Robot Functioning

Before you start reading I want to make a statement that Humans are ROBOT. How much you agree with this statement ?   

In previous topic you saw the basic parts of robots and you must have said "WOW is it that much easy ?".
I don't want to break your heart it is just the basic kind of division and more and more we will dig deeper we will see how much complex it is and we will see that these main parts can be divided into more sub parts.

We will start from simple functioning and will keep moving towards complex.  In this journey we will keep seeing various parts of robot and will try to focus individually on each part. If you feel any thing is left out or something is not relevant then please let me know so that we can work together and sort out the issue.

If I say that robot is nothing but a computer then I know you will also agree with this. On the basis of functioning we broadly divide computer into three parts.

1. Input
2. Processing unit
3. Output 
When you press a key on keyboard a scan code is generated which is send to processor from there it is passed to software where it is processed and send to monitor where you can see it in the form of character(there is more process involved then this one line description ).
Typing from keyboard is    -  Input
Conversion from scan code - Processing Unit
to Human readable format                   
Display on monitors            - Output

In the same manner you can consider  robots also. There is an input unit which sends command to robot . Processing unit decodes the input information analyzes it and directs output unit to perform action accordingly.

If this input is manual then robot is called as semi autonomous robot and if input is not manual and comes from components attached to it and it takes decisions independently and perform actions then it will called as fully autonomous robot.

These input could be from any of the following.
1. Joystick
2. Keypad
3. Key board
4. IR remote
5. Wi- Fi
6. Wireless
7. Digital camera
8. Sensors
9. Voice commands
10. Mobile phones.
      and many more.


It could be any device through which you can generate a signal, encode it and send it through a wire or wirelessly to robot. Condition applied is that your robot should catch that signal, decode it and can act on it.  We will go in detail when we will specifically deal with these input devices.  
   
Processing unit could be made of only digital and analog components wired to form a logical circuit which is capable of taking decisions. This kind of circuits have limited functionality and are too complex for any kind of maintenance. BEAM robots are the good examples of such kind of robots.
In other kind of processing unit there could be a micro-controller/ microprocessor and memory which will be accompanied by software. This form the processing unit of the robot. The logic for robot functioning is coded in to software and uploaded in micro-controller either alone as firmware or is coded in some kind of embedded operating system and this full package is uploaded inside processor. This software could have fuzzy logic or can have artificial kind of intelligence where robot keeps on learning and updating its data base for various kind of actions.

Output of the robot can be its walking or wheeling or its expansion or turn to various degree on its axis it could be any thing provided it can be mechanized . Suppose if your robot walks on its six legs ( Hexapods ) then its walking is a combination of stepper/servo motor. If this hexapod is walking and identifies some kind of hindrance or finds any kind of obstacle in its path then processing unit will stop movement of motor and will send signals to turn this motor in a way so that it can avoid that hindrance or obstacle. In this case output is "movement of motor".    

Let us take our hexapod example to understand whatever has been said above in detail.

We have an hexapod : A six legged robot.
This hexapod has two functions:  Walking and obstacle sensing
The body of this hexapod is rectangular in shape and it has three legs each on its longer side. When this hexapod moves then front and rear leg of one side and middle leg of other side moves in combination. Same is the case when it moves side ways. It has obstacle sensor on its each side. It has a microcontroller which works on obstacle data and forwards a command to motor.
 
This robot is waking on a flat surface where there are two many obstacles. Now one of the obstacle sensor sees an obstacle(let us say sensor on one of the longer side)  and sends obstacle signal to micro-controller. Micro-controller identifies that sensor from which signal is coming. It will now send signal to motor to stop so that robot stops and will again send signal to motor so that it starts moving in opposite direction to the obstacle.  
In this way robot saves it self from bumping into the obstacle.

The classification of parts on the basis of functioning will be  
Input Unit:         Obstacle Sensors

Processing unit: Micro-controller and Software
Ouput Unit:       Motor/Legs

I guess now you must have understood a little about functioning about robots.
       
Now do you agree with the statement which I made at the beginning that "Humans are ROBOT" ?  If not yet then we will meet in next post and will see more on it .... 

till then stay tuned.....

Next: More on Robot Functioning

Parts of robots.

Robots can be broadly divided into three units.
1. Mechanical Unit
2. Electronics circuitary.
3. Software section.

What ever type of  Robot you take it will be comprised of these three units only.

Mechanical Unit:
These parts are gear boxes, frames, grippers, tracks, connectors, motor mounts, wheels. They constitute the body of robot. These parts basically help in robot performing its basic task. For example if robot has to move from one place to other, if it is a wheeled robot then it will move by the combination of motor and wheel assembly and if it is legged robot then it can walk with the help of legs.
The use of above mentioned part depends on the type of requirement you are having for your robot.

Electronics Circuitry:
This comprises of all electronics components and their connections with each other to perform a required task.
If robot is made of pure digital circuit then it will be combination of transistors, diodes,resistances and capacitors, by the combination of these, logic circuit will be created which will perform a certain kind of specific task.BEAM robots are the example of such kind of robots. If robot is made of embedded system, then it will be having processors, memory unit and other digital component based on type of robot.
One thing which all type of robots have in common is that they all have power source to provide power to the components used in circuitry. This power source could be a battery or it could be a voltage stepping down unit which will step down voltage and  will rectify it to 'dc' so that it can be used by all components. Voltage level could be different for different block of circuit. In that case normally two sources are not used only one is used whose output is equal to input of one block and for other voltage is either step up or stepped down.


Software section:
Software is used in those robots which have microprocessor or micro-controller chips on them. Software is used to build logic or the functioning for robots. It decides that how robot will react under certain conditions. For example let us take example of wheeled robot which has to save it self from bumping into the wall. The logic for robot to save himself from bumping will be build in software and will be uploaded in the memory of processor. Robot will get information of wall through sensing elements and this information will be sent to processor. Based on the logic coded in software, processor will stop the motor and it will start rotating motor in opposite direction.Which will save robot from bumping into wall.
 
This was a broad division of parts. I know most of you must be thinking that I have not touched various other parts like sensors, actuators etc. Yes there are also parts of robot but as I said that it is a broad division of parts when I will deal with the functioning of robot I will go in detail in each of these terms and will explain them.        


Next: Functioning of robot   

More on Robot Types

In previous topic we saw what robots are and their classification based on their functionality and their use in various fields.

Other type of classification is based on kinematics and locomotion.

A. Stationary Robots.
    1. SCARA robots.
    2. Cartesian robots.
    3. Spherical robots.
    4. Cylindrical robots.
    5. Parallel Robots.
    6. Articulated Robots.

 B. Legged Robots.
    1. Bipedal Robots.
    2. Tripedal Robots.
    3. Quadrapedal Robots
    4. Hexapod Robots.

C. Wheeled Robots.  
D. Mobile spherical Robots.
E. Flying Robots.
F. Snake-bots
G. Nano Robots.

There could be other type of classification also. I guess these are enough.

If you want to know in detail about these robot types then please do let me know.  
 


NEXT: Part of Robot.
 
 

Robot introduction

Introduction

When you take a look around and see vacuum cleaner cleaning house on its own or a washing machine washing your clothes.

When you visit a factory you see machines doing certain kind of jobs or you see a man sitting inside a cabin and guiding a machine to do jobs which normal human cannot do on its own or there are is other breed of machines which mimics human or various creatures.

Can you guess what these are? Yes I know you must be saying what a dumb guy you are obviously they are "Machines".

Yes you are right but what kind of machines they are?

Now you will say yes that make sense. Few are automated machines and few are half automated.  

Yes are correct this time too but what will be the common name for these names. Any guesses?

Take your time....

I can see few of you smiling as you know what it is and few of you have guessed it from the title. Yes they all are robots.

Definition of Robots

A robot is an automatically guided machine which is able to do tasks on its own, almost always due to electronically-programmed instructions.

In other words you can also say that robot is a mechanical intelligent agent which can perform tasks on its own, or with guidance.

In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine which is guided by computer and electronic programming.

Classification

If we classify robots on the basis of their behavior/functioning they can be of two types.

 1. Autonomous.

 2. Semi-autonomous.

 

Autonomous Robots.

A definition from Wikipedia: Autonomous robots are robots that can perform desired tasks in unstructured environments without continuous human guidance. 

These are types of robots which are fully functional on their own. No one guides such kind of robots. You just switch them on and they will start working on their own. No need of guidance. In this category there is a breed which is fully typed in one kind of work or other. Robots performing human tasks in industries are its example. Let us take an example of spray machines installed in car factory for coloring cars. They keep on coloring car body in same defined path and manner without any error. They don't need any guidance and keep performing same task in redefined path until they are reprogrammed. Swarm and Nano robots are also example of robots doing more specific and defined roles.   

 SWARM ROBOTS

There is a breed of autonomous robots which are look like of human. They are named as Humanoid Robots (hu·man·oid (hy m -noid ). adj. Having human characteristics or form).The best example for such kind of robot is ASIMO.

This robot is developed by Honda's Research & Development Wako Fundamental Technical Research Center in Japan. This robot is look alike of human and can perform various task which a human can do. More information about ASIMO can be found Honda’s site.

Other examples of humanoid robot are TOPIO    

 

NAO.

Wikipedia says that:

One important area of robotics research is to enable the robot to cope with its environment whether this be on land, underwater,in the air, underground, or in space.

A fully autonomous robot has the ability to

    * Gain information about the environment (Rule #1)

    * Work for an extended period without human intervention  
     (Rule #2)

    * Move either all or part of itself throughout its operating 
      environment without human assistance (Rule #3)

    * Avoid situations that are harmful to people, property, or 
      itself unless those are part of its design specifications 
      (Rule #4)

   * Maintain its own survival at the expense of the previous 
     rules (the Sentient Robot Mandate)

An autonomous robot may also learn or gain new capabilities like adjusting strategies for accomplishing its task(s) or adapting to changing surroundings.

Communication, sensing, control, reasoning and learning are the various operations which an autonomous robot can have and these have been used in many applications such as underwater exploration, inspections, agriculture, cargo handling and planetary exploration.

The need to integrate many different tasks into a single system makes the design and the construction of autonomous robots a difficult and challenging activity. Most applications of autonomous robots are mobile robots for indoor environments, where robots have to interact with objects, sensing and moving them without previous knowledge about the environment or human supervision. 

An example of this task is the inspection of factories or power plants after an accident. In Chernobyl and Tree Mile Island for instance robots have assisted people in diagnosing risks and cleaning up nuclear waste. In such tasks, the robot should move around avoiding obstacles and taking as many pictures as possible so as to provide the engineers a good assessment of damages. With that information, engineers, firemen and the maintenance team can build a better idea of the situation in the hazardous zone and produce a more accurate plan for saving equipment and avoiding explosions.

Semi Autonomous Robots.

By semi autonomous behavior it is understood that a human supervision is always necessary although the robot can also make its own decisions. Basically the robot is driven by an operator who receives environment data from robot and guides robot to take action accordingly. Robot can also take decisions on its own.

An example of semi autonomous machine which we use daily could be washing machine. When you put your dirty clothes inside it never selects type of wash based on cloth quality and extent to which cloth is dirty. Though there are various types of preprogrammed washes but you have to manually select and start and then forget about cloths they will be washed, rinsed and dried.

Human interference could be at any stage. It may be at the start of a process, at the end of process or in real time when process is going on. Though use of robot is not in its full capacity but it has captured a very vast field. You can find use of robots in almost in every field. It is not restricted to these fields only.

1. General Purpose autonomous Robots.

2. Factory Robots.

3. Military Robots

4. Schools

5. Healthcare robots

6. Research Robots

7. Mobile robots

8. Industrial Robots

9. Service Robot

Even above could be a criteria for the classification of robots.

Robot is being adopted in every walk of life.

The field of study dealing with robots is ROBOTICS. It was coined by the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.Asimov and John W. Campbell created the "Three Laws of Robotics" which are a recurring theme in his books.  

These have since been used by many others to define laws used in fact and fiction. Introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround" the Laws states the following:

"          

   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 any orders given to 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.

"

Robotics is, to a very large extent, all about system integration, achieving a task by an actuated mechanical device, via an “intelligent” integration of components, many of which it shares with other domains, such as systems and control, computer science, character animation, machine design, computer vision, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, biomechanics, etc. In addition, the boundaries of robotics cannot be clearly defined, since also its “core” ideas, concepts and algorithms are being applied in an ever increasing number of “external” applications, and, vice verse, core technology from other domains (vision, biology, cognitive science or bio-mechanics, for example) are becoming crucial components in more and more modern robotic systems.

NEXT: Robot Types