Taking A Look At The History Of Robotic Technology

Robotic technology can be found in clocks, remote control vehicles, automobile computers, Aibo, factory robotic arms, self-guided rovers, service bots like ASIMO, robotic toys like AIBO or Robo-Raptor and a CNC milling machine. To be considered a "robot," the specimen must be able to interact with its environment and physically do something. Most recently, robots are being used in surgery, disaster recovery and firefighting. 

Historically, ancient people believed in the existence of a humanoid robot species. The Greek god Hephaestus was thought to have created mechanical servants to help him build temples. Furthermore, the Jewish people thought that clay golems could come to life and the Norse believed that clay giants could awaken. 

In 4th Century BC, Greek mathematicians Archytas of Tarentum proposed that he could create a steam-powered bird known as "The Pigeon." Additionally, Hero of Alexandria (10-70 AD) devised automated machinery powered by air pressure and steam. In 1088, Su Song developed the first clock tower that was built using mechanical figurines and audible chimes. In 1206, the first humanoid robot was created by Al-Jazari, a Muslim inventor who wished to entertain royal guests with automated musicians who played on a boat in a lake. Al-Jazari was already well-known for constructing everything from kitchen appliances and other astounding robotic machines.

There are many different ways to think about robotic technology. For instance, do we want an artificial being to look like a human or an unmistakable nuts-and-bolts prototype? Should they go to work at the plant or in our own homes? Should they think for themselves or be simply capable of pre-programmed simplified tasks?

There are "soft robots," which have silicone bodies and flexible actuators that behave almost human-like. There are "swarm robots" that behave like bees or ants, cooperating together to find something, clean, explore space or spy. 

"Haptic interface robots" allow users to interact with virtual simulation environments. Engineers are always coming up with new designs and uses for automation robotics.

Robotic technology is continually progressing. Early prototypes used steam, water or air, while new robotic prototypes use actuators, electric DC motors and air muscles. To study robotics engineering, interested students can attend Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which is the only school that offers a Bachelor of Science in Robotics Engineering.

Other schools have graduate programs based on robotics automation, including Carnegie Mellon University, MIT, UPENN and UCLA. To increase early interest in this field, programs like FIRST Robotics were devised to encourage students as young as six to look to math, science and technology fields for hobbies.

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ROBOTICS

                                                                  ROBOTICS

• WHAT IS ROBOTICS:

• Roboticists develop man-made mechanical devices that can move by themselves, whose motion must be model led, planned, sensed, actuated and controlled, and whose motion behavior can be influenced by “programming”. Robots are called “intelligent” if they succeed in moving in safe interaction with an unstructured environment, while autonomously achieving their specified tasks.

  This definition implies that a device can only be called a “robot” if it contains a movable mechanism, influenced by sensing, planning, actuation and control components. It does not imply that a minimum number of these components must be implemented in software, or be changeable by the “consumer” who uses the device for example, the motion behaviour can have been hard-wired into the device by the manufacturer.

  Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots.Robotics is related to the sciences of electronics, engineering, mechanics, and software.The word "robot" was introduced to the public by Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), published in 1920. The term "robotics" was coined by Isaac Asimov in his 1941 science fiction short-story "Liar!"

• HISTORY OF ROBOTICS:

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  The history of robots has its roots as far back as ancient myths and legends. Modern concepts were begun to be developed when the Industrial Revolution allowed the use of more complex mechanics and the subsequent introduction of electricity made it possible to power machines with small compact motors. After the 1920s the modern formulation of a humanoid machine was developed to the stage where it was possible to envisage human sized robots with the capacity for near human thoughts and movements, first envisaged millennia before. The first uses of modern robots were in factories as industrial robots - simple fixed machines capable of manufacturing tasks which allowed production without the need for human assistance.

  The acclaimed Czech playwright Karel Capek (1890-1938) made the first use of the word ‘robot’, from the Czech word for forced labor or serf. Capek was reportedly several times a candidate for the Nobel prize for his works and very influential and prolific as a writer and playwright.

  The use of the word Robot was introduced into his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) which opened in Prague in January 1921.

  In R.U.R., Capek poses a paradise, where the machines initially bring so many benefits but in the end bring an equal amount of blight in the form of unemployment and social unrest.

  The play was an enormous success and productions soon opened throughout Europe and the U.S. R.U.R's theme, in part, was the dehumanization of man in a technological civilization.

  You may find it surprising that the robots were not mechanical in nature but were created through chemical means. In fact, in an essay written in 1935, Capek strongly fought that this idea was at all possible and, writing in the third person, said:

  "It is with horror, frankly, that he rejects all responsibility for the idea that metal contraptions could ever replace human beings, and that by means of wires they could awaken something like life, love, or rebellion. He would deem this dark prospect to be either an overestimation of machines, or a grave offence against life."

  

  
  

  c. 270 BC - Greek engineer Ctesibus makes organs and water clocks with movable figures.

  
  

  1921 - The term "robot" is first used in "Rossum's Universal Robots," a play by Czech writer Karel Capek.

  
  

  1941 - Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov coins the word, "robotics." 

  
  

  1948 - "Cybernetics", an influence on artificial intelligence research, is published by Norbert Wiener

  
  

  1956 - George Devol and Joseph Engelberger forms the world's first robot company.

  
  

  1963 - The first artificial robotic arm controlled by a computer designed. 

  
  

  1968 - Marvin Minsky develops the octopus-like Tentacle Arm. 

  
  

  1970 - "Shakey," the first mobile robot, is built.

  
  

  1974 - The Silver Arm performs small-parts assembly using feedback from touch and pressure sensors.

  
  

  1976 - Shigeo Hirose designs the Soft Gripper at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. It is designed to wrap around an object in snake like fashion.

  
  

  1977 - Star Wars is released. George Lucas' movie about a universe governed by the force introduces watchers to R2-D2 and C-3PO. The movie creates the strongest image of a human future with robots since the 1960's and inspires a generation of researchers.

  
  

  1977 - Deep space explorers Voyagers 1 and 2 launch from the Kennedy Space Flight Center.

  
  

  1979 - The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University is established.

  
  

  1979 - The Stanford Cart is rebuilt by Hans Moravec. He adds a more robust vision system allowing greater autonomy. These are some of the first experiments with 3D environment mapping.

  
  

  1980 - Seymour Papert publishes Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas where he advocates constructionism, or learning through doing.

  
  

  1981 - Takeo Kanade builds the direct drive arm. It is the first to have motors installed directly into the joints of the arm. This change makes it faster and much more accurate than previous robotic arms.

  
  

  1982 - "A new life awaits you on the Off-World colonies." Blade Runner is released. This Ridley Scott film is based on the Philip K. Dick story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and starred Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard a retired Blade Runner that hunted Replicants (or illegal mutinous androids).

  
  

  1986 - LEGO and the MIT Media Lab colaborate to bring the first LEGO based educational products to market. LEGO tc Logo is used by in the classrooms of thousands of elementary school teachers.

  
  

  1986 - Honda begins a robot research program thats starts with the premise that the robot "should coexist and cooperate with human beings, by doing what a person cannot do and by cultivating a new dimension in mobility to ultimately benefit society." 

  
  

  1989 - A walking robot named Genghis is unveiled by the Mobile Robots Group at MIT. It becomes known for the way it walks, popularly referred to as the "Genghis gait".

  
  

  1989 - At MIT Rodney Brooks and A. M. Flynn publish the paper "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control: A Robot Invasion of the Solar System" in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. The paper changes rover research from building the one, big, expensive robot to building lots of little cheap ones. The paper also makes the idea of building a robot somewhat more accessible to the average person.

  
  

  1989 - Dr. Seymour Papert becomes the LEGO Professor of Learning Research.

  
  

  1992 - In an attempt to build a radio controlled vaccuum cleaner Marc Thorpe has the idea to start a robot combat event.

  
  

  1992 - Dr. John Adler came up with the concept of the CyberKnife a robot that images the patient with x-rays to look for a tumor and delivering a pre-planned dose of radiationto the tumor when found.

  
  

  1993 - Dante an 8-legged walking robot developed at Carnegie Mellon University descends into Mt. Erebrus, Antarctica. Its mission is to collect data from a harsh environment similar to what we might find on another planet. The mission fails when, after a short 20 foot decent, Dante's tether snaps dropping it into the crater.

  
  

  1994 - Dante II, a more robust version of its predicessor, descends into the crater of Alaskan volcano Mt. Spurr. The mission is considered a success.

  
  

  1994 - Marc Thorpe starts Robot Wars at Fort Mason center in San Francsico, CA.

  
  

  1995 - The second annual Robot Wars event is held at Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA.

  
  

  1996 - A RoboTuna is designed and built by David Barrett for his doctoral thesis at MIT. It is used to study the way fish swim.

  
  

  1996 - Chris Campbell and Stuart Wilkinson turn a brewing accident into inspiration at the University of South Florida. The result is the Gastrobot, a robot that digests organic mass to produce carbon dioxide that is then used for power. They call their creation the "flatulence engine."

  
  

  1996 - Honda debuts the P3, the fruit of its decade long effort to build a humanoid robot.

  
  

  1996 - The third annual Robot Wars event is held at Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA.

  
  

  1997 - The first node of the International Space Station is placed in orbit. Over the next several years more components will join it, including a robotic arm designed by Canadian company MD Robotics.

  
  

  1997 - The Pathfinder Mission lands on Mars. Its robotic rover Sojourner, rolls down a ramp and onto Martian soil in early July. It continues to broadcast data from the Martian surface until September.

  
  

  1998 - Tiger Electronics introduces the Furby into the Christmas toy market. It quickly becomes "the toy" to get for the season. Using a variety of sensors this "animatronic pet" can react to its environment and communicate using over 800 phrases in English and their own language "Furbish".

  
  

  1998 - LEGO releases their first Robotics Invention SystemTM 1.0. LEGO names the product line MINDSTORMS after Seymour Papert's seminal work of 1980.

  
  

  1999 - LEGO releases The Robotics Discovery Set, Droid Developer Kit and the Robotics Invention System 1.5.

  
  

  1999 - SONY releases the AIBO robotic pet.

  
  

  2000 - Honda debuts new humanoid robot ASIMO.

  
  

  2000 - The Battlebots event is held in Las Vegas, Nevada.

  
  

  2000 - LEGO releases the MINDSTORMS Robotics Invention SystemTM 2.0

  
  

  2001 - LEGO releases the MINDSTORMS Ultimate Builder's Set

  
  

  2001 - In August, the FDA clears the CyberKnife to treat tumors anywhere in the body.

  
  

  2002 - Honda's ASIMO robot rings the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

  
  

  2003 - June 10th - NASA launches the MER-A "Spirit" rover destined for Mars.

  July 7th - NASA launches the MER-B "Opportunity".

  
  

  2003 - SONY releases the AIBO ERS-7 it's 3rd generation robotic pet.

  
  

  2004 - Jan. 4th - After six minutes of holding our breath (during EDL) as it burned and bounced its way to the red planet the robot rover Spirit lands on Mars.

  
  

  

  
  

  The word "robotics" was also coined by a writer.  Russian-born American science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov first used the word in 1942 in his short story "Runabout."  Asimov had a much brighter and more optimistic opinion of the robot's role in human society than did Capek.  He generally characterized the robots in his short stories as helpful servants of man and viewed robots as "a better, cleaner race."  Asimov also proposed three "Laws of Robotics" that his robots, as well as sci-fi robotic characters of many other stories, followed:

  1)Law One 

          A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

  2)Law Two 

          A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

  3)Law Three 

          A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
  
  
  
  Robotics is, to a very large extent, all about system integration, achieving a task by an actuated mechanical device, via an “intelligent” integration of components, many of which it shares with other domains, such as systems and control, computer science, character animation, machine design, computer vision, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, biomechanics, etc. In addition, the boundaries of robotics cannot be clearly defined, since also its “core” ideas, concepts and algorithms are being applied in an ever increasing number of “external” applications, and, vice versa, core technology from other domains (vision, biology, cognitive science or biomechanics, for example) are becoming crucial components in more and more modern robotic systems.
  
  
  Components of robotic systems
  
  

  The real robot is some mechanical device (“mechanism”) that moves around in the environment, and, in doing so, physically interacts with this environment. This interaction involves the exchange of physical energy, in some form or another. Both the robot mechanism and the environment can be the “cause” of the physical interaction through “Actuation”, or experience the “effect” of the interaction, which can be measured through “Sensing”.

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  Actuation:
  

  
  

  The actuators are the 'muscles' of a robot; the parts which convert stored energy into movement. By far the most popular actuators are electric motors, but there are many others, some of which are powered by electricity, while others use chemicals, or compressed air.

  
  

  Motors: By far the vast majority of robots use electric motors, of which there are several kinds. DC motors, which are familiar to many people, spin rapidly when an electric current is passed through them. They will spin backwards if the current is made to flow in the other direction.

  Stepper motors: As the name suggests, stepper motors do not spin freely like DC motors, they rotate in steps of a few degrees at a time, under the command of a controller. This makes them easier to control, as the controller knows exactly how far they have rotated, without having to use a sensor. Therefore they are used on many robots and CNC machining centres.

  Piezo motors: A recent alternative to DC motors are piezo motors, also known as ultrasonic motors. These work on a fundamentally different principle, whereby tiny piezoceramic legs, vibrating many thousands of times per second, walk the motor round in a circle or a straight line.The advantages of these motors are incredible nanometre resolution, speed and available force for their size.These motors are already available commercially, and being used on some robots.

  

  AIR MUSCLE

  Air muscles: The air muscle is a simple yet powerful device for providing a pulling force. When inflated with compressed air, it contracts by up to 40% of its original length. The key to its behavior is the braiding visible around the outside, which forces the muscle to be either long and thin, or short and fat. Since it behaves in a very similar way to a biological muscle, it can be used to construct robots with a similar muscle/skeleton system to an animal.For example, the Shadow robot hand uses 40 air muscles to power its 24 joints.

  Electroactive polymers: Electroactive polymers are a class of plastics which change shape in response to electrical stimulation.They can be designed so that they bend, stretch or contract, but so far there are no EAPs suitable for commercial robots, as they tend to have low efficiency or are not robust.Indeed, all of the entrants in a recent competition to build EAP powered arm wrestling robots, were beaten by a 17 year old girl.However, they are expected to improve in the future, where they may be useful for microrobotic applications.

  Elastic nanotubes: These are a promising, early-stage experimental technology. The absence of defects in nanotubes enables these filaments to deform elastically by several percent, with energy storage levels of perhaps 10J per cu cm for metal nanotubes. Human biceps could be replaced with an 8mm diameter wire of this material. Such compact "muscle" might allow future robots to outrun and outjump humans.

  
  

  
  
  

  Manipulation:

  
  
  
  

  Robots which must work in the real world require some way to manipulate objects; pick up, modify, destroy or otherwise have an effect. Thus the 'hands' of a robot are often referred to as end effectors, while the arm is referred to as a manipulator.Most robot arms have replacable effectors, each allowing them to perform some small range of tasks. Some have a fixed manipulator which cannot be replaced, while a few have one very general purpose manipulator, for example a humanoid hand.

  
  
  

  

  A SIMPLE GRIPPER

  
  

  
  Grippers: A common effector is the gripper. In its simplest manifestation it consists of just two fingers which can open and close to pick up and let go of a range of small objects. See End effectors.
  Vacuum Grippers: Pick and place robots for electronic components and for large objects like car windscreens, will often use very simple vacuum grippers. These are very simple astrictive devices, but can hold very large loads provided the prehension surface is smooth enough to ensure suction.
  General purpose effectors: Some advanced robots are beginning to use fully humanoid hands, like the Shadow Hand and the Schunk hand.These highly dexterous manipulators, with as many as 20 degrees of freedom and hundreds of tactile sensors can be difficult to control. The computer must consider a great deal of information, and decide on the best way to manipulate an object from many possibilities.
  

  
  

  Locomotion

  
  

  Rolling Robots

  
  

  For simplicity, most mobile robots have four wheels. However, some researchers have tried to create more complex wheeled robots, with only one or two wheels.

  

  SEGWAY

  
  

  Two-wheeled balancing: While the Segway is not commonly thought of as a robot, it can be thought of as a component of a robot. Several real robots do use a similar dynamic balancing algorithm, and NASA's Robonaut has been mounted on a Segway.

  Ballbot: Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed a new type of mobile robot that balances on a ball instead of legs or wheels. "Ballbot" is a self-contained, battery-operated, omnidirectional 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.

  Track Robot: Another type of rolling robot is one that has tracks, like NASA's Urban Robot, Urbie.

  
  

  
  Walking Robots:
  

  

  WALKING ROBOT

  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  Walking is a difficult and dynamic problem to solve. Several robots have been made which can walk reliably on two legs, however none have yet been made which are as robust as a human. Typically, these robots can walk well on flat floors, and can occasionally walk up stairs. None can walk over rocky, uneven terrain. Some of the methods which have been tried are:

  ZMP Technique: The Zero Moment Point (ZMP) is the algorithm used by robots such as Honda's ASIMO. The robot's onboard computer tries to keep the total inertial forces (the combination of earth's gravity and the acceleration and deceleration of walking), exactly opposed by the floor reaction force (the force of the floor pushing back on the robot's foot). In this way, the two forces cancel out, leaving no moment (force causing the robot to rotate and fall over).However, this is not exactly how a human walks, and the difference is quite apparent to human observers, some of whom have pointed out that ASIMO walks as if it needs the lavatory.ASIMO's walking algorithm is not static, and some dynamic balancing is used (See below). However, it still requires a smooth surface to walk on.

  Hopping: Several robots, built in the 1980s by Marc Raibert at the MIT Leg Laboratory, successfully demonstrated very dynamic walking. Initially, a robot with only one leg, and a very small foot, could stay upright simply by hopping. The movement is the same as that of a person on a pogo stick. As the robot falls to one side, it would jump slightly in that direction, in order to catch itself.Soon, the algorithm was generalised to two and four legs. A bipedal robot was demonstrated running and even performing somersaults.A quadruped was also demonstrated which could trot, run, pace and bound.For a full list of these robots, see the MIT Leg Lab Robots page.

  Dynamic Balancing: A more advanced way for a robot to walk is by using a dynamic balancing algorithm, which is potentially more robust than the Zero Moment Point technique, as it constantly monitors the robot's motion, and places the feet in order to main stability.This technique was recently demonstrated by Anybots' Dexter Robot,which is so stable, it can even jump.

  Passive Dynamics: Perhaps the most promising approach utilises passive dynamics where the momentum of swinging limbs is used for greater efficiency. It has been shown that totally unpowered humanoid mechanisms can walk down a gentle slope, using only gravity to propel themselves. Using this technique, a robot need only supply a small amount of motor power to walk along a flat surface or a little more to walk up a hill. This technique promises to make walking robots at least ten times more efficient than ZMP walkers, like ASIMO.

  
  

  Flying:

  

  FLYING ROBOT
  
  
  

  A modern passenger airliner is essentially a flying robot, with two humans to attend it. The autopilot can control the plane for each stage of the journey, including takeoff, normal flight and even landing . Other flying robots are completely automated, and are known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). They can be smaller and lighter without a human pilot, and fly into dangerous territory for military surveillance missions. Some can even fire on targets under command. UAVs are also being developed which can fire on targets automatically, without the need for a command from a human. Other flying robots include cruise missiles, the Entomopter and the Epson micro helicopter robot.

  
  

  Snaking:

  

  SNAKE ROBOT

  
  

  Several snake robots have been successfully developed. Mimicking the way real snakes move, these robots can navigate very confined spaces, meaning they may one day be used to search for people trapped in collapsed buildings.The Japanese ACM-R5 snake robot can even navigate both on land and in water.
  

  
  

  Skating: 

  
  

  

  SKATING ROBOT

  
  

  
  A small number of skating robots have been developed, one of which is a multi-mode walking and skating device, Titan VIII. It has four legs, with unpowered wheels, which can either step or roll. Another robot, Plen, can use a miniature skateboard or rollerskates, and skate across a desktop.
  

  
  

  Swimming:

  
  

  

  SWIMMING ROBOT

  
  

  It is calculated that when swimming some fish can achieve a propulsive efficiency greater than 90%. Furthermore, they can accelerate and manoeuver far better than any man-made boat or submarine, and produce less noise and water disturbance. Therefore, many researchers studying underwater robots would like to copy this type of locomotion.Notable examples are the Essex University Computer Science Robotic Fish, and the Robot Tuna built by the Institute of Field Robotics, to analyse and mathematically model thunniform motion.

  
  

  
  

  Human interaction:

  
  

  If robots are to work effectively in homes and other non-industrial environments, the way they are instructed to perform their jobs, and especially how they will be told to stop will be of critical importance. The people who interact with them may have little or no training in robotics, and so any interface will need to be extremely intuitive. Science fiction authors also typically assume that robots will eventually communicate with humans by talking, gestures and facial expressions, rather than a command-line interface. Although speech would be the most natural way for the human to communicate, it is quite unnatural for the robot. It will be quite a while before robots interact as naturally as the fictional C3P0.

  

  
  

  
  

  Speech recognition: Interpreting the continuous flow of sounds coming from a human (speech recognition), in real time, is a difficult task for a computer, mostly because of the great variability of speech. The same word, spoken by the same person may sound different depending on local acoustics, volume, the previous word, whether or not the speaker has a cold, etc.. It becomes even harder when the speaker has a different accent.Nevertheless, great strides have been made in the field since Davis, Biddulph, and Balashek designed the first "voice input system" which recognized "ten digits spoken by a single user with 100% accuracy" in 1952.Currently, the best systems can recognise continuous, natural speech, up to 160 words per minute, with an accuracy of 95%.

  Gestures: One can imagine, in the future, explaining to a robot chef how to make a pastry, or asking directions from a robot police officer. On both of these occasions, making hand gestures would aid the verbal descriptions. In the first case, the robot would be recognising gestures made by the human, and perhaps repeating them for confirmation. In the second case, the robot police officer would gesture to indicate "down the road, then turn right". It is quite likely that gestures will make up a part of the interaction between humans and robots.A great many systems have been developed to recognise human hand gestures.

  Facial expression: Facial expressions can provide rapid feedback on the progress of a dialog between two humans, and soon it may be able to do the same for humans and robots. A robot should know how to approach a human, judging by their facial expression and body language. Whether the person is happy, frightened or crazy-looking affects the type of interaction expected of the robot. Likewise, a robot like Kismet can produce a range of facial expressions, allowing it to have meaningful social exchanges with humans.

  Personality: Many of the robots of science fiction have personality, and that is something which may or may not be desirable in the commercial robots of the future.Nevertheless, researchers are trying to create robots which appear to have a personality i.e. they use sounds, facial expressions and body language to try to convey an internal state, which may be joy, sadness or fear. One commercial example is Pleo, a toy robot dinosaur, which can exhibit several apparent emotions.

  
  

  
  

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