Robotics

The Robotic Industries Association (RIA) defines robot as follows: "A robot is a reprogrammable,
multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools or specialized devices
through variable programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks."

Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics"

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to
come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would
conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict
with the First or Second Law.

Generation of robot (Also helpful for writing history of robot)

1.First generation: Robots are to do repetitive type of operation such as spot welding. Based
on open loop control system. The operation of these machines must be constantly supervised,
because if they get out of alignment and are allowed to keep working, the result can be a series
of bad production units. (After 1960’s)

2.Second generation: Based on closed loop system. Such a robot is equipped with sensors (as
pressure sensors, proximity sensors) that tell it things about the outside world. A controller processes
the data from these sensors and adjusts the operation of the robot accordingly. (After 1980’s)

3.Third generation: Based on machine vision (imaging-based automatic inspection and analysis) based
information system for manipulating objects. Uses techniques such as image processing etc. (After
2000)

4.Fourth generation: Automatically program its action on the basis of sensing devices incorporated
within it. Example FORPHENUS (After 2005)

5.Fifth generation: Yet to come, may have human like intelligence and decision making capability.
(Future)

Major differences between a CNC and robot:

Robot are generally lighter as compare to CNC.

CNC uses numerical methods which looks like coordinates like G codes or special functions like M
codes etc., a robots have its own modes of controlling it which is different from CNC.

Robot is a functional machine which is semi-automated or fully automated while CNC is a

manufacturing machine which is semi-automated.

Generally, robot can handle more general parts as compare to NC machine.

Anatomy of a robot (Structure of a robot):
Most robot used in plants today are mounted on a base which is fastened to the floor. Body of robot is
fastened to base which is fasted to arm assembly (with body joint used position the end effector) which
in turn is fastened to wrist (used to orient the end effector) which is fastened to hand of robot (End
effector which is generally is not considered as part of robot anatomy).
The basic components of a robot system are:
1.Mechanical linkage (Manipulator linkage): The manipulator consists of a set of links
connected by joints (used to provide rotary or sliding motion and decide the degree of freedom). The
last link is called the end effector because this last link to which a gripper or a tool is attached.

2.Actuators and transmission: An actuator is a component of a machine that is responsible

for moving and controlling a mechanism or system. In case of robot actuators are typically linear or
rotary actuators. They may be electric(such as Servo-motors or steeper motors are widely used in
robotics), pneumatic(A pneumatic actuator converts energy formed by vacuum or compressed air at
high pressure into either linear or rotary motion.) or hydraulic type(A hydraulic actuator consists of
cylinder or fluid motor that uses hydraulic power to facilitate mechanical operation.).
Transmissions are element between the actuators and the joints. They can be helpful in speed reduction
during transmission from the motor to links by using gear mechanism, to change the output from
actuator to joints (converting linear motion of actuator to rotary motion of joint or vice-versa), or to
transmit motion from actuator to joint as it is not always possible to locate the actuator at joint position
practically due to heavy weight or due to space constraints.
3.Sensors: It is necessary to know the position (by using encoders, potentiometers, resolvers
etc), velocity (by using tachometer) and acceleration (by using accelerometer) in order to control the
robot properly. Other than this many force sensor, pressure, vision sensors, acoustic sensors or touch
sensors are also used.
4.Controller: It function as the co-ordinating system (like brain) of the robot and is based on a
computer or system of computers.
5.The user interface: This interface allows use a human operator to monitor or control the
operation of the robot. Must have a display unit and input devices. The user interface may be a personal
computer with software or a teach pendant.
 6.Power conversion unit: The power conversion unit takes the commands issued by the
controller which may be low power and even digital signals and converts them into high power analog
signals that can be used to drive the actuators. And also contain power supply unit.

Joint: A joint is a connection between parts or links in a robot that allow motion. It has rotational or
translational degree of freedom (DOF is defined as the number of variables maximum 6 required to
define the motion of a body in space)

Nearly all industrial robots have mechanical joints that can be classified into following five
types as

a) Linear joint (type L joint) The relative movement between the input link and the
output link is a translational sliding motion, with the axes of the two links being
parallel.
b) Orthogonal joint (type U joint): This is also a translational sliding motion, but the
input and output links are perpendicular to each other during the move.
c) Rotational joint (type R joint): This type provides rotational relative motion, with
the axis of rotation perpendicular to the axes of the input and output links.
d) Twisting joint (type T joint): This joint also involves rotary motion, but the axis or
rotation is parallel to the axes of the two links.
e) Revolving joint (type V-joint, V from the “v” in revolving): In this type, axis of
input link is parallel to the axis of rotation of the joint. However, the axis of the output
link is perpendicular to the axis of rotation.

Types of joints

Classification of robots:

1.On the basis of geometry (Basic configuration or work envelope):

 Robot configuration

Basically the robot manipulator has two parts viz. a body-and-arm assembly with three degrees-
of-freedom; and a wrist assembly with two or three degrees-of-freedom. For body-and-arm
configurations, different combinations of joint types are possible for a three-degree-of-freedom
robot manipulator. Five common body-and-arm configurations are:

a. Polar configuration: It consists of a sliding arm L-joint, actuated relative to the body,
which rotates around both a vertical axis (T-joint), and horizontal axis (R-joint).

b. Cylindrical configuration: It consists of a vertical column. An arm assembly is moved up

or down relative to the vertical column. The arm can be moved in and out relative to the axis
of the column. Common configuration is to use a T-joint to rotate the column about its axis.
An L-joint is used to move the arm assembly vertically along the column, while an O-joint is
used to achieve radial movement of the arm.

c.Cartesian co-ordinate robot: It is also known as rectilinear robot and x-y-z robot. It consists
of three sliding joints, two of which are orthogonal O-joints.

d.Jointed-arm robot: It is similar to the configuration of a human arm. It consists of a vertical

column that swivels about the base using a T-joint. Shoulder joint (R-joint) is located at the top
of the column. The output link is an elbow joint (another R joint).

e. SCARA: Its full form is ‘Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm'. It is similar in
construction to the jointer-arm robot, except the shoulder and elbow rotational axes are vertical.
It means that the arm is very rigid in the vertical direction, but compliant in the horizontal
direction. Robot wrist assemblies consist of either two or three degrees-of-freedom. A typical
three-degree-of-freedom wrist joint is depicted in Figure a. The roll joint is accomplished by
use of a T-joint. The pitch joint is achieved by recourse to an R-joint. And the yaw joint, a
right-and-left motion, is gained by deploying a second R-joint.
 Figure a

The SCARA body-and-arm configuration typically does not use a separate wrist assembly. Its
usual operative environment is for insertion-type assembly operations where wrist joints are
unnecessary. The other four body-and-arm configurations more-or-less follow the wrist-joint
configuration by deploying various combinations of rotary joints viz. type R and T.

2.On the basis of drive control system: Electrical, Pneumatic, Hydraulic etc.

3.On the basic of generation of robot (first, second, etc.)

Robot Control Systems

To perform as per the program instructions, the joint movements an industrial robot must
accurately be controlled. Micro-processor-based controllers are used to control the robots.
Different types of control that are being used in robotics are given as follows.

a. Limited Sequence Control: It is an elementary control type. It is used for simple motion
cycles, such as pick-and-place operations. It is implemented by fixing limits or mechanical
stops for each joint and sequencing the movement of joints to accomplish operation. Feedback
loops may be used to inform the controller that the action has been performed, so that the
program can move to the next step. Precision of such control system is less. It is generally used
in pneumatically driven robots.

Characteristics:

They are fast and cheaper.

They involve simple motion

They are limited to pick and place transfer operation

They have mostly only 3 or 4 degree of freedom

 Design are generally modular (in small parts).

b. Playback with Point-to-Point Control: Playback control uses a controller with memory
to record motion sequences in a work cycle, as well as associated locations and other
parameters, and then plays back the work cycle during program execution. Point-to-point
control means individual robot positions are recorded in the memory. These positions include
both mechanical stops for each joint, and the set of values that represent locations in the range
of each joint. Feedback control is used to confirm that the individual joints achieve the specified
locations in the program.

c. Playback with Continuous Path Control: Continuous path control refers to a control
system capable of continuous simultaneous control of two or more axes. The following
advantages are noted with this type of playback control: greater storage capacity—the number
of locations that can be stored is greater than in point-to-point; and interpolation calculations
may be used, especially linear and circular interpolations.

Diffrence between PTP and continuous path robot is that in PTP dx,dy,dz are controlled but in
𝑑𝑥
CP 𝑑𝑦 (i.e. 𝑉𝑥 ) or 𝑉𝑦 or 𝑉𝑧 are controlled .CP control is required mostly for spray coating and
arc welding.

Note: Playback means that the controller has a memory to record the location, sequence of
motions and parameters (such as speed) in a given work cycle and then playback all these
during execution.

Characteristics of Play back control:

More positional accuracy due to feedback and that also can be varied.

Expensive as they need a more sophisticated controller and feed-back devices.

Greater flexibility in programming, because robot can be taught by “Teach pendant”

d. Intelligent Control: An intelligent robot exhibits behaviour that makes it seems to be

intelligent. For example, it may have capacity to interact with its ambient surroundings;
decision-making capability; ability to communicate with humans; ability to carry out
computational analysis during the work cycle; and responsiveness to advanced sensor inputs.
They may also possess the playback facilities. However, it requires a high level of computer
control, and an advanced programming language to input the decision-making logic and other
‘intelligence' into the memory.

Characteristics:

The controllers are complex computer, the most expensive ones.

Robots are capable of interacting with environment.

Robots can make certain logical decision of something goes wrong in operation cycle

This control can communicate with human, even can accept human voice commands.
 Faster computer and advance sensor input like machine vision are helpful in the
response.

An advanced programming language to input the ‘decision-making logic’ and other

‘Intelligence’ (say Fuzzy logic) into memory.

End Effectors

An end effector is usually attached to the robot's wrist, and it allows the robot to accomplish a
specific task. This means that end effectors are generally custom-engineered and fabricated for
each different operation. There are two general categories of end effectors viz. grippers and
tools.

Grippers grasp and manipulate the objects during the work cycle. Typically objects that grasped
are the work parts which need to be loaded or unloaded from one station to another. Grippers
may be custom-designed to suit the physical specifications of work parts. Various end-
effectors, grippers are summarized.

Other type of grippers are dual gripper, standard gripper, standard gripper etc.

Figure showing a typical mechanical gripper.

Figure showing a typical vacuum gripper

The robot end effecter may also use tools. Tools are used to perform processing operations on
the work part. Typically, the robot uses the tool relative to a stationary or slowly-moving object.
For example, spot welding, arc welding, and spray painting robots use a tool for processing the
respective operation. Tools also can be mounted at robotic manipulator spindle to carry out
machining work such as drilling, routing, grinding, etc.

Sensors in Robotics:
There are generally two categories of sensors used in robotics. These are sensors for internal
purposes and for external purposes. Internal sensors are used to monitor and control the various
joints of the robot. They form a feedback control loop with the robot controller. Examples of
internal sensors include potentiometers and optical encoders, while tachometers of various
types are deployed to control the speed of the robot arm. External sensors are external to the
robot itself, and are used when we wish to control the operations of the robot. External sensors
are simple devices, such as limit switches that determine whether a part has been positioned
properly, or whether a part is ready to be picked up from an unloading bay.

Performance specification of robot: The performance parameters or specification

include one or more of the following:

1.Geometric configuration: The geometric configuration such as Cartesion,polar,SCARA etc.

2.Degree of freedom.

3.Payload or load carrying capacity: The payload refers to weight of a workpiece carried or
tool external to robot.

3.Speed of motion: The industrial robot’s normally range for a speed less than 17 cm/sec.This
speed also determines how quickly the robots can complete a work-cycle.

4. Work envelope (also called work volume): A robot's work envelope is its range of
movement. It is the shape created when a manipulator reaches forward, backward, up and
down.
5.Spatial resolution: It is defined as distance between two adjacent addressable points in axis
movement.

6.Postional accuracy: How closely a robot can position its payload to a given programmed
point.

7.Repeatability: It is the robot’s ability to position its wrist at point, in space, taught previously
to robot.

Note: Resolution, accuracy and repeatability decide the precision of robot.

Robot programming: There are various method by which robot can be programmed to
perform a given work event.

The two main techniques are described shortly below:

Online programming: Online programming means creating the control program directly on the
robots on board computer, hence by manually steering the robots to different position using a
joystick, teach pendent or similar control mechanism. Each desired position contributes to code
as a number of co-ordinates.

Offline programming: In contrast to online programming, in this method offline programming

means creating the control program on a dedicated unit, such as a PC. This involves either
manual editing of code in a text editor, or automatically generated code using for instance a
CAD-model.

• Programing methods
• Programming pick and place robot
• Walk through teaching or pendant teaching or teaching by showing
• Lead through teaching or Physical arm learning
• Computerized programming language

Robot languages: Name of few robot programming languages are (Only VAL and AML
are in course):

AL-Algorithmic language (Stanford AI lab) ,VAL-Versatile Algorithmic language,AML-A

Manufacturing Language (by IBM),MCL-Manufacturing Control language,VML-Virtual
Machine Language (CNR Italy) etc.

VAL, is a first generation language, which is used for off-line programming and sensory data
is only in the form of binary (ON/OFF signals).

AML, VAL-II, RAIL are second generation language, which can have complex motion
commands as well as force, torque, slip sensing capabilities. It can handle analog and digital
data in addition to binary signals.
VAL robot programming (Versatile algorithmic language)

It was developed by Unimation Inc. for PUMA series of robots in 1979.But in 1984 it was
upgraded to VAL-II with interlocking facilities. It is very user friendly and is self-capable
operating system to regulate robot. It combines with lead-through programming on Teach-
pendant to ‘record’ points.

Few commands are as follows:

HERE: To teach a point using teach-pendant

MOVE: Move to a point

APPRO: Approach with reference to a point (offset)

DEPART: Move away from a point

SPEED or SP: Set the speed of movement

OPEN: Open the jaw and drop object

CLOSE: Close the jaw.

-IF-THEN: Transfers control after testing a condition

-GOTO: Unconditional branches to program step

-GOSUB: Call a subroutine in program

Example: Write a robot program in VAL to pick a part from location (X=250, Y=500, Z=150)
place to (X=140, Y=30, Z=250)

First move the gripper to start position by teach pendant and give command

HERE P1

POINT RECV=P1

Now move gripper to location second and give the command

HERE P2

POINT DROP=P2

Now the program is:

APPRO RECV,50

MOVE RECV
CLOSE

DEPART 150

APPRO DROP,50

MOVE DROP

OPEN

DEPART

Note: We have approached 50 mm above the location RECV and DROP, then move to exact
points.

AML (A Manufacturing Language)

AML was developed by IBM.AML is used for automated assembly system(AAS) and
manufacturing system. The main feature of AML is aggregate, means co-ordinate value of
robot wrist position and orientation can be defined along with the integers, real and strings.Few
commands used in AML are as follows:

GUIDE: To teach a point using “Teach-Pendant”

-MOVE: To reach a defined point

-DMOVE: To reach a position with reference to a position

-AMOVE: To move away from a specified point

SPEED: For setting speed parameter

Note: For example of AML Please check slides

Robot economics
Intelligence manufacturing
“Intelligent manufacturing” (IM) means using the combined intelligence of people, processes
and machines, to impact the overall economics of manufacturing. Its purpose is to optimize
manufacturing resources, improve business value and safety, and reduce waste – both on the
floor and in back office operations, all while meeting customer demands for delivery and
quality. Manufacturers achieve this with the latest manufacturing execution system (MES),
intelligent devices, machine-to-machine communication, and data analysis for its production
lines and facilities.

AI (Artificial intelligence)

Artificial intelligence (AI),sometimes called machine intelligence, is intelligence demonstrated

by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and other animals.

Artificial Intelligence represents an extremely broad technology. The scope for this
Technology Assessment embraces vision, robotics, machine interface, problem solving and
inference, learning, knowledge representation (Knowledge representation and is the field of
artificial intelligence (AI) dedicated to representing information about the world in a form that
a computer system can utilize to solve complex tasks such as diagnosing a medical condition
or having a dialog in a natural language.), language, speech recognition, and tactile sensing.

Many tools are used in AI, including versions of search and mathematical optimization (such
as Genetic algorithm which is used extensively "as a powerful tool to solve various
optimization problems and is based on theory of natural selection i.e., within a sample set,
solution, solutions that are poor tend to die out while better solution mate and prpograte their
advantageous traits), artificial neural networks (are networks of Artificial neurons and hence
constitute crude approximation to parts of real brains. They may be physical devices or
simulated on conventional computers.), and methods based on statistics, probability and
economics.

AI can prove beneficial in the design and planning stages of manufacturing, that can assist in
solving scheduling and control problems and that can be used in manufacturing integration. An
intelligent computers and computer program create better quality products, better efficiency
and effective manufacturing system, product along this line will appear more often in the
market.

In artificial intelligence, an expert system is a computer system that emulates the decision-
making ability of a human expert. An expert system is divided into two subsystems: the
inference engine and the knowledge base. The knowledge base represents facts and rules. The
inference engine applies the rules to the known facts to deduce new facts. Inference engines
can also include explanation and debugging abilities.

Forward chaining (or forward reasoning) and Backward chaining (or backward
reasoning) are two main methods of reasoning used in expert system.
Robot/Machine Vision

Machine vision (MV) is the technology and methods used to provide imaging-based automatic
inspection and analysis for such applications as automatic inspection, process control, and
robot guidance, usually in industry.

Machine vision system is a sensor used in the robots for viewing and recognizing an object
with the help of a computer. This system is also known as artificial vision or computer vision.
It has several components such as a camera, digital computer, digitizing hardware, and an
interface hardware & software. The machine vision process includes three important tasks,
namely:

 Sensing & Digitizing Image Data

 Image Processing & Analysis
 Applications
Sensing & Digitizing Image Data: A camera is used in the sensing and digitizing tasks for
viewing the images. It will make use of special lighting methods for gaining better picture
contrast. These images are changed into the digital form, and it is known as the frame of the
vision data. A frame grabber is incorporated for taking digitized image continuously at 30
frames per second. Instead of scene projections, every frame is divided as a matrix. By
performing sampling operation on the image, the number of pixels can be identified. The pixels
are generally described by the elements of the matrix. A pixel is decreased to a value for
measuring the intensity of light. As a result of this process, the intensity of every pixel is
changed into the digital value and stored in the computer’s memory.

Image Processing & Analysis: In this function, the image interpretation and data reduction
processes are done. The threshold of an image frame is developed as a binary image for
reducing the data. The data reduction will help in converting the frame from raw image data to
the feature value data. The feature value data can be calculated via computer programming.
This is performed by matching the image descriptors like size and appearance with the
previously stored data on the computer.

The image processing and analysis function will be made more effective by training the
machine vision system regularly. There are several data collected in the training process like
length of perimeter, outer & inner diameter, area, and so on. Here, the camera will be very
helpful to identify the match between the computer models and new objects of feature value
data.

Applications: Some of the important applications of the machine vision system in the robots
are:

• Inspection

• Orientation

• Part Identification
• Location

There are some of the future improvements researches are going on for providing highly-
developed machine vision system in the complicated areas.

What is Fuzzy logic (FL)?

Fuzzy logic is another tool that is gaining popularity in recent years. It is based on the
observation that people make decision based on imprecise and non-numerical information,
fuzzy models. The idea behind the FL is quite simple. An exact rule or law cannot be possible
for each possible problem.

Fuzzy logic is an approach to computing based on "degrees of truth" rather than the usual "true
or false" (1 or 0) Boolean logic on which the modern computer is based.