Robots
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Wikipedia-Article "Robots"
- For other uses, see Robot (disambiguation).
In practical usage, a robot is a mechanical device which can perform complex tasks either according to direct human control, partial control with human supervision, or autonomously (that is, fully under computer control). Robots are typically used to do tasks that are too dull, dirty, dangerous or accurate for humans.
Applications include cleaning floors, mowing lawns, toxic waste cleanup, underwater and space exploration, surgery, mining, search and rescue, and searching for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and land mines.
Industrial robots used in manufacturing lines used to be the most common form of robots, but an increasing number of consumer robots are being developed. They are also finding their way into entertainment and home health care.
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Overview
A robot may include a feedback-driven connection between sense and action, not under direct human control, although it may have a human override function. The action may take the form of electro-magnetic motors or actuators (also called effectors) that move an arm, open and close grips, or propel the robot. The step by step control and feedback is provided by a computer program run on either an external or embedded computer or a microcontroller. By this definition, a robot may include nearly all automated devices.
Two basic ways of using effectors are to move the robot around (locomotion) or to move other objects around (manipulation). This distinction divides robotics into two mostly separate categories: mobile robotics (moving) and manipulator robotics (grabbing). The most notable exception to this rule is the self-reconfigurable robot which potentially is able to use its effectors in three basic ways: locomotion, manipulation and self-reconfiguration, where the robot changes its own shape and/or function to better solve the task at hand.
Alternately, robot has been used as the general term for a mechanical man, or an automaton resembling an animal, either real or imaginary. It has come to be applied to many machines which directly replace a human or animal in work or play. In this way, a robot can be seen as a form of biomimicry. Lack of anthropomorphism is perhaps what makes us reluctant to refer to the highly complex modern washer-dryer as a robot. However, in modern understanding, the term implies a degree of autonomy that would exclude many automatic machine tools from being called robots. It is the search for ever more highly autonomous robots or cognitive robots which is the major focus of robotics research and which drives much work in artificial intelligence.
The term robot is also often used to refer to sophisticated mechanical devices that are remotely controlled by human beings, such as waldoes and ROVs, even though these devices are not autonomous.
History
The idea of artificial people dates at least as far back as the ancient legend of Cadmus, who sowed dragon teeth that turned into soldiers, and the myth of Pygmalion, whose statue of Galatea came to life. In classical mythology, the deformed god of metalwork (Vulcan or Hephaestus) created mechanical servants, ranging from intelligent, golden handmaidens to more utilitarian three-legged tables that could move about under their own power. Jewish legend tells of the Golem, a clay statue animated by Kabbalistic magic. Similarly, in the Younger Edda, Norse mythology tells of a clay giant, Mökkurkálfi or Mistcalf, constructed to aid the troll Hrungnir in a duel with Thor, the God of Thunder.
Czech writer Karel Čapek introduced the word "Robot" in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) in 1921. The term "robot" was actually not created by Karel Čapek but by his brother Josef, also a respected Czech writer and painter. "Robot" comes from the Czech word "robota", meaning "forced labor, drudgery." The earliest ideas that could be related to the robotics of today was in 350 B.C. by the Greek mathematician Archytas of Tarentum. He created a mechanical bird he called “The Pigeon.” The bird was propelled by steam.
The first recorded design of a humanoid robot was made by Leonardo da Vinci around 1495. Da Vinci's notebooks, rediscovered in the 1950s, contained detailed drawings for a mechanical knight that was apparently able to sit up, wave its arms, and move its head and jaw. The design was likely based on his anatomical research recorded in the Vitruvian Man. It is not known whether or not he attempted to build the robot (see: Leonardo's robot).
The first known functioning robot was created in 1738 by Jacques de Vaucanson, who made an android that played the flute, as well as a mechanical duck that reportedly ate and defecated. E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1817 short story "The Sandman" features a doll-like mechanical woman, and Edward S. Ellis' 1865 "Steam Man of the Prairies" expresses the American fascination with industrialization. A wave of stories about humanoid automatons culminated with the "Electric Man" by Luis Senarens in 1885.
Once technology advanced to the point where people foresaw mechanical creatures as more than toys, literary responses to the concept of robots reflected fears that humans would be replaced by their own creations. Frankenstein (1818), sometimes called the first science fiction novel, has become synonymous with this theme. When Čapek's play RUR introduced the concept of an assembly line run by robots who try to build still more robots, the theme took on economic and philosophical overtones, further disseminated by the classic movie Metropolis (1927), and the popular Blade Runner (1982) and The Terminator (1984). With robots a reality and intelligent robots a likely prospect, a better understanding of interactions between robots and human is embodied in such modern films as Spielberg's A.I. (2001) and Proyas' I, Robot (2004).
Many consider the first robot in the modern sense to be a teleoperated boat, similar to a modern ROV, devised by Nikola Tesla and demonstrated at an 1898 exhibition in Madison Square Garden. Based on his patent 613,809 for "teleautomation", Tesla hoped to develop the "wireless torpedo" into an automated weapon system for the US Navy.
In the thirties, Westinghouse made a humanoid robot known as Elektro. It was exhibited at the 1939 and 1940 World's Fairs.
The first electronic autonomous robots were created by Grey Walter at Bristol University, England in 1948.
Literary history
The word robot comes from the Czech robota meaning "drudgery." Robotnik was used in the 1600's to classify Czech tenant-farmers. A robotnik had to work as a minimum one month a year free for the landlord, according to Karsten Alnaes in his "European History II". In modern Czech language, robotnik means "worker". The word was first used in its modern sense in Karel Čapek's play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) (written in 1920; first performed in Czechoslovakia 1921; performed in New York 1922; English edition published 1923). [1]. While Karel Čapek is frequently acknowledged as the originator of the word, he wrote a short letter in reference to the Oxford English Dictionary etymology in which he named his brother, painter and writer Josef Čapek as its true inventor. [2].
Although Čapek's robots were organic artificial humans, the word robot has come to refer to mechanical humans. The term android can mean either one of these, while a cyborg ("cybernetic organism" or "bionic man") would be a creature that is a combination of organic and mechanical parts.
In Douglas Adams' series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the marketing division of the fictional Sirius Cybernetics Corporation defines a robot as "your plastic pal who's fun to be with".
Robotics
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, robotics is the science or study of the technology associated with the design, construction, theory and application of robots. Robotics requires a working knowledge of electronics, mechanics and software.
The word robotics was first used (in print) in Isaac Asimov's science fiction story "Liar!" (1941). In it, he referred to the 'three rules of robotics' that later became the Three Laws of Robotics in the short fiction collection I, Robot..
Robots may have various forms and may perform many different tasks, but technically speaking, their structure and behaviour are based much on the same principles.
The structure of a robot is usually mostly mechanical and can be called chain (its functionality is more or less like the skeleton of a body). The chain includes the robot’s actuators and is composed by links (that can be compared to bones), which are connected by joints. Each section can pivot, bend and/or rotate from one state to another. Additional components may include some sensors to give information about the surroundings or the robot itself and motors to move the actuators (they perform actions – move the robot, move parts of the robot, manipulate objects, etc.).
If a robot is either supposed to move around or stay in the same place, grab some objects and do something with them, all these movements and actions concern to a triple of concepts: Sense, Plan & Control and Act. The robot’s behaviour is accomplished by sensing the surrounding world, planning what to do and then act. The way that these phases are integrated together to perform a solution for a given situation can be aligned with one of the three robotic paradigms.
One of the most important aspects of robot construction is the study and planning of its motion. This involves kinematics (a branch of mechanics), which deals with aspects of redundancy (many ways to perform the same movement), collision avoidance (for mobile robots and manipulators) and singularity avoidance. The study of the robot’s motion is mostly driven by inverse kinematics, because usually the target is known and what is needed is to calculate the angles of the joints that permit the robot to achieve the target. Once the solutions (there can be none, one, or maybe many solutions for the same situation) for a given movement are found, dynamics (mechanics) is the subfield which studies the best way to get to the target, i.e., optimizing the action. Dynamics concerns are, in this matter, mostly concerned with minimizing the energy or the time wasted by each movement. Optimization can be done considering different issues (energy, time, space), depending on the robot’s usage goals.
Robots are very complex systems, because they integrate many different concepts and functions. The most trivial one is the complexity of their mechanical structure which involves various distinct components. This, allied to movement and interaction with the surrounding environment and objects, creates a spatial and time complexity too. Besides that, and this is actually a major concern nowadays, robots’ power/density ratio is not satisfactory: the actuators of the robots should be stronger, compared to the weight and height of their structure. Regarding software, the computational complexity is also a problem, since it’s very difficult to integrate the existing algorithms for sensor processing, motion planning, control, safety, learning, communication skills, and interaction with humans (human-machine interface) and many more in one single system that works in a compliant manner.
Contemporary uses of robots
Robots are used to do tasks that are too dull, dirty, or dangerous for humans. Industrial robots used in manufacturing lines used to be the most common form of robots, but that has recently been replaced by consumer robots cleaning floors and mowing lawns. Other applications include toxic waste cleanup, underwater and space exploration, surgery, mining, search and rescue, and searching for IEDs and land mines. Robots are also finding their way into entertainment and home health care.
Industrial manipulators are similar in motion capability to the human arm and are the most widely used in industry. Applications include welding, painting, and machine loading. The automotive industry has taken full advantage of this technology where robots have been programmed to replace human labor in many repetitive or dangerous tasks. The wide adoption of such technologies, however, was delayed by the availability of cheap labour and high capital requirements of robots. Another form of industrial robots is AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles). AGVs are used in warehouses, hospitals, container ports, laboratories, server facilities, and other applications where risk, reliability, and security are important concerns. Likewise, autonomously patrolling safety and security robots are appearing as part of the growing move toward automated buildings.
In early 2000s domestic robots entered the mainstream culture, with the success of Sony's Aibo and several manufacturers releasing robot vacuum cleaners, such as iRobot, Electrolux, and Karcher. Over 1,000,000 vacuum cleaner units were sold worldwide by the end of 2004 [3]. iRobot plans to produce a floor mopping robot,called the Scooba, which is similar in size and design to the robot vacuum cleaners. Japanese corporations have been successful in developing prototypes of humanoid robots and plan to use the technology not only in their manufacturing plants, but also in Japanese homes. There is much hope in Japan that home care for an aging (and long-lived) population can be better achieved through robotics.
While robotic technology has achieved a certain amount of maturity, the social impact of these robots is largely unknown. The field of social robots is now emerging and investigates the relationship between robots and humans. A ludobot is an instance of a social robot dedicated to entertainment and companionship.
Robots have also been explored as a form of High-tech Art.
The Austin Robot group and LMABTechnics have produced many interesting pieces such as Sparky and GeniumAR8.
Current developments
When roboticists first attempted to mimic human and animal gaits, they discovered that it was incredibly difficult; requiring more computational power than what was available at the time. So, emphasis was shifted to other areas of research. Simple wheeled robots were used to conduct experiments in behavior, navigation, and path planning. These navigation techniques have now developed into commercially available autonomous robot control systems; the most sophisticated examples of autonomous navigation control systems now available include laser-based navigation systems and VSLAM (Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) systems from ActivMedia Robotics and Evolution Robotics.
When engineers were ready to attempt walking robots again, they started small with hexapods and other multi-legged platforms. These robots mimicked insects and arthropods in both form and function. The trend towards these body types offer immense flexibility and proven adaptability to any environment, but the cost of the added mechanical complexity has prevented adoption by consumers. With more than four legs, these robots are statically stable which makes them easier to work with. The goal of bipedal robot research is to achieve a walk using passive-dynamic motion that mimics the natural human gait. There has been some recent progress towards robot bipedal locomotion, however a robust bipedal gait is still years away.
Another technical problem preventing wider adoption of robots is the complexity of handling physical objects in the inherently chaotic natural environment. Tactile sensors and better vision algorithms may solve this problem. The UJI Online Robot from University Jaume I in Spain is a good example of current progress in this field.
Recently, tremendous progress has been made in medical robotics, with two companies in particular, Computer Motion and Intuitive Surgical, receiving regulatory approval in North America, Europe and Asia for their robots to be used in minimal invasive surgical procedures. Laboratory automation is also a growing area. Here, benchtop robots are used to transport biological or chemical samples between instruments such as incubators, liquid handlers and readers. Other places where robots are likely to replace human labour are in deep-sea exploration and space exploration. For these tasks, arthropod body types are generally preferred. Mark W. Tilden formerly of Los Alamos National Laboratories specializes in cheap robots with bent but unjointed legs, while others seek to replicate the full jointed motion of crabs' legs.
Experimental winged robots and other examples exploiting biomimicry are also in early development. So-called "nanomotors" and "smart wires" are expected to drastically simplify motive power, while in-flight stabilization seems likely to be improved by extremely small gyroscopes. A significant driver of this work is military research into spy technologies.
Future prospects
Some scientists believe that robots will be able to approximate human-like intelligence in the first half of the 21st century. Even before such theoretical intelligence levels are obtained, it is speculated that robots may begin to replace humans in many labor-intensive career fields. The cybernetics pioneer Norbert Wiener discussed some of these issues in his book The human use of human beings (1950), in which he speculated that robots taking over human jobs may initially lead to growing unemployment and social turmoil, but that in the medium-term it might bring increased material wealth to people in most nations.
Robotics will probably continue its spread in offices and homes, replacing "dumb" appliances with smart robotic equivalents. Domestic robots capable of performing many household tasks, described in science fiction stories and coveted by the public in the 1960s, are likely to be eventually perfected.
There is likely to be some degree of convergence between humans and robots. Some humans are already cyborgs with some body parts and even parts of the nervous system replaced by artificial analogues, such as Pacemakers. In many cases the same technology might be used both in robotics and in medicine.
Although not strictly robotics, there has been study in this area by Professor Kevin Warwick.
Robot competitions
- See also: Category:Robotics competitions
Dean Kamen, Founder of FIRST, created a competitive forum that inspires in young people, their schools and communities an appreciation of science and technology.
Their robotics competition is a multinational competition that teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way. In 2003 the competition will reach more than 20,000 students on over 800 teams in 24 competitions. Teams come from Canada, Brazil, the U.K., and almost every U.S. state. Unlike the Robot sumo wrestling competitions that take place regularly in some venues, or the Battlebots competitions on TV, these competitions include the creation of the robot.
RoboCup is a competitive organization dedicated to developing a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can win against the human world soccer champion team by the year 2050. There are many different leagues from simulation, to full-size humanoid.
RoboCup Jr. is similar to RoboCup. RoboCup Jr. is a competition for anybody under 18 years of age, and is a bit easier than the real RoboCup. RoboCup Jr. includes three competitions: soccer (a soccer tournament), rescue (an obstacle course which an item has to be brought from one end to the other) and dance (robots dancing to music judged for the dancing, creativity and costumes). Like RoboCup, all robots have to be built and programmed by the team that made it, there is no buying other robots allowed.
The DARPA Grand Challenge is a competition for robotic vehicles to complete an under-200 mile, off-road course in the Mojave Desert. The unclaimed 2004 prize was $1,000,000. The farthest any participant got was only 7.4 miles. However, the 2005 prize of $2,000,000 was claimed by Stanford University. In this race, four vehicles successfully completed the race. This is a testament to how fast robotic vision and navigation are improving.
The Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC), is a competition for autonomous ground vehicles that must traverse outdoor obstacle courses without any human interaction. This international competition sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), is a student design competition at the university level and has held annual competitions since 1992.
The two AAAI Grand Challenges focus on Human Robot Interaction, with one being a robot attending and delivering a conference talk, the other being operator-interaction challenges in rescue robotics.
The Centennial Challenges are NASA prize contests for non-government funded technological achievements, including robotics, by US citizens.
In Micromouse competitions, small robots try to solve a maze in the fastest time.
The popularity of the TV shows Robot Wars Robotica and Battlebots, of college level robot-sumo wrestling competitions, the success of "smart bombs" and UCAVs in armed conflicts, grass-eating "gastrobots" in Florida, and the creation of a slug-eating robot in England, suggest that the fear of an artificial life form doing harm, or competing with natural wild life, is not an illusion. The worldwide Green Parties in 2002 were asking for public input on extending their existing policies against such competition, as part of more general biosafety and biosecurity concerns. It appears that, like Aldous Huxley's concerns about human cloning, questions Karel Čapek raised eighty years earlier in science fiction have become real debates.
Possible dangers
The concern that robots might displace or compete with humans is common. In his I, Robot series, Isaac Asimov created the Three Laws of Robotics in a literary attempt to control the competition of robots with humans:
- A robot may not harm a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey the orders given to it by the human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
- A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Unfortunately the issue may be not so simple to resolve. Asimov himself based the plots of several novels and short stories on probing into the applicability and sufficiency of the Three Laws. The laws or rules that could or must apply to robots or other "autonomous capital" in cooperation or competition with humans have spurred investigation of macro-economics of this competition, notably by Alessandro Acquisti building on much older work by John von Neumann.
Even without overt malicious programming, robots and humans simply do not have the same body tolerances or awareness, leading to accidents: In Jackson, Michigan on July 21, 1984, a factory robot crushed a worker against a safety bar in apparently the first robot-related death in the United States. Since then, laser light curtains have been required to protect against such dangers from heavy equipment.
In another take on the issue, the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Prototype" depicted a group of robots known as Automated Personnel Units, which had been built for combat by a pair of warring species but later killed their creators when the war ended.
External links
- "Robots get bookish in libraries"
- "Will Robots Take Over the World?"
- The Autonomous Vehicle Team at Virginia Tech
- The DARPA Grand Challenge Team at Virginia Tech
- Prototype (Voyager episode)
Classes of robots
- Analog robots (they use analog circuitry to perform goals such as going towards light; its analog circuitry is used extensively in BEAM robotics)
- Arthropod robots (exoskeletons)
- Autonomous Robots
- Humanoid robot
- Hyper redundant robots
- Locomotion Styles
- Differential wheeled robots
- Snakebot
- Walker
- Biped Robots
- Multi-legged robots: Quadruped Robots, Hexapod Robots
- Nanorobots
- Service robots
- Domestic robots (Domobots)
- Educational Robotics
- Entertainment robots
- Industrial robots
- Laboratory robotics
- Ludobots: play/entertainment robots, like Sony's Aibo 'dogbot'
- Medical robots
- Military robots
- Social robots
Research areas associated with robotics
- Behavior based robotics and Subsumption architecture
- Biomorphic robotics
- Developmental robotics
- Epigenetic robotics
- Evolutionary robotics
- Cognitive robotics
- Robot control
- Robot kinematics
- Artificial intelligence
- Automated planning and scheduling
- Mechatronics
- Neural networks
- Cybernetics
- Artificial consciousness
- Telerobotics / Telepresence
- Nanotechnology and MEMS
- Swarm robotics
- Human Robot Interaction
Additional robot topics
- Carbon chauvinism (see: Alternative biochemistry)
- Clanking replicators
- Disabled robotics: Robot exoskeleton
- Courier Robots
- Gynoid
- Isaac Asimov's Robot Series
- List of fictional robots and androids
- Microbot
- Passive dynamics
- Rapid prototyping
- RoboCup
- Robotherapy
- Roboticist
- Robotic mapping
- Robotic unicycle
- Robots in literature and fantasy: Robby the Robot
- Uncanny Valley
- Self Reconfigurable
Notable robots
Operational robots
- QRIO
- Aibo
- Asimo
- Hubo Korean humanoid robot
- PackBot
- PatrolBot
- Shakey
- Robonaut
- Da Vinci
- Roomba
- Stanley
- SIGMO Developmental Biped
- Wakamaru
Robots in science fiction
- Alpha 5, Alpha 6, Alpha 7
- Bender
- C-3PO
- HAL
- Johnny 5
- KITT
- Marvin
- Max
- R2-D2
- R. Daneel Olivaw
- Robby the Robot
- T-800
- workbot
- Optimus Prime
- The Transformers
- The Bicentennial Man
External links
Media coverage and articles
- Courier robots get traction in hospitals – CNN/AP, 6 July 2004
- The Humanoid Race – An overview of progress as of 2004 in various aspects of humanoid robot construction, Wired.
- Robot navigation and vision system – BetterHumans, 9 January 2003
- Robot nurse escorts and schmoozes the elderly – Intel publication, 24 August 2004
- Robotic Nation by Marshall Brain (Slashdot discussion)
- Critical analysis of Asimov's three laws of robotics by Sam Vaknin
- The Legal Rights of Robots by Robert A. Freitas
- Mobile Robots as Gateways into Wireless Sensor Networks – Intel Magazine, November 2004
- Artificial chromosomes in robots February 2005
- A Word About The World Robot Declaration April 2004
General information and non-profit organizations
- Robot Tutorials for Beginners
- EURON: the European Robotics Research Network which currently assembles over 150 robotics research institutes and robotics companies in Europe.
- ALA – The Association for Laboratory Automation
- LRIG – The Laboratory Robotics Interest Group
- SeattleRobotics.org – The Seattle Robotics Society, one of the oldest and largest hobby robotics groups in the world.
- Open Directory Section for Famous Robots – Links and descriptions for well-known robots; Asimo, COG, and many others
- International Federation of Robotics
- Robotics Engineering Task Force (not updated since 2003)
- GoRobotics.net Robotics resource website - robot news, projects, books, and club listings.
- Eurobot, an international amateur robotics contest
- robots.net – Hobbyist and professional robotics site with news, robot gallery, project descriptions, and articles
- Open Automaton Project at sourceforge.net
- The Robot Hall of Fame
- The Robot Directory – An online gallery of robots
- Robotics India – Robotics Community portal with forums, chat, downloads and information relevant to robotics.
- The OrionWiki – Specifically aimed at technical content; also: downloads and personal spaces for robot builders/hobbyists
- AmorphicRobotWorks(ARW) – A group working to create robotic performances and installations
- www.robot.org.uk – A guide for robot builders with lists of reviewed books, magazines, approved parts suppliers, etc.
- Robodock – A theater festival in The Netherlands heavily inspired by robotica.
- Robots Forum Discussion forum for Robot builders
- Robot MC (Dutch, belgium) – Belgian robot club. Site includes videos and photos.
- Cal Poly Robotics Club – Site includes project descriptions, tutorials, and development tools.
- A brief history of robotics
- Robots in sci-fi and horror films
- Analog Robots – A brief description.
- BEAM community A specific type of analog robot.
- Darwin VII, based on principles of the nervous system
- Fred Wolflink's Massachusetts College of Art Robotic Art Pages
- Lucy the Orangutan, based on principles of the nervous system
- Endtas robotics community website
- Robots Mainstream by 2006, 2007? Information about robots moving into mainstream use, which is estimated to be around 2007.
- Compilation video of some amazing robots Compilation video (30min) of some amazing robots as qrio, asimo, HRP2, Partner robot, HAL,...
- HobbyRobotics.org provides reviews and links to information for hobby roboticists.
Commercial projects
- Dimension Engineering – Robotics products and example projects aimed at hobbyists
- trueforce.com – Technical information on robotics, with a list of suppliers
- The Robofolio – An excellent portal for robot hobbyists.
- RoboticSpot.com – Site about robotics, news, events and articles in English and Spanish
- Rhino Robotics – Manufacturer of educational robots
- MobileRobots, Inc – Autonomous robots and intelligent control systems for development of commercial applications
- Robot Information Central – Link directory at a commercial site
- Robot Universe – Link directory at a commercial site
- robots.com – Pay per click directory of links with some items related to robotics
- BGA architecture and robotic software
- Fractal Robots Information on Fractal Robots
- Hubo, a low cost humanoid robot launched in Korea
- Evolution Robotics, developed vision for sony AIBO and ER-1
- Robot Vision
- Robots in film