UNIT 1 ASSIGNMENT

1. Define a robot and state the laws of robotics? A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice, a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or remotely controlled. A robot may act under the direct control of a human (e.g. the robotic arm of the space shuttle) or autonomously under the control of a programmed computer. Robots may be used to perform tasks that are too dangerous or difficult for humans to implement directly (e.g. nuclear waste cleanup) or may be used to automate repetitive tasks that can be performed more cheaply by a robot than by the employment of a human (e.g. automobile production) or may be used to automate mindless repetitive tasks that should be performed with more precision by a robot than by a human(material handling, material transfer applications, machine loading and unloading, processing operations, assembly and inspection) Specifically, robot can be used to describe an intelligent mechanical device in the form of a human. This form of robot culturally referred to as androids. The Laws of Robotics were developed by a small group of scientists who believe that robotics is the wave of the future. The first law, referred to as law zero, is that a robot may not injure humanity, or, though inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. The second law states that a robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, unless this would violate a higher order law. This law was created so that mankind would seek not to create robots that would harm people. The third law is that a robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with a higher order law. And finally the final law is that a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with a higher order law. How ever many people dont know that these laws really exist. Almost all the limitations of robotics could be overcome by following these laws of robotics.

What is industrial automation? compare hard automation with soft automation. To which category a robot belongs? Explain.
2. Fixed automation, also known as hard automation, refers to an automated production facility in which the sequence of processing operations is fixed by the equipment configuration. In effect, the programmed commands are contained in the machines in the form of cams, gears, wiring, and other hardware that is not easily changed over from one product

style to another. This form of automation is characterized by high initial investment and high production rates. It is therefore suitable for products that are made in large volumes. Examples of fixed automation include machining transfer lines found in the automotive industry, automatic assembly machines, and certain chemical processes. Programmable Automation. In programmable automation, the production equipment is designed with the capability to change the sequence of operations to accommodate different product configurations.The operation sequence is controlled by a program, which is a set of instructions coded so that they can be read and interpreted by the system. New programs can be prepared and entered into the equipment to produce new products. Some of the features that characterize programmable automation include: high investment in general purpose equipment lower production rates than fixed automation flexibility to deal with variations and changes in product configuration most suitable for batch production Programmable automated production systems are used in low- and medium-volume production. The parts or products are typically made in batches.To produce each new batch of a different product, the system must be reprogrammed with the set of machine instructions that correspond to the new product.The physical setup of the machine must also be changed:Tools must be loaded, fixtures must be attached to the machine table, and the required machine settings must be entered. This changeover procedure takes time. Consequently, the typical cycle for a given product includes a period during which the setup and reprogramming takes place, followed by a period in which the batch is produced. Examples of programmable automation include numerically controlled (NC) machine tools, industrial robots, and programmable logic controllers. Flexible Automation. Flexible automation is an extension of programmable automation. A flexible automated system is capable of producing a variety of parts (or products) with virtually no time lost for changeovers from one part style to the next. There is no lost production time while reprogramming the system and altering the physical setup (tooling, fixtures, machine settings). Consequently, the system can produce various combinations and schedules of parts or products instead of requiring that they be made in batches. What makes flexible automation possible is that the differences between parts processed by the system are not significant. It is a case of soft variety, so that the amount of changeover required between styles is minimal. The features of flexible automation can be summarized as follows: high investment for a custom-engineered system continuous production of variable mixtures of products medium production rates flexibility to deal with product design variations

Compare various attributes of robo with those of human being.

3. Relative Strengths of Humans Relative Strengths of Machines

Sense unexpected stimuli Perform repetitive tasks consistently Develop new solutions to problems Store large amounts of data Cope with abstract problems Retrieve data from memory reliably Adapt to change Perform multiple tasks at same time Generalize from observations Apply high forces and power Learn from experience Perform simple computations quickly Make difficult decisions based on incomplete data Make routine decisions quickly

4. Discuss the present applications of industrial robots. An industrial robot is a reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move materials, parts, tools, or special devices through variable program motions for the performance of a variety of tasks INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS Industrial robots are used to assemble the vehicle parts, as shown in the figure. As the assembly of the machine parts is a repetitive task to be performed, the robots are conveniently used instead of using mankind (which is more costly and less prcised compared to robots.). AUTO INDUSTRY: The auto industry is the largest users of robots, which automate the production of various components and then help, assemble them on the finished vehicle. Car production is the primary example of the employment of large and complex robots for producing products. Robots are used in that process for the painting, welding and assembly of the cars. Robots are good for such tasks because the tasks can be accurately defined and must be performed the same every time, with little need for feedback to control the exact process being performed. MATERIAL TRANSFER , MACHINE LOADING AND UNLOADING There are many robot applications in which the robot is required to move a work part or other material from one location to another. The most basic of these applications is where the robot picks the part up from one position and transfers it to another position. In other applications, the robot is used to load and/or unload a production machine of some type. Material transfer applications are defined as operations in which the primary objective is to move a part from one location to another location. They are usually considered to be among the most straightforward of robot applications to implement. The applications usually require a relatively unsophisticated robot, and interlocking requirements with other equipments are typically uncomplicated. These are the pick ad place operations. The machine loading and unloading applications are material handling operations in which the robot is used to service a production machine by transferring parts to and/or from the machine. Robots have been successfully applied to accomplish the loading and/or unloading function in the production operations: Die casting Plastic molding Forging and related operations Machining operations Stamping press operations

The other industrial applications of robotics include processing operations such as spot welding, continuous arc welding; spray coating, also in assembly of machine parts and their inspection. ROBOTIC ARM The most developed robot in practical use today is the robotic arm and it is seen in applications throughout the world. We use robotic arms to carry out dangerous work such as when dealing with hazardous materials. We use robotic arms to carry out work in outer space where man cannot survive and we use robotic arms to do work in the medical field such as conducting

experiments without exposing the research. Some of the most advanced robotic arms have such amenities as a rotating base, pivoting shoulder, pivoting elbow, rotating wrist and gripper fingers. All of these amenities allow the robotic arm to do work that closely resembles what a man can do only without the risk. 5. Discuss the future application of robots. INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS We will divide our presentation of future industrial applications into three areas: Manufacturing Hazardous and inaccessible environments, Service industries FUTURE MANUFACTURING APPLICATIONS The present biggest application areas for industrial robots are in the spotwelding and the materials handling and machine loading categories. The handling of materials and machine tending are expected to continue to represent important applications for robots, but the relative importance of spot welding is expected to decline significantly. The most significant growth in shares of manufacturing applications is expected to be in assembly and inspection and in arc welding. The area of assembly in which robots are expected to be used is in batch production operations. In the mass production of relatively simple products (e.g. flash lights, pens, and other mechanical products with fewer than ten components), robots will probably never be able to compete with fixed automation in terms of speed and through put rates. A large field of applications for programmable assembly systems using robot technologies is electronic technology. Robotic welding is one of the most successful applications of industrial robot manipulators. In fact, a huge number of products require welding operations in their assembly processes. Welding can in most cases impose extremely high temperatures concentrated in small zones. Physically, that makes the material experience extremely high and localized thermal expansion and contraction cycles, which introduce changes in the materials that may affect its mechanical behavior along with plastic deformation. Those changes must be well understood in order to minimize the effects. The majority of industrial welding applications benefit from the introduction of robot manipulators, since most of the deficiencies attributed to the human factor is removed with advantages when robots are introduced. This should lead to cheaper products since productivity and quality can be increased, and production costs and manpower can be decreased. HAZARDOUS AND INACCESSIBLE NONMANUFACTURING ENVIRONMENTS Manual operations in manufacturing that are characterized as unsafe, hazardous, uncomfortable, or unpleasant for the human workers who perform them have traditionally been ideal candidates for robot applications. Examples include die-casting, hot forging, spray-painting, and arc welding. Potential manufacturing robot applications that are in hazardous or inaccessible environments include the following:

Construction trades Underground Coal mining: The sources of dangers in this field for humans include fires, explosions, poisonous gases, cave-ins, and underground floods. Hazardous utility company operations: The robots have a large scope of application in the nuclear wastage cleaning in nuclear plants, in the electrical wiring, which are dangerous and hazardous to humans. Military applications Fire fighting Undersea operations: The Ocean represents a rather hostile environment for human beings due principally to extreme pressures and currents. Even when the humans venture into the deep, they are limited in terms of mobility and the length of time they can remain underwater. It seems much safer and more comfortable to assign aquatic robots to perform whatever task must be done underwater. Robots in space: Space is another inhospitable environment for humans, in some respects the opposite of the ocean. Instead of extremely high pressures in deep waters, there is virtually no pressure in outer space. Therefore, this field is also of large importance as far as the robotics is concerned. SERVICE INDUSTRY AND OTHER APPLICATIONS: In addition to manufacturing robot applications, robot applications that are considered hazardous, there are also opportunities for applying robots to the service industries. The possibilities cover a wide spectrum of jobs that are generally non-hazardous:

Teaching robots Retail robots Fast-food restaurants Bank tellers Garbage collection in waste disposal operations Cargo handling and loading and distribution operations Security guards Medical care and hospital duties Agricultural robots House hold robots PARALLEL PARKER The idea behind the parallel parker project is to design and build an autonomous miniature automobile robot that can detect a parking space and then park into the space effectively. The robot is controlled with a handy board micro controller and is equipped with seven infrared sensors used to measure distances and to detect obstacles along its path and two Lego motors. The main goal was to design an autonomous miniature automobile robot that can parallel park. To achieve this we have to design a mini car model, equip it with the

necessary sensors and apply an algorithm to the micro controller to output the desired result. MEDICAL APPLICATIONS The medical applications of robotics include Nano robotics, swarm robotics, also surgeries and operations using the knowledge of robotics. Nano robotics is the technology of creating machines or robots at or close to the scale of a nanometer (10-9 meters). Nanorobots (nanobots or nanoids) are typically devices ranging in size from 0.1-10 micrometers and constructed of nanoscale or molecular components. As no artificial non-biological nanorobots have so far been created, they remain a hypothetical concept at this time. Swarm robotics is a new approach to the coordination of multirobot systems, which consist of large numbers of relatively simple physical robots. Potential application for swarm robotics includes tasks that demand for extreme miniaturization (Nano robotics, microbotics), on the one hand, as for instance distributed sensing tasks in micro machinery or the human body. On the other hand, swarm robotics is suited to tasks that demand for extremely cheap designs, for instance a mining task, or an agricultural foraging task. Artists are using swarm robotic techniques to realize new forms of interactive art installation. Further research is needed to find methodologies that allow for designing, and reliably predicting, swarm behavior ROBOTS FOR PARALYZED PATIENTS One of the interesting and concerning future applications of robotics in medical field include service to paralyzed people who electric wheelchairs to move around. But now a robotic device can help paralyzed patients to walk on treadmills. After training, some of the patients, who rebuild confidence, have also regained muscle power and can, walk over short distances. The robot helps the paralyzed patients in their daily routine such as helping them to take bath, changing their clothes, and feeding them. A robot doesnt force food into their mouth but it takes the spoon to till the patients mouth. 6. Classify the robots based on co ordinate system and describe their features. Classification on the Basis of Physical Configurations On the basis of physical configuration industrial robots are classified in four different types. They are : (i) cartesian configuration, (ii) cylindrical configuration, (iii) polar configuration, and (iv) jointed-arm configuration. Cartesian Configuration Robots having cartesian configurations consist of links connected by linear joints (L). As the configuration has three perpendicular slides, they are also called rectilinear robots. Robot having a similar configuration is known as Gantry Robots. Its structure resembles a gantry-type crane. Cylindrical Configuration

In the cylindrical configuration, robots have one rotatory (R) joint at the base and linear (L) joints succeed to connect the links. The space in which this robot operates is cylindrical in shape, hence the name cylindrical configuration. Polar Configuration Polar robots have a work space of spherical shape. In general, the arm is linked to the base with a twisting (T) joint and rotatory (R) and or linear (L) joints. The designation of the arm for this arm can be TRL or TRR. Robots with the description of TRL are also called spherical robots. Those having the designation of TRR are called as articulated robots. It resembles a human arm in terms of configuration. 48 Fundamentals of CIM

Jointed-Arm Configuration The combination of cylindrical and articulated configurations is known as jointed-arm configuration. The arm of the robot is connected to the base with a twisting joint. Rotatory joints are used to connect the links in the arm. Generally, the rotation takes place in the vertical plane. Popular robot falling under this category is called SCARA (Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm). It is basically used for the assembly purpose

. 7. Classify the robots based on control system and describe their

features.
On the basis of the control systems adopted, robots are classified into the following categories : (i) Point-to-point (PTP) control robot (ii) Continuous-path (CP) control robot (iii) Controlled-path robot Point-to-Point (PTP) Control Robot The PTP robot is capable of moving from one point to the other point. The locations are recorded in the control memory. The paths are not controlled by the path guide. Instead the desired path is traced by programming a series of points. Component insertion, spot welding, hole drilling, machine loading, unloading and crude assembly are some of the common applications of this type of robot. Continuous-Path (CP) Control Point The movement along the controlled path is performed by the CP robot. Along the controlled path, with CP control, the robot can stop any specified point. In the robots control memory, all the points must be stored explicitly. Straight-line motion is being carried out by these types of robots. Some continuous-path controlled robots also have the capability to follow a smooth curve path that has been defined by the programmer. Here, the programmer manually moves the robot arm through the desired path and the controller unit stores a large number of individual point locations along the path in memory. Controlled-Path Robot In controlled-path robots, the control equipment can develop paths of different geometry such as straight lines, circles, and interpolated curves with a high degree of accuracy. Good accuracy can be obtained at any point along the specified path. Only the start and finish points and the path definition function must be stored in the robots control memory. It is important to mention that all controlled-path robots have a servo capability to correct their path

8.With reference to a robot explain the following terms.

a) b) c) d)

Load carrying capacity Work volume Accuracy precision

Load Carrying Capacity The load carrying capacity of industrial robots is mainly determined by various factors such as robots size, configuration, type of drive system and the type of application for which the robot is designed. The load carrying capacity of modern robots has a very wide range, from few grams to several thousand of kilograms. The maximum load carrying capacity of the industrial robots arm should be specified for the condition that it is in its weakest position. The weakest position most of the time is the position when the robots arm is at maximum horizontal extension. This can be understood in a way that if compared with the human arm, it is most difficult to lift a heavy load when the arm is fully extended rather than a position when some load is to lifted which is placed close to the body. The specification of load carrying capacity provided by the most of the robotic manipulator manufacturers is actually the gross weight capacity that can be put at the robotic wrist. Thus to make use of this specification the user must be aware of the weight of the end effector. Foran example, if the gross load carrying capacity of a robot is 10.0 kg and its end effector weigh 3.0 kg, then the net load carrying capacity of the robot would be only 7.0 kg Precision, Accuracy and Repeatability of movement The precision of movement for the robotic manipulator is basically a function of three features namely, special resolution, accuracy, and repeatability . These terms are defined for the robot's wrist end without any tool attached and for the conditions under which the robot's precision will be at its worst. Generally the robot has least precision of movement with the robot's arm is fully extended. For any robotics configuration, it is easier to define the various precision features in a static context rather than a dynamic

Accuracy Accuracy can be defined as the ability of a robot to position its wrist end at a desired targetpoint within its reach. In terms of control resolution, the accuracy can be defined as onehalf of the control resolution. This definition of accuracy applies in the worst case when the targetpoint is between two control points.