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ROBOTICS
and SENSOR TECHNOLOGY
Fernando Victor V. de Vera
ECE, M.Tech.

Course Details
ECN 516 (Lecture):
ECN 517 (Laboratory):
Prerequisites:

3 Units
1 Unit

Microprocessor (Lec, Lab)

Required (Related) Knowledge

Electronic System Design
Control Systems
Mechanics (Statics, Dynamics, Strength of Materials)
Computer Programming
Power Systems

Course Description
This subject deals with the study of robots,
including but not limited to its history, basic
robotic concepts, sensors, analysis and design.

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Course Outline
Introduction and the History of Robotics
Basic Machines and Mechanisms
Review of Concepts in Electronics
Robot Design
Robotic Sensors
Visual
Auditory
Tactual
Olfactory

Sensor Signal Conditioning

Course Outline (Contd)

Robot Control and Controller Systems
Microprocessor
Computer
Smartphone

Robot Communications
Wired (Parallel and Serial Ports, USB)
Radio (Bluetooth, WiFi, etc)

Robot Actuators
DC Motors, Stepper Motors,

Course Outline (Contd)

Robot Mobility
Wheels
Differential Drive
Four-Wheel Drive

Walkers
Hexapod
Bipeds

Propeller-Based
Drones/Planes, Helicopters
Boats, Submarines

Crawlers

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Course Outline (Contd)

Artificial Intelligence
Trends in Robotics
Industry (Manufacturing, Medicine, Education,
etc.)
Military
Research
Space

Other Topics

References
Any Robotics Engineering books/ online
sources.

INTRODUCTION TO ROBOTICS

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Mechatronics
Yasakawa Electric Company (1972)
The word, mechatronics, is composed of mecha
from mechanism and the tronics from electronics. In
other words, technologies and developed products
will be incorporating electronics more and more into
mechanisms, intimately and organically, and making it
impossible to tell where one ends and the other
begins.

The term mechatronics was introduced by

Yasakawa Electric in 1969 to represent such
systems. Yasakawa was granted a trademark in
1972.

Mechatronics
Harashima, Tomizuka, and Fukada in 1996
the synergistic integration of mechanical
engineering, with electronics and intelligent
computer control in the design and manufacturing
of industrial products and processes.

Auslander and Kempf (1996)

Mechatronics is the application of complex
decision making to the operation of physical
systems.

Mechatronics
Shetty and Kolk (1997)
Mechatronics is a methodology used for the
optimal design of electromechanical products.

W. Bolton (1999)
A mechatronic system is not just a marriage of
electrical and mechanical systems and is more
than just a control system; it is a complete
integration of all of them.

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Key Elements in Mechatronics

The study of mechatronic systems can be
divided into the following areas of specialty:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Physical Systems Modeling

Sensors and Actuators
Signals and Systems
Computers and Logic Systems
Software and Data Acquisition

Key Elements in Mechatronics

Categories of
Mechantronics Products
By Japan Society for the Promotion of Machine Industry
(JSPMI) in the 1970s:
Class I:
Primarily mechanical products with electronics
incorporated to enhance functionality. Examples include
numerically controlled machine tools and variable speed
drives in manufacturing machines.

Class II:
Traditional mechanical systems with significantly updated
internal devices incorporating electronics. The external
user interfaces are unaltered. Examples include the
modern sewing machine and automated manufacturing
systems.

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Categories of
Mechantronics Products
By Japan Society for the Promotion of Machine
Industry (JSPMI) in the 1970s:
Class III:
Systems that retain the functionality of the traditional
mechanical system, but the internal mechanisms are
replaced by electronics. An example is the digital
watch.

Class IV:
Products designed with mechanical and electronic
technologies through synergistic integration. Examples
include photocopiers, intelligent washers and dryers,
rice cookers, and automatic ovens.

Enabling Technologies
Class I products
enabled by servo technology, power electronics, and control theory.

Class II products
enabled by the availability of early computational and memory devices
and custom circuit design capabilities.

Class III products

relied heavily on the microprocessor and integrated circuits to replace
mechanical systems.

Class IV products
marked the beginning of true mechatronic systems, through
integration of mechanical systems and electronics.

It was not until the 1970s with the development of the

microprocessor by the Intel Corporation that integration of
computational systems with mechanical systems became practical.

Robotics
The science or the study of the basic technologies
associated with the theories and applications of a
robotic system.

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Robotics
Robotics is the science and
technology of robots, their design,
manufacture, and application.
Robotics requires a working
knowledge of electronics,
mechanics and software, and is
usually accompanied by a large
working knowledge of many
subjects.
The application of mechatronics to
create robots.

Robotics
The ultimate application of
mechatronic principles.
Considered to be a
mechanism guided by control
systems that can sense and
gather information from its
surroundings in order to
automatically and repeatedly
perform complicated and
often repetitive tasks.

Robot
Definition:
A ROBOT is a reprogrammable, multifunctional
manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools
or specialized devices through variable programmed
motions for the performance of a variety of tasks:
Robot Institute of America, 1979

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Other Definitions
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica a
robot is
"any automatically operated machine that replaces
human effort, though it may not resemble human
beings in appearance or perform functions in a
humanlike manner."

Merriam-Webster describes a robot as

A machine that looks like a human being and
performs various complex acts (as walking or talking)
of a human being", or a "device that automatically
performs complicated often repetitive tasks", or a
"mechanism guided by automatic controls".

Other Definitions
robot
rbt,rbt/ (noun)
A machine capable of carrying out a complex series of
actions automatically, especially one programmable by a
computer.
synonyms:
informal:

automaton, android, golem;

bot, droid

(Especially in science fiction) a machine resembling a

human being and able to replicate certain human
movements and functions automatically.
Used to refer to a person who behaves in a mechanical or
unemotional manner.

Robot
The term 'ROBOT' was first used to denote
fictional automata in a 1921 play R.U.R. Rossum's
Universal Robots by the Czech writer, Karel
apek.
The play introduced the word Robot, which displaced
older words such as "automaton" or "android" in
languages around the world.
In its original Czech, robota means FORCED LABOUR
of the kind that serfs had to perform on their masters'
lands, and is derived from rab, meaning "SLAVE."

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Karel apek
(January 9, 1890 December 25, 1938)

A Czech writer of the early

20th century best known
for his science fiction,
including his novel War
with the Newts and the
play R.U.R. that
introduced the word
robot.

Laws of Robotics
Asimov proposed three Laws of Robotics and later added
the zeroth law
LAW 0: A robot may not injure humanity or through
inaction, allow humanity to come to harm
LAW 1: A robot may not injure a human being or through
inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, unless this
would violate a higher order law
LAW 2: A robot must obey orders given to it by human
beings, except where such orders would conflict with a
higher order law
LAW 3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as
such protection does not conflict with a higher order law

Isaac Asimov
(January 2, 1920 April 6, 1992)

An American author and

professor of biochemistry at
Boston University, best known
for his works of science fiction
and for his popular science
books.
Asimov is widely considered a
master of hard science fiction
and, along with Robert A.
Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke,
he was considered one of the
"Big Three" science fiction
writers during his lifetime.

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Isaac Asimov
Coined the term robotics

Systems Close To Robotics But Not

Classified As Robots:
Prostheses artificial
replacement for parts
of the human being.
Exoskeletons frames
which surrounded
human limbs, or even
the whole human
frame.
Telecherics remote
manipulators.
Locomotive Devices
imitates man or animals
by walking on legs
instead of wheels.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS OF
ROBOTICS

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Early Developments

Early Developments

Further Developments

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Further Developments . .

Further Developments . . .

Further Developments . . . .

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Further Developments . . . . .

Further Developments . . . . . .

First Commercial Robot

After the 1950s the first
commercial robot
nicknamed the
UNIMATE, was created.
The first Unimate was
installed at a GENERAL
MOTORS plant to work
with heated die-casting
machines .

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Classifications of Robots (1)

JIRA Japanese Industrial Robot Association
RIA Robotics Institute of America
Class 1: Manual Handling Device
Class2: Fixed-Sequence Robot
Class3: Variable Sequence Robot
Class4: Playback Robot
Class5: Numerical Control Robot
Class6: Intelligent Robot

Classifications of Robots (2)

AFR: The Association Francaise de Robotique
Type A: Handling Devices with manual control
Type B: Automatic Handling Devices with
predetermined cycles
Type C: Programmable, servo controlled robots
Type D: Type C with interactive with the
environment

Applications
Parts handling
Assembly
Painting
Surveillance
Security (bomb disposal
really is telecherics
rather than robotics)
Home help (grass
cutting, nursing)
Etc

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Basic Components of a Robot

1.
2.
3.
4.

Manipulators
End Effector (Gripper)
Controller
Power Supply

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Manipulator
the arm of the
robot. Made up of
links connected by
joints

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Controller
Stores reprogrammed information for later recall,
controls peripheral devices, and communicates
with the computers within the plant for constant
updates in production.
Examples:
Computer
Microcontrollers
Microprocessors
PLC

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End Effector (Gripper)

A specialized device
that is use for
handling a few objects
that has similar
characteristics in a
repetitive operation
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Power Supply
The unit that supplies the power to the
controller and the manipulator.
TYPES:
Hydraulic
Pneumatic
Electric

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Electric
Uses either AC or DC electric motors.
These are then connected to a
manipulators axes through a gear
reduction process.
Payload:
3 80 kgs
Used in:
assembly, arc/spot
welding, machine loading/unloading,
material handling, deburring, spray
painting
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Hydraulic
supplies fluid under pressure to a cylinder. The
pressurized fluid entering the cylinder causes
the cylinder to extent or retract. This is used in
about 45% of the industrial robots in the
market.
Payload:22.7 56.7 kgs
Used in: material handling, press
loading/unloading, spot/arc welding, die
casting, spray painting
Disadvantages:most costly, messy (fluid may
leak)
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Pneumatic
Pressurized air is supplied through lines of
cylinder. This is the least expensive of the three
drive systems. There is a limitation of the
amount of pneumatic power that can be
converted to lifting power.
Payload:3 4.5 kgs
Used in: simple assembly, die casting operations,
material handling, machine loading/unloading

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Classification by Workspace
Geometry
Workspace the volume of space the end
effector can reach.

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Classification by Workspace
Geometry
REACHABLE WORKSPACE
The volume of space
within which every
point can be reached
by the end effector in
at least one
orientation.

DEXTROUS WORKSPACE
(universal gripper)
The volume of space
within which every
point can be reached by
the end effector in all
possible orientations.

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Classification by Workspace
Geometry
Cartesian Robot
has three mutually perpendicular prismatic joint.

Cylindrical Robot
either the 1st or the 2nd joint of a cartesian robot is
replaced by a revolute joint.

Spherical Robot
the 1st two joints are made up of two intersecting
revolute joints and the 3rd is a prismatic joint.

Articulated Robot
all three joints are revolute.

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Classification by Workspace
Geometry

Cartesian Robot

has three mutually perpendicular prismatic joint.

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Classification by Workspace
Geometry

Cylindrical Robot

either the 1st or the 2nd joint of a cartesian robot is

replaced by a revolute joint.

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Classification by Workspace
Geometry
Spherical Robot
the 1st two joints are made up of two intersecting
revolute joints and the 3rd is a prismatic joint.

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Classification by Workspace
Geometry
Articulated Robot
all three joints are revolute.

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Classification by Workspace
Geometry
SCARA Robot
Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm or
Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arm
A 4-axis robot

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Classification by Motion
Characteristics
Planar Motion
if all the particles in the body describes motion in
plane.

Spherical Motion
if all the particles in the body describe curves
that lie on concentric spheres.

Spatial Motion
if it cannot be characterized as planar or
spherical motion.
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