Topic: Types of Robots

Industrial Robots

Cornell Notes
a robot size of a person can carry can carry over one
hundred pounds and can move repeatedly of +/-0.006
inches
24/7 workers and in some type of application it can just be
programmed once and no need to reprogram for another
year
robots tools and the cost of programming took up the
major percentage of the cost
industry usually buy a new robot if theres a needed
change in the programming

Fanuc is the largest maker of these type of robots in

the world and they are almost always yellow.
has six independent joints, aka six degrees of freedom,
requires for six parameters, three for the location (e.g. x, y,
z) and three for the orientation (e.g. roll, yaw, pitch)
has two cylindrical pistons on the side of the robot that
contains anti-gravity springs so these robots can carry
heavy loads
can weld, paint, and hand materials
Adept is America's largest robot company and the
world's leading producer of SCARA (Selective
Compliance Articulated Robot Arm) robots
three joints in the horizontal plane that give it x-y
positioning and orientation parallel to the plane
a typical "pick and place" robot
with a vision system it can move products at a high rate of
speed
Cartesian Robot
allows x-y-z positioning
Research Robots three linear joints for the three axes of motion and define
the x, y and z planes
can pick and place applications without orientation
Robotics Research Corporation of America produce a
robot in 1988 for NASA
redundant arms that has 7 joints, mounted on a torso with
3 joints, and 17 degrees of free moving space
extra joints lets the robot to do tasks in many ways
good for testing the development of kinematic optimization
algorithms.

Entertainment Robots

ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) by

Honda
4 feet high and 26 degrees of free moving space
can move a lot like we do, back and forth
concentrated to be improved to help elders and people in
wheelchairs
often on tours to make young people excited about science
and engineering.
Doug Adkins and Ed Heller developed a robot at
Sandia National Lab
1/4 cubic inch less than one pound
powered by three watch batteries
have a miniature camera, microphone, communication
device, and a chemical micro-sensor
rides on track wheels consists of an 8K ROM processor,
temperature sensor, and two motors that drive the wheels

Sarcos made a robot that utilizes pneumatic motors

30 joints in a torso to support five branching chains
high-performance skins
Lucky, a robot dinosaur by Disney in 2003
pulls a flower cart that full of hidden batteries
has not figured-out the battery issue that plagues mobile
robots
KUKA Robotics, first robot with world-wide
certification to handle human beings
used in amusement parks as a type of roller coasters
handling humans
unrestricted freedom of motion and excellent dynamic
performance
Furby, dog robot

Bugs Robots

Florida Robotics makes robots that can wander

around at parties and play pre-recorded jingles or
display scrolling messages to promote a company's
products or distribute promotional literature
capability to talk with on-lookers and can do things like
sound effects, serves food, on-board video camera and
transmitter, and lots of other things
robot can send video of what he sees to remote monitor or
video wall

 Rodney Brooks started with the bug robot idea

bugs are small, so in making bug robot, people try to
come up with techniques of how to build them than
studying bug behaviors and ways to mimic them
BugBrain by Yost Engineering
big whiskers on the front of the bug lets it sense contacts
with things in the environment and can be programmed onboard for decisions on reactions
Undersea Robots
can add additional sensors for bugs mimicking
Bug on Mars
more convenience in case of loses in bug robots, there are
still more left to explore
good for going through small openings
Schilling Robotics makes an undersea robot
thrusters for maneuvering, two robot arms for manipulating
one arm is for grabbing a rigid object to steady itself while
its other arm is working (welding and valve maintenance)

Law Enforcement
Robots

Northeastern University Marine Science Center

created a biomimetic (mimicking biology) lobster
have myomorphic actuators, which mimic muscle action,
and neuromorphic sensors, autonomous behaviors that
are based on the actual animal's behavior
Australian Centre for Field Robotics at the University
of Sydney developed a prototype for autonomous
underwater robots (Oberon)
may one day explore and monitor the Great Barrier Reef
needed to be tied to the ship on the surface
has two scanning sonars, a depth sensor, and a color
camera
doesnt need independent information (like global
positioning system satellites to know where it is)

United Service Associates makes "Mad Robot," a

robot that does look mad
makes sudden and unpredictable movements in training
scenarios for trainers to attempt a timely and appropriate
response
made of foam, vinyl and plastic
used as a mannequin target

Robots in Space

Remotec Corporation made a Mini Andros

has all the features required for bomb disposing
has a camera coupled with a strong light
knobby tires and the tracks allows it to ride on rough
terrain capability
uses a sturdy manipulator on the front to pick up the bomb
and uses the mobility platform to move the bomb to a
remote location
activities are controlled by a remote operator

A surveillance robot
has a video camera and a light
small
the tracks let it to able to drive on all types of terrains
good for finding suspects hiding in vents or drainage pipes
controlled by a remote operator

Robonaut by Robot Systems Technology Branch at

NASA's JSC in a collaborative effort with DARPA
have dexterous five-fingered hand and human-scale arm
have mix sensors of thermal, position, tactile, force and
torque , with over 150 sensors per arm
have nifty thermal suit to protect itself from temperature in
space
Robots in Radioactive
Canadarm robot arm
Environments
flown on every Space Shuttle flight for the last twenty
(Nuclear)
years
arm has a shoulder with 2 DOF, an elbow with 1 DOF, and
a 3 DOF wrist
the arm is used as a mobile work platform for the
astronauts to toss and retrieve satellites in space
A robot was developed for the decontamination and
dismantlement of nuclear weapons facilities
has two six-degree of freedom Schilling arms mounted on
a five-degree of freedom base
it can hold a part in one hand and use a cutting tool with
the other; basically stripping apart the reactor layer by
Robots in Military
layer (something like peeling an onion)
as the robot works it too will become contaminated and
radioactive and ultimately need to be stored as radioactive
waste

The question of what to do with our radioactive waste

is a hotly debated topic
Smart Crane Ammunition Transfer System being
developed by the Robotics Research Corporation
lets one soldier to be able to unload the entire truck without
ever leaving the cab
the system includes cameras, video screens, force
sensors and special grippers
robotic mine-sweeper
a tractor with a bunch of swinging chains mounted on the
front and can pound the ground with significant forces to
explode any buried mines
Using GPS and relatively simple control algorithms, robots
such as these can be programmed to methodically cover
large areas of ground in a perfect grid
can be equipped with water cutting tools to cut into and
through explosive ordnance, water cannons to disperse
unruly mobs and charge setters to explode suspicious
packages
this is operated with no one inside

Telerobotics

Predator is our military's most famous unmanned

vehicle
super high-tech r/c plane though it does have some
autonomous flying capabilities
Originally designed for reconnaissance
can be outfitted with a variety of different weaponry, most
recently the laser-guided AGM-114 Hellfire anti-armor
missiles
29 feet long with a 49 foot wingspan

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) under

ONR support made an underwater vehicle
performs reconnaissance (hydrographic and side-scan
sonar surveys) in littoral waters, from the seaward edge of
the surf zone into waters as deep as 100 meters
small, fit for two people
can operate over 20 hours on battery power before
recharging and is capable of speeds over 2.5 meters per
second. It operates completely autonomously
Electric Motor
These electric motors provide the energy to feed forces

back to the operator.

These forces are proportional to the current in the robot's
motors which in turn are proportional to the forces being
experienced by the robot
hand/arm combination is mounted on a 3-DOF torso that
Airborne Robots
extends the work volume of the manipulator system
A 3-DOF head that holds a stereoscopic pair of TV viewing
cameras is also mounted on the torso
By stressing design principals of low mass, low friction, low
backlash, high stiffness and good back-drivability, this
system is capable of presenting sensations of contact,
constrained motion, surface compliance and surface
friction
UC Berkeley to develop an artificial fly
capable of fully autonomous flight and is designed for
Robot Expert
reconnaissance, intelligence, surveillance and target
Witnesses
acquisition by small military units
The current model carries commercially available sensors
The goal is to give the Silver Fox, which is also known as
the Smart Warfighter Array of Reconfigurable Modules
(SWARM), 24-hour endurance a 1,500-mile range and a
maximum altitude of 10,000-feet
Robot forward
kinematics

The robotics expert helps everyone understand the

technical facts and aspects of the matter
The intellectual property disputes typically involve patents
and questions of infringement and validity. The liability
suits can follow industrial accidents
Decision of the US Supreme Court from 1993 says that an
expert's testimony must be based on industry standards,
peer-reviewed research or repeatable experimentation
The robot has three links each of length l1-3. Three
joints (the little circles) connect the three links of the
robot. The angles at each of these joints are 1-3
Denavit and Hartenberg used screw theory in the 1950's to
show that the most compact representation of a general
transformation between two robot joints required four
parameters
These are now known as the Denavit and Hartenberg
parameters (D-H parameters) and they are the de-facto
standard for describing a robot's geometry
a - the perpendicular distance between two joint axes
measured along the mutual perpendicular. The mutual
perpendicular is designated the x-axis.

a - the relative twist between two joint axes measured

about the mutual perpendicular
Robot Inverse
Kinematics

d - the distance between the two perpendiculars

measured along the joint axis
Q - joint angle about the z axis measured between the
two perpendiculars
Transformation = Screwx(a, a)Screwz(d, Q) =
Transx(a)Rotx(a
)Transz(d)Rotz(Q)

Motion control

Robot Vision

The robot has one link of length l and one joint with
angle . The position of the robot's hand is Xhand.
You may have to use your imagination a bit, but the
schematic above is the planar part of the SCARA robot
we discuss in the industrial robots section
Most inverse kinematics solutions at the position level
proceed in a similar fashion. You will use your
knowledge of trigonometry and geometry coupled with
your creativity to devise a solution.
Humans solve this problem all the time without even
thinking about it. When you are eating your cereal in
the morning you just reach out and grab your spoon.
You don't think, "my shoulder needs to do this, my
elbow needs to do that, etc."
What is servo control?" Imagine a simple motor. If you
connect it to a battery, it will start spinning. If you
connect two batteries, it will spin faster. Now imagine
you tell the motor to turn precisely 180 degrees (1/2
revolution) and stay there no matter how many
batteries there are. That's servo control
As you eat, you become less and less hungry until you
eventually stop eating. This is the idea of negative
feedback. Imagine if the opposite were true and eating
made you hungrier. You would eat until you exploded - out
of control!
Negative feedback in a servo control system proceeds in a
similar fashion. There is a desired position for the motor
and a feedback sensor that tells the motor it is not at the
correct position

 Machine setup includes operations such as setting feed

rates, setting offsets, setting limits and writing files.
Similarly querying for feed rates, querying for offsets,
querying for limits and reading files are important motion
control operations.
Sending motion start and motion stop commands are
further examples of motion control operations. Querying for
machine state is another example of an important motion
control operation
If you're in an industrial setting using Machine Vision
you will probably find an Adept robot at work. The
company has spent many years interfacing their
robots with vision based tools to allow for
identification and assembly of parts
One of the most fundamental tasks that vision is very
useful for is the recognition of objects (be they machine
parts, light bulbs, DVDs, or your next door neighbor!).
Evolution Robotics introduced a significant milestone in the
near-realtime recognition of objects based on SIFT points.
RoboRealm attempts to reduce the complexity of using
machine vision in robotics by providing a comprehensive
user interface to experiment with different vision filters

Summary
Robots are a useful benefit for us and todays life. It can be launched into regions
of space without having human going on there. They can even help practice military
officers on their trainings, which requires shooting and good timely and appropriate
reactions. It can carry bombs and move tons of heavy loads of work without getting
tired.
Engineers has been trying to improve robots even more, like improving a robot to
help people in need or need special cares. Or on the contrary, robots can be used for
fun and entertainments, like making itself a part of an amusement park rides.
Though they might be useful, but there are some type of robots that produces
waste and that waste needed to be stored somewhere. The answer is still being
debated on, in the meanwhile, engineers are still working on for another complex
robots.