ROBOTICS

http://hello-engineers.blogspot.com/

INTRODUCTION

Robotics, computer-controlled machine that is a programmable machine that imitates the actions or appearance of an intelligent creatureusually a human. To qualify as a robot, a machine has to be able to do two things: 1) get information from its surroundings, and 2) do something physicalsuch as move or manipulate objects.

CONTD..

It was first used in the 1921 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) by the Czech novelist and playwright Karel Capek. Robots are able to perform repetitive tasks more quickly, cheaply, and accurately than humans. The word robot has been used since to refer to a machine that performs work to assist people or work that humans find difficult or undesirable. Robots really work for people and perform tasks for them that may be dangerous.

Early Mythology
The notion of putting machines to work for us to perform routine tasks on command can be credited to great thinkers like Aristotle (384-322 BC).

13th 15th Century

Inventors were busy developing real automatons that mimicked human mannerisms. This first generation of robots were clock controlled ornaments with self-moving parts. An automated rooster erected on top of the cathedral in Strasbourg in 1350 is a good example. It was designed to flap its wings and crow every day at noon.

(cont.)
18th Century
In 1774 inventors Pierre and Henri-Louis Jacquet-Droz unveiled the Automatic Scribe. This lifelike figure of a boy could draw and write any message up to 40 characters long. A robot woman playing a piano was another one of their great inventions.

(cont.)
19th Century

Unlike the toy automatons of18th century, robots of the 800s were chiefly designed to meet the growing demands of a flourishing industrial society. A good example is this Textile Machine. Operated by punch cards, this programmable Loom was capable of mass production and is one of the earliest machines to store a programme designed to control its entire operation.

(cont.)
19th Century (cont.)

1890: Thomas Edison used a condensed version of his phonograph invention in the design of the famous talking doll.

1898: Nikola Tesla, a famous inventor, patents the first remote controlled device. The 'teleautomaton' was a crewless boat that was controlled from a distance without wires.

(cont.)
20th Century

1921: The first reference to the word robot is made in a play by Czech writer Karel Capek (1890 - 1938) - R.U.R (Rossum's Universal Robots). The word comes from the Czech robota which means serf or one in subservient labour.

In the play, the Czech robot is defined as "a worker of forced labour". After this Play, electromechanical automatons were referred to as robots.

(cont.)
20th Century (cont.)

1968: SRI International, formerly known as the Stanford Research Institute, builds and tests the first mobile robot with vision capability. 'Shakey' was equipped with a television camera, a range finder and sensors. Shakey was the first mobile robot that could think and respond to the world around it.

(cont.)
20th Century (cont.)

1968: The General Electric Walking Truck was the first manual controlled walking truck.

20th Century (cont.)

1969: Stanford University develop the first electrically powered computer controlled robotic arm. This becomes standard for research projects 1974: Professor Sheinman, of Stanford Arm fame, forms Vicarm Inc. to market a version of the arm controlled by microcomputer for industrial applications. This robotic arm, known as the Silver Arm performs small-parts assembly using touch sensitive sensors.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ROBOTS

A machine that looks like a human being and performs various complex acts of a human being. A device that automatically performs complicated often repetitive tasks. A mechanism guided by automatic controls.

HOW ROBOTS WORK

The inspiration for the design of a robot manipulator is the human arm, but with some differences. For example, a robot arm can extend by telescopingthat is, by sliding cylindrical sections one over another to lengthen the arm. Grippers, or end effectors, are designed to mimic the function and structure of the human hand. Many robots are equipped with special purpose grippers to grasp particular devices such as a rack of test tubes or an arc-welder. The joints of a robotic arm are usually driven by electric motors.

CONTD..

A computer calculates the joint angles needed to move the gripper to the desired position in a process known as inverse kinematics. Some multi-jointed arms are equipped with servo, or feedback, controllers that receive input from a computer. Any robot designed to move in an unstructured or unknown environment will require multiple sensors and controls, such as ultrasonic or infrared sensors, to avoid obstacles.

TYPES OF ROBOTS & THEIR APPLICATIONS

(1) Industrial Robots:

Cartesian robot /Gantry robot: Used for pick and place work, application of sealant, assembly operations, handling machine tools and arc welding. It's a robot whose arm has three prismatic joints, whose axes are coincident with a Cartesian coordinator. Cylindrical robot: Used for assembly operations, handling at machine tools, spot welding, and handling at die casting machines. It's a robot whose axes form a cylindrical coordinate system. Spherical/Polar robot: Used for handling at machine tools, spot welding, die casting, fettling machines, gas welding and arc welding. It's a robot whose axes form a polar coordinate system.

CONTD..

SCARA robot: Used for pick and place work, application of sealant, assembly operations and handling machine tools. It's a robot which has two parallel rotary joints to provide compliance in a plane. Articulated robot: Used for assembly operations, die casting, fettling machines, gas welding, arc welding and spray painting. It's a robot whose arm has at least three rotary joints. Parallel robot: One use is a mobile platform handling cockpit flight simulators. It's a robot whose arms have concurrent prismatic or rotary joints.

(2) Other Robots:

Demeter : A robot agricultural harvester which is a model for commercializing mobile robotics technology.

Pioneer robot is a remote reconnaissance system for structural analysis of the Chornobyl Unit 4 reactor building. Such robots are used to investigate hazardous and dangerous environments. Robotic underwater rovers are used to explore and gather information about many facets of our marine environment.

IMPACT OF ROBOTS

Higher quality and lower cost to the manufacturing industry. Loss to the unskilled jobs but create new jobs for skilled people in software and sensor development. Machines have to be maintained and people will have to be trained on there repair.

FUTURE OF ROBOTICS

Machines are being developed that can perform cognitive tasks, such as strategic planning and learning from experience. Increasingly, diagnosis of failures in aircraft or satellites, the management of a battlefield, or the control of a large factory will be performed by intelligent computers.

Mobile robots which would run around outside the class room but be controlled by the students in the class.
Hydroponics Garden which would be a living, growing garden controlled by robotics. Scanning the Skies which you could set times and locations for pictures from these robots, sent to you over the computer.

CONCLUSION
The sense of automation as an activity without direct presence of human has been changing in the course of development of human activity. Recently there has been a

stabilization of the spectrum of motifs of automation, mainly of production processes in the following order: rapid reaction to the change of market (tempo of products innovation), decreasing the dispersal of quality, increasing the effectivity, flexibility (quick and effective functional adjustment in relation to required change of product). Those motifs considerably influence recent state of art of robotics as well as the trends of further development.