Robotics

Robotics:

Robotics is “the science and technology of robots, their design, manufacture, and application”, it requires knowledge of electronics, mechanics, and computer science.

A robot is mostly mechanical, it has actuators for muscles, and joints, it can be called “Kinematic Chains” witch is: “a branch of dynamics which describes the motion of objects without consideration of the circumstances leading to the motion.

Com ponents:

         Actuation:-

These are the muscles of the robot; they convert stored energy to movement

Motors: are by far the most used of all Actuations

Stepper Motors  they do not rotate freely, they have a controller that specifies exactly how many degrees the motor should spin.

Piezo motors: also known as the ultrasonic motor, they vibrate thousands of times per second, causing linear or rotary motion.

Air-muscles: this muscle shaped piece of mechanics is used for pulling, when it is filled with air it contracts to up to 40%, it is used to make robots with similar structure as animals.

Electro active polymers: these are pieces of plastic that change shape in accordance with electric stimulation; they can be designed to bend, contract, and stretch.

Elastic nano-tubes: these are still experimental, but they are a new way to replace muscles.

        Locomotion:-

Rolling robots: most robots have 4 wheels but some researchers have tried to make robots with 2 wheels or even less, Ballbot, for instance is a robot developed by CMU researchers, is “a self-contained, battery-operated, Omni directional robot that balances dynamically on a single urethane-coated metal sphere. It weighs 95 pounds and is the approximate height and width of a person. Because of its long, thin shape and ability to maneuver in tight spaces, it has the potential to function better than current robots can in environments with people”.Walking robots: walking is a difficult dynamic problem that has a lot of complications, throughout the word, only 7 robots that can walk have been made and none of them is as robust as humans.

The ZMP technique, this technique (short for zero momentum point) depend on the cancelation of forces, so the robot, is constantly balancing the forces between himself and the ground in order for them to cancel each other out.

Other: other techniques include flying, snaking, skating, and swimming.

My Questions:

1-How do air muscles work?

2-How does a robot simulate emotions?

3-Can a robot have a personality?

4-What about learning robots?

5- To what level can a robots personal intellect be?

6-What about the idea that robots will get so smart that they will see humans as inferior creatures and dispose of them?

Urls:

The Basics of Robotics

Robotics Research Papers

Robot news and Robotics information

Robot cast- The video pod cast on Robotics

http://www.ri.cmu.edu/people/th/orpe_chuck.html

Summarized and quoted from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_architecture

Mohammed I. Janahi

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