Robotics

TOPIO, a humanoid robot, played ping pong at Tokyo International Robot Exhibition (IREX) 2009.

The Shadow robot hand system

A Pick and Place robot in a factory

Robotics is a branch of science and engineering dealing with the study of robots. It is involved with a robot's
design, manufacture, application, and structural disposition. Robotics is related to electronics, mechanics, and
software. The word "robot" was introduced to the public by Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R.
(Rossum's Universal Robots), published in 1920. The term "robotics" was coined by Isaac Asimov in his 1941
science fiction short-story "Liar!"

History
Stories of artificial helpers and companions and attempts to create them have a long history.

In 1921, Czech writer Karel Čapek introduced the word "robot" in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots).
The word "robot" comes from the word "robota", meaning, in Czech, "forced labour, drudgery".

In 1927, the Maschinenmensch (“machine-human”), a gynoid humanoid robot, also called "Parody", "Futura",
"Robotrix", or the "Maria impersonator" (played by German actress Brigitte Helm), the first and perhaps the
most memorable depiction of a robot ever to appear on film, was depicted in Fritz Lang's film Metropolis.

In 1942, the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov formulated his Three Laws of Robotics, and in the process of
doing so, coined the word "robotics" (see details in "Etymology" section below).

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. Today, commercial and industrial robots are in widespread use performing 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, and packing; transport;
earth and space exploration; surgery; weaponry; laboratory research; safety; and mass production of consumer
and industrial goods.

Date Significance Robot Name Inventor

Descriptions of more than 100 machines and
First
automata, including a fire engine, a wind organ, a Ctesibius, Philo of
century
coin-operated machine, and a steam-powered Byzantium, Heron of
A.D. and
engine, in Pneumatica and Automata by Heron of Alexandria, and others
earlier
Alexandria
Robot band, hand-
Created early humanoid automata, programmable washing automaton,
1206 Al-Jazari
automaton band automated moving
peacocks
1495 Designs for a humanoid robot Mechanical knight Leonardo da Vinci
Mechanical duck that was able to eat, flap its wings,
1738 Digesting Duck Jacques de Vaucanson
and excrete
The novel Spinoza introduced a humanoid
1837 automaton activated by inscribing Hebrew letters on The Golem of Prague Berthold Auerbach
its forehead based on Jewish folklore
Nikola Tesla demonstrates first radio-controlled
1898 Teleautomaton Nikola Tesla
vessel.
First fictional automatons called "robots" appear in Rossum's Universal
1921 Karel Čapek
the play R.U.R. Robots
Humanoid robot exhibited at the 1939 and 1940 Westinghouse Electric
1930s Elektro
World's Fairs Corporation
1948 Simple robots exhibiting biological behaviors Elsie and Elmer William Grey Walter
 First commercial robot, from the Unimation
1956 company founded by George Devol and Joseph Unimate George Devol
Engelberger, based on Devol's patents
1961 First installed industrial robot. Unimate George Devol
1963 First palletizing robot Palletizer Fuji Yusoki Kogyo
First industrial robot with six electromechanically
1973 Famulus KUKA Robot Group
driven axes
Programmable universal manipulation arm, a
1975 PUMA Victor Scheinman
Unimation product

Etymology
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word robotics was first used in print by Isaac Asimov, in his
science fiction short story "Liar!", published in May 1941 in Astounding Science Fiction. Asimov was unaware
that he was coining the term; since the science and technology of electrical devices is electronics, he assumed
robotics already referred to the science and technology of robots. However, in some of Asimov's other works,
he states that the first use of the word robotics was in his short story Runaround (Astounding Science Fiction,
March 1942). The word robotics was derived from the word robot, which was introduced to the public by
Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), which premiered in 1921.

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
 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 factories. 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).
 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 runs through it. They have been used for some
small robot applications.
 Electroactive Polymers: (EAPs or EPAMs) are a new plastic material that can contract substantially
(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

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.

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 through it.
 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, MANU,[ 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".

Locomotion

Rolling robots

Segway in the Robot museum in Nagoya.

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, 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".
  Walking robots

iCub robot, designed by the RobotCub Consortium

Walking is a difficult and dynamic problem to solve. Several robots have been made which can walk reliably on
two legs, however none have yet been made which are as robust as a human. Many other robots have been built
that walk on more than two legs, due to these robots being significantly easier to construct. Hybrids too have
been proposed in movies such as I, Robot, where they walk on 2 legs and switch to 4 (arms+legs) when going to
a sprint. Typically, robots on 2 legs can walk well on flat floors, and can occasionally walk up stairs. None can
walk over rocky, uneven terrain. Some of the methods which have been tried are:

 ZMP Technique: The Zero Moment Point (ZMP) is the algorithm used by robots such as Honda's
ASIMO. The robot's onboard computer tries to keep the total inertial forces (the combination of earth's
gravity and the acceleration and deceleration of walking), exactly opposed by the floor reaction force
(the force of the floor pushing back on the robot's foot). In this way, the two forces cancel out, leaving
no moment (force causing the robot to rotate and fall over). However, this is not exactly how a human
walks, and the difference is obvious to human observers, some of whom have pointed out that ASIMO
walks as if it needs the lavatory. ASIMO's walking algorithm is not static, and some dynamic balancing
is used (See below). However, it still requires a smooth surface to walk on.
 Hopping: Several robots, built in the 1980s by Marc Raibert at the MIT Leg Laboratory, successfully
demonstrated very dynamic walking. Initially, a robot with only one leg, and a very small foot, could
stay upright simply by hopping. The movement is the same as that of a person on a pogo stick. As the
robot falls to one side, it would jump slightly in that direction, in order to catch itself. Soon, the
algorithm was generalised to two and four legs. A bipedal robot was demonstrated running and even
performing somersaults. A quadruped was also demonstrated which could trot, run, pace, and bound.For
a full list of these robots, see the MIT Leg Lab Robots page.
 Dynamic Balancing or controlled falling: A more advanced way for a robot to walk is by using a
dynamic balancing algorithm, which is potentially more robust than the Zero Moment Point technique,
as it constantly monitors the robot's motion, and places the feet in order to maintain stability. This
technique was recently demonstrated by Anybots' Dexter Robot, which is so stable, it can even jump.
Another example is the TU Delft Flame.
 Passive Dynamics: Perhaps the most promising approach utilizes passive dynamics where the
momentum of swinging limbs is used for greater efficiency. It has been shown that totally unpowered
humanoid mechanisms can walk down a gentle slope, using only gravity to propel themselves. Using
this technique, a robot need only supply a small amount of motor power to walk along a flat surface or a
little more to walk up a hill. This technique promises to make walking robots at least ten times more
efficient than ZMP walkers, like ASIMO.
Other methods of locomotion

RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle

 Flying: A modern passenger airliner is essentially a flying robot, with two humans to manage it. The
autopilot can control the plane for each stage of the journey, including takeoff, normal flight, and even
landing. Other flying robots are uninhabited, and are known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). They
can be smaller and lighter without a human pilot onboard, and fly into dangerous territory for military
surveillance missions. Some can even fire on targets under command. UAVs are also being developed
which can fire on targets automatically, without the need for a command from a human. Other flying
robots include cruise missiles, the Entomopter, and the Epson micro helicopter robot. Robots such as the
Air Penguin, Air Ray, and Air Jelly have lighter-than-air bodies, propelled by paddles, and guided by
sonar.

Two robot snakes. Left one has 64 motors (with 2 degrees of freedom per segment), the right one 10.

 Snaking: Several snake robots have been successfully developed. Mimicking the way real snakes move,
these robots can navigate very confined spaces, meaning they may one day be used to search for people
trapped in collapsed buildings. The Japanese ACM-R5 snake robot can even navigate both on land and
in water.
 Skating: A small number of skating robots have been developed, one of which is a multi-mode walking
and skating device, Titan VIII. It has four legs, with unpowered wheels, which can either step or roll.
Another robot, Plen, can use a miniature skateboard or rollerskates, and skate across a desktop.
 Climbing: Several different approaches have been used to develop robots that have the ability to climb
vertical surfaces. One approach mimicks the movements of a human climber on a wall with protrusions;
adjusting the center of mass and moving each limb in turn to gain leverage. An example of this is
Capuchin, built by Stanford University, California. Another approach uses the specialised toe pad
method of wall-climbing geckoes, which can run on smooth surfaces such as vertical glass. Examples of
this approach include Wallbot and Stickybot. China's "Technology Daily" November 15, 2008 reported
New Concept Aircraft (ZHUHAI) Co., Ltd. Dr. Li Hiu Yeung and his research group have recently
successfully developed the bionic gecko robot "Speedy Freelander".According to Dr. Li introduction,
 this gecko robot can rapidly climbing up and down in a variety of building walls, ground and vertical
wall fissure or walking upside down on the ceiling, it is able to adapt on smooth glass, rough or sticky
dust walls as well as the various surface of metallic materials and also can automatically identify
obstacles, circumvent the bypass and flexible and realistic movements. Its flexibility and speed are
comparable to the natural gecko. A third approach is to mimick the motion of a snake climbing a pole.
 Swimming: It is calculated that when swimming some fish can achieve a propulsive efficiency greater
than 90%. Furthermore, they can accelerate and maneuver far better than any man-made boat or
submarine, and produce less noise and water disturbance. Therefore, many researchers studying
underwater robots would like to copy this type of locomotion. Notable examples are the Essex
University Computer Science Robotic Fish, and the Robot Tuna built by the Institute of Field Robotics,
to analyze and mathematically model thunniform motion. The Aqua Penguin, designed and built by
Festo of Germany, copies the streamlined shape and propulsion by front "flippers" of penguins. Festo
have also built the Aqua Ray and Aqua Jelly, which emulate the locomotion of manta ray, and jellyfish,
respectively.

Environmental interaction and navigation

RADAR, GPS, LIDAR, ... are all combined to provide proper navigation and obstacle avoidance

Though a significant percentage of robots in commission today are either human controlled, or operate in a
static environment, there is an increasing interest in robots that can operate autonomously in a dynamic
environment. These robots require some combination of navigation hardware and software in order to traverse
their environment. In particular unforeseen events (e.g. people and other obstacles that are not stationary) can
cause problems or collisions. Some highly advanced robots as ASIMO, EveR-1, Meinü robot have particularly
good robot navigation hardware and software. Also, self-controlled cars, Ernst Dickmanns' driverless car, and
the entries in the DARPA Grand Challenge, are capable of sensing the environment well and subsequently
making navigational decisions based on this information. Most of these robots employ a GPS navigation device
with waypoints, along with radar, sometimes combined with other sensory data such as LIDAR, video cameras,
and inertial guidance systems for better navigation between waypoints.

Human-robot interaction

Kismet can produce a range of facial expressions.

If robots are to work effectively in homes and other non-industrial environments, the way they are instructed to
perform their jobs, and especially how they will be told to stop will be of critical importance. The people who
interact with them may have little or no training in robotics, and so any interface will need to be extremely
intuitive. Science fiction authors also typically assume that robots will eventually be capable of communicating
with humans through speech, gestures, and facial expressions, rather than a command-line interface. Although
speech would be the most natural way for the human to communicate, it is unnatural for the robot. It will be a
long time before robots interact as naturally as the fictional C-3PO.

 Speech recognition: Interpreting the continuous flow of sounds coming from a human (speech
recognition), in real time, is a difficult task for a computer, mostly because of the great variability of
speech. The same word, spoken by the same person may sound different depending on local acoustics,
volume, the previous word, whether or not the speaker has a cold, etc.. It becomes even harder when the
speaker has a different accent. Nevertheless, great strides have been made in the field since Davis,
Biddulph, and Balashek designed the first "voice input system" which recognized "ten digits spoken by a
single user with 100% accuracy" in 1952. Currently, the best systems can recognize continuous, natural
speech, up to 160 words per minute, with an accuracy of 95%.
 Gestures: One can imagine, in the future, explaining to a robot chef how to make a pastry, or asking
directions from a robot police officer. In both of these cases, making hand gestures would aid the verbal
descriptions. In the first case, the robot would be recognizing gestures made by the human, and perhaps
repeating them for confirmation. In the second case, the robot police officer would gesture to indicate
"down the road, then turn right". It is likely that gestures will make up a part of the interaction between
humans and robots. A great many systems have been developed to recognize human hand gestures.
 Facial expression: Facial expressions can provide rapid feedback on the progress of a dialog between
two humans, and soon it may be able to do the same for humans and robots. Robotic faces have been
constructed by Hanson Robotics using their elastic polymer called Frubber, allowing a great amount of
facial expressions due to the elasticity of the rubber facial coating and imbedded subsurface motors
(servos) to produce the facial expressions. The coating and servos are built on a metal skull. A robot
should know how to approach a human, judging by their facial expression and body language. Whether
the person is happy, frightened, or crazy-looking affects the type of interaction expected of the robot.
Likewise, robots like Kismet and the more recent addition, Nexi can produce a range of facial
expressions, allowing it to have meaningful social exchanges with humans.
 Artificial emotions Artificial emotions can also be imbedded and are composed of a sequence of facial
expressions and/or gestures. As can be seen from the movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the
programming of these artificial emotions is complex and requires a great amount of human observation.
To simplify this programming in the movie, presets were created together with a special software
program. This decreased the amount of time needed to make the film. These presets could possibly be
transferred for use in real-life robots.
 Personality: Many of the robots of science fiction have a personality, something which may or may not
be desirable in the commercial robots of the future. Nevertheless, researchers are trying to create robots
which appear to have a personality: i.e. they use sounds, facial expressions, and body language to try to
convey an internal state, which may be joy, sadness, or fear. One commercial example is Pleo, a toy
robot dinosaur, which can exhibit several apparent emotions.

Control
A robot-manipulated marionette, with complex control systems

The mechanical structure of a robot must be controlled to perform tasks. The control of a robot involves three
distinct phases - perception, processing, and action (robotic paradigms). Sensors give information about the
environment or the robot itself (e.g. the position of its joints or its end effector). This information is then
processed to calculate the appropriate signals to the actuators (motors) which move the mechanical.

The processing phase can range in complexity. At a reactive level, it may translate raw sensor information
directly into actuator commands. Sensor fusion may first be used to estimate parameters of interest (e.g. the
position of the robot's gripper) from noisy sensor data. An immediate task (such as moving the gripper in a
certain direction) is inferred from these estimates. Techniques from control theory convert the task into
commands that drive the actuators.

At longer time scales or with more sophisticated tasks, the robot may need to build and reason with a
"cognitive" model. Cognitive models try to represent the robot, the world, and how they interact. Pattern
recognition and computer vision can be used to track objects. Mapping techniques can be used to build maps of
the world. Finally, motion planning and other artificial intelligence techniques may be used to figure out how to
act. For example, a planner may figure out how to achieve a task without hitting obstacles, falling over, etc.

Autonomy levels
Control systems may also have varying levels of autonomy.

1. Direct interaction is used for haptic or tele-operated devices, and the human has nearly complete control
over the robot's motion.
2. Operator-assist modes have the operator commanding medium-to-high-level tasks, with the robot
automatically figuring out how to achieve them.
3. An autonomous robot may go for extended periods of time without human interaction. Higher levels of
autonomy do not necessarily require more complex cognitive capabilities. For example, robots in
assembly plants are completely autonomous, but operate in a fixed pattern.

Another classification takes into account the interaction between human control and the machine motions.

1. Teleoperation. A human controls each movement, each machine actuator change is specified by the
operator.
2. Supervisory. A human specifies general moves or position changes and the machine decides specific
movements of its actuators.
3. Task-level autonomy. The operator specifies only the task and the robot manages itself to complete it.
 4. Full autonomy. The machine will create and complete all its tasks without human interaction.

Dynamics and kinematics

The study of motion can be divided into kinematics and dynamics. Direct kinematics refers to the calculation of
end effector position, orientation, velocity, and acceleration when the corresponding joint values are known.
Inverse kinematics refers to the opposite case in which required joint values are calculated for given end
effector values, as done in path planning. Some special aspects of kinematics include handling of redundancy
(different possibilities of performing the same movement), collision avoidance, and singularity avoidance. Once
all relevant positions, velocities, and accelerations have been calculated using kinematics, methods from the
field of dynamics are used to study the effect of forces upon these movements. Direct dynamics refers to the
calculation of accelerations in the robot once the applied forces are known. Direct dynamics is used in computer
simulations of the robot. Inverse dynamics refers to the calculation of the actuator forces necessary to create a
prescribed end effector acceleration. This information can be used to improve the control algorithms of a robot.

In each area mentioned above, researchers strive to develop new concepts and strategies, improve existing ones,
and improve the interaction between these areas. To do this, criteria for "optimal" performance and ways to
optimize design, structure, and control of robots must be developed and implemented.

Robot research
Much of the research in robotics focuses not on specific industrial tasks, but on investigations into new types of
robots, alternative ways to think about or design robots, and new ways to manufacture them but other
investigations, such as MIT's cyberflora project, are almost wholly academic.

A first particular new innovation in robot design is the opensourcing of robot-projects. To describe the level of
advancement of a robot, the term "Generation Robots" can be used. This term is coined by Professor Hans
Moravec, Principal Research Scientist at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute in describing the
near future evolution of robot technology. First generation robots, Moravec predicted in 1997, should have an
intellectual capacity comparable to perhaps a lizard and should become available by 2010. Because the first
generation robot would be incapable of learning, however, Moravec predicts that the second generation robot
would be an improvement over the first and become available by 2020, with an intelligence maybe comparable
to that of a mouse. The third generation robot should have an intelligence comparable to that of a monkey.
Though fourth generation robots, robots with human intelligence, professor Moravec predicts, would become
possible, he does not predict this happening before around 2040 or 2050.

The second is Evolutionary Robots. This is a methodology that uses evolutionary computation to help design
robots, especially the body form, or motion and behavior controllers. In a similar way to natural evolution, a
large population of robots is allowed to compete in some way, or their ability to perform a task is measured
using a fitness function. Those that perform worst are removed from the population, and replaced by a new set,
which have new behaviors based on those of the winners. Over time the population improves, and eventually a
satisfactory robot may appear. This happens without any direct programming of the robots by the researchers.
Researchers use this method both to create better robots, and to explore the nature of evolution. Because the
process often requires many generations of robots to be simulated, this technique may be run entirely or mostly
in simulation, then tested on real robots once the evolved algorithms are good enough. Currently, there are about
1 million industrial robots toiling around the world, and Japan is the top country having high density of utilizing
robots in its manufacturing industry.

Education and training

The SCORBOT-ER 4u - educational robot.

Robots recently became a popular tool in raising interests in computing for middle and high school students.
First year computer science courses at several universities were developed which involves the programming of
a robot instead of the traditional software engineering based coursework.

Career training

Universities offer Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral degrees in the field of robotics. Select Private Career
Colleges and vocational schools offer robotics training to train individuals towards being job ready and
employable in the emerging robotics industry.

Certification

The Robotics Certification Standards Alliance (RCSA) is an international robotics certification authority who
confers various industry and educational related robotics certifications.

Employment in robotics

A robot technician builds small all-terrain robots. (Courtesy: MobileRobots Inc)

Robotics is an essential component in any modern manufacturing environment. As factories increase their use
of robots, the number of robotics related jobs grow and have been observed to be on a steady rise.

Relationship to unemployment
Some analysts, such as Martin Ford, argue that robots and other forms of automation will ultimately result in
significant unemployment as machines begin to match and exceed the capability of workers to perform most
jobs. At present the negative impact is only on average and repetitive jobs, and there is actually a positive
impact on the number of jobs for highly skilled technicians, engineers, and knowledge workers. However, these
highly skilled jobs are not sufficient in number to offset the greater decrease in employment among the general
population, causing structural unemployment in which overall (net) unemployment rises.

As robotics and artificial intelligence develop further, some worry even many skilled jobs may be threatened. In
conventional economic theory, this should cause merely an increase in the productivity of the involved
industries, resulting in higher demand for other goods, and hence higher labour demand in these sectors,
offsetting whatever negatives are caused. However, some authors believe that the conventional theory describes
the past well but may not describe the future because of shifts in the parameter values that shape the context
(see Automation > Relationship to unemployment).

Healthcare
Script Pro manufactures a robot designed to help pharmacies fill prescriptions that consist of oral solids or
medications in pill form. The pharmacist or pharmacy technician enters the prescription information into its
information system. The system, upon determining whether or not the drug is in the robot, will send the
information to the robot for filling. The robot has 3 different size vials to fill determined by the size of the pill.
The robot technician, user, or pharmacist determines the needed size of the vial based on the tablet when the
robot is stocked. Once the vial is filled it is brought up to a conveyor belt that delivers it to a holder that spins
the vial and attaches the patient label. Afterwards it is set on another conveyor that delivers the patient’s
medication vial to a slot labeled with the patient's name on an LED read out. The pharmacist or technician then
checks the contents of the vial to ensure it’s the correct drug for the correct patient and then seals the vials and
sends it out front to be picked up. The robot is a very time efficient device that the pharmacy depends on to fill
prescriptions.

McKesson’s Robot RX is another healthcare robotics product that helps pharmacies dispense thousands of
medications daily with little or no errors. The robot can be ten feet wide and thirty feet long and can hold
hundreds of different kinds of medications and thousands of doses. The pharmacy saves many resources like
staff members that are otherwise unavailable in a resource scarce industry. It uses an electromechanical head
coupled with a pneumatic system to capture each dose and deliver it to its either stocked or dispensed location.
The head moves along a single axis while it rotates 180 degrees to pull the medications. During this process it
uses barcode technology to verify its pulling the correct drug. It then delivers the drug to a patient specific bin
on a conveyor belt. Once the bin is filled with all of the drugs that a particular patient needs and that the robot
stocks, the bin is then released and returned out on the conveyor belt to a technician waiting to load it into a cart
for delivery to the floor.