Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from May, 2010

Historical Development of Robot:

The beginning of robot may traced to the great greek engineer Ctesibius (270B.C.) Ctesibius applied a knowledge of pneumatics and hydraulics to produce the first organ and water clock by moving figures. Ctesibius’s disciple Philo of Byzantium (200B.C.) wrote Mechanical Collection describing Ctesibius work. Building on Ctesibius’s work , Hero of Alexandria (85 A.D.) wrote On Automatic Theaters, On Pneumatics, and On Mechanics and is recognized as the greatest Greek engineer. Hero, famous for invention of steam engine, presented the first well documented, workable robot outside of mythology. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) followed in hero’s footsteps, studying everything he could obtain on his work. He was actively engaged in verifying Greek reconstructions, an actively that no doubt inspired him to devise water powered organs and clocks equipped with jacquemart for striking the hours. Another automation that Leonardo was surely was aware of was the famous Strasbourg cock which wa

What is robot?

There are some definitions given as bellow The Robotics Institute of America defines a robot as a "re-programmable multi-functional manipulator designed to move materials, parts, tools, or specialized devices through variable programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks." The International Organization for Standardization gives a definition of robot as "an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose, manipulator programmable in three or more axes, which may be either fixed in place or mobile for use in industrial automation applications." A robot is "any automatically operated machine that replaces human effort, though it may not resemble human beings in appearance or perform functions in a humanlike manner". It is an electric machine which has some ability to interact with physical objects and to be given electronic programming to do a specific task. It may also have some ability to perceive and absorb data on physical objects,

Laws of Robotics

Asimov proposed the three "Laws of Robotics", and he later added a 'zeroth law' which are given as under below: 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. Comments: ♦ The MAARS (Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System) provide machine gun to robots which cause humans to kill. This opposes the laws given by Asimov. ♦ The point here is that much of the funding for robotic research, now a days, comes from the military, which is paying for robots that follow the very opposit

Basic Elements of Robotics System

The basic element of a robot is given as under below: Mechanical platform- the hardware base Sensors Motors Driving mechanisms Power supplies Electronic controls Microcontroller systems Languages R/C Servos Pneumatics Driving high-current loads from logic controllers Mechanical platform- the hardware base: such as a wheeled platform, arm, or other construction, capable of interacting with its environment . Sensors: Sensors are the parts that sense and can detect objects or things like heat and light and convert the object information into symbols or in analog or digital form and then robot reacts according to the information provided by the sensory system. The sensors used in robotics are Vision Sensors: Camera, Frame Grabber, Image processing unit Proximity Sensors : distance is estimated between the robot and the object. Proprioceptive Sensors : are responsible for monitoring self maintenance and controlling internal status. This includes battery monitoring, current sensing, and h