1. Robotics

2. What is your favorite robot?
Robby – Forbidden Planet
Robocop
Tobor

3. Find some good robotics videos.
 Swimming fish:
 http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~jliua/videogal.htm
 Robot wars:
 http://robogames.net/videos.php
 http://www.metalmunchingmaniacs.com/combat-robot-
videos.t
 Japanese robots:
 http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~renner/Teaching/Roboti
cs/videos.html
 http://www.plyojump.com/qrio.html
 Miscellaneous robots:
 http://www.roboticsonline.com/public/articles/articles.cf
m?cat=298

4. “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.”
(Robot Institute of America)
Definition:
Alternate definition:
“A robot is a one-armed, blind idiot with limited
memory and which cannot speak, see, or hear.”
What is a robot?

5. What are robots good at?
 What is hard for humans is easy for robots.
 Repetitive tasks.
 Continuous operation.
 Do complicated calculations.
 Refer to huge data bases.
 What is easy for a human is hard for robots.
 Reasoning.
 Adapting to new situations.
 Flexible to changing requirements.
 Integrating multiple sensors.
 Resolving conflicting data.
 Synthesizing unrelated information.
 Creativity.

6. What tasks would you give
robots?
 Dangerous
 Space exploration
 chemical spill cleanup
 disarming bombs
 disaster cleanup
 Boring and/or repetitive
 Welding car frames
 part pick and place
 manufacturing parts.
 High precision or high speed
 Electronics testing
 Surgery
 precision machining.

7. What does building robots
teach us about humans?
 How do our sensors work?
 eyes
 brain
 How do we integrate sensors?
 How does our muscular-skeletal
system work?
 How do we grab and hold an
object?
 How does our brain process
information?
 What is nature of intelligence?
 How do we make decisions?

8. What subsystems make up a
robot?
 Action
 Stationary base
 Mobile
 Sensors
 Control
 Power supply
Robert Stengel, Princeton Univ.

9. Action – do some function.
 Actuators
 pneumatic
 hydraulic
 electric solenoid
 Motors
 Analog (continuous)
 Stepping (discrete increments)
 Gears, belts, screws, levers
 Manipulations

10. Three types of robot actions.
 Pick and place
 Moves items between points.
 Continuous path control
 Moves along a programmable
path
 Sensory
 Employs sensors for feedback

11.  Simple joints (2D)
 Prismatic — sliding along one axis
• square cylinder in square tube
 Revolute — rotating about one axis
 Compound joints (3D)
 ball and socket = 3 revolute joints
 round cylinder in tube = 1 prismatic, 1 revolute
 Degrees of freedom = Number of independent
motions
 3 degrees of freedom: 2 translation, 1 rotation
 6 degrees of freedom: 3 translation, 3 rotation
How do robots move?

12. Mobility
 Legs
 Wheels
 Tracks
 Crawls
 Role

13. What sensors might robots
have?
 Optical
 Laser / radar
 3D
 Color spectrum
 Pressure
 Temperature
 Chemical
 Motion & Accelerometer
 Acoustic
 Ultrasonic

14. What use are sensors?
 Uses sensors for feedback
 Closed-loop robots use sensors in
conjunction with actuators to gain
higher accuracy – servo motors.
 Uses include mobile robotics,
telepresence, search and rescue,
pick and place with machine vision.

15. Control - the Brain
 Open loop, i.e., no feedback,
deterministic
 Instructions
 Rules
 Closed loop, i.e., feedback
 Learn
 Adapt