Henry Lin, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, California State University, Bakersfield Lecture 8 (Robotics) July 25 th, 2012 1
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Robotic Applications in Smart Homes Control of the physical environment Automated blinds Thermostats and heating ducts Automatic room partitioning Personal service robots House cleaning Lawn mowing Assistance to the elderly and hanicapped Office assistants 3
What is a Robot? Robota (Czech) = a worker of forced labor Japanese Industrial Robot Association: A robot is a device with degrees of freedom that can be controlled Historical Robots include: Mechanical automata Motor-driven automata Computer-controlled robots 4
What is a Robot? A reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through various programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks. Robot Institute of America, 1979 Where AI (Artificial Intelligence) meets the real world. 5
Early Stages History The notion of putting machines to work can be credited to great thinkers like Aristotle. Westinghouse Electric Corp. creates two of the first robots that use the electric motor for entire body motion. 6
History The first industrial robot: UNIMATE 1954: The first programmable robot is designed by George Devol, who coins the term Universal Automation. He later shortens this to Unimation. 7
History 1968 Shaky build at Stanford Research Institute. Shakey could perform tasks that required planning, route-finding, and the rearranging of simple objects. 8
History 1980s: The robot industry enters a phase of rapid growth. Many institutions introduce programs and courses in robotics. Robotics courses are spread across mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science departments. 9
History 1995-present: Emerging applications in small robotics and mobile robots drive a second growth of start-up companies and research. 2003: NASA s Mars Exploration Rovers will launch toward Mars in search of answers about the history of water on Mars. 10
Industries Using Robots Agriculture Automobile Construction Entertainment Health care: hospitals, patient-care, surgery, research, etc. Laboratories: science, engineering, etc. Law enforcement: surveillance, patrol, etc. Manufacturing Military: demining, surveillance, attack, etc. Mining, excavation, and exploration Transportation: air, ground, rail, space, etc. Utilities: gas, water, and electric Warehouses 11
Traditional Industrial Robotics Industrial robot manipulators Repetitive tasks High speed Few sensing operations High precision movements Pre-planned trajectories and task policies No interaction with humans 12
Examples of Industrial Robots Material handling Material transfer Machine loading and/or unloading Spot welding Continuous arc welding Spray coating Assembly Inspection 13
What can robots do? Jobs that are dangerous for humans Decontaminating Robot: cleaning the main circulating pump housing in the nuclear power plant 14
What can robots do? Repetitive jobs that are boring, stressful, or laborintensive for humans Ex. Welding Robot 15
What can robots do? Menial tasks that human don t want to do Ex. The SCRUMBMATE Robot 16
Robots in Smart Home Environments Problems of Traditional Robotics: Are not creative or innovative No capability to think independently Cannot make complicated decisions Do not learn from mistakes Cannot adapt quickly to changes in their surroundings Only limited on-line sensing Can not handle uncertainty No interaction with humans Reliance on perfect task information Complete re-programming for new tasks We must depend on real people for these abilities! 17
Design Goals: Sensor-rich Flexible Versatile Controllable Current Robots 18
Our Times In 1997 the P3 robot was produced by Honda which was more human like. Capabalities: Walk around Climb stairs Carry things Pick things up Push things Position itself accurately 19
Our Times In 2000 Honda incorporated the P3 technology into its dancing robot ASIMO. ASIMO stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility It is the 4 th man like humanoid robot. 20
Why Humanoids? Are there any good reasons for doing research on humanoid robots? Work in dangerous environments Exhaustive and repetitive tasks Division of labour with humans in cooperative tasks Anthropomorphism Embodiment Interaction and Communication 21
Anthropomorphism Why Humanoids? Anthropomorphism is attribution of human form or other characteristics to anything other than a human being. Humans have built complex environments, tools and equipments very much adapted to ourselves. Robots with human-like morphology and motion capabilities have a greater potential acting in living environments created for humans, than e.g. wheeled robots. 22
Embodiment Why Humanoids? The form of our bodies is critical to the representations that we develop and use for both our internal thought and our language. If we are to build a robot with human like intelligence then it must have a human like body in order to be able to develop similar sorts of representations. 23
Why Humanoids? Important aspects of being human are interaction and communication with other humans Humanoids can communicate in a manner that supports the natural communication modalities of humans. Examples include: facial expression, body posture, gesture, gaze direction, and voice. If a robot has humanoid form, then it will be both easy and natural for humans to interact with it in a humanlike way. 24
Future Home Robots? 25
Medicine Other fields in robotics Some doctors and engineers are also developing prosthetic (bionic) limbs that use robotic mechanisms 26
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Toys Other fields in robotics The new robot technology is making interesting types of toys that children will like to play with. One is the Lego Mindstorms robot construction kit. These kits, which were developed by the LEGO company with M.I.T. scientists, let kids create and program their own robots. 28
Challenges for Robots in Intelligent Environments Control Challenges: Autonomy in uncertain environments Robots have to be capable of achieving task objectives without human input Robots have to be able to make and execute their own decisions based on sensor information Autonomous underwater/ ground/aerial vehicles Adaptation and Learning Human-machine interaction Versatile Mechanisms 29
Uncertainty in Robot Systems Sensor Uncertainty: Sensor readings are imprecise and unreliable Non-observability: Various aspects of the environment can not be observed The environment is initially unknown Action Uncertainty: Actions can fail Actions have nondeterministic outcomes 30
Robot Classification The following is the classification of robots according to the robotics Institute of America Variable-Sequence Robot: A device that performs the successive stages of a task according to a predetermined method easy to modify. Playback Robot: A human operator performs the task manually by leading the robot. Numerical Control Robot: The operator supplies the movement program rather than teaching it the task manually. Intelligent Robot: A robot with the means to understand its environment and the ability to successfully complete a task despite changes to the environment. 31
Yes So are these machines a threat? The Japanese are trying to create a robot that will take over child minding and care of the elderly from human beings. The Koreans are working on a robot sentry that can distinguish the movement of people and shoot them on sight. The US military have commissioned a robot helicopter with a recoil-less rifle capable of tracking and killing a particular individual. 32
No So are these machines a threat? Robots are taking over tasks which are deemed dull, dirty and dangerous. The idea of robots with greater intelligence than humans is at least 50 years away, and may never come. It s not the robots we need to worry about; it s the people who programmed them. 33
Laws of Robotics Law 0: A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm Law 1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, human being to come to harm, unless this would violate a higher order law Law 2: A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with a higher order law Law 3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such portection does not conflict with a higher order law 34
Knowledgebase for Robotics Typical knowledgebase for the design and operation of robotic systems Dynamic system modeling and analysis Feedback control Sensors and signal conditioning Actuators and power electronics Hardware/computer interfacing Computer programming Disciplines: math, physics, biology, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering, and computer science 35
Key Components 36
Robot Base: Fixed vs Mobile Robotic manipulators used in manufacturing are examples of fixed robots. They can not move their base away from the work being done. Mobile bases are typically platforms with wheels or tracks attached. Instead of wheels or tracks, some robots employ legs in order to move about. 37
Robot Mechanism: Mechanical Elements 38
Mechanical components Robots are serial chain mechanisms made up of links (generally considered to be rigid) joints (where relative motion takes place) Joints connect two links 39
Degrees of Freedom Degrees of freedom (DoF) is the number of independent movements the robot is capable of Ideally, each joint has exactly one degree of freedom Degrees of freedom = number of joints Industrial robots typically have 6 DoF, but 3,4,5, and 7 are also common 40
Robot Accessories Actuators: Actuators are the muscles of the manipulators. Common types of actuators are servomotors, stepper motors, pneumatic cylinders etc. Sensors: Sensors are used to collect information about the internal state of the robot or to communicate with the outside environment. Robots are often equipped with external sensory devices such as a vision system, touch and tactile sensors etc which help to communicate with the environment. Controller: The controller receives data from the computer, controls the motions of the actuator and coordinates these motions with the sensory feedback information. 41
Sensors Human senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell provide us vital information to function and survive Robot sensors: measure robot configuration/condition and its environment and send such information to robot controller as electronic signals (e.g., arm position, presence of toxic gas) Robots often need information that is beyond 5 human senses (e.g., ability to: see in the dark, detect tiny amounts of invisible radiation, measure movement that is too small or fast for the human eye to see 42
Sensors Vision Sensor: e.g., to pick bins, perform inspection, etc. Part-Picking: Robot can handle work pieces that are randomly piled by using 3-D vision sensor. Since alignment operation, a special parts feeder, and an alignment pallete are not required, an automatic system can be constructed at low cost 43
Sensors 44
Actuators Common robotic actuators utilize combinations of different electromechanical devices Synchronous motor Stepper motor AC servo motor Brushless DC servo motor Brushed DC servo motor 45
Controller Provide necessary intelligence to control the manipulator/mobile robot Process the sensory information and compute the control commands for the actuators to carry out specified tasks 46
Controller Hardware Storage devices: e.g., memory to store the control program and the state of the robot system obtained from the sensors 47
Controller Hardware Computational engine that computes the control commands 48
Controller Hardware Interface units: Hardware to interface digital controller with the external world (sensors and actuators) 49
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Demonstration of Koala robot, SRV robot, and Segway robot 58