ROBOTICS

Lesson 1
INTRODUCTION

ENGR. JOMER V. CATIPON

jvcatipon@yahoo.com
09286654227
LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Define robots
2. Enumerate the three laws of robotics
3. Enumerate some benefits from use of robots
4. Enumerate types of robots
ROBOT, DEFINED

According to the Robot Institute of America

(1979) a robot is:

"A reprogrammable, multifunctional

manipulator designed to move material, parts,
tools, or specialized devices through various
programmed motions for the performance of
a variety of tasks".
According to Webster a robot is:

"An automatic device that performs functions

normally ascribed to humans or a machine in
the form of a human."
First use of the word 'Robot‘

- acclaimed Czech
playwright Karel
Capek (1890-1938)
- from the Czech word
for forced labor or
serf.
The use of the word
Robot was introduced
into his play R.U.R.
(Rossum's Universal
Robots) which opened in
Prague in January 1921.

In R.U.R., Capek poses a

paradise, where the
machines initially bring
so many benefits but in
the end bring an equal
amount of blight in the
form of unemployment
and social unrest.
First use of the word 'Robotics‘

- first used in
Runaround, a short
story published in
1942, by Isaac
Asimov
- I, Robot, a collection
of several of these
stories, was
published in 1950.
One of the first robots Asimov wrote about
was a robotherapist.

A modern counterpart to Asimov's fictional

character is Eliza.
Eliza was born in 1966 by a Massachusetts
Institute of Technology Professor Joseph
Weizenbaum who wrote Eliza -- a computer
program for the study of natural language
communication between man and machine.
ELIZA, a chatterbot, initially programmed with 240
lines of code to simulate a psychotherapist by
answering questions with questions.
“the pigeon” of archytas
Pipe organ of Ctesibius
Joseph Jacquard
loom
Mary Shelly’s
Frankenstein
Rossum’s Universal
Robotsby Karel
Capek
Asimov’s I, Robot
Rancho arm
Standfort arm
The silver arm
Star wars robots:
R2-D2 and C-
3PO
Standfort Cart
The path Finder
Furby of Tiger electronics
Honda’s Asimo
Three Laws of Robotics

Asimov also proposed his three "Laws of Robotics",

and he later added a 'zeroth law'.
Law Zero: A robot may not injure humanity, or,
through inaction, allow humanity to come to
harm.
Law One: 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 Two: A robot must obey orders given it by
human beings, except where such orders
would conflict with a higher order law.
Law Three: A robot must protect its own
existence as long as such protection does not
conflict with a higher order law.
The First Robot
- After the technology explosion during World
War II, in 1956
- George C. Devol, a successful inventor and
entrepreneur, and engineer Joseph F.
Engelberger, discuss the writings of Isaac
Asimov.
- made a serious and commercially successful
effort to develop a real, working robot.
- Engelberger started a manufacturing company
'Unimation' which stood for universal
automation and so the first commercial
company to make robots was formed.
- Devol wrote the necessary patents.
- Their first robot nicknamed the 'Unimate'.
The First Robot: 'Unimate‘

The first Unimate was

installed at a General Motors
plant to work with heated die-
casting machines.

Unimates were sold to extract

die castings from die casting
machines and to perform spot
welding on auto bodies, both
tasks being particularly
hateful jobs for people.
Joseph F. Engelberger, Father of Robotics
BENEFITS FROM ROBOTS
• improve the quality of life by freeing workers from
dirty, boring, dangerous and heavy labor.
• robots also create jobs: robot technicians, salesmen,
engineers, programmers and supervisors.
• to industry include improved management control and
productivity and consistently high quality products.
• can greatly reduce the costs of manufactured goods.
• countries that effectively use robots in their industries
will have an economic advantage on world market.

Sources: General Internet Inc., Lawrence Kamm's website,

CMU website, UW at Madison website, RRG
documentations and several other websites.
TYPES OF ROBOTS

1. Mobile Robots
• Mobile robots are able to move
• usually they perform task such as search
areas.
• Mobile robots are used for task where people
cannot go. Either because it is too dangerous
of because people cannot reach the area that
needs to be searched.
Mars Explorer images and other space robot images
courtesy of NASA, designed to roam surface of Mars
Mobile robots can be divided in two
categories:

a) Rolling Robots:
- have wheels to move
around.
- These are the type of
robots that can
quickly and easily
search move around.
- only useful in flat
areas
b) Walking Robots:
- Robots on legs are usually
brought in when the
terrain is rocky
- Robots have a hard time
shifting balance and keep
them from
tumbling. That’s why
most robots with have at
least 4 of them, usually
they have 6 legs or more.
- Development of legged
robots is often modeled
after insects or crawfish..
2. Stationary Robots
- perform repeating
tasks without ever
moving an inch.
- In case the tasks at
hand are done, the
robots will be
reprogrammed to
perform other tasks.
3. Autonomous Robots
- are self supporting or in
other words self
contained.
- In a way they rely on
their own ‘brains’.
- run a program that give
them the opportunity to
decide on the action to
perform depending on
their surroundings.
- At times these robots
even learn new behavior.
4. Remote-control
Robots
- In case a robot needs
to perform more
complicated yet
undetermined tasks an
autonomous robot is
not the right choice.
- complicated tasks are
still best performed by Dante 2, a NASA robot
human beings with designed to explore
real brainpower. volcanoes via remote
control.
5. Virtual Robots

- don’t exits in real life.

- are just programs, building blocks of software inside
a computer.
- A special kind of robot is a robot that searches the
world wide web. The internet has countless robots
crawling from site to site. These WebCrawler’s
collect information on websites and send this
information to the search engines.
- Another popular virtual robot is the
chatterbot. These robots simulate conversations
with users of the internet. One of the first
chatterbots was ELIZA. There are many varieties of
chatterbots now, including E.L.V.I.S.
6. BEAM Robots

BEAM is short for Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics

and Mechanics. BEAM robots are made by
hobbyists. BEAM robots can be simple and
very suitable for starters.
• Biology
Robots are often modeled after nature. A lot of BEAM robots look
remarkably like insects. Insects are easy to build in mechanical
form. Not just the mechanics are in inspiration also the limited
behavior can easily be programmed in a limited amount of memory
and processing power.
• Electronics
Like all robots they also contain electronics. Without electronic circuits
the engines cannot be controlled. Lots of Beam Robots also use
solar power as their main source of energy.
• Aesthetics
A BEAM Robot should look nice and attractive. BEAM robots have no
printed circuits with some parts but an appealing and original
appearance.
• Mechanics
In contrast with expensive big robots BEAM robots are cheap, simple,
built out of recycled material and running on solar energy.