Robotics

Lecture 1

Introduction to Robotics

Emam Fathy

Department of Electrical and Control Engineering

email: emfmz@aast.edu

http://www.aast.edu/cv.php?disp_unit=346&ser=68525
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 Introduction
 Robotics is a relatively young field of modern
technology that crosses traditional engineering
boundaries.

 Understanding the complexity of robots and their

applications requires knowledge of:
– Electrical engineering.
– Mechanical engineering.
– Industrial engineering.
– Computer science.
– Mathematics. 2
 Introduction
 The science of robotics has grown tremendously
over the past twenty years, fueled by rapid
advances in computer and sensor technology as
well as theoretical advances in control and
computer vision.

 This course is concerned with fundamentals of

robotics, including kinematics, dynamics, and
control.
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 Introduction
 A robot is a mechanical or virtual artificial system, usually
an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by a
computer program or electronic circuit.

 Robotics is the branch of mechanical engineering, electrical

engineering and computer science that deals with the design,
construction, operation, and application of robots.

 Robots can be autonomous or semi-autonomous such as:

– Humanoids such as ASIMO (Honda's Advanced Step in
Innovative Mobility).
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• Humanoids such
as ASIMO
(Honda's Advance
d Step in
Innovative
Mobility).

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 Introduction
 Robots can be autonomous or semi-autonomous such as:
– Industrial robots.

– Medical robots.

– Patient assist robots.

– Therapy robots.

– Collectively programmed (swarm robots).

– UAV drones.

– Microscopic Nano robots.

– Etc.
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 Modern robots (examples)
 Mobile robot
 They have the capability to move around in their
environment and are not fixed to one physical
location.

 Mobile robots are also found in industry, military

and security environments or to perform certain
tasks like vacuum cleaning.

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 Modern robots (examples)
 Industrial robots (manipulators)
 Industrial robots usually consist of a jointed
arm (multi-linked manipulator) and an end
effector that is attached to a fixed surface. One of
the most common type of end effector is
a gripper assembly.

 An automatically controlled, reprogrammable,

multipurpose, manipulator programmable in three
or more axes, which may be either fixed in place
or mobile for use in industrial automation
applications. 14
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 Industrial Robots
 An industrial robot is defined as an automatically controlled,
reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator programmable
in three or more axes.

 Typical applications of robots include

– Welding.
– Painting.
– Assembly.
– pick and place (such as packaging),
– Product inspection.
– Testing. 17
 Types and features
 The most commonly used robot configurations are:
1. Articulated robots ( a robot with rotary joints).

2. SCARA robots.

3. Delta Robots ( is a type of parallel robots).

4. Cartesian coordinate robots.

5. Gantry robots (x-y-z robots).

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 Technical description
 An axis – (degree of freedom “DOF”).
– Two axes are required to reach any point in a plane.

– Three axes are required to reach any point in space.

– If a robot has 3 degrees of freedom it can maneuver the

X-Y-Z axes, It cannot tilt or turn.

– Increasing the number of axes, we can access

more space. 24
 Technical description
 Degrees of freedom (Number of axes) –

– The number of joints.

Or
– Number of DOF of a robot is the number of its motors.
Or
– The number of parameters of the system that may
vary independently.

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2 axes 3 axes

4 axes 5 axes

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 Technical description
 Working envelope (workspace)– the region of space
a robot can reach.

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 Technical description
 Kinematics – the actual arrangement of rigid
members and joints in the robot, which determines
the robot's possible motions.
 Classes of robot kinematics include:
– Articulated.

– Cartesian

– parallel

– SCARA.
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Symbolic Representation of Robots
 Robot Manipulators are composed of links
connected by joints into a kinematic chain.
 Joints are:
– Rotary (revolute) - allows relative rotation
between two links.

– Linear (prismatic) - allows a linear relative motion

between two links.

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 Common Kinematic Arrangements
• Articulated Configuration (RRR)

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 Common Kinematic Arrangements
 Spherical Configuration (RRP)

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 Common Kinematic Arrangements
 SCARA Configuration (RRP)

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 Common Kinematic Arrangements
 Cylindrical Configuration (RPP)

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 Common Kinematic Arrangements
 Cartesian configuration (PPP)

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 Components
 Actuators are the "muscles" of a robot. The most
popular actuators are:
– Electric motors

– Linear actuators

– Series elastic actuators (i.e.: spring ).

– Pneumatic artificial muscles.

– Electroactive polymers

– Elastic nanotubes
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 Components
• Sensors allow robots to receive information about a
certain measurement of the environment, or
internal components. The most popular topics are:

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 Components
• Manipulation
– Robots need to manipulate objects; pick up, modify, destroy,
or otherwise have an effect.
– The "hands" of a robot are often referred to as end
effectors, while the "arm" is referred to as a manipulator.

 Mechanical grippers
– One of the most common effectors is the gripper. In its
simplest form it consists of two fingers which can open and
close to pick up and let go of a range of small objects.

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End of Lec

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