Robotics
"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" Robot Institute of America, 1979
"An automatic device that performs functions normally ascribed to humans or a machine in the form of a human." Webster
In fact, the first use of the word "robot" occurred in a play about mechanical men that are built to work on factory assembly lines and that rebel against their human masters. These machines in R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), written by Czech playwright Karl Capek in 1921, got their name from the Czech word for slave.
History
Leonardo designs an early robot
Good general history and workings site
Early pictures - Automotive
Roby
Daleks
Industrial
ABB Welding and painting cars and motorcycles, handling champagne bottles, sorting books in libraries, milking cows, sorting mail, picking chocolates...talk about applications!
Select a Robot with Fanuc
The boss is watching with the iRobot CoWorker
mother-load robotics link sight
Military
Mine navigation and bomb difusing
Bomb Diffusing
Smart cop"Sometimes it’s like playing a video game with a seven-lever joystick sitting upside down, with one eye closed, and with your boss looking over your shoulder," says Bennett. "
Shadow Deminer prototype
Combat
Good, short article about the future of robot combat Robots and Drones
Surveillance
Present: Predator
Future: Global Hawk
Robotic Rats: This is amazing. Implanted rodents on remote control
Build your own underwater robot with International Submarine Engineering Ltd home
Search and rescue robots
Medical
How safe are medical robots? The answer depends on the operation. If it is a routine surgery, the robot's abilitiy must match or even exceed that of a surgeon. A manually difficult, life-saving operation is the ideal situation for robotic surgery. Berkley medical student
The Zues System from Computer Motion
Science
Shadow's Liberator
Recreational
MTV's Battlebots
Remember Legos? Read the lower description
Trilobot Mobile Robot For under $2,000 you can get started with your own robot
More "off the shelf" robots and components
Robot parts site
Some cool new household robots
Sony's Aibo
TV robot history
Reading
Machinebrain
Tech Head News Almost too much cool stuff.
Evolution?
MIT's Humanoid Robotics Group - click on names, watch videos
Shadow's Biped
MIT's robot pike
Walking robot catalog
Demos(home>robots>movies)More Demos
Issues
Creating movement - The hands and arms of early robots were pneumatically powered (air pressure) or hydraulically powered (fluid pressure). Flexible tubes carried the pressurized substances to the joints. Now, electrical motors located at the joint give the robot greater precision and control, but slow down its movements.
Muscle Wires are wires made from a shape memory alloy of nickel and titanium called Nitinol. This alloy has two distinct crystalline phases. At room temeperature it is soft and easily deformable but when it is heated above about 70°C it changes to it's stiff phase. So if it is stretched at room temperature and then heated above the transition point, it will exert a useful force trying to contract to it's undeformed state. The normal way to operate muscle wire devices is to bias the cold wire with a spring or a weight. The wire is resistance heated by pulsing an electric current through it, and it relaxes as it cools and is restored to it's original position by the bias spring. If the strains are restricted to less than 5%, this cycle can be repeated indefinitely. Muscle wire devices have a very good power to weight ratio but are only about 5% efficient. Their cycle time is slow since it is governed by the time the wires take to cool.
Fear
"Asimov's Laws for Robotics: Implications for Information Technology",
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.
Target market: replace the humans with CyberGuard. CyberGuard is a workhorse that reduces your commitment to expensive and unreliable labor. CyberGuard can automatically patrol up to 126 hours per week (15 or more miles per night… every night). CyberGuard keeps your facility safe and secure as it detects and reports suspect conditions to your central console along with real-time video. During its tour, it sniffs the air for traces of smoke or toxic gas, monitors temperature and humidity levels, scans for intruders, tracks valuable assets, and inspects "virtual seals" for barrier integrity.
"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" Robot Institute of America, 1979
"An automatic device that performs functions normally ascribed to humans or a machine in the form of a human." Webster
In fact, the first use of the word "robot" occurred in a play about mechanical men that are built to work on factory assembly lines and that rebel against their human masters. These machines in R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), written by Czech playwright Karl Capek in 1921, got their name from the Czech word for slave.
History
Leonardo designs an early robot
Good general history and workings site
Early pictures - Automotive
Roby
Daleks
Industrial
ABB Welding and painting cars and motorcycles, handling champagne bottles, sorting books in libraries, milking cows, sorting mail, picking chocolates...talk about applications!
Select a Robot with Fanuc
The boss is watching with the iRobot CoWorker
mother-load robotics link sight
Military
Mine navigation and bomb difusing
Bomb Diffusing
Smart cop"Sometimes it’s like playing a video game with a seven-lever joystick sitting upside down, with one eye closed, and with your boss looking over your shoulder," says Bennett. "
Shadow Deminer prototype
Combat
Good, short article about the future of robot combat Robots and Drones
Surveillance
Present: Predator
Future: Global Hawk
Robotic Rats: This is amazing. Implanted rodents on remote control
Build your own underwater robot with International Submarine Engineering Ltd home
Search and rescue robots
Medical
How safe are medical robots? The answer depends on the operation. If it is a routine surgery, the robot's abilitiy must match or even exceed that of a surgeon. A manually difficult, life-saving operation is the ideal situation for robotic surgery. Berkley medical student
The Zues System from Computer Motion
Science
Shadow's Liberator
Recreational
MTV's Battlebots
Remember Legos? Read the lower description
Trilobot Mobile Robot For under $2,000 you can get started with your own robot
More "off the shelf" robots and components
Robot parts site
Some cool new household robots
Sony's Aibo
TV robot history
Reading
Machinebrain
Tech Head News Almost too much cool stuff.
Evolution?
MIT's Humanoid Robotics Group - click on names, watch videos
Shadow's Biped
MIT's robot pike
Walking robot catalog
Demos(home>robots>movies)More Demos
Issues
Creating movement - The hands and arms of early robots were pneumatically powered (air pressure) or hydraulically powered (fluid pressure). Flexible tubes carried the pressurized substances to the joints. Now, electrical motors located at the joint give the robot greater precision and control, but slow down its movements.
Muscle Wires are wires made from a shape memory alloy of nickel and titanium called Nitinol. This alloy has two distinct crystalline phases. At room temeperature it is soft and easily deformable but when it is heated above about 70°C it changes to it's stiff phase. So if it is stretched at room temperature and then heated above the transition point, it will exert a useful force trying to contract to it's undeformed state. The normal way to operate muscle wire devices is to bias the cold wire with a spring or a weight. The wire is resistance heated by pulsing an electric current through it, and it relaxes as it cools and is restored to it's original position by the bias spring. If the strains are restricted to less than 5%, this cycle can be repeated indefinitely. Muscle wire devices have a very good power to weight ratio but are only about 5% efficient. Their cycle time is slow since it is governed by the time the wires take to cool.
Fear
"Asimov's Laws for Robotics: Implications for Information Technology",
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.
Target market: replace the humans with CyberGuard. CyberGuard is a workhorse that reduces your commitment to expensive and unreliable labor. CyberGuard can automatically patrol up to 126 hours per week (15 or more miles per night… every night). CyberGuard keeps your facility safe and secure as it detects and reports suspect conditions to your central console along with real-time video. During its tour, it sniffs the air for traces of smoke or toxic gas, monitors temperature and humidity levels, scans for intruders, tracks valuable assets, and inspects "virtual seals" for barrier integrity.
posted by Karl at
10:04 PM
