Robotics

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EPSON: Industrial Robotics and Vision
EPSON is a manufacturer of high-precision industrial robots, PC-based controls, machine vision systems and other factory automation products used in factories throughout the world.
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Robotics is the science and technology of robots, their design, manufacture, and application. Robotics requires a working knowledge of electronics, mechanics, and software, and is usually accompanied by a large working knowledge of many subjects. A person working in the field is a roboticist.

The word robotics was first used in print by Isaac Asimov, in his science fiction short story "Liar!", published in May 1941 in Astounding Science Fiction. Before the coining of the term, however, there was interest in ideas similar to robotics (namely Automaton and Android) dating as far back as 400 BC, with the work of Archytas of Tarentum and his mechanical Pigeon. Robotics are used in industrial, military, exploration, home making, and academic and research applications.

Although the appearance and capabilities of robots vary vastly, all robots share the features of a mechanical, movable structure under some form of autonomous control. The structure of a robot is usually mostly machine and can be called a Kinematics (its functionality being akin to the skeleton of the human body). The chain is formed of links (its bones), actuators (its muscles) and joints which can allow one or more Degrees of freedom (engineering). Most contemporary robots use open serial chains in which each link connects the one before to the one after it. These robots are called serial robots and often resemble the human arm. Some robots, such as the Stewart platform, use closed parallel kinematic chains. Other structures, such as those that mimic the mechanical structure of humans, various animals and insects, are comparatively rare. However, the development and use of such structures in robots is an active area of research (e.g. biomechanics). Robots used as manipulators have an end effector mounted on the last link. This end effector can be anything from a welding device to a mechanical hand used to manipulate the environment.

History Robotics in Antiquity Around 400 BC, Archytas of Tarentum is reputed to have built a mechanical pigeon, possibly powered by steam, capable of flying. Not only representing one of the earliest works in the field of robotics, the wooden pigeon was also an early study of flight. Philosophers (notably Aristotle in 322 BC) have also dreamed of automatons and tools capable of working independently of people as an idea of bringing about equality. Early Water_Clock, or clepsydra, are sometimes grouped in with the beginning of robotics. It was common to attempt to make such clocks automatic (such as a clepsydra by Ctesibus), or to decorate them with complicated astrological designs (popular in the Eastern world). Of particular interest in China, these astrological clocks led to extremely complex works such as Su Song clock tower in 1088 AD, which featured moving mannequins, among other devices.

1400 to 1800 Interest in automata was either mostly nonexistent in the Middle Ages, or unrecorded. Leonardo Da Vinci designed a humanoid automaton in knight's armor (see Leonardo's robot) in 1495 to entertain, but it is not known if the design was ever built. Between 1500 and 1800, many automatons were built including ones capable of acting, drawing, flying, and playing music; several mechanical calculators were also built in this time period, some of the most famous ones are Wilhelm Schickard “Calculating Clock”, Blaise Pascal “Pascaline”, and the “Stepped Reckoner”, by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. In 1533, Johann Muller created an automaton eagle and fly made of iron; both could fly. John Dee is also famous for creating a wooden beetle, capable of flying. Some of the most famous works of the period were created by Jacques de Vaucanson in 1737, including an automaton flute player, tambourine player, and his most famous work, “Digesting Duck”. Vaucanson's duck was capable of imitating a real duck by flapping its wings (over 400 parts were in each of the wings alone), eat grain, digest it, and defecate; the duck was powered by weights. John Kay invented his “flying shuttle” in 1733, and the “spinning jenny” was invented in 1764 by James Hargreaves, both radically increasing the speed of production in the weaving industry. Richard Arkwright built a water power weaving machine, and factory around it in 1781, starting the Industrial Revolution. By 1800, cloth production was completely automated. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the idea of automata began to be applied to industry, as cost and time saving devices.

1801 to 1900 Improvements in the Weaving industry led to large amounts of automation, and the idea of programmable machines became popular with Charles Babbage Analytical Engine Babbage conceived his Analytical Engine as a replacement for his failed Difference Engine; this larger, more complex device would be able to perform multiple operations, and would be operated by punch cards. Construction of the Analytical Engine was never completed; work was begun in 1833. George Boole invented a new type of Boolean in 1847 instrumental to the creation of computers and robots.

1901 to 1950 The word robot was popularized by Czechs author Karel Capek in his 1921 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots). According to Karel, his brother Josef was the actual inventor of the word “robot”, creating the word from the Czech word “robota”, meaning servitude. In 1926, Fritz Lang Metropolis (film) was released; Maria (a main character) was the first robot seen on film. Vannevar Bush created the first analog computer at the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology. Known as the Differential Analyzer, the computer could solve differential equations. 1940 brought about the creation of two electric computers, John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry Atanasoff-Berry Computer; also invented was Robinson (computer), created by the British group Ultra. ABC is notable as the first electronic computer, and ultimately, ideas from ABC were stolen for ENIAC. Robinson was designed for the United Kingdom war effort in cracking Enigma messages. Konrad Zuse built the first fully programmable digital computer in the world (the Z3) in 1941; it would later be destroyed in 1944. Zuse was also known for building the first binary computer from 1936 to 1938, called the Z1 (computer); he also built the Z4 (computer), his only machine to survive World War II. Colossus (computer) was built in 1943 to decode Fish (cryptography) messages by the British group Ultra; it was designed by Tommy Flowers and was 100 to 1000 times faster than Robinson. The first American programmable computer was completed in 1944 by Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper. The Harvard Mark I (as it was called) ran computations for the United States Navy until 1959. ENIAC was invented in 1946 and gained fame because of its reliability, speed, and versatility. John Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly spent 3 years building ENIAC, which weighed over 60,000 lbs. The first Turtle (robot) (Elmo and Elsie) are created by pioneer roboticist William Grey Walter in 1949. In 1950, UNIVAC (also by Eckert and Mauchley) handled the United States Census results; it was the first commercially marketed computer.

1951 to 2000 After 1950, computers (and robotics), began to rapidly increase in both complexity and numbers as the technology needed to make the devices became easier to produce. 1951 to 1960 Eckert and Mauchly completed EDVAC in 1951. An improvement on ENIAC and UNIVAC, EDVAC used Delay line memory to store data, making it the first stored program computer. In 1952, the television network CBS correctly predicted the election of Dwight D. Eisenhower as US President using UNIVAC. In 1950, UNIVAC (also by Eckert and Mauchley) handled the United States Census results; it was the first commercially marketed computer. In 1952 IBM announced its IBM 701 model computer, marketed towards scientific use, it was designed by Nathaniel Rochester. Stanislaw Ulam and physicist Paul Stein converted MANIAC I (used for solving calculations involved in creating the hydrogen bomb) to play a modified game of chess in 1956; it was the first computer to beat a human in a game of chess. The term “Artificial Intelligence was created at a conference held at Dartmouth College in 1956. Alan Newell, Cliff Shaw, and Herbert Simon pioneered the newly created artificial intelligence field with the (Logic Theory Machine (1956), and the General Problem Solver in 1957. In 1958, John McCarthy (computer scientist) and Marvin Minsky started the MIT Artificial Intelligence lab with $50,000. John McCarthy also created LISP in the summer of 1958, a programming language still important in artificial intelligence research. Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce invented the integrated circuit or “chip” in 1959; the inventors worked independent of each other. This invention will revolutionize computers by affecting both the size and speed.

1961 to 1970 Unimate, the first industrial robot ever created began work on the General Motors assembly line in 1961; conceived of in 1954 by George Devol and Joseph Engelberger over lunch; Unimate was made by the company Unimation. Unimate is remembered as the first industrial robot. In 1962 John McCarthy founded the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Stanford University. The Rancho Arm was developed as a robotic arm to help handicapped patients at the Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey, California; this computer controlled arm was bought by Stanford University in 1963. IBM announced its IBM System/360 in 1964. The system was heralded as being more powerful, faster, and more capable than its predecessors. In 1965, Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Intel in 1968, develops what will become known as Moore's Law; the idea that the number of components capable of being built onto a chip will double every two years. The same year, doctoral student Edward Feigenbaum, geneticist and biochemist Joshua Lederberg, and Bruce Buchanan (who held a degree in philosophy) begin work on the Dendral, an expert system designed to work in the field of organic chemistry. Feigenbaum also founded the Stanford Knowledge Systems in 1965, it later became the Stanford Knowledge Systems Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. The programMac Hack was also written in 1966; it beat artificial intelligence critic Hubert Dreyfus in a game of chess. The program was created by Richard Greenblatt. Seymour Papert created the Logo (programming language) programming language in 1967. It was designed as an educational programming language. The film 2001: A Space Odyssey (film) was released in 1968; the movie prominently features HAL 9000, a malevolent artificial intelligence unit which controls a spacecraft. Marvin Minsky created the Tentacle Arm in 1968; the arm was computer controlled and its 12 joints were powered by hydraulics. Mechanical Engineering student Victor Scheinman created the Stanford Arm in 1969; the Stanford Arm is recognized as the first electronic computer controlled robotic arm (Unimate's instructions were stored on a magnetic drum). The first floppy disc was released in 1970; it was eight inches in diameter and read-only. The first mobile robot capable of reasoning about its surroundings, Shakey the Robot was built in 1970 by the Stanford Research Institute. Shakey combined multiple sensor inputs, including TV cameras, laser range-finder, and “bump sensors” to navigate.

1971 to 1980 The first microprocessor, called the 4004 was created by Ted Hoff at Intel in 1971. Measuring 1/8th of an inch by 1/16th of an inch, the chip itself was more powerful than ENIAC. Artificial intelligence critic Hubert Dreyfuss published his influential book What Computers Can't Do in 1972. Douglas Trumbull Silent Running was released in 1972; the movie was notable for the three robot co-stars, named Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Released in 1973 was the logic based programming language PROLOG; this logic based language becomes important in the field of artificial intelligence. Freddy and Freddy II, both built in the United Kingdom, were robots capable of assembling wooden blocks in a period of several hours. In 1974, David Silver designed The Silver Arm; the Silver Arm was capable of fine movements replicating human hands. Feedback was provided by touch sensor and pressure sensor sensors and analyzed by a computer. MYCIN, an expert system developed to study decisions and prescriptions relating to blood infections. MYCIN was written in Lisp. Marvin Minsky published his landmark paper “A Framework for Representing Knowledge” on artificial intelligence. By 1975, four expert systems relating to medicine had been created; PIP, MYCIN, CASNET, and Internist. 1975: more than 5,000 computers were sold in the United States, and the first personal computer was introduced. The Kurzweil Reading Machine (invented by Raymond Kurzweil), intended to help the blind, was released in 1976. Capable of recognizing characters, the machine formulated pronunciation based on programmed rules. Based on studies of flexible objects in nature (such as elephant trunks and the vertebrae of snakes), Shigeo Hirose designed the Soft Gripper in 1976 the gripper was capable of conforming to the object it was grasping. The knowledge based system Automated Mathematician was presented by Douglas Lenat in 1976 as part of his doctoral dissertation. Automated Mathematician began with a knowledge of 110 concepts and rediscovered many mathematical principles; Automated Mathematician was written in Lisp. Joseph Weizenbaum (creator of ELIZA, a program capable of simulating a Rogerian physcotherapist) published Computer Power and Human Reason, presenting an argument against the creation of artificial intelligence. Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak created the Apple Computer in 1977, and released the Apple II. George Lucas movie Star Wars was also released in 1977. Star Wars featured two robots; an android named C-3PO and R2-D2, both of which become extremely iconic as robots. Voyagers Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in 1977 to explore the solar system. The 30 year old robotic space probes continue to transmit data back to earth and are approaching the heliopause and interstellar space.The SCARA, Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm, was created in 1978 as an efficient, 4-axis robotic arm. Best used for picking up parts and placing them in another location, the SCARA was introduced to assembly lines in 1981. XCON, an expert system designed to customize orders for industrial use, was released in 1979. The Stanford Cart successfully crossed a room full of chairs in 1979. The Stanford Cart relied primarily on stereo vision to navigate and determine distances. The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University was founded in 1979 by Raj Reddy.

1981 to 1990 Takeo Kanade created the first “direct drive arm” in 1981. The first of its kind, the arm's motors were contained within the robot itself, eliminating long transmissions. IBM released its first personal computer (PC) in 1981; the name of the computer was responsible for popularizing the term “personal computer”. Prospector (expert system) a “computer-based consultation program for mineral exploration”, created in 1976, discovered an unknown deposit of molybdenum in Washington (state) state. The expert system had been updated annually since its creation. The Fifth Generation Computer (FGCS) was started in 1982. Its goals were knowledge based information processing and massive parallelism in a supercomputer, artificial intelligence like system. Cyc, a project to create a database of common sense for artificial intelligence, was started in 1984 by Douglas Leant. The program attempts to deal with ambiguity in language, and is still underway. The first program to publish a book, the expert system Racter, programmed by William Chamberlain and Thomas Etter, wrote the book “The Policeman's Beard is Half-Constructed” in 1983. It is now thought that a system of complex templates were used. In 1984 Wabot-2 was revealed; capable of playing the organ, Wabot-2 had 10 fingers and two feet. Wabot-2 was able to read a score of music and accompany a person. In 1985, Kawasaki Heavy Industries license agreement with Unimation was terminated; Kawasaki began to produce its own robots. Their first robot was released one year later. By 1986, artificial intelligence revenue was about $1 billion US dollars. Chess playing programs HiTech and Deep Thought (chess computer) defeated chess masters in 1989. Both were developed by Carnegie Mellon University; Deep Thought development paved the way for the Deep Blue. In 1986, Honda began its humanoid research and development program to create robots capable of interacting successfully with humans. Artificial intelligence related technologies, not including robots, now produce a revenue of $1.4 billion US dollars. In 1988, Stäubli Group purchased Unimation. The Connection Machine was built in 1988 by Daniel Hillis; the supercomputer used 64,000 processors simultaneously. A hexapod (robotics) robot named Genghis (robot) was revealed by MIT in 1989. Genghis was famous for being made quickly and cheaply due to construction methods; Genghis used 4 microprocessors, 22 sensors, and 12 servo motors. Rodney Brooks and Anita M. Flynn published “Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control: A Robot Invasion of The Solar System”. The paper advocated creating smaller cheaper robots in greater numbers to increase production time and decrease the difficulty of launching robots into space.

1991 to 2000 While competing in a 1993 NASA sponsored competition, Carnegie Mellon University's eight legged robot Dante (robot) failed to collect gases from Mount Erebus because of a broken fiber optics cable. Dante was designed to scale slopes and harvest gases near the surface of the magma; however, the failure in the cable did not permit the robot to enter the active volcano. In 1994, Dante II entered Mount Spurr and successfully sampled the gases within the volcano. The biometric robot RoboTuna was built by doctoral student David Barrett at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1996 to study how fish swim in water. RoboTuna is designed to swim and resmeble a blue fin tuna. Invented by John Adler, in 1994, the Cyberknife (a stereotactic radiosurgery performing robot) represented a faster method of performing surgery with equivalent accuracy to one done by human doctors. Honda's P2 (robot) humanoid robot was first shown in 1996. Standing for “Prototype Model 2”, P2 was an integral part of Honda's humanoid development project; over 6 feet tall, P2 was smaller than its predecessors and appeared to be more human like in its motions. Expected to only operate for seven days, the Sojourner (rover) rover finally shuts down after 83 days of operation in 1997. This small robot (only weighing 23 lbs) performed semi-autonomous operations on the surface of Mars as part of the Mars Pathfinder mission; equipped with an obstacle avoidance program, Sojourner was capable of planning and navigating routes to study the surface of the planet. Sojourner's ability to navigate with little data about its environment and nearby surroundings allowed the robot to react to unplanned events and objects. Also in 1997, IBM's chess playing program Deep Blue beat the then current World Chess Champion Gary Kasparov playing at the “Grandmaster” level. The super computer was a specialized version of a framework produced by IBM, and was capable of processing twice as many moves per second as it had during the first match (which Deep Blue had lost), reportedly 200,000,000 moves per second. The event was broadcast live over the internet and received over 74 million hits. The P3 humanoid robot was revealed by Honda in 1998 as a part of the company's continuing humanoid project. In 1999, Sony introduced the AIBO, a robotic dog capable of interacting with humans, the first models released in Japan sold out in 20 minutes. Honda revealed the most advanced result of their humanoid project in 2000, named ASIMO. ASIMO is capable of running, walking, communication with humans, facial and environmental recognition, voice and posture recognition, and interacting with its environment. Sony also revealed its QRIO, small humanoid robots in development for entertainment. In October of 2000, the United Nations estimated that there were 742,500 industrial robots in the world, with more than more than half of the robots being used in Japan. 2001 to the present In April 2001, the Canadarm2 was launched into orbit and attached to the International Space Station. The Canadarm2 is a larger, more capable version of the arm used by the Space Shuttle and is hailed as being “smarter.” Also in April, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Global Hawk made the first autonomous non-stop flight over the Pacific Ocean from Edwards Air Force Base in California to RAAF Base Edinburgh in Southern Australia. The flight was made in 22 hours. The popular Roomba, a robotic vacuum cleaner, was first released in 2002 by the company iRobot. In 2004, Cornell University revealed a robot capable of self-replication; a set of cubes capable of attaching and detaching, the first robot capable of building copies of itself. On January 3rd and 24th the Mars rovers Spirit (rover) and Opportunity (rover) land on the surface of Mars. Launched in 2003, the two robots will drive many times the distance originally expected, and are still operating. All 15 teams competing in the DARPA Grand Challenge failed to complete the course, with no robot successfully navigating more than five percent of the 150 mile off road course, leaving the $1 million dollar prize unclaimed. In the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, five teams completed the off-road course; Stanford University's Stanley (vehicle) won first place and the $2 million dollar prize. Also in 2005, Honda revealed a new version of its ASIMO robot, updated with new behaviors and capabilities. In 2006, Cornell University revealed its “Starfish” robot, a 4-legged robot capable of self modeling and learning to walk after having been damaged. In September of 2007, Google announced its Google Lunar X Prize. The Lunar X Prize offers 30 million dollars to the first private company which lands a rover on the moon and sends images back to earth.

Control The mechanical structure of a robot must be controlled to perform tasks. The control of a robot involves three distinct phases - perception, processing and action (robotic paradigms). Sensors give information about the environment or the robot itself (e.g. the position of its joints or its end effector). Using strategies from the field of control theory, this information is processed to calculate the appropriate signals to the actuators (Electric motors) which move the mechanical structure. The control of a robot involves path planning, pattern recognition, obstacle avoidance, etc. More complex and adaptable control strategies can be referred to as artificial intelligence.

Dynamics & Kinematics The study of motion can be divided into kinematics and dynamics (mechanics). Direct kinematics refers to the calculation of end effector position, orientation, velocity and acceleration when the corresponding joint values are known. Inverse kinematics refers to the opposite case in which required joint values are calculated for given end effector values, as done in path planning. Some special aspects of kinematics include handling of redundancy (different possibilities of performing the same movement), collision avoidance and Mechanical singularity avoidance. Once all relevant positions, velocities and accelerations have been calculated using kinematics, methods from the field of dynamics (mechanics) are used to study the effect of forces upon these movements. Direct dynamics refers to the calculation of accelerations in the robot once the applied forces are known. Direct dynamics is used in computer simulations of the robot. Inverse dynamics refers to the calculation of the actuator forces necessary to create a prescribed end effector acceleration. This information can be used to improve the control algorithms of a robot.

In each area mentioned above, researchers strive to develop new concepts and strategies, improve existing ones and improve the interaction between these areas. To do this, criteria for "optimal" performance and ways to optimize design, structure and control of robots must be developed and implemented.

External links

The “official” Hall of Fame for robots Voting is currently underway for a new round of inductees.
Robot news and Robotics information
Small robots drive trains – A tutorial discussing the different techniques used to build the chassis and drive trains of relatively small robots
A review of robotics software platforms Linux Devices.
UNSW Computational Mechanics and Robotics Group
New and used robot parts for industrial robot systems

References

Robotics
The full list of our undergraduate and postgraduate Robotics courses is below. For more information click on the appropriate course.

Robotics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robotics is the science and technology of robots, their design, manufacture, and application. [1] Robotics requires a working knowledge of electronics, mechanics and software, and ...

Robotics at Manchester University
These pages describe the research and taught courses in robotics performed at the School of Computer Science, University of Manchester, UK

Robotics Research @ the University of Essex
The Essex Robotics group is one of the largest mobile robotics groups in the UK, with advanced mobile robotics research facilities such as the Essex Robotics Arena ...

Micromech Robotics - Home Page
A Robotics and Automation website ... Micromech Robotics suppliers of robot integrated systems. 6-8 Chilford Court, Rayne Rd, Braintree, Essex, CM7 2QS

Robotics Resources
Welcome to the Open University-RoboFesta web site. RoboFesta is an International Organisation established to promote the study and enjoyment of science and ...

Bee Robotics
Bee Robotics Ltd, located in the UK, is a manufacturer and supplier of instruments and consumables to clinical diagnostic laboratories worldwide.

Active Robotics Laboratory | Advanced Robotics, Networked Systems and ...
The Active Robotics Laboratory (ARL) carries out advanced research in robot systems. Current areas of research includes space robotics, networked robotics, human-robot interaction ...

Merlin Robotics - Creators of Robots for people
Merlin Robotics- Mobile Robots and accessories, Merlin Air Valves, Merlin Air Muscles ... New Robot Football demonstration video link Technical support website . Opening hours:

Micro-Robotics : Embedded Controller Technology
Embedded control components: easy programming, high performance and low cost; custom systems and consultancy - Cambridge, UK