Honda

Thank you!