Robots and Robotic Technology
Sravani Hanumansetty
Al-Ameer College of Engineering and Technology
Flat #104,Vasavi Towers, MVP Double Road,
Visakhapatnam, AP-530017, India
Email: sravani_hanumansetty@yahoo.co.in
Abstract - Robot can be defined as :
"A re-programmable, multifunctional
manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools, or
specialized devices through various programmed
motions for the performance of a variety of tasks." A
robot consists of two main parts: the robot body and
some form of artificial intelligence (AI) system.
The word "robot" originates from the Czech
word for forced labor, or serf. It was introduced by
playwright Karel Capek, whose fictional robotic
inventions were much like Dr. Frankenstein's monster.
The essential characteristics of robots are:
s Sensing,
s Movement,
s Energy,
s Intelligence
Sensors are the perceptual system of a robot
and measure physical quantities like contact, distance,
light, sound, strain, rotation, magnetism, smell,
temperature, inclination, pressure, or altitude. In the
manufacturing field, robot development has focused on
engineering robotic arms that perform manufacturing
processes. In the space industry, robotics focuses on
highly specialized, one-of-kind planetary rovers .In
industries, robots can be used for welding, painting and
assembly. From military technology and space
exploration to the health industry and commerce, the
advantages of using robots have been realized to the
point that they are becoming a part of our collective
experience and every day lives.
Today, we find most robots working for people
in factories, warehouses, and laboratories. Robots have
the potential to change our economy, our health, our
standard of living, our knowledge and the world in which
we live. As the technology progresses, we are finding
new ways to use robots. Each new use brings new hope
and possibilities, but also potential dangers and risks.
Deepthi Boddana
Al-Ameer College of Engineering and Technology
1-114-16/2, Plot#201, Sector 12, MVP Colony
Visakhapatnam, AP-530017, India
Email: deepthi13_sai@yahoo.co.in
1. INTRODUCTION
Robotics is the study and technology of robots.
It enables us to design automated mechanisms capable
of replacing people in certain jobs. Robotics brings
together a very broad range of human activities. More
than 700,000 robots are working today in industry
worldwide and thousands more are being used in
ethology, medicine and space research.
The word "robot" originates from the Czech
word for forced labor, or serf. It was introduced by
playwright Karel Capek, whose fictional robotic
inventions were much like Dr. Frankenstein's monster --
creatures created by chemical and biological, rather than
mechanical, methods. But the current mechanical robots
of popular culture are not much different from these
fictional biological creations.
Basically a robot consists of:
Ø A mechanical device, such as a wheeled
platform, arm, or other construction, capable of
interacting with its environment
Ø Sensors on or around the device that are able to
sense the environment and give useful feedback
to the device.
Ø Systems that process sensory input in the
context of the device's current situation and
instruct the device to perform actions in
response to the situation
In the manufacturing field, robot development
has focused on engineering robotic arms that perform
manufacturing processes. In the space industry, robotics
focuses on highly specialized, one-of-kind planetary
rovers. Unlike a highly automated manufacturing plant, a
planetary rover operating on the dark side of the moon --
without radio communication -- might run into
unexpected situations. At a minimum, a planetary rover
must have some source of sensory input, some
way of interpreting that input, and a way of
modifying its actions to respond to a changing
world. Furthermore, the need to sense and adapt
to a partially unknown environment requires
intelligence (in other words, artificial intelligence).
In industries, robots can be used for welding,
painting, assembly etc. From military technology
and space exploration to the health industry and
commerce, the advantages of using robots have
been realized to the point that they are becoming
a part of our collective experience and every day
lives.
The science of Robotics is barely fifty
years old, but is taking advantage of rapid
advances in micro technology and
nanotechnology to evolve into a form of artificial
intelligence that is beyond the imagination of the
most prolific science fiction writers. And yet we
owe the term robotics to a science fiction writer,
Isaac Asimov (1926-1996), who also conceived
the Three Laws that must govern the
manufacture of robots and he later added a
'zeroeth law'.
Law Zero: A robot may not injure humanity, or,
through inaction, allow humanity to come to
harm.
Law One: A robot may not injure a human being,
or, through inaction, allow a human being to
come to harm, unless this would violate a higher
order law.
Law Two: A robot must obey orders given it by
human beings, except where such orders would
conflict with a higher order law.
Law Three: A robot must protect its own
existence as long as such protection does not
conflict with a higher order law.
2. SENSORS
Sensors provide some limited feedback
to the robot so that it can do its job. Compared to
the senses and abilities of even the simplest
living things, robots have a very long way to go.
The sensor sends information, in the form of
electronic signals back to the controller.
Sensors also give the robot controller
information about its surroundings and let it
know the exact position of the arm, or the state of
the world around it.
Sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell are
the kinds of information we get from our world.
Robots can be designed and programmed to get
specific information that is beyond what our 5
senses can tell us. For instance, a robot sensor
might "see" in the dark, detect tiny amounts of
invisible radiation or measure movement that is
too small or fast for the human eye to see. The
control of a manipulator or an industrial robot is
based on the correct interpretation of sensory
information. This information can be obtained
either internally to the robot or externally using a
wide range of sensors.
Since sensors are any device that
provides input of data to the robot controller a
wide variety of sensors exist. Some basic types of
sensors are shown:
Ø Touch sensors which tell the robot
when it bumps into something.
Ø Light sensors which measure the light
intensity.
Ø Heat sensors which measure the
temperature.
Ø Ultra sonic sensors which tell the robot
how far away objects are.
Ø And gyroscopes which tell the robot
which direction is up.
2.1. Pressure sensors
“In recent years, lots of efforts have
been made to give robots the ability to hear and
see. But what about the sense of touch? Unlike
us, robots don’t have sensitive skin .But this is
about to change. By using organic, or plastic,
field-effect transistors as pressure sensors
deposited on a flexible material, researches have
created an artificial skin which will give the sense
of touch. The prototype has a density of 16
sensors per square centimeter, far from the 1500
of our fingertips.
Pressure sensing allows a robot to tell when it collides with something, or when something pushes against
it. Pressure sensors can be used to measure force, and in some cases, to determine the contour of an
applied force.
A capacitive pressure sensor employs 2
metal plates separated by a layer of
nonconductive foam. This forms a capacitive
transducer. The transducer is connected in series
or parallel with an inductor. The resulting
inductance-capacitance (LC) combination
determines the frequency of an oscillator. If an
object strikes or presses against the transducer,
the plate spacing decreases, causing the
capacitance to increase. This lowers the oscillator
frequency. When the pressure is removed, the
foam springs back, the plates return to their
original spacing, and the oscillator returns to its
original frequency. A capacitive pressure sensor
can be fooled by metallic objects. fI a good
electrical conductor comes very close to the
plates, the capacitance might change even if
physical contact is not made. If this occurs, the
sensor will interpret this proximity as pressure.
An elastomer pressure sensor solves
the proximity problem inherent in the capacitive
device. The elastomer is a foam pad with
resistance that varies depending on how much it
is compressed. An array of electrodes is
connected to the top of the pad; an identical
array is connected to the bottom. Each electrode
in the top matrix receives a negative voltage, and
its mate in the bottom matrix receives a positive
voltage. When pressure appears at some point
on the pad, the material compresses at and near
that point, reducing the resistance between
certain electrode pairs. This causes a current
increase in a particular region in the pad. The
location of the pressure can be determined
according to which electrode pairs experience the
increase in current. The extent of the pressure
can be determined by how much the current
increase. If the electrode matrix is fine enough,
the contour of the pressure -producing object can
be determined by a microprocessor that evaluates
the electrode curre nt profile.
The output of a pressure sensor is
analog, but it can be converted to digital data
using an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). This
signal can be used by a robot controller. Pressure
on a transducer in the front of a robot might
cause the machine to back up; pressure on the
right side might make the machine turn left. The
presence of pressure might be used to actuate an
alarm, or to switch a device on or off. Calibrated
pressure sensors can be used to measure applied
force, mass, weight, or acceleration.
Proximity sensing: Proximity sensing is
the ability of a robot to tell when it is near an
object, or when something is near it. This sense
keeps a robot from running into things. It can
also be used to measure the distance from a robot
to some object.
The simplest proximity sensors do not
measure distance. A bumper can be passive,
simply making the robot bounce away from
things it hits. More often, a bumper has a switch
that closes when it makes contact, sending a
signal to the controller causing the robot to back
away. When whiskers hit something, they
vibrate. This can be detected, and a signal sent to
the robot controller.
Back Pressure Sensor: A back-pressure sensor
is a transducer that detects and measures the
instantaneous torque that a robot motor applies.
The sensor produces a variable signal, usually a
voltage that changes in a linear manner as the
torque varies.
When a robot motor operates, it
encounters mechanical resistance. This
resistance might depend on lifted mass,
mechanical friction against a surface or within a
system, or the opposition to applied force caused
by electromagnetic interaction (as in an electric
generator). Torque is the turning force that a
robot motor delivers. It is important that a robot
motor provide enough torque to overcome the
resistance in external systems, but excessive
torque can be destructive.
A robot motor produces a measurable
back pressure that depends on the applied
torque. The greater the torque, the greater the
back pressure, and greater is the output of the
back-pressure sensor. This output, called the
back signal or back voltage, can be used in a
feedback loop to reduce the torque applied by
the motor. The loop configuration acts as a force
limiter that minimizes the possibility of damage to
objects handled by robotic end effectors. The
force limiter can also reduce the chance of injury
to personnel working around the robot.
2.2. Sensors in space robotics applications
The space environment represents one
of the most challenging applications of robotics.
Indeed, there is a widely-held but contentious
view-point that space application represents a
natural and inevitable arena for the advancement
of robotics by imposing the requirement for high
autonomy in space robotic systems. A minority
extension of this viewpoint is that robotics is a
discipline that has been stultified by its
association with manufacturing, and space
exploration provides an essential application in
order to advance robotics as a discipline further
towards it s goal of developing human-like
capabilities in the machine. Regardless of
whether this may be so, or not, space application
of robotics imposes unique drivers on robotics
technology. The metric for success in space
systems is the same as that for biological
organisms – survival in a hostile and unrelenting
environment.
Every few years (the most recent
following the Shuttle disaster), the eternally-
resurgent question of whether humans or robots
should be adopted for space exploration is
dusted off for regurgitation. This debate is
misplaced – there is a well-defined distribution of
tasks across the human and the machine, and this
distribution is of an evolutionary nature. There
are tasks that are suited to robotics, and, likewise,
there are tasks suited to humans. Robotics serves
to ease the burden of more manual and repetitive
tasks from the human astronaut allowing his/her
deployment to tasks requiring the beyond the
state-of-the-art machine intelligence. There is
little doubt that human spaceflight provides a
degree of flexibility in space activities that is
unattainable in robotic missions.
As the capabilities of robotics become
more sophisticated over time, so the role of
humans will shift exclusively to tasks of greater
complexity. However, human exploration
missions will always require prior reconnaissance
by robotic missions – robots do not suffer the
fragility of the human body and can reach further
into outer space than human beings. Human
space missions and robotic space missions are
complementary. The human v robots debate is
thus futile at best and vacuous at worst. There is
little doubt that robotics and automation has
great potential in space activities. It is
uncontroversial that no space system in the
foreseeable future will be entirely autonomous.
However, the space engineering community has a
particular aversion to placing their trust in
machines, preferring to rely on the human being,
be it ground operator or astronaut, to oversee,
and often even manually control space activities
such as rendezvous and docking. This
emplacement of control on the human being can
be dangerous – human performance is limited by
strength, vigilance, fatigue and reaction speed.
Indeed, human error has been the root cause of
65-70% of civil airline accidents. The general
lesson is that if a procedure can be automated
safely, then it should be. Automation is
commonly adopted for fault diagnosis, power
management and scheduling, and active thermal
control of spacecraft.
The another port of call is to define
terminology: “robotic spacecraft” is a generic
term used to refer to deep space probes of all
types with an emphasis on planetary explorers,
but often used also to refer to space telescopes.
The term emphasizes their unmanned nature with
the implication of significant degrees of
autonomy, particularly for deep space probes
that are characterized by deployment at great
distances.
The first constraint imposed on the
robotic spacecraft is the necessity of functioning
in a hostile, non-terrestrial environment. All
spacecraft must survive the stresses of launch,
the vacuum and radiation of space, and for
planetary deployment, the stresses of landing
and the environment of the target planet. The
application of robotics to spacecraft engineering
imposes its own demands on the spacecraft
engineer. All space missions are designed to
achieve the mission goals that traditionally have
been telecommunications provision, Earth
observation (including meteorological) data
return, military expediency, navigation functions,
or scientific data return. Most spacecraft to date
have thus been almost entirely designed as
platforms for sensors for the collection of data
and its transmission from space to Earth without
physical interaction with the space environment.
Most spacecraft actuation mechanisms have
been associated with propulsion, attitude control
or mechanical deployment of large structures
such as communications antennae and solar
array panels. However, robotic actuation under
closed loop control is becoming increasingly
important for future space missions. The addition
of robotic actuation imposes an order of
magnitude increase in complexity to spacecraft
design in terms of the performance of tasks that
physically interact with their environments. For
robotic space and planetary exploration, these
environments may be partially or totally priori
unknown. Indeed, there is a peculiar
contradiction between the spacecraft engineer
who tends to avoid mechanical actuation
systems as potential single point failure modes,
and the roboticist for whom actuation provides
the mode of interaction with the environment.
Most spacecraft actuation mechanisms have
been associated with propulsion, attitude control
or mechanical deployment of large structures
such as communications antennae and solar
array panels. However, robotic actuation under
closed loop control is becoming increasingly
important for future space missions. The addition
of robotic actuation imposes an order of
magnitude increase in complexity to spacecraft
design in terms of the performance of tasks that
physically interact with their environments. For
robotic space and planetary exploration, these
environments may be partially or totally priori
unknown. Indeed, there is a peculiar
contradiction between the spacecraft engineer
who tends to avoid mechanical actuation
systems as potential single point failure modes,
and the roboticist for whom actuation provides
the mode of interaction with the environment.
An additional constraint is the need for
high reliability to ensure that the spacecraft
survives until the end of its mission. This
constraint places high emphasis on validation
and testing of components and assemblies under
space-like conditions. Of particular significance is
the requirement for high payload capacity as a
fraction of total mass as this defines the raison
d’etre of the mission.
The payload may include a robotic system
comprising:
Ø Human-computer interfaces including
tele-robotic control and virtual reality
interfaces;
Ø Real-time control system including
trajectory planning and generation,
feedback servo-control laws, etc;
Ø Onboard computer (probably
dedicated control computer) with fault
tolerance;
Ø Sensors and sensor processing,
including stereo-vision, etc;
Ø Actuation systems including
electromechanical motors, etc.
Although general robotic spacecraft
issues here which are of critical importance to the
space roboticist, space robotics as a discipline is
focused on more specific issues and reflects more
closely the subject-area covered by terrestrial
robotics. Indeed, space robotics, like its terrestrial
counterpart, is generally divided into two
subject-areas (though there is significant
overlap):
s Robotic manipulators – such
devices are proposed for deployment in
space or on planetary surfaces to
emulate human manipulation
capabilities; they may be deployed on
free-flyer spacecraft or on-orbit
servicing of other spacecraft, within
space vehicles for payload tending, or
on planetary-landers or rovers for the
acquisition of samples;
s Robotic rovers – such devices are
proposed for deployment on planetary
surfaces to emulate human mobility
capabilities; they are typically deployed
on the surfaces of terrestrial planets,
small bodies of the solar system,
planetary atmospheres (aerobots), or for
penetration of ice layers (cryobots) or
liquid layers (hydrobots).
7. Ellery, A. (2001), A robotics perspective on
human spaceflight.
3. CONCLUSION
However, robots of today are not
exactly the walking, talking intelligent machines
of movies, stories and our dreams. Today, we
find most robots working for people in factories,
warehouses, and laboratories. In the future,
robots may show up in other places: our schools,
our homes, even our bodies.
Robots have the potential to change our
economy, our health, our standard of living, our
knowledge and the world in which we live. As the
technology progresses, we are finding new ways
to use robots. Each new use brings new hope
a and possibilities, but also potential dangers and
risks.
One thing is certain: robots are here to stay.
4. REFERENCES
1. Introduction to robotics: Get a grip on
robotics-introduction:
www.thetech.org/exhibits_events/online/robots/i
ntro
2. Sensors in robotics: acoustics sensors for
robots: www.signalsystemscorp.com/
Acoustic_sensors_for_robotics
3. Pressure sensors in robotics: flexible sensors
make robot skin:
www.trnmag.com/Stories/2004/092204/
Flexible_sensors_make_robot_skin%20_092204.h
tml
4. Proximity sensors in robotics: Driven shielding
capacitive proximity sensor
ranier.hq.nasa.gov/telerobotics_
page/Technologies/0260.html
5. Back pressure sensors in robotics: Flexible
tactile sensors could help robots work better:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4154366.stm
6. Ellery, A. (2003), Human versus robots for
space exploration and development.
8. Ellery. A. (2000), Springer-Praxis Publishers,
ISBN, Chichester, UK.
9. Putz, P. (1998). Space robotics in Europe: a
survey.
10. Shaw, G., Miller, D. & Hastings, D. (2000),
Generalized characteristics of communication,
sensing and navigation satellite systems.