Intelligent Humanoid robot (very cool!!)

Hello C-3PO! This fidgety fella from a galaxy far, far away has become the poster bot for our dreams of the humanoid robot (personally, I always get the image of a rampaging Terminator, but then, I'm a perverse sort). Humanoid robots are bipedal, have heads, usually arms, & are often human height (or at least human proportions). These robots tend to be the most complex, have the biggest "brains" (& aspirations of higher intelligence), & spend much of their lives on workbenches with people in white coats cursing over them. These same people in lab coats assure us that this will one day change.The figure above shows the SDR-4X (Sony Dream Robot), Sony's diminutive answer to Honda's Asimo. The SDR looks human-sized in many pictures, but it's actually tiny (23 inches tall).

For robots of this type, brainpower is key. Articulated movement & walking is a huge challenge, as is a robotic vision system that allows such robots to interact effectively with people & their environment. Also, getting all of the hardware required to mimic their makers inside of a human-sized/human-shaped body is a real problem.

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Revolutionary Robo-Critters (Space explorers)

Looking to nature for inspiration in robot design has led to a fantastic menagerie of mechanical creatures. All sorts of bugs, reptiles, fish, crustaceans, & mammals have provided design ideas . Even how these critters behave—the communalism of ants, the swarming of bees, & the flocking of birds—has inspired designs for clusters of robots that function in a similar manner. Robo-critters often have legs, only basic brainpower (instinct-level), & are frequently autonomous (either solar powered or capable of finding their own power source). Many of today's entertainment robots (AIBO, B.I.O. Bugs, iCybie) fall into Robo-critter robot category.

Note:

For robots of this type, weight is often critical. As legged mobility is complicated & fragile, this is often a weakness of the design. Legs are power-hungry, too, drinking up precious battery juice

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Automated Industrial Manipulator Robots

Automated Industrial Manipulator Robots

These are obviously the most prevalent type of robots to date. Not only your car, but also many of the consumer items in your home were probably bot-handled at some point. We tend to think of only the fixed robotic arm in this category, but industrial manipulators come in all sorts of configurations these days. If you ever see a news item about the auto industry, computer chip manufacturing, or other bot-intensive business, all of those ganglia you see snaking around the product as it moves down the assembly line—each with a specialized function & tool on its tip—is an industrial manipulator.

NOTE:Robots of this type need to be strong, extremely durable, & capable of doing the exact same sequence of tasks over & over again without fail. With this species of bot, boring is good, surprises are bad.

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Robot Sports (robot combat and sumo etc.)

Robot sports deals with the idea of using human competition as a way of accelerating robot evolution. Other robot researchers, such as Fred Martin & Randy Savage at MIT, were also using games as a way of inspiring students to "go for the gold" in robot design. MIT's infamous 6.270 electrical & computer engineering design course turned into a robot design competition in 1992.For the MIT competition, LEGO blocks were used as building components (years before LEGO released its MINDSTORMS building sets), ushering in the age of quick, cheap, & easy prototyping in the building of small robots. Robot sports & academic competitions have grown over the years, to the point where robotic sports have been embraced by a mainstream audience

Combat Robotics

You can say what you want about Battlebots, Robot Wars, Robotica, & combat robotics in general, but no one can deny that the attention this emerging sport has gotten has raised the general public's interest in all things robotic. Even though some argue that these machines aren't robots at all, but rather, remote-controlled (R/C) vehicles with seriously bad tempers, there have been real innovations in the field.

Although most combat robots have no sensors, & the main controller is usually a geek with an R/C radio, these robots continue to get more impressive in their mechanical & electronic sophistication. As with BEAMbots, in which survival & a robust attitude are key, combat robots have to be powerful, sturdy, & resilient. Builders spend inordinate amounts of time studying & testing different construction materials, structural forms, building techniques, & trying to maximize power while minimizing weight An impressively large number of combat robot builders work in the movie special effects industry (the inventor of the sport, Marc Thorpe, worked on Star Wars at Lucasfilm). Several builders, such as one of the sport's pioneers, Mark Setrakian, claim that they've applied technologies developed for their robots to their work in movie animatronics.

From the very beginning of the idea for Robot Wars, creator Mark Thorpe saw its great entertainment potential. He likes to describe combat robotics as the first sport of the twenty-first century. Like Tilden, he saw the potential for competition & builder cooperation via robot games, but he added a new vehicle of robot evolution: commercialism. He knew that if robot sports became popular, there would inevitably be spin-off products (toys, games, kits, T-shirts, how-to books, & the like) & he saw this as a very good thing. He would cut the builders in on the licensing royalties of products based on their bots, & they could use this money to become robot sports professionals. Also, money from the inevitable corporate sponsorships (a la NASCAR) could go toward building better bots. All of this has happened in the case of Battlebots: Robot evolution through human consumerism!

SUMO

There is probably nothing more inherently Japanese than sumo, a form of wrestling in which two gargantuanly fat men in disturbingly small loin clothes try to steamroll each other out of a small ring. The stars of the sport are heroes in Japan, sex symbols, even. In the late 1980s, the chairman of Fuji Software, a sumo fan himself, dreamt up the idea of replacing the human wrestlers with robotic ones. The first official tournament, held in Japan in 1990, drew nearly 150 competitors. In 2001, some 4,000 bots participated in countrywide tournaments. Not wanting Japan to have all the bot-shoving fun, the sport was introduced in the U.S. soon after it began & has spread steadily, here & throughout the world.

The goals of the game in robot sumo are the same as in its human predecessor. Two robots (either R/C-controlled or autonomous) face off in a raised ring (60 5/8 inches or 154cm). There are three matches. The first robot to get two points (one point per match) wins. To score a point, a robot has to push its opponent out of the ring (or a point is scored against a bot that drives itself out of the ring). That's about it. There are two weight classes. A regular robot sumo can weigh up to 3 kilograms (6.61 lbs). A mini-sumo competitor can weigh up to 500 grams (16.64 ounces).

Obviously, a lot of the fun of robot sumo is building the bot. It is something of a Zen art to create a robot that has serious traction & pushing power but that stays within the weight restrictions. It might sound like all of the fun is in the building & that watching the sport is boring, but you'd be surprised.

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Humanoid Robots: A definitive guide.

The idea behind the humanoid robot project is to create those robots that are not necessarily universal, but can at least handle multiple tasks. One application commonly talked about is care for the elderly. One can only imagine how many different & changing circumstances that might entail.

We humans love a robot fashioned in our own image. Science fiction has pushed this idea of what a robot should be, almost to the exclusion of all others. So it's no wonder that anytime a robot builder—amateur or pro—creates a robot with two legs, two arms, & a head, the world beats a path to the laboratory door. The world has been so taken by Honda's flashy humanoid robots that few people (including otherwise skeptical journalists) have bothered to ask what sort of brains control these bots. The answer is: human. Honda spent over a hundred year's worth of development hours (& untold yen) getting the walking technology perfected, & figuring out how to cram all of the electronics, servos, & batteries into a humanoid shell. The P-series & the ASIMO humonoid robots are really proof-of-concept models for robotic mobility. The progenitor of the line (the E1) was actually only a set of legs, with a weight above the hips to approximate a full body weight. It was only after Honda engineers got the walking gait & balancing technologies working that they built the rest of the robot.

There's nothing wrong with this approach; in fact, as we'll see in "Behavior-Based Robotics (BBR)" later in this chapter, a bottom-up approach (in this case, literally) makes a lot of sense. But Honda appears to want people to think that its robots are more advanced & a lot smarter than they actually are. In other words, it isn't going out of its way to point out that a human operator is calling the shots. Honda, & other Japanese robot makers (like Sony), & the world's humanoid robot research labs, are thrilled that these bipedal bots have so thoroughly captured the public's imagination. Now, while we're all busy watching ASIMO deftly walk out of the family garage to fetch the morning paper on Honda's TV ads (note that we never actually see little 'MO bend over & pick up the paper), the company's hard at work trying to fill this fantasy container they've built with some honest smarts.

The Honda P-series, ASIMO, the Sony SDR-4X, & many other not-as-photogenic robots are all part of a countrywide humanoid robot initiative in Japan. Robot researchers there are hard at work trying to create autonomous bipedal robots that can cope with changing environments & perform complex tasks. Although the Japanese plan on doing this within a decade (the project clock started ticking in 1998, by the way), you realize just how far we still have to go when you hear Sony making a big deal over the fact that the SDR-4X can walk from a wooden floor onto semi-thick carpet without falling over.

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Robot History`s Greatest Moments (must read!!!)

Here are some of the most memorable moments in the robotics field which changed the robot universe as we know:

The events in the evolution of robo-kind that we've discussed so far only scratch the surface. There are more, so many more.But in the meantime, let's fast forward at 4x speed through some other significant milestones along the road to our robotic future.

Third Century B.C.— Aristotle gets the robo-ball rolling by penning these words: "If every instrument could accomplish its own work, obeying or anticipating the will of others...if the shuttle could weave, & the pick touch the lyre, without a hand to guide them, chief workmen would not need servants."

Eighteenth Century— Automatons, clockwork "robots" built by inventors & watchmakers in France, Germany, & elsewhere, become a courtly rage. These mechanically animated dolls can play musical instruments, draw, & quack like a duck (well, the duck one could, anyway). Some of these automatons even had different "programs" (interchangeable cam sets) that would alter their actions.

1801— Joseph Jacquard invents a "programmable loom" that operates via punch cards.

1898— Nicola Tesla, inventor of the induction motor, alternating current (AC) transmission, & the actual inventor of radio (& a bunch of other stuff he's not given credit for) patents the teleautomaton. Children around the world will come to know it as the remote-controlled toy. The stage is set for a future of Battlebots.

1940— Westinghouse's Electro & Sparko spokesbots entertain crowds at the World's Fair in New York. These animatronic wonders marked the first time that electric motors were used to power & actuate robots.

1956— MIT's John McCarthy coins the term "Artificial Intelligence" during a Dartmouth computer workshop.

1960— The Johns Hopkins "Beast" begins prowling the university's hallways. Similar in functionality to Grey Walter's Elmer & Elsie, it sports more complex sonar navigation & can seek out wall sockets when its Beastly batteries get that empty feeling.

1973— Tokyo's Waseda University, under the direction of Ichiro Kato, develops WABOT-1, the first humanoid walking robot. Honda is impressed & secretly begins work on its own humanoid (which will become the infamous P3).

1976— Robot arms in space! Viking 1 & 2 Martian landers are outfitted with robotic arms first developed at Stanford University.

1979— The Stanford Cart is rebuilt by a young Hans Moravec (see Heroes of the Robolution trading cards, Chapter 2). Work had actually begun on the cart in 1965. It is billed as the first computer-controlled autonomous vehicle after it successfully crosses a chair-filled room without human intervention.

1982— The Heath Company begins sales of their HERO 1 personal robot kit.

1983— Androbot, Inc., a company founded by Nolan Bushnell of Atari Computers fame, releases TOPO I, a personal home robot, followed by BOB (Brains on Board), a surprisingly sophisticated robot for its time. Androbots' futuristic good looks, shared by many imitators that followed, spur a small home robot boom. But ultimately, given computer tech of the time, the bots do not live up to expectations & the boom goes bust.

1984— Red Whittaker's team from Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU) sends its RRV robot into the irradiated landscape of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant site & the "field robotics" industry (mobile robots doing actual work) is born.

1994— CMU's six-legged extreme environments robot, aptly named Dante II, successfully climbs into the Mt. Spurr volcano in Alaska.

1997— IBM's Deep Blue computer beats world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a match.

1997— Shockingly, the Mars Pathfinder actually lands. Its Sojourner Rover delights & amazes armchair astronauts around the world, who watch near real-time coverage on TV & the Internet. Suddenly, kids think robots are cool again.

1997— Honda stuns the world with its P3 humanoid robot. Unnerved skeptics swear it must be a child in a plastic space suit. It isn't.

1999— Sony begins selling its AIBO robotic pet. The product is almost affordable & extremely sophisticated. Anti-cutesy Web site critics the world over shudder at the thought of personal AIBO pet pages (there are now hundreds).

2000— Battlebots premieres on Comedy Central. Gearheads all over America head to the garage to cannibalize the family mower.

2008- ROBOTICA show based on robots airing in amercan homes

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ROBOTS - An easy to understand definition (many actually!)

So how does one define robot? Think you know? It's obvious, you say? you probably got thoughts something like:

• A machine that can do the work of humans.
  
• A humanoid machine that can think and act on its own.
  
• A machine that's self-aware.
  
• A mechanical man that serves drinks at parties.
  
• I can't really define robot, I just know one when I see it!!!.

These definitions aren't exactly right, are they? They speak to some aspects of robots, but they're either too exclusive ("a machine that can do the work of humans" completely ignores recreational robots such as Sony's AIBO) or too sci-fi (machines are not yet self-aware machines, so that definition would mean that no robots yet exist!). It doesn't take long for you to realize that the last statement ("I know a robot when I see one") is where most civilians stand on the subject.

Oxford English Dictionary (okay, it's actually the Oxford American Dictionary, but we won't hold that against it) defines robot as

A machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially one programmed by a computer.

The more blue-collar Merriam Webster Dictionary offers this definition:

• 1. A machine that looks and acts like a human being.
  
• 2. An efficient but insensitive person.
  
• 3. A device that automatically performs esp. repetitive tasks.
  
• 4. Something guided by automatic controls.

here's what the American Heritage Dictionary has to say on the subject:

An externally manlike mechanical device capable of performing human tasks or behaving in a human manner.

The Japanese Industrial Robot Association (JIRA) is also chiefly concerned with industrial robotics, but it still went so far as to create a whole robot classification system:

• Manually operated manipulators— Machines slaved to a human operator (think Ripley strapped into the robotic exoskeleton loader in the film Aliens).
  
• Sequential manipulators— Devices that perform a series of tasks in the same sequence every time they're activated (a phone switching system).
  
• Programmable manipulators— An assembly-line robotic arm.
  
• Numerically controlled robots (also known as a playback robot)— Robots that are instructed to perform tasks through the receipt of information on sequences and positions in the form of numerical data. Such robots are typically used for making precision machinery.
  
• Sensate robots— Robots that incorporate sensor feedback into their circuitry—touch sensors, proximity sensors, vision systems, and so forth. (The robots we will construct in Projects 2 and 3 fit into this category.)
  
• Adaptive robots— Robots that can change the way they function in response to their environment. Today's most sophisticated robots fit into this category.
  
• Smart robots— Robots that are considered to possess artificial intelligence (AI). Whether or not any robots like this yet exist depends on how you choose to define AI (and you think robot is hard to define!).
  
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  Intelligent mechatronic systems— Mechatronics ("mechanics" plus "electronics") is a fancy word coined by the Japanese in the 1960s to refer to the intersection of mechanical and electrical engineering and computer control systems. Here it refers to smart devices and embedded systems, such as the highway traffic control "robot" mentioned in the introduction.

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