User talk:Rocketmagnet
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This page is a scratch pad for changes I and Takeitupalevel intend to make to the Robots page.
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[edit] Robots
A Robot is a mechanical or virtual artificial agent. A Robot is usually an electro-mechanical system, which, by its appearance or movements, conveys a sense that it has intent or agency of its own. While the word robot can refer to both physical robots, or virtual software agents, the latter are often refered to as bots.[1][2]
While there is some discussion [3][4][5] as to precisely which machines qualify as robots, a typical robot must have several, but not all of the following properties:
- Is not 'natural' / has been artificially created.
- Can sense its environment.
- Can manipulate things in its environment.
- Has some degree of intelligence, or ability to make choices based on the environment, or automatic control / preprogrammed sequence.
- Is programmable.
- Can move with one or more axes of rotation or translation.
- Can make dexterous coordinated movements.
- Appears to have intent or agency (reification, anthropomorphisation or Pathetic fallacy).
[edit] Which machines are robots?
The last property, the appearance of agency, is important when people are considering whether to call a machine a robot. In general, the more a machine has the appearance of agency, the more it is considered it a robot.
Mental agency
For robotic engineers[6], the physical appearance of a machine is less important than the way its actions are controlled. The more the control system seems to have agency of its own, the more likely the machine is to be called a robot. An important feature of agency is the ability to make choices. So the more a machine could feasably choose to do something different, the more agency it has. For example:
- a Clockwork car is never considered a robot.
- a radio-controlled car is almost never considered a robot.
- a car with an onboard computer, like Bigtrak, which could drive in a programmable sequence might be called a robot.
- a self-controlled car, like KITT, which could sense its environment, and make driving decisions based on this information would quite likely be called a robot.
Physical agency
However, for many people, if a machine looks anthropomorphic or zoomorphic, especially if it is limb-like, or has limbs, or can move around, (e.g Asimo and Aibo) it would be called a robot.
For example, even if the following examples used the same control architecture:
- an automatic piano is rarely called a robot.
- a CNC milling machine is sometimes called a robot.
- a factory automation arm is usually called a robot.
- a humanoid mechanical toy, like QIRO, is almost always called a robot.
The simple appearance of agency is not sufficient for something to be called a robot. A robot must do something, whether it is useful work or not.
[edit] Other definitions of robot
There is no one definition of robot which satisfies everybody, and many people have written their own. For example, International standard ISO 8373 defines a "robot" as:
| “ | An automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose, manipulator programmable in three or more axes, which may be either fixed in place or mobile for use in industrial automation applications.[7] | ” |
Joseph Engelberger, a pioneer in industrial robotics, once remarked
| “ | I can't define a robot, but I know one when I see one."[8] | ” |
The Cambridge Online Dictionary defines robot as:
| “ | A machine used to perform jobs automatically, which is controlled by a computer[9] | ” |
[edit] Parts of a robot
A typical robot consists of three major systems: a control system (usually a computer), sensors, and effectors; which can be connected to each other in a number of different paradigms.
Control
The control system of a modern robot is almost always implemented with a programmable, electronic computer, (e.g. a PC or a microcontroller), but may also wholly or partly consist of hardwired electronic components or integrated circuits.
Sensing
The majority of robots contain one or more sensors to measure aspects of their environment (exteroception) and/or their internal state (proprioception). They may use the data obtained from the sensors to make choices and alter their behavior or may simply record or transmit the data.
- Exteroceptors
- Electromagnetic spectrum
- Sound
- Touch
- Smell, odor
- Temperature
- Range
- Tilt/inclination/attitude —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Takeitupalevel (talk • contribs) 19:54, 10 March 2007 (UTC).
- Proprioceptors
- Hall Effect
- Optical
- Contact
Effectors
[edit] Several ways to taxonomise robots
[edit] Mission, Purpose, Motivation
- Automation: Where robots are better than humans
- Dirty, Dangerous, Dull: Where humans would be better, but they just don't want to do it.
- Eldercare: Where robots improve the lives of the aged thru direct or indirect aid. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Takeitupalevel (talk • contribs) 00:19, 3 March 2007 (UTC).
- Entertainment: Where robots are not necessarally better, but they are good for the novelty value.
- Research: Where robots help us learn about ourselves.
[edit] Technology
- Sequencers: Where robots perform the same simple operation over and over. Low intelligence.
- Teleoperation: Where a robot is remote controlled (realtime programmed)
- Telerobot: Where a robot has particial control of itself, but high level control is done by a human
- Autonomous: Where a robot performs its task completely by itself, using information from it's exteroceptive sensors.
[edit] Contemporary uses
Robots today have many missions, purposes, and motivations for their creation.
[edit] Increased productivity, accuracy, and endurance
There are some jobs which a robot can perform far better than a human; those requiring speed, accuracy, reliability, and endurance. As as result, many of these jobs, which were traditionally performed by people, are now robotized. This has lead to cheaper mass-produced goods, including automobiles and electronic goods.
Robots have been working in factories for more than fifty years, ever since the Unimate robot was installed to automatically remove hot metal from a die casting machine. Since then, factory automation, in the form of large stationary manipulators, has become the largest market for robots. The number of installed robots has grown faster and faster, and today there are more than 800,000 worldwide (42% in Japan, 40% in the EU and 18% in the USA).[10]
Car production is now the primary example of factory automation, where, over the last three decades, automobile factories have become dominated by robots. A typical factory contains hundreds of robots working on fully automated production lines (one robot for every ten human workers), assembling, welding and spray painting car bodies.
On an automated production line a vehicle chassis is taken along a conveyor to be welded, glued, and painted by a sequence of robot stations.
Robots are also used extensively for palletising and packaging of manufactured goods, for example taking drink cartons from the end of a conveyor belt and placing them rapidly into boxes, and loading and unloading of machining centers in factories.
Mass produced printed circuit boards (PCBs) are almost exclusively manufactured by pick and place robots, typically with "SCARA" manipulators, which remove tiny electronic components from strips or trays, and place them on to PCBs with great accuracy.[12] Such robots can place several components per second (tens of thousands per hour), far out-performing a human in terms of speed, accuracy, and reliability.[13]
Tasks such as these suit robots perfectly because the tasks can be accurately defined and must be performed the same every time. Very little feedback or intelligence is required, and the robots may need only the most basic of exteroceptors (to sense things in their environment) if any at all.
[edit] Dirty, dangerous, dull or inaccessible tasks
There are many jobs which a human could perform better than a robot, but for one reason or another, the human either does not want to do it, or cannot be present to do the job. The job may be too boring to bother with, for example domestic cleaning; or be too dangerous, for example exploring inside a volcano. These jobs are known as the "dull, dirty, and dangerous" jobs. Other jobs are physically inaccessable. For example, exploring another planet, cleaning the inside of a long pipe or performing laparoscopic surgery.
As their price falls, and their performance and computational ability rises, making them both affordable and sufficiently autonomous, robots are increasingly being seen in the home, where they are taking on simple but unwanted jobs, such as vacuum cleaning, floor cleaning and lawn mowing. While they have been on the market for several years, 2006 saw an explosion in the number of domestic robots sold. Currently, more domestic robots have been sold than any other single type of robot.[14]
Domestic robots are designed to do the unpleasant chores around a house. House cleaning robots are currently the most widely sold of all types of robots.[15] These robots, also called domobots, have been on the market in various forms for many years. The two most popular types are floor cleaning and lawn mowing. Because these robots are meant to remove the burden and unpleasantness of household chores, they are completely autonomous, doing those chores with little or no human interaction. These robots tend to be relatively autonomous, usually only requiring a command to begin their job. They then proceed to go about their business in their own way. At such, they display a good deal of agency, and are considered true robots.
When a human cannot be present on site to perform a job, because it is dangerous, far away, or inaccessable, teleoperated robots, or telerobots are used. Rather than following a predetermined sequence of movements, a telerobot is controlled from a distance by a human operator. The robot may be in another room or another country, or may be on a very different scale to the operator. A laparoscopic surgery robot such as da Vinci allows the surgeon to work inside a human patient on a relatively small scale compared to open surgery, significantly shortening recovery time.[16]
Teleoperated robot aircraft, like this Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (right), are increasingly being used by the military. These robots can be controlled from anywhere in the world, allowing an army to search terrain, and even fire on targets, without endangering those in control.[17] Currently, these robots are all teleoperated, but others are being developed which can made decisions automatically; choosing where to fly, or selecting and engaging enemy targets.[18] Hundreds of bomb disposal robots such as the iRobot Packbot and the Foster-Miller TALON are being used in Iraq and Afghanistan by the U.S. military to defuse roadside bombs, or improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in an activity known as Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD).
An interesting use of a telerobot is by the author Margaret Atwood, who has recently started using a robot pen (the LongPen]) to sign books remotely. This saves the financial cost and physical inconvenience of traveling to book signings around the world.[19]
Such robots may little more advanced than radio controlled cars. They show less agency of their own, and some people do not consider them to be true robots.
[edit] Eldercare
Robot in hospitals? Takeitupalevel 02:55, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Research and exploration
Teleoperated robots are frequently used under the sea where the cost and danger of sending a human far outweigh the price of a robot.[20]. In 1986, the robot Jason Jr. and later Jason II were used to explore the sunken wreck of the Titanic, under the Atlantic Ocean.[21]
WILL ADD MORE. Perhaps the Dante volcano robot.
[edit] Entertainment
Whether they are designed for factory automation, or research, moving robots are fascinating to watch. The sense that an artificial object seems to have a life of its own appeals to humans, who are so used to anthropomorphising. This makes them ideal for entertainment.
[edit] History
The idea of breathing life into inanmate objects dates at least as far back as the ancient legend of Cadmus, who sowed dragon teeth that turned into soldiers, and the myth of Pygmalion, whose statue of Galatea came to life. In Greek mythology, the deformed god of metalwork (Vulcan or Hephaestus) created mechanical servants, ranging from intelligent, golden handmaidens to more utilitarian three-legged tables that could move about under their own power. Medieval Persian alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan, inventor of many basic processes still used in chemistry today, included recipes for creating artificial snakes, scorpions, and humans in his coded Book of Stones. Jewish legend tells of the Golem, a clay statue animated by Kabbalistic magic. Similarly, in the Younger Edda, Norse mythology tells of a clay giant, Mökkurkálfi or Mistcalf, constructed to aid the troll Hrungnir in a duel with Thor, the God of Thunder.
The word robot itself was introduced by Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) which was written in 1920 (See also Robots in literature for details of the play). However, the verb robotovat, meaning "to work" or "to slave", and the noun robota (meaning corvée) used in the Czech and Slovak languages, has been used since the early 10th century. It was suggested that the word robot had been coined by Karel Čapek's brother, painter and writer Josef Čapek.[22]
Concepts akin to today's robot can be found as long ago as 450 BC when the Greek mathematician Archytas of Tarentum postulated a mechanical bird he called "The Pigeon" which was propelled by steam. Heron of Alexandria (10AD-70AD) made numerous innovations in the field of automata, including (allegedly) one that could speak. Al-Jazari (1136-1206) an Ortoqid (Artuk) Arab inventor designed and constructed automatic machines such as water clocks, kitchen appliances and musical automats powered by water (See one of his works at [1]).
One of the first recorded designs of a humanoid robot was made by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) in around 1495. Da Vinci's notebooks, rediscovered in the 1950s, contain detailed drawings of a mechanical knight able to sit up, wave its arms and move its head and jaw. The design is likely to be based on his anatomical research recorded in the Vitruvian Man. It is not known whether he attempted to build the robot (see: Leonardo's robot).
An early automaton was created 1738 by Jacques de Vaucanson, who created a mechanical duck that was able to eat grain, flap its wings, and excrete.
[edit] First robots
- 1898: The first teleoperated machine, a boat similar to a modern ROV, was created by Nikola Tesla and demonstrated at an exhibition in Madison Square Garden.[23][24] He predicted that such remote controlled machines were merely precursors of "machines possessed of their own intelligence" (Cheney 1989).
- In the 1930s, Westinghouse made a humanoid robot known as Elektro. It was exhibited at the 1939 and 1940 World's Fairs while the first electronic autonomous robots were created by W. Grey Walter at Bristol University, England in 1948.
- 1942: The word robotics is invented by Isaac Asimov for his science fiction story Runaround.[25]
- 1948: William Grey Walter creates Elsie and Elmer, simple robots which exhibit biological like behaviours.[26]
- 1956: The first robot company is founded by George Devol and Joseph Engelberger. They develop the Unimate, the first commercial robot. [27]
- 1956: The phrase artificial intelligence is coined at a conference in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, organised by Marvin Minsky and John McCarthy, and including many important people in the field of robotics.[28]
- 1975: PUMA (Programmable Universal Manipulation Arm) is develloped by Victor Scheinman.
- 1981: The first human to be killed by a robot was 37 year-old Kenji Urada, a Japanese factory worker.[29]
Is THIS a robot?
- http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/index.php?topic=540.0
- http://www.robotbuilder.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=968
- http://www.robotsrule.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=386
[edit] External Links
Videos of SMT pick and place robots
[edit] References
- ^ Google: "define: bot"
- ^ Alliance for Telecommunications Solutions: Telecom glossary "bot"
- ^ Bot Builder forum subject: "Is a remote controlled robot a true robot?"
- ^ Botmag forum subject: "What does "robot" mean to YOU?"
- ^ Botmag challenge to define robot
- ^ RobotBuilder Forum discussions: "Is THIS a robot?"
- ^ Definition of a robot
- ^ How Stuff Works: How Robots Work
- ^ Cambridge Dictionary Online: Robot
- ^ United Nations Economic Commission for Europe: World Robotics 2004 survey
- ^ Contact Systems Pick and Place robots
- ^ Videos of Pick and Place robots
- ^ Assembleon A-Series
- ^ http://www.robots.com/articles.php?tag=961
- ^ http://www.robots.com/articles.php?tag=961
- ^ Robotic Surgery: da Vinci® Surgical System
- ^ New Statesman: America's robot army
- ^ Defense Industry Daily: Battlefield Robots: to Iraq, and Beyond
- ^ Gadget Grocer: Author Invents Book-Signing Gadget
- ^ Science World: Undersea robots get in the swim (on www.findarticles.com
- ^ WHOI History: 1986 Return to Titanic
- ^ The Karel Čapek website: Who did actually invent the word "robot" and what does it mean?
- ^ Tesla memorial society of New York - Nikola Tesla: Father of Robotics
- ^ Tesla - Master of Lightning: Race of Robots]
- ^ The word I invented, Isaac Asimov
- ^ Imitation of Life: A History of the First Robots
- ^ Society of Manufacturing Engineers July 06 Issue Volume 137 No. 1: Interview with Joseph F. Engelberger
- ^ Stanford Engineering Annual Report: Profile of John McCarthy
- ^ IAPA - Robotics safety: avoid exchanging hazards
[edit] Welcome
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[edit] Radiosity
Hello, I have a question for you about the Radiosity images. I think the room with the red floor demonstrates radiosity much better than the image currently in use on the Dutch Wikipedia page. Can I upload that image to the Dutch Wikipedia, or could you (or I) upload it to Commons? Thanks in advance for your reaction. -- Sander 12:19, 1 March 2007 (UTC)
- I have uploaded it to the commons under the name Radiosity_Comparison.jpg Rocketmagnet 13:57, 1 March 2007 (UTC)
- I also uploaded Radiosity_Progress.png to the commons. Rocketmagnet 14:00, 1 March 2007 (UTC)
- Excellent, thanks a lot! -- Sander 16:15, 1 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Self Promotion!!!
Our company makes an optical tracking system that is used by Honda Research to train and calibrate Asimo and track X10 and other NASA Robots as well as do some teleimmersion. Let me know if you want info.--Tmcsheery 07:17, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
