EXPERT SYSTEMS AND SOLUTIONS

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expertsyssol@yahoo.com
Cell: 9952749533
www.researchprojects.info
PAIYANOOR, OMR, CHENNAI
Call For Research Projects Final
year students of B.E in EEE, ECE,
EI, M.E (Power Systems), M.E
(Applied Electronics), M.E (Power
Electronics)
Ph.D Electrical and Electronics.
Students can assemble their hardware in our
Research labs. Experts will be guiding the
projects.

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 1
Topics: Introduction to
Robotics
CS 491/691(X)

Lecture 5
Instructor: Monica Nicolescu
 Review
• Sensors
– Simple, complex
– Proprioceptive, exteroceptive
• Switches
• Light sensors
• Polarized light sensors
• Resistive position sensors
• Potentiometers
• Reflective optosensors

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 3
 Reflective Optosensors
• Include a source of light emitter (light
emitting diodes LED) and a light
detector (photodiode or
phototransistor)
• Two arrangements, depending on the
positions of the emitter and detector
– Reflectance sensors: Emitter and detector
are side by side; Light reflects from the object
back into the detector
– Break-beam sensors: The emitter and
detector face each other; Object is detected if
light between them is interrupted
CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 4
 Calibration
• Ambient / background light can interfere with the sensor
measurement
• The ambient light level should be subtracted to get only the
emitter light level
• Calibration: the process of adjusting a mechanism so as to
maximize its performance
• Ambient light can change  sensors need to be calibrated
repeatedly
• Detecting ambient light is difficult if the emitter has the same
wavelength
– Adjust the wavelength of the emitter

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 5
 Infra Red (IR) Light
• IR light works at a frequency different than ambient
light
• IR sensors are used in the same ways as the visible
light sensors, but more robustly
– Reflectance sensors, break beams
• Sensor reports the amount of overall illumination,
– ambient lighting and the light from light source
• More powerful way to use infrared sensing
– Modulation/demodulation: rapidly turn on and off the source
of light
CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 6
 Modulation/Demodulation
• Modulated IR is commonly
used for communication

• Modulation is done by flashing the light source at a

particular frequency
• This signal is detected by a demodulator tuned to
that particular frequency
• Offers great insensitivity to ambient light
– Flashes of light can be detected even if weak

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 7
 Infrared Communication
• Bit frames
– All bits take the same amount of
time to transmit
– Sample the signal in the middle of the bit frame
– Used for standard computer/modem communication
– Useful when the waveform can be reliably transmitted
• Bit intervals
– Sampled at the falling edge
– Duration of interval between sampling determines whether it is a
0 or 1
– Common in commercial use
– Useful when it is difficult to control the exact shape of the
waveform CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 8
 Proximity Sensing
• Ideal application for modulated/demodulated
IR light sensing
• Light from the emitter is reflected back into
detector by a nearby object, indicating
whether an object is present
– LED emitter and detector are pointed in the
same direction
• Modulated light is far less susceptible to
environmental variables
– amount of ambient light and the reflectivity of
different objects

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 9
 Break Beam Sensors
• Any pair of compatible emitter-detector devices
can be used to make a break-beam sensor
• Examples:
– Incadescent flashlight bulb and photocell
– Red LEDs and visible-light-sensitive photo-
transistors
– IR emitters and detectors
• Where have you seen these?
– Break beams and clever burglars in movies
– In robotics they are mostly used for keeping
track of shaft rotation

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 10
 Shaft Encoding
• Shaft encoders
– Measure the angular rotation of a shaft or an axle
• Provide position and velocity information about the
shaft
• Speedometers: measure how fast the wheels are
turning
• Odometers: measure the number of rotations of the
wheels

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 11
 Measuring Rotation
• A perforated disk is mounted on the shaft

• An emitter–detector pair is placed on both

sides of the disk

• As the shaft rotates, the holes in the disk

interrupt the light beam

• These light pulses are counted thus monitoring the rotation of the
shaft
• The more notches, the higher the resolution of the encoder
– One notch, only complete rotations can be counted

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 12
 General Encoder Properties
• Encoders are active sensors

• Produce and measure a wave

function of light intensity

• The wave peaks are counted to compute the speed
of the shaft
• Encoders measure rotational velocity and position

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 13
 Color-Based Encoders
• Use a reflectance sensors to count the rotations
• Paint the disk wedges in alternating contrasting
colors
• Black wedges absorb light, white reflect it and only
reflections are counted

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 14
 Uses of Encoders
• Velocity can be measured
– at a driven (active) wheel
– at a passive wheel (e.g., dragged behind a legged robot)
• By combining position and velocity information, one
can:
– move in a straight line
– rotate by a fixed angle
• Can be difficult due to wheel and gear slippage and
to backlash in geartrains

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 15
 Quadrature Shaft Encoding
• How can we measure direction of
rotation?
• Idea:
– Use two encoders instead of one
– Align sensors to be 90 degrees out of phase
– Compare the outputs of both sensors at each
time step with the previous time step
– Only one sensor changes state (on/off) at each
time step, based on the direction of the shaft
rotation  this determines the direction of
rotation
– A counter is incremented in the encoder that
was on

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 16
Which Direction is the Shaft Moving?
Encoder A = 1 and Encoder B = 0
– If moving to position AB=00,
the position count is
incremented
– If moving to the position
AB=11, the position count is
decremented
CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5
State transition table:
• Previous state = current state 
no change in position
• Single-bit change 
incrementing / decrementing the
count
• Double-bit change  illegal
transition
17
 Uses of QSE in Robotics
• Robot arms with complex joints
– e.g., rotary/ball joints like knees or
shoulders
• Cartesian robots, overhead cranes
– The rotation of a long worm screw
moves an arm/rack back and fort
along an axis
• Copy machines, printers
• Elevators
• Motion of robot wheels
– Dead-reckoning positioning

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 18
 Ultrasonic Distance Sensing
• Sonars: so(und) na(vigation) r(anging)
• Based on the time-of-flight principle
• The emitter sends a “chirp” of sound
• If the sound encounters a barrier it reflects back to
the sensor
• The reflection is detected by a receiver circuit,
tuned to the frequency of the emitter
• Distance to objects can be computed by measuring
the elapsed time between the chirp and the echo
• Sound travels about 0.89 milliseconds per foot
CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 19
 Sonar Sensors
• Emitter is a membrane that transforms mechanical
energy into a “ping” (inaudible sound wave)
• The receiver is a microphone tuned to the
frequency of the emitted sound
• Polaroid Ultrasound Sensor
– Used in a camera to measure the
distance from the camera to the subject
for auto-focus system
– Emits in a 30 degree sound cone
– Has a range of 32 feet
– Operates at 50 KHz
CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 20
 Echolocation
• Echolocation = finding location based on sonar
• Numerous animals use echolocation
• Bats use sound for:
– finding pray, avoid obstacles, find mates,
communication with other bats
Dolphins/Whales:
find small fish, swim through mazes
• Natural sensors are much more complex than
artificial ones

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 21
 Specular Reflection
• Sound does not reflect directly and come right back
• Specular reflection
– The sound wave bounces off multiple sources before
returning to the detector
• Smoothness
– The smoother the surface the more likely is that the sound
would bounce off
• Incident angle
– The smaller the incident angle of the sound wave the
higher the probability that the sound will bounce off

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 22
 Improving Accuracy
• Use rough surfaces in lab environments
• Multiple sensors covering the same area
• Multiple readings over time to detect “discontinuities”
• Active sensing
• In spite of these problems sonars are used
successfully in robotics applications
– Navigation
– Mapping

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 23
 Laser Sensing
• High accuracy sensor
• Lasers use light time-of-flight
• Light is emitted in a beam (3mm) rather than a cone
• Provide higher resolution
• For small distances light travels faster than it can be
measured  use phase-shift measurement
• SICK LMS200
– 360 readings over an 180-degrees, 10Hz
• Disadvantages:
– cost, weight, power, price
– mostly 2D
CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 24
 Visual Sensing
• Cameras try to model biological eyes
• Machine vision is a highly difficult research area
– Reconstruction
– What is that? Who is that? Where is that?
• Robotics requires answers related to achieving
goals
– Not usually necessary to reconstruct the entire world
• Applications
– Security, robotics (mapping, navigation)

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 25
 Principles of Cameras
• Cameras have many similarities with the human eye
– The light goes through an opening (iris - lens) and hits the
image plane (retina)
– The retina is attached to light-sensitive elements (rods,
cones – silicon circuits)
– Only objects at a particular range are
in focus (fovea) – depth of field
– 512x512 pixels (cameras),
120x106 rods and 6x106 cones (eye)
– The brightness is proportional to the
amount of light reflected from the objects
CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 26
 Image Brightness
• Brightness depends on
– reflectance of the surface patch
– position and distribution of the light sources
in the environment
– amount of light reflected from other objects
in the scene onto the surface patch
• Two types of reflection
– Specular (smooth surfaces)
– Diffuse (rough sourfaces)
• Necessary to account for these
properties for correct object
reconstruction  complex computation
CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 27
 Early Vision
• The retina is attached to numerous rods and cones which, in
turn, are attached to nerve cells (neurons)
• The nerves process the information; they perform "early
vision", and pass information on throughout the brain to do
"higher-level" vision processing
• The typical first step ("early vision") is edge detection, i.e., find
all the edges in the image
• Suppose we have a b&w camera with a 512 x 512 pixel image
• Each pixel has an intensity level between white and black
• How do we find an object in the image? Do we know if
there is one?

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 28
 Edge Detection
• Edge = a curve in the image across which
there is a change in brightness
• Finding edges
– Differentiate the image and look for areas
where the magnitude of the derivative is large
• Difficulties
– Not only edges produce changes in brightness:
shadows, noise
• Smoothing
– Filter the image using convolution
– Use filters of various orientations
• Segmentation: get objects out of the lines
CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 29
 Model-Based Vision
• Compare the current image with images of similar objects
(models) stored in memory
• Models provide prior information about the objects
• Storing models
– Line drawings
– Several views of the same object
– Repeatable features (two eyes, a nose, a mouth)
• Difficulties
– Translation, orientation and scale
– Not known what is the object in the image
– Occlusion

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 30
 Vision from Motion
• Take advantage of motion to facilitate vision
• Static system can detect moving objects
– Subtract two consecutive images from each other  the
movement between frames
• Moving system can detect static objects
– At consecutive time steps continuous objects move as one
– Exact movement of the camera should be known
• Robots are typically moving themselves
– Need to consider the movement of the robot

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 31
 Stereo Vision
• 3D information can be
computed from two
images
• Compute relative
positions of cameras
• Compute disparity
– displacement of a point in
3D between the two images
• Disparity is inverse proportional with actual distance
in 3D
CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 32
 Biological Vision
• Similar visual strategies are used in nature
• Model-based vision is essential for object/people
recognition
• Vestibular occular reflex
– Eyes stay fixed while the head/body is moving to stabilize
the image
• Stereo vision
– Typical in carnivores
• Human vision is particularly good at recognizing
shadows, textures, contours, other shapes
CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 33
 Vision for Robots
• If complete scene reconstruction is not needed we
can simplify the problem based on the task
requirements
• Use color
• Use a combination of color and movement
• Use small images
• Combine other sensors with vision
• Use knowledge about the environment

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 34
Examples of Vision-Based Navigation

Running QRIO Sony Aibo – obstacle avoidance

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 35
Readings

• F. Martin: Chapter 6
• M. Matarić: 9

CS 491/691(X) - Lecture 5 36