TIMELINE IN ROBOTICS
2500 B.C.E. The Egyptians invent
the idea of thinking “machines”: their
advice-giving oracles are statues with
priests hidden inside.  “Karakuri Ningyo” appear in Japan.
1400 B.C.E. The Babylonians
develop the water clock, considered
one of the first robotic devices.
800 B.C.E. Automata appear in
Homer's Iliad
Automata comes from a Greek
word which means "self-acting,  serving tea or writing
self-willed, self-moving"  calligraphy
350 B.C. Archytas of Tarentum
constructs a mechanical wooden bird
(“the pigeon”) whose movements are
controlled by a jet of steam or
compressed air
1495 Italian artist and inventor
Leonardo da Vinci designs an
artificial man.
Leonardo’s Mechanical Knight
 - the form of an armored Germanic
knight
 - the first humanoid robot in Western
civilization
1525 German scholar Hans
Bullmann designs and builds
humanoid androids who play musical
instruments
 - simulated people that
can play musical instruments
for   engineer, mechanical
the delight of paying
customers.
1700 Mechanized puppets known as
Karakuri Ningyo
  traditional Japanese
mechanized puppets or
automata, made from
the 17th century to the
19th century
 Designed to perform a
single task such as
1847 English mathematician George
Boole invents a symbolic logic (now
called Boolean logic) that would
become basic to the design of digital
computer circuits.
Boolean logic
 a form of algebra which
is centered around three
simple words known as
Boolean Operators: “Or,”
“And,” and “Not”
1888 Serbian-American inventor
Nikola Tesla develops the first
alternating-current induction motor. 
1890 Nikola Tesla creates the first
remote-controlled vehicles.
Nikola Tesla
 Serbian-American
inventor, electrical
 
engineer
1921 Czech author Karel Capek
coins the word “robot” to describe
mechanical people in his play
"R.U.R" (Rossum's Universal
Robots).
Stanford Arm
1942 American author Isaac Asimov  the first successful
popularizes the term "robotics" and electrically powered,
sets out his “three laws of robotics” in computer-controlled
his story "Runaround." robot arm.
 desig
ned
at
THE THREE LAWS OF ROBOTICS
First Law
A robot may not injure a human being or,
Stanford University by
through inaction, allow a human being to
come to harm. Victor Scheinman
Second Law
A robot must obey the orders given it by
human beings except where such orders 1973 
would conflict with the First Law.  Wabot 1, the world’s first full-
Third Law scale anthropomorphic robot,
A robot must protect its own existence as
is built at Waseda University in
long as such protection does not conflict
with the First or Second Law. Japan. It is able to
communicate in Japanese,
1954 American engineers George walk and grip objects with its
Devol and Joe Engleberger design hands.
the first programmable robot "arm,"
the world's first industrial robot.  1975
  Japanese engineer Shigeo
1956 American researchers Allen Hirose designs the Soft
Newell, Herbert Simon and John Gripper, designed to wrap
Shaw create the Logic Theorist, the around an object in snake-like
first artificial intelligence program. fashion, at the Tokyo Institute
George Devol and Joseph of Technology. 
Engelberger form the world's first  The film Star Wars features
robot company: Unimation, Inc. “droids” R2-D2 and C-3PO.

1967 The first robot – an AMF 1978 Unimation develops the PUMA
Versatran – is imported into Japan. (Programmable Universal Machine
for Assembly), based on Victor
Scheinman’s design. 
1969 The Japanese company
Kawasaki develops the Kawasaki-
Unimate 2000, the first industrial 1979 Austrian researcher Hans
robot ever produced in Japan, with Moravec creates the Stanford Cart,
technology licensed from Unimation.  an autonomous
vehicle that can navigate across a Campbell Aird is fitted with the
room full of obstacles. world's first bionic arm. 
 NASA launches the Deep
1986 LEGO collaborates with the Space 1 autonomous
MIT Media Lab to bring the first spacecraft to test technologies
LEGObased educational products to to be used in future missions
market. crewed and conducted solely
by robots.
1989 The Mobile Robots Group at
MIT creates a walking robot named
Genghis.  1999
  Sony
1996 releases
 Honda creates the P-2 the Aibo
(Prototype 2), a humanoid electronic
robot that can walk, climb dog robot,
stairs and carry loads.  which reacts to sounds and
 University of South Florida has some preprogrammed
researchers Chris Campbell behavior. 
and Stuart Wilkinson create
the Gastrobot, a robot that
digests organic mass to  Probotics, Inc.
produce carbon dioxide that is releases the
then used for power. Cye personal
robot that can
1997 The Pathfinder Mission lands be used to
on Mars. Its free-ranging robotic perform a variety of household
rover Sojourner, returns 2.3 billion chores.
bits of information, including more
than 17,000 images, more than 15
chemical analyses of rocks and soil
and extensive data on winds and 2000 
other weather factors.   Honda releases
ASIMO, the next
1998 generation of its series
 Tiger Electronics introduces of humanoid robots.
the Furby, an "animatronic pet"  The United Nations
that can react to its estimates that there are
environment and communicate 742,500 industrial robots in
in English and "Furbish".  use worldwide.
 LEGO releases their first  Sony unveils the humanoid
Robotics Invention System, Sony Dream Robot.
MINDSTORMS. Scotsman
  The da Vinci Surgery System
becomes the first robotic
surgery system approved by
the FDA.
2011 
2001   Robonaut 2,
 The Space Station Remote a human-like
Manipulator System (SSRMS) robotic
is assistant
successfully launched into orbit and developed
begins operations to complete jointly by
assembly of the International Space NASA and General Motors, is
Station. launched into space on space.

2002  2012 The first driverless car is

 iRobot releases the Roomba licensed in Nevada. 
autonomous robot vacuum.
British cybernetics professor Kevin 2014 
Warwick becomes the first  hitchBOT, a robot created by a
cyborg in the world by controlling team of Canadian researchers,
electronic devices with his “hitchhikes” across Canada
nervous system through an 100- and Europe on a mission to
electrodes array implanted into his explore cultural attitudes
arm. toward social robotics.
hitchBOT is destroyed in
Philadelphia in 2015
2005 
 A team of researchers at
Cornell University builds the
first selfreplicating robot.
 Boston Dynamics unveils Big
Dog, a dynamically stable
quadruped
robot. Big Dog
can traverse
difficult terrain,
climb a 35-
degree incline
and run at 4
miles an hour
while carrying
340 pounds.
 PARTS OF A ROBOT Types of Actuators

CONTROL SYSTEM Hydraulic Actuators 

 Processes information  used in robots
 “Brain of a robot” handling heavy
 Controls the movement of the loads
manipulator and the end
effector
Pneumatic Actuators
POWER SOURCE (POWER  Compressed air is
SUPPLY) moving the piston
 Where robots receive power  Can also provide
from linear and rotary
movements
END EFFECTOR
 The device at the end of a Electric Actuators
robotic arm, designed to  Commonly used
interact with its environment  Converts
electric
ACTUATORS energy into
 Used to create mechanical linear or
movement rotary
 Moves in reaction to the motion
feedback from sensors  Can be AC/DC actuators,
mostly, robots are using DC
Two Main Types of Actuators actuators

Examples of Electric Actuators

1. Linear Actuators
 Move objects along a
straight line, or in a
back-and-forth motion

DC Motors: A dc motor will

2. Rotary Actuators
have ‘+’ and ‘-‘ terminal. The
 Rotates objects so they
speed of the motor shaft can
can move at any angle
be adjusted based on the
 Movement is measured
voltage across the motor
in degrees
terminals.

DC Gear Motor: Adding a
gearbox on DC motors can
increase the shaft torque and
reduce the motor speed. DC
Gear motors consist of a DC
motor attached with a gear
system with an output shaft. 
Servo Motors: The servo
motors consist of a DC motor
plus gear system plus a servo
control circuit. The computer
inside the robot can command
the servo motor to rotate at a
specific angle using PWM
signals. 
Stepper Motors: The stepper
motors are DC motors that can
move in discrete steps. The
motor will rotate in each step at
a time when you trigger each
phase in a sequence. The
stepper motors are used where
high precision in movement is
required.
BLDC Motors: BLDC motors
are quite popular nowadays
and used in many robotic
applications. BLDC motor
stands for Brushless DC
motor. 
Harmonic Drives: Harmonic
drive is the brand name of
strain wave gear trademarked
by Harmonic Drive company
and invented in 1957. It is very
popular in robotics
applications. 
Linear DC actuators: These dc
motors can convert the DC
voltage to linear motion just
like pneumatic and hydraulic
actuators. There is a lot of
robotic application using linear
actuators. 
SENSORS TYPES OF A ROBOT
 Used to gather information 1. General Classification
about the surroundings - Pre-programmed - does only simple
 Considered as "senses" for the and monotonous tasks
robots - Humanoid - looks like and mimics
human behaviour
CLASSIFICATIONS OF ROBOT    examples: Atlas
SENSORS and Sophia

1. Internal Sensors
 Velocity Sensors -
“casing vibration as well
as magnitude 
                             and
phase”
 Acceleration Sensors -
“acceleration and tilt”
2. External Sensors
 Contact 
- touch sensor - Autonomous - carries out tasks that
- slip sensor - do not require human supervision
“determine the force of - Teleoperated -uses wireless
contact” network
- force sensor - Augmenting - enhances human
 Non-Contact
capabilities or replace the capabilities
- range sensor - a human may have lost
“distance”
- proximity sensor
- “presence of
something”
- vision sensor -
“recognize 3d objects”
2. According to features 3. According to function/use
(movement) (purpose)
 Stationary  Aerospace
 Wheeled  Consumer
 Legged  Disaster response
 Swimming  Drones
 Flying  Education
 Rolling (mobile  Entertainment
spherical robots)  Industrial
 Swarm - consists  Medical
of multiple small  Military & security 
robots, although  Research
structurally it does  Telepresence
not create a single  Service
united robot but it  Hobby and
operates competitions
cooperatively
 Modular - more
functional
compared to
swarm robots, can
operate alone but
more powerful
when it creates a
single unit robot
 Micro
 Nano - similar
small robots
 Soft Elasic - newly
introduced, snake-
like
 EV3 PROGRAMMING BASICS

 The computer/control center…a.k.a.

the “Brick” 
o Sends programmed information to
motors.  
o Receives information from sensors Color Sensor 
to initiate programmed parameters. o Detects color differences and
sends that data to the 
Brick for possible action according to
programmed 
parameters.
o Emits a set of color wavelengths.
The color 
Large Motor  wavelength that is reflected back,
o Receives programmed instructions and not 
from the Brick. absorbed, determines the color of the
o Heavy duty with lower gearing for surface.
mobility 
requirements.

Ultrasonic Sensor 
o Detects distance to an object and
Medium Motor  sends that data to 
o Receives programmed instructions the Brick for possible action
from the Brick. according to 
o Used primarily for moving parts of a programmed parameters.
robot.
o Light duty with higher gearing for
quick response; 
NOT suitable for mobility.
The Buttons:
 [B]ack | Cancels Action, Aborts
Running Program (important to 
remember), Navigates to previous
screens and Shut Down screen.
 [C]enter | Turns the Brick On,
Selects highlighted option
 [U]p | Navigates Up a list
 [D]own | Navigates Down a list
 [L]eft | Navigates Left across the
Menu Tabs
 [R]ight | Navigates Right across the
Menu tab 
Settings | General configurations
such as Volume, Sleep, and Wireless
settings are made here
ON and OFF:
 ON | Press the [C]enter button until
a red light comes on
o Changes to green when ready for
use
 Off | Press the [B]ack button until
you see the Shut Off screen 
o Tab [R]ight to highlight the check
mark
o Press the [C]enter button to initiate
shut down 
o The light will turn red, then off when
fully shut down

Menu Tab Icons:

Run Recent | Lists all programs

recently run

File Navigation | Lists all Project

Folders and the Programs 
within them that are loaded on the
EV3

Brick Applications | Provides access

to native apps such as Port View
(displays connected Motors and 
Sensors) and the Brick Program
(enables programming directly using
the interface) among other options.
PARTS OF THE PROGRAMMING 3. Hardware Page
SOFTWARE a. Brick information displayed here
b. Download center
1. Canvas i. See “Downloading to the Brick /
a. Programming area Hardware Page Details” (page 12) for
i. Create your program here by more information
connecting Programming Blocks from
the Palette 4. Toolbar
ii. By default, a Flow Block Start a. Canvas area controls
Button is placed in the Canvas area
5. Menu
a. Very similar to feel and function of
2. Palette
a Microsoft Menu Bar
a. Connectable Programming
b. The “Show EV3 Help” (quick
“Blocks” are located here (hovering
launch = F1) from the “Help”
over blocks reveals type)
dropdown is excellent. It’s one of the
b. Each color has a function, but we
best Help links I’ve ever seen.
will only focus on the Green and
Strongly suggest exploring this
Orange in this tutorial.
feature
i. Green: Action
ii. Orange: Flow Control
iii. Yellow: Sensors
iv. Red: Data Operations
v. Blue: Advanced
vi. Turquois: My Blocks
c. Green Action Blocks
i. Enables programmed movement,
sound, and display capabilities
d. Orange Flow Control Blocks (I’ll
refer to as just Flow Blocks)
i. Modifies, or enhances the
capabilities of other blocks
ii. Cannot be used solo
iii. For our purposes, we’ll start with
incorporating Green Action Blocks
iv. As we progress, we will also
combine Flow Blocks