The Future of Robots

About Robots

Robots are made of roughly the same components as human beings:• a body structure with moveable joints• a muscle system outfitted with motors and

actuators to move that body structure;• a sensory system to collect information from the

surrounding environment• a power source to activate the body• a computer "brain" system to process sensory

information and tell the muscles what to do

Industrial Robot

• An industrial robot is an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator programmable in three or more axes.

• The field of industrial robotics may be more practically defined as the study, design and use of robot systems for manufacturing (a top-level definition relying on the prior definition of robot).

Applications of Industrial Robots

Typical applications of industrial robots include:• welding• painting• ironing• assembly

• pick and place• palletizing• product inspection and testing all

accomplished with high endurance, speed, and precision.

Robot Calibration• Robot calibration is the process of identifying the

real geometrical parameters in the kinematic structure of an industrial robot, i.e., the relative position and orientation of links and joints in the robot.

• A calibrated robot has a higher absolute positioning accuracy than an uncalibrated one, i.e., the real position of the robot end effector corresponds better to the position calculated from the mathematical model of the robot.

Robotic Surgery

• Robotic surgery is the use of robots in performing surgery.

• Three major advances aided by surgical robots have been remote surgery, minimally invasive surgery, and unmanned surgery.

Impact of Robotic Surgery• Major potential advantages of robotic surgery

are precision and miniaturization.

• Further advantages are articulation beyond normal manipulation and three-dimensional magnification.

• Some surgical robots are autonomous

Nanorobotics

• Nanorobotics is the technology of creating machines or robots at or close to the scale of a nanometre (10-9 metres).

• Another definition sometimes used is a robot which allows precision interactions with nanoscale objects, or can manipulate with nanoscale resolution.

Nanorobotics

Nanorobots are essentially an adapted machine version of bacteria. They are designed to function on the same scale as both bacteria and common viruses in order to interact with and repel them from the human system.

Nanorobotics

• Since they are so small that you can’t see them with your naked eye, they will also possibly be used to perform “miracle” functions such as cleaning your kitchen (“the kitchen that cleans itself!”) invisibly weaving fabric, cooking food slowly but steadily, and essentially performing other functions that humans could do, but—let’s face it—will probably be too lazy to do ourselves by the time these nanobots become functional.

Humanoid Robot

• A humanoid robot is a robot with its overall appearance based on that of the human body.

• Androids are humanoid robots built to resemble a male human, and Gynoids are humanoid robots built to resemble a human female.

Cognitive Robotics

• In a new Cognitive Robotics Lab, students at Rensselaer are exploring how human thought outwits brute force computing in the real world. The lab's 20 programmable robots allow students to test the real-world performance of computer models that mimic human thought.

Cognitive Robotics

• The real world has a lot of inconsistency that humans handle almost without noticing -- for example, we walk on uneven terrain, we see in shifting light

• With robots, we can see the problems humans face when navigating their environment.

• Advances in cognitive robotics transfer to artificial intelligence, which seeks to develop more efficient computer systems patterned on the versatility of human thought.

Assignment

• Answer the questions on the activity sheet about Robots, Industrial Robots, Nanorobotics, Humanoids, and Cognitive Robotics