Robotics

Robotics

Robotics is the branch of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computer science that deals with the design, construction, operation, and application of robots, as well as computer systems for their control, sensory feedback, and information processing.

These technologies deal with automated machines that can take the place of humans in dangerous environments or manufacturing processes, or resemble humans in appearance, behavior, and/or cognition. Many of today's robots are inspired by nature contributing to the field of bio-inspired robotics.

The concept of creating machines that can operate autonomously dates back to classical times, but research into the functionality and potential uses of robots did not grow substantially until the 20th century. Throughout history, it has been frequently assumed that robots will one day be able to mimic human behavior and manage tasks in a human-like fashion. Today, robotics is a rapidly growing field, as technological advances continue; researching, designing, and building new robots serve various practical purposes, whether domestically, commercially, or militarily. Many robots do jobs that are hazardous to people such as defusing bombs, mines and exploring shipwrecks.

The word robotics was derived from the word robot, which was introduced to the public by Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), which was published in 1920. The word robot comes from the Slavic word robota, which means labour. The play begins in a factory that makes artificial people called robots, creatures who can be mistaken for humans – similar to the modern ideas of androids. Karel Čapek himself did not coin the word. He wrote a short letter in reference to an etymology in the Oxford English Dictionary in which he named his brother Josef Čapek as its actual originator.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word robotics was first used in print by Isaac Asimov, in his science fiction short story "Liar!", published in May 1941 in Astounding Science Fiction. Asimov was unaware that he was coining the term; since the science and technology of electrical devices is electronics, he assumed robotics already referred to the science and technology of robots. In some of Asimov's other works, he states that the first use of the word robotics was in his short story Runaround (Astounding Science Fiction, March 1942). However, the original publication of "Liar!" predates that of "Runaround" by ten months, so the former is generally cited as the word's origin.

History of robotics

In 1942 the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov created his Three Laws of Robotics.

In 1948 Norbert Wiener formulated the principles of cybernetics, the basis of practical robotics.

Fully autonomous robots only appeared in the second half of the 20th century. The first digitally operated and programmable robot, the Unimate, was installed in 1961 to lift hot pieces of metal from a die casting machine and stack them. Commercial and industrial robots are widespread today and used to perform jobs more cheaply, or more accurately and reliably, than humans. They are also employed in jobs which are too dirty, dangerous, or dull to be suitable for humans. Robots are widely used in manufacturing, assembly, packing and packaging, transport, earth and space exploration, surgery, weaponry, laboratory research, safety, and the mass production of consumer and industrial goods.

Robotic aspects

There are many types of robots; they are used in many different environments and for many different uses, although being very diverse in application and form they all share three basic similarities when it comes to their construction:

Robots all have some kind of mechanical construction, a frame, form or shape designed to achieve a particular task. For example, a robot designed to travel across heavy dirt or mud, might use caterpillar tracks. The mechanical aspect is mostly the creator's solution to completing the assigned task and dealing with the physics of the environment around it. Form follows function.

Robots have electrical components which power and control the machinery. For example, the robot with caterpillar tracks would need some kind of power to move the tracker treads. That power comes in the form of electricity, which will have to travel through a wire and originate from a battery, a basic electrical circuit. Even gas powered machines that get their power mainly from gas still require an electric current to start the gas using process which is why most gas powered machines like cars, have batteries. The electrical aspect of robots is used for movement (through motors), sensing (where electrical signals are used to measure things like heat, sound, position, and energy status) and operation (robots need some level of electrical energy supplied to their motors and sensors in order to activate and perform basic operations)

All robots contain some level of computer programming code. A program is how a robot decides when or how to do something. In the caterpillar track example, a robot that needs to move across a muddy road may have the correct mechanical construction, and receive the correct amount of power from its battery, but would not go anywhere without a program telling it to move. Programs are the core essence of a robot, it could have excellent mechanical and electrical construction, but if its program is poorly constructed its performance will be very poor or it may not perform at all. There are three different types of robotic programs: remote control, artificial intelligence and hybrid. A robot with remote control programing has a preexisting set of commands that it will only perform if and when it receives a signal from a control source, typically a human being with a remote control. It is perhaps more appropriate to view devices controlled primarily by human commands as falling in the discipline of automation rather than robotics. Robots that use artificial intelligence interact with their environment on their own without a control source, and can determine reactions to objects and problems they encounter using their preexisting programming. Hybrid is a form of programming that incorporates both AI and RC functions.

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how to make a simple walking robot with toy car

Introduction:

Hi friends today I will show you how to make a simple robot with moving arms. All the parts that are needed in this project are very simple and easily available. You can complete this project in an half an hour. You can make this project in your school for science exhibitions and you can impress your teachers with this tiny robot.
The tiny robot is just look like shown in the picture.

Parts Needed:

• Galvanized wire  

Two jumbo paper clips

• Two Zip ties

• Brass tube

• (4) long 3mm machine screws          (2) short 3mm machine screws
  
• (2) 4mm terminal blocks    (6) 3mm lock nuts            (4) 3mm nuts

 

•   (2) tobasco  bottle caps        (2) Craft eyes 

• A gear box 
  

How to make it:

I use a gear box from a broken toy car. It has one AA battery holder, a dc motor with worm gear and a wheel gear on the axle. It has quite speed of rotation. For this reason, crank‘s length plays important key role in walking robot nicely. At this point, the length of the axle of the gear box are different and quite long so first of all shorten them to desired length.

Use terminal blocks to determine the length of axle on each side of the gear box

Mark it with marker and cut them with plier. So that there length will be equal.

Next step is to make the cranks

Take a piece of galvanized wire and make a loop and the end of it. The size of loop should be of 3mm or little bit bigger. So you can insert 3mm screw through it. Now only check that is 3mm long screw can pass through loop or not

Measure the desired length of the crank (1cm is the good length if the gear box has quite high speed of rotation. Mark and bend it to 90 angle with the help of plier.

Use terminal block to measure the length of crank’s part that will be attached to the axle.

Mark and cut it with plier.

Now insert 3mm long machine screw through the loop and secure it with nut.

Now make another one just like that.

Next step is to attach cranks to the axle and hold them together with terminal blocks. Cranks position on the left side should be the opposite of crank position on the side.

Next step is to make arms holder

To make arm holders actually almost same work as to make the cranks

Arm holders are to be attached on the both sides of gear box.

In this project I place the arm holders about 4cm above the axle.

Insert a long machine screw and secure it with nut

Now cut it and curve it just like shown in picture. Make another just like that.

Now paste both with glue on the each side of gear box just 4cm above axle.

Now take a brass tube measure the desired length and cut it into four pieces.

Use the length between nut and lock nut on the machine screw to determine and measure desired length of brass tube.

Reduce the length little bit so they can rotate freely.

Next step is to make the legs of robots

Take a piece of galvanized wire and make loop at one end of it. The size of loop should be bigger than 3mm.so we can insert 3mm machine screw through it

Next thing is to attach brass tube to looped wire like shown.you can join it with the help of soldering iron.

Now  measure and cut off the leg to desired length.

now make another just like that.

Now next step is to make the feets of robot.

so for that measure the width between the robot's legs to determine the width of it's feet.

if the width between the legs is for example 7cm then width of each foot should be 6cm.

length of  the foot should be longer then it's width.

then take galvanized wire and make two shapes like shown below in picture.

hold leg and feet together and join them with soldering iron.like shown

Next step is to make arms of the robot

Take a piece of galvanized wire and make a curve and a loop on it.

Distance between loop and curve equal to the width between axle and arm holder's pin

So first thing to do is to measure the width between axle and arm holder's pin to determine the distance between loop and curve.

length of the curve is about 1cm

Ajust curve and loop position wtih plier.

loop and curve positon just look like this 

Now put short 3mm screw through loop  and secure it with nut

Note: screw and curve facing opposite direction

Now take a brass tube and mount it on curve and then secure it with zip ties

Measure the desired length of arm and cut it off. repeat step and make another one like that.

Next step is to make hands.

so for that take a galvanized wire measure and make shape like shown below

Now take a paper pin and straighten it .then wrap paper clip around the upper part of the robot hand also around the arm

now also make loops on arm just like shown in picture

now arms with hands are ready

Assembling the robot:

Now put hand with arms in arm holder just like shown in picture.

now put feet in cranks like shown in picture

after that secure them with nuts.

repeat this step for other side.

after that secure them with nuts

our last step is give robot a personality 

Take craft eyes and tobasco bottle caps

attach them together like this

Them attach both eyes with double tape

Now take a galvanized wire and bend it like this 

then attach it between the eyes of robot

now paste it above the hands

Result:

robot with start walking like human when battery is put into the battery holder place.

thanks for readings.

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