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ROBOTICS

Dept. of E&C VVS Polytechnic

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Contents
1. Introduction to Robotics
2. Laws of Robotics
3. Visualization
4. Components of Robots
* Structure
* Power source
* Actuation
* Sensing
* Manipulation
* Locomotion
6. Advantages
7. Problems with Robotics
8. Future Prospects
9. Conclusion

Dept. of E&C VVS Polytechnic

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Introduction to Robotics:
"We don't remember a world without robots. For us, a robot is a robot. Gears
and metal electricity and positrons. Mind and iron! Human-made! If necessary,
human destroyed! But we haven't worked with them, so we don't know them. They're
a cleaner better breed than we are."

What is Robotics:
. THE WORD ROBOTICS IS USED TO COLLECTIVILY DEFINE A FIELD
IN ENGINEERING THAT COVERS THE MIMICKING OF VARIOUS
HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS
• SOUND CONCEPTS IN MANY ENGINEERING DISCIPLINES IS
NEEDED FOR WORKING IN THIS FIELD
• IT FIND ITS USES IN ALL ASPECTS OF OUR LIFE
A robot is a machine that imitates the actions or appearance of an
intelligent creature- usually a human & gathers information about its
environment (senses) and uses that information (thinks) to follow instructions
to do work (acts)
To qualify as a robot, a machine has to be able to do two things:
1) Get information from its surroundings
2) Do something physical–such as move or manipulate objects.
This is the working definition of robots that Robotics exhibit developers
used for this exhibit. Today technology is changing at incredible rates making
the identification of a robot somewhat difficult. Things that we use everyday
incorporate features beyond those of early robots.

What are Robots Made Of?

Robots have 3 main components:
1) Brain - usually a computer
2) Actuators and mechanical parts - motors, pistons, grippers, wheels, gears
3) Sensors - vision, sound, temperature, motion, light, touch, etc.
With these three components, robots can interact and affect their
environment to become useful.

Dept. of E&C VVS Polytechnic

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What Do Robots Do?

Most robots today are used in factories to build products such as
cars and electronics. Others are used to explore underwater and even on
other planets.

Laws of Robotics:
The term robotics was coined in the 1940s by science fiction writer Isaac
Asimov.
Asimov's Laws of Robotics:
• A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human
being to come to harm.
• A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such
order would conflict with the First Law.
• A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not
conflict with the First or Second Law.

VISUALIZATION:

Dept. of E&C VVS Polytechnic

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Components of robots:
Structure: The structure of a robot is usually mostly mechanical and can be called
a kinematic chain (its functionality being similar to the skeleton of the human body).
The chain is formed of links (its bones), actuators (its muscles), and joints which can
allow one or more degrees of freedom. Most contemporary robots use open serial
chains in which each link connects the one before to the one after it. These robots are
called serial robots and often resemble the human arm. Some robots, such as the
Stewart platform, use a closed parallel kinematical chain. Other structures, such as
those that mimic the mechanical structure of humans, various animals, and insects, are
comparatively rare. However, the development and use of such structures in robots is
an active area of research (e.g. biomechanics). Robots used as manipulators have an
end effector mounted on the last link. This end effector can be anything from a
welding device to a mechanical hand used to manipulate the environment.

Power source: At present; mostly (lead-acid) batteries are used, but potential
power sources could be:

 pneumatic (compressed gases)

 hydraulics (compressed liquids)
 flywheel energy storage

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 organic garbage (through anaerobic digestion)

 faeces (human, animal); may be interesting in a military context as feces of small
combat groups may be reused for the energy requirements of the robot assistant
(see DEKA's project Slingshot stirling engine on how the system would operate)
 still untested energy sources (e.g. Nuclear Fusion reactors, ...)
 radioactive source (such as with the proposed Ford car of the '50s); to those
proposed in movies such as Red Planet

Actuation:

A robot leg powered by Air Muscles. Actuators are like the "muscles" of a robot, the
parts which convert stored energy into movement. By far the most popular actuators
are electric motors that spin a wheel or gear, and linear actuators that control
industrial robots in factors. But there are some recent advances in alternative types of
actuators, powered by electricity, chemicals, or compressed air:

 Electric motors: The vast majority of robots use electric motors, often brushed
and brushless DC motors in portable robots or AC motors in industrial robots and
CNC machines.
 Linear Actuators: Various types of linear actuators move in and out instead of by
spinning, particularly when very large forces are needed such as with industrial
robotics. They are typically powered by compressed air (pneumatic actuator) or an
oil (hydraulic actuator).

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 Series Elastic Actuators: A spring can be designed as part of the motor actuator,
to allow improved force control. It has been used in various robots, particularly
walking humanoid robots.
 Air muscles: (Also known as Pneumatic Artificial Muscles) are special tubes that
contract (typically up to 40%) when air is forced inside it. They have been used
for some robot applications.
 Muscle wire: (Also known as Shape Memory Alloy, Nitinol or Flexinol Wire) is
a material that contracts slightly (typically under 5%) when electricity is run
through it. They have been used for some small robot application.
 Electroactive Polymers: (EAPs or EPAMs) are a new plastic material that can
contract quite significantly (up to 400%) from electricity, and have been used in
facial muscles and arms of humanoid robots, and to allow new robots to float, fly,
swim or walk.
 Piezo motor: A recent alternative to DC motors are piezo motors or ultrasonic
motors. These work on a fundamentally different principle, whereby tiny
piezoceramic elements, vibrating many thousands of times per second, cause
linear or rotary motion. There are different mechanisms of operation; one type
uses the vibration of the piezo elements to walk the motor in a circle or a straight
line. Another type uses the piezo elements to cause a nut to vibrate and drive a
screw. The advantages of these motors are nanometer resolution, speed, and
available force for their size. These motors are already available commercially,
and being used on some robots.
 Elastic nanotubes: These are a promising, early-stage experimental technology.
The absence of defects in nanotubes enables these filaments to deform elastically
by several percent, with energy storage levels of perhaps 10 J/cm3 for metal
nanotubes. Human biceps could be replaced with an 8 mm diameter wire of this
material. Such compact "muscle" might allow future robots to outrun and outjump
humans.

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Sensing:

Touch: Current robotic and prosthetic hands receive far less tactile information than
the human hand. Recent research has developed a tactile sensor array that mimics the
mechanical properties and touch receptors of human fingertips. The sensor array is
constructed as a rigid core surrounded by conductive fluid contained by an
elastomeric skin. Electrodes are mounted on the surface of the rigid core and are
connected to an impedance-measuring device within the core. When the artificial skin
touches an object the fluid path around the electrodes is deformed, producing
impedance changes that map the forces received from the object. The researchers
expect that an important function of such artificial fingertips will be adjusting robotic
grip on held objects.

In 2009, scientists from several European countries and Israel developed a prosthetic
hand, called SmartHand, which functions like a real one, allowing patients to write
with it, type on a keyboard, play piano and perform other fine movements. The
prosthesis has sensors which enable the patient to sense real feeling in its fingertips.

Vision: Computer vision is the science and technology of machines that see. As a
scientific discipline, computer vision is concerned with the theory behind artificial
systems that extract information from images. The image data can take many forms,
such as video sequences and views from cameras.

In most practical computer vision applications, the computers are pre-programmed to

solve a particular task, but methods based on learning are now becoming increasingly
common.

Computer vision systems rely on image sensors which detect electromagnetic

radiation which is typically in the form of either visible light or infra-red light. The
sensors are designed using solid-state physics. The process by which light propagates
and reflects off surfaces is explained using optics. Sophisticated image sensors even
require quantum mechanics to provide a complete understanding of the image
formation process.
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There is a subfield within computer vision where artificial systems are designed to
mimic the processing and behavior of biological systems, at different levels of
complexity. Also, some of the learning-based methods developed within computer
vision have their background in biology.

Manipulation:

Robots which must work in the real world require some way 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, while the arm is referred to as a manipulator. Most
robot arms have replaceable effectors, each allowing them to perform some small
range of tasks. Some have a fixed manipulator which cannot be replaced, while a few
have one very general purpose manipulator, for example a humanoid hand.

 Mechanical Grippers: One of the most common effectors is the gripper. In

its simplest manifestation it consists of just two fingers which can open and close
to pick up and let go of a range of small objects. Fingers can for example be made
of a chain with a metal wire run trough it. See Shadow Hand.
 Vacuum Grippers: Pick and place robots for electronic components and for
large objects like car windscreens, will often use very simple vacuum grippers.
These are very simple astrictive devices, but can hold very large loads provided
the prehension surface is smooth enough to ensure suction.
 General purpose effectors: Some advanced robots are beginning to use fully
humanoid hands, like the Shadow Hand, MANUS, and the Schunk hand. These
highly dexterous manipulators, with as many as 20 degrees of freedom and
hundreds of tactile sensors.

For the definitive guide to all forms of robot endeffectors, their design, and usage
consult the book "Robot Grippers".

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Locomotion:

For simplicity, most mobile robots have four wheels. However, some researchers
have tried to create more complex wheeled robots, with only one or two wheels.
These can have certain advantages such as greater efficiency, reduced parts, and allow
a robot to navigate in tight places that a four wheeled robot would not be able to.

 Two-wheeled balancing: Balancing robots generally use a Gyroscope to

detect how much a robot is falling and then drive the wheels proportionally in the
opposite direction, to counter-balance the fall at hundreds of times per second,
based on the dynamics of an inverted pendulum. Many different balancing robots
have been designed]. While the Segway is not commonly thought of as a robot, it
can be thought of as a component of a robot, such as NASA's Robonaut that has
been mounted on a Segway.
 One-wheeled balancing: A one-wheeled balancing robot is an extension of a
two-wheeled balancing robot so that it can move in any 2D direction using a
round ball as its only wheel. Several one-wheeled balancing robots have been
designed recently, such as Carnegie Mellon University's "Ballbot" that is the
approximate height and width of a person, and Tohoku Gakuin University's
"BallIP". Because of the long, thin shape and ability to maneuver in tight spaces,

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they have the potential to function better than other robots in environments with
people.
 Spherical orb robots: Several attempts have been made in robots that are
completely inside a spherical ball, either by spinning a weight inside the ball, or
by rotating the outer shells of the sphere. These have also been referred to as an
orb bot or a ball bot
 Six-wheeled robots: Using six wheels instead of four wheels can give better
traction or grip in outdoor terrain such as on rocky dirt or grass.
 Tracked robots: Tank tracks provide even more traction than a six-wheeled
robot. Tracked wheels behave as if they were made of hundreds of wheels,
therefore are very common for outdoor and military robots, where the robot must
drive on very rough terrain. However, they are difficult to use indoors such as on
carpets and smooth floors. Examples include NASA's Urban Robot "Urbie".

ROBOT SENSING:
The use of external sensing mechanisms allows a robot to interact with it
environment in a flexible manner. This is in contrast to preprogrammed operations in
which a robot is “taught” to perform repretitive tasks via a set of preprogrammed
functions. The use of sensing technology to endow machines with a greater degree of
intelligence in dealing with their environment is indeed an active topic of research and
development in the robotics field.
The function of robot sensors may be divided into two principal categories:
1. Internal state.
2. External State.
Internal state sensors deal with the detection of variables such as arm joint position,
which are used for robot control. External state sensors, on the other hand, deal with
the detection of variables such as range, proximity and touch.
External sensing is used for robot guidance as well as for object identification and
handling. Although proximity,, touch, vision is recognized as the most
powerful of robot sensory capabilities, Robot vision may be defined as the process of
extraction, characterizing, and interpreting information from images of a three
dimensional world. The process, also commonly referred to as machine or computer
vision, may be subdivided into six principal areas:

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1. Sensing.
2. Preprocessing.
3. Segmentation.
4. Description.
5. Recognition.
6. Interpretation.
It is convenient to group these various areas of vision according to the
sophistication involved in their implementation. We consider three levels of
processing: low, medium and high level vision. Here, we shall treat sensing and
preprocessing as low-level vision functions. This will take us from the image
formation process itself to compensations such as noise reduction, and finally to the
extraction of primitive image features such as intensity discontinuities.
By 2050 robot "brains" based on computers that execute 100 trillion
instructions per second will start rivaling human intelligence
In terms of our six subdivisions, we will treat segmentation, description, and
recognition of individual objects as medium-level vision functions.
High-level visions refer to processes that attempt to emulate cognition.

Artificial Intelligence:
 Sensing
Learn about human and robotic vision systems, explore three modes
of robotic sensing, and apply a robotic sensory mode to a specific task.
 Thinking
Human thinking (heuristic) and robotic thinking (algorithmic) will be explored
as you gain an understanding of why a robot needs specific
instructions.

Advantages of Robotics:
The advantages are obvious –
• Revolution in Medical science and Health care systems.
• New & wide scope in Education & Training.
• A good help in Nuclear industry.

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• Used tremendously in Sports activities.

• Play the role of an efficient assistance in Research and Development
sciences.
• Can very well handle household business.

Educational Goals:
Robotics was designed to introduce the science behind the design and
operation of robots, and after interacting with the exhibit, you will be able to:
1) Define a robot as a machine that gathers information about its
environment (senses) and uses that information (thinks) to follow instructions
to do work (acts).
2) Recognize the advantages and limitations of robots by comparing how
robots and humans sense, think, and act and by exploring uses of robots in
manufacturing, research, and everyday settings.
3) Understand your connection with technology and create an excitement
about science and math that will prepare you for a workplace in which
computer, robotics, and automation are common and essential. Each major
thematic area of the exhibit has specific educational goals accomplished
using hands-on activities that compare how human and robotic systems
sense, think, and act.

APPLCIATONS:
Robots have many applications:
1) Industrial robots have long been used for welding and painting.
2) Laboratory robots are used for many repetitive tasks in chemistry,
biology and clinical chemistry labs.
3) Medical robots are being designed for Computer Assisted Surgery.
4) In space, robots are being used for unmanned missions to planets,
comets and asteroids.

Dept. of E&C VVS Polytechnic

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Problems with Robotics:

1) As with any machine, robots can break and even cause disaster.
2) They are powerful machines that we allow to control certain things.
3) When something goes wrong, terrible things can happen. Luckily, this is
rare because robotic systems are designed with many safety features that
limit the harm they can do. There's also the problem of evil people using
robots for evil purposes. This is true today with other forms of technology such
as weapons and biological material.
4) Of course, robots could be used in future wars. This could be good or bad.
If humans perform their aggressive acts by sending machines out to fight
other machines, that would be better than sending humans out to fight other
humans.
5) Steams of robots could be used to defend a country against attacks while
limiting Human casualties. Either way, human nature is the flawed component
that's here to stay.

FUTURE PROSPECTS:
• Scientists say that it is possible that a robot brain will exist by 2019 .
• Vernor Vinge has suggested that a moment may come when computers
and robots are smarter than humans.
• In 2009, some robots acquired various forms of semi-autonomy, including
being able to find power sources on their own.
• The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence has
researched on this problem.

CONCLUSION:
ROBOT – ‘THE TERMINATOR’: The ROBOT which terminates every job within a
shortest period has no termination. Human brain has boundaries up to which it thinks,
but for Computers no limitations .That is we have to use the brain up to the capacity
of neurons in our brain. But there is no limit to computer memory.

Dept. of E&C VVS Polytechnic