DEC6122 EMBEDDED ROBOTIC

chapter 1 : INTRODUCTION TO ROBOTIC AND CONTROLLER

Chap 1

Identify the classification of mobile

Describe mobile robots.
robot types:
a. Land
b. Aerial
Know the c. Underwater
concept and
fundamentals of
Describe the significance of robots and
embedded controllers in mobile controller
robotics.
Chap 1

Mobile robot descriptions

“A mobile robot is an automatic machine

that is capable of movement in a given
environment.”
(Source: Wikipedia)
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Mobile robot descriptions

“A robot mounted on a movable platform

that transports it to the area where it
carries out tasks.”
(Source: answers.com)
Chap 1

Mobile robot descriptions

“A mobile robot is an autonomous system capable of

traversing a terrain with natural or artificial obstacles. Its
chassis is equipped with wheels/tracks or legs and
possibly a manipulator setup mounted on the chassis
for handling of work pieces, tools or special devices.
Various preplanned operations are executed based on a
pre-programmed navigation strategy taking into account
the current status of the environment.”
(Source: 2000, G.Dudek, M.Jenkin Computational Principles of Mobile Robotics
(Cambridge - United Kingdom))
Chap 1

Mobile Robot Types

1. Land
2. Aerial
3. Underwater
Chap 1

Mobile Robot Types

LAND
• Land-based mobile robots are normally consists of
wheeled and legged robots.
• Wheeled robots comprise one or more driven wheels
and have optional passive or caster wheels and
possibly steered wheels.
• Most designs require two motors for driving (and
steering) a mobile robot.
• There are several ways in driving and steering the
wheeled mobile robots but the famous of them are
differential drive and Ackermann steering drive.
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LAND Mobile Robot Types

Differential Drive
Differential drive is a combination of two driven wheels
that are located at the right and left side of the robot
structure.

The combination allows the robot to be driven straight,

in a curve, or to turn on the spot.

The advantage of this design is that motors and wheels

are in fixed positions and do not to be turned in order
to do cornering. This simplifies the robot mechanics
design considerably.
Differential drive design
Chap 1

LAND Mobile Robot Types

Ackermann Steering Drive

Ackermann steering is the standard drive
and steering system of a rear-driven
passenger car.

The design has one motor for driving

both rear wheels via a differential box
and one motor for combined steering of
both front wheels.

Ackermann steering design

Chap 1

LAND Mobile Robot Types

ACKERMANN STEERING DRIVE

One disadvantage of all wheeled robots is that they
require a street or some sort of flat surface for driving.

Tracked robots are more flexible and can navigate over

rough terrain. However, they cannot navigate as
accurately as a wheeled robot. Tracked robots also need
two motors, one for each track.

Other designs of driving and steering mobile robots are Tracked robot
skid steering, synchronous drive, Omni- directional drive,
articulated drive and independent drive.
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LAND Mobile Robot Types

LEGGED ROBOT

Like tracked robots, they can navigate over

rough terrain or climb up and down stairs, for
example.

There are many different designs for legged

robots, depending on their number of legs.

The legged robots may appear in two, three, Six legged robot
four, six and eight legged form depending to
their own design and specifications.
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LAND Mobile Robot Types

LEGGED ROBOT
The general rule is: the more legs, the easier to balance. For
example, the six-legged robot shown in the figure can be operated
in such a way that three legs are always on the ground while three
legs are in the air.
The robot will be stable at all times, resting on a tripod formed
from the three legs currently on the ground – provided its center
of mass falls in the triangle described by these three legs.

The lesser legs a robot has, the more complex it gets to balance
and walk, for example a robot with only four legs needs to be
carefully controlled, in order not to fall over. Four legged robot

A biped (two-legged) robot cannot play the same trick with a

supporting triangle, since that requires at least three legs.
 Chap 1

Mobile Robot Types

AERIAL

• Autonomous planes or UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) are the example

of aerial type of mobile robot.
• UAV is an aircraft that operates without human pilot onboard. Instead, it
is controlled miles to thousands of miles away from the base station.
• The UAVs or sometimes called as drones are used extensively by some
military forces in performing modern warfare nowadays.
• Besides for combat use, UAVs also used to carry out remote sensing job
such as analyzing pollution, weather and do city planning.
Predator UAV used by United
• The example of countries that use large number of UAVs are Australia,
States Air Force (USAF)
China, Germany, Israel, Pakistan, Soviet Union, United Kingdom and
United States.
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Mobile Robot Types

UNDERWATER

• There are several examples of underwater mobile robots, namely

autonomous underwater vehicle, remotely operated underwater
vehicle and fish robot.
• An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a robot which travels
underwater without requiring input from an operator.
• Remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) on the other hand is
also an unoccupied underwater vehicle but needs to be controlled by
human operator that located on a vessel.
• The ROV is linked to the ship by a group of cables that carry electrical
power, video and data signals back and forth between the operator
and the vehicle.
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Mobile Robot Types

UNDERWATER

• Among the functions of the AUV and ROV are to detect

manned submarines in military mission, analyzing the
microscopic life in science application and making detailed
maps of the seafloor for building subsea infrastructure in
commercial purpose.
• A robotic fish on the other hand is a robot that imitates the
look and the characteristics of a fish. There are many
purposes of developing the robotic fish and one of them is to
carry out underwater operation such as monitoring the
pollution level at harbors and send the information to the
shore.
 Chap 1

Evolution Of Mobile Robotic In World History

1990 2018

1950 2000

The word of “robot” was introduced by Karel Capek, which first appeared in his play R. U. R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots)
in 1920. After that, robots especially mobile robotic were started to be created widely at all over the world.
 Chap 1
Evolution Of Mobile Robotic In World History
1950
Grey Walter (UK, University of Bristol)
built three wheeled, turtle like, mobile
robotic vehicles.
These vehicles had: a light sensor, touch
sensor, propulsion motor, steering motor,
and a two vacuum tube analog computer.
Even with this simple design, Grey
demonstrated that his turtles exhibited
complex behaviors.
He called his turtles “Machina
Speculatrix” after their speculative
tendency to explore their environment.
1969 1979
In development since 1967, the Stanford
Shakey (Stanford University) was the first
Cart successfully crossed a chair-filled room
mobile robot to be controlled by vision.
without human intervention in 1979.
Hans Moravec rebuilt the Stanford Cart in
Shakey was set simple tasks to solve:
1977, equipping it with stereo vision.
A television camera, mounted on a rail on
• To recognize an object using vision
the top of the cart, took pictures from
• Find its way to the object
several different angles and relayed them
• Perform some action on the object
to a computer.
(for example, to push it over)
The computer gauged the distance
between the cart and obstacles in its path.
 Chap 1
Evolution Of Mobile Robotic In World History
1989 1996 2000 - now

Robot Soccer

A walking robot named Genghis is

unveiled by the Mobile Robots Group at
MIT. It becomes known for the way it
walks, popularly referred to as the
"Genghis gait".
P3 introduced by Honda’s P3
(predecessor to Honda’s Asimo)

Stair Climbing Robot

Chap 1

Significance of mobile robots in modern days

Automated machines have taken over the duties of dangerous and mundane jobs from humans,
allowing greater productivity.
Because robots never tire, extra shifts have been added to factories.

Farmers have taken advantage of new technology with automated harvesters, the waste disposal
industry has implemented robots in some of its dirtier jobs, and the medical industry benefits from
advancements in assisted surgical robotics.

The military has launched various programs in robotic technology, most successfully the Predator and
Reaper unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicles that allow a pilot to control the robot from vast
distances.

The vehicles can do high-altitude surveillance for long periods without having to support a live pilot,
and when needed the planes can launch small strikes on targets in zones that normal aircraft cannot
operate.
Chap 1

Significance of embedded controllers in mobile robotics

An embedded system can be defined as:

“A system whose principal function is

not computational, but which is
controlled by a computer embedded
within it.”

(Source: Wilmshurst, T. (2001). An Introduction to the

Design of Small-Scale Embedded Systems.Palgrave. (ISBN
978-0-333-92994-0))
 Chap 1

Significance of embedded controllers in mobile robotics

Some familiar examples of embedded systems are as follow:

Chap 1
Significance of embedded controllers in mobile robotics

It needs to maintain a moderately stable, low internal

temperature. It does this by sensing its internal
temperature and comparing it with the temperature
required. It lowers the temperature by switching on a
compressor.

The temperature measurement requires one or more

sensors, and then whatever signal conditioning and
data acquisition circuitry that is needed.

Controlling the compressor requires some form of

electronic interface, which accepts a low-level input
control signal and then converts this to the electrical
drive necessary to switch the compressor power.

Generally, the user has no idea that there’s a

computer inside the fridge!
Chap 1
Significance of embedded controllers in mobile robotics

One set of sensors relates to the door lock and

another to the window.

There are two actuators, the window motor and the

lock actuator. It might appear that a car door could be
designed as a self-contained embedded system
Central locking can be introduced or an alarm
sounded if the door is not locked when the driver tries
to pull away.
Chap 1

The importances of embedded controllers in mobile robotics

Equip the robot with ‘brain’ to process the data

01 obtained through the sensors and react using actuators

Allow the mobile robots to be programmed to perform

various kind of tasks according to the human’s desire 02
and the robots’ ability

Making the robots to function autonomously according

03 to program they receive

Allow the mobile robots to be sophisticated and advanced in 04

features