Download Introduction to Robotics

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INTRODUCTION TO
ROBOTICS
Part 1: Overview
Robotics and Automation
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.
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Early Robot History
• The word robot was introduced in 1920 in
a play by Czech writer Karel Capek called
R.U.R. , or Rossum's Universal Robots.
• Robot comes from the Czech word robota,
meaning serf labor or drudgery.
• The term robotics was coined in the 1940s
by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. In a
series of stories and novels, he imagined a
world in which mechanical beings were
mankind's devoted helpers.
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.
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Asimov's 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 the 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.
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.
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Name Robots You Know
What robots do you know
about or have heard of ?
• Give a name and a brief description.
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.
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The First Robot
• The first robot was called the Unimate
• Installed in a General Motors automobile
manufacturing plant in 1961
• Used to move and weld die castings
• Basically a moving arm on a fixed base
• The first robots were expensive (more than
$100,000) and not that useful
• These robots look nothing like the popular
android concept used by fiction writers
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.
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Three Common Robot Applications
• Industrial robots
are used for jobs
that are:
• Dirty
• Dangerous
• Repetitive
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Key factors in actual robot use
• Knowledge of manufacturing system
dynamics, including:
• materials handling
• manufacturing processes
• manufacturing economics
• human behavior in factories
• Each of these are Industrial Engineering
field specialties
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.
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Benefits of Robot Use
• Increased productivity
• Improved (and consistent) quality
• Reduction in cost of manufacturing
• Improved management control of
process and productivity
• Operation in hostile environments
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Focus on Jobs
• Robots replace human workers
• Primarily routine and labor intensive jobs
• Robots create different types of jobs
• Robot technicians, operators, and repairmen
• Salesmen with technical knowledge
• Engineers
• Programmers
• Supervisors with technical process and
workflow design expertise
• New jobs require more knowledge and skill
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.
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What is a Robot?
• A machine capable of carrying out a
complex series of actions automatically,
esp. one programmable by a computer.
• A robot is a mechanical contraption which
can perform tasks on its own, or with
guidance.
• In practice a robot is usually an
electromechanical machine which is told
what to do by computer and electronic
programming.
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.
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Example Robots
• View example robots from the following
internet websites:
• Industry
• Student Competitions
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.
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General Description
There is no consensus on which machines
qualify as robots but there is general
agreement among experts, and the public, that
robots tend to do some or all of the following:
• move around
• operate a mechanical limb
• sense and manipulate their environment
• exhibit intelligent behavior
• especially behavior which mimics humans or other
animals.
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.
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Our Definition
For us, a robot will have 3 features:
• a mechanical device that can move around
and manipulate its environment
• uses a microcontroller
• requires a computer program to operate
Some robots we build may not be technically
considered true robots, primarily because they
will be manually controlled by the user.
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.
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Robot Systems
• Structural System
• Physical system that provides support and stability
• Propulsion System (motion)
• Drive system includes motors, wheels, and gears
• Sensor, Tool, and Feedback System
• Perception, transducers
• Tools, arms, grippers, manipulators, actuators
• Control System
• Microcontroller, electrical power, and joystick
• Programming
• Operation and control
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Simple Robot Block Diagram
External
Environment
Sensors
Internal
Environment
Sensors
Control Unit
Actuator
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External Action
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Robot Basics
• A robot is a device that can respond to and
manipulate its environment.
• Sensors are used to gain information about
the robot environment.
• A robot can only respond to what it senses.
• Actuators are those devices which perform
the physical operations of the robot.
• Manipulators/arms/grippers
• Motors/propulsion/motion
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Types Of Control
• Remote Control
• Wireless using some type of joystick
• Uses radio frequencies to communicate
• Autonomous
• Performs without human guidance
• A computer program tells it what to do
• Has sensors to respond to its environment
• Tethered
• Wires physically connect controller to robot
• Wires may also deliver power
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Power
• Our primary power source will be a battery
• Portable (robot moves freely)
• Heavy (may need extra support and protection)
• Steady DC voltage
• Needs to be recharged or replaced
• May need multiple batteries with different
voltages
• One for propulsion (motors), one for the
controller (joystick), one for the microcontroller
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Control System
• Microcontroller (mc)
• Runs the computer program
• Needs proper connections to make things work
• Needs proper signals to make things work
• Joystick
• Sends user control signals to the mc
• Receives control signals from the mc
• Motor controller
• Gets signals from the mc
• Sends power to the motors
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.
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Robot Evolution
• A robot cannot understand what it is sensing in the
traditional way that humans do.
• It can only understand in the way that a program can
get information and make useful decisions as a
result.
• What we think of as robot intelligence is simply the
ability to handle an increased number of variables.
• varieties of situations
• Newer robots are able to perform tasks that are non
repetitive and non sequential, and in more and more
complex environments.
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.