Robots of today

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Robots of today

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Robot Etymology

• The word "Robot" comes from the 1921 play
  "R.U.R." (Rossum's Universal Robots) by the Czech
  writer Karel Capek (pronounced "chop'ek"). 
  "Robot" comes from the Czech word "robota",
  meaning "forced labor."
• The word "robotics" also comes from science
  fiction - it first appeared in the short story
  "Runaround" (1942) by Isaac Asimov.

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Robots and Ethics

• Isaac Asimovs
• 1983 novel I Robot

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Robots and Ethics

• The robot stories of Isaac Asimov introduced the
  "three laws of robotics." Later, he added the
  "zeroth" law.
• Law Zero         A robot may not injure
  humanity, or, though 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
  confict 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.

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Robots and Ethics

• Steven Spielbergs Artificial Intelligence

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Robots and Ethics

• 1999 movie Bicentennial Man based upon Isaac
  Asimovs short story of the same name

One robot's 200 year journey to become an
ordinary man.
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In the beginning

• Robots were designed to be a replacement for
  repetitive, labor oriented tasks
• Humans are slow, imprecise, prone to injury and
  have physical and emotional limitations
• Machines are fast, precise, durable and their
  limitations make them ideally suited to
  repetitive/dangerous tasks

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Industrial Robots

• The first modern industrial robots were probably
  the "Unimates", created by George Devol and Joe
  Engleberger in the 1950's and 60's.  Engleberger
  started the first robotics company, called
  "Unimation",
• and has been called the
• "father of robotics."
• Isaac Asimov and Joe Engleberger ?

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Industrial Robots
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Medical Robots

• A human would not be able to make a hole exactly
  one 100th of a inch wide and long. 
• When making medicines, robots can do the job much
  faster and more accurately than a human can. 
• Also, a robot can be more delicate than a human.

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Medical Robots

• This bionic arm can do things like picking up
  fragile items such as a glass, just by the wearer
  just thinking about it. The arm is connected
  directly to the brain, so a person can use it
  like any other appendage.
• Electrodes intercept the limb's residual nerve
  firings and feed them to a computer embedded in
  the forearm, which then commands six motors to
  move the device's shoulder, elbow and hand in
  unison. Thanks to hand sensors, the wearer can
  even gauge pressure and fine-tune his grip.

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Medical Robots

• NECAL uses nerve-muscle grafts in amputees to
  gain added control signals for an artificial arm.
  
• Doctors take nerves that used to go to the arm
  and move those nerves onto chest muscles.
• The nerves grow into the chest muscles, so when
  the patient thinks "close hand," a portion of his
  chest muscle contracts and electrodes that detect
  this muscle activity tell the computerized arm
  when to close the hand.
• Thus, the patient thinks "close hand" and his
  artificial hand closes

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Medical Robots

• I, iBotDean Kamen invented what he calls the
  worlds most sophisticated robot to transport
  people with mobility impairments places they
  never thought they could go.

http//www.ibotnow.com/ibot-in-action.html
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Medical Robots

• Tank Chair is a custom off-road wheelchair that
  can go anywhere outdoors. Conquers streams, mud,
  snow, sand, and gravel, allowing you to get back
  to nature, and can also climb up and down stairs.
  

igargoyle.com/archives/2006/04/tank_chair.html
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Exploring Robots

• The "Odyssey IIb" submersible robot is shown
  suspended in a tank.
• The inset shows the "Sojourner" microrover robot
  being repaired.  Sojourner landed on the surface
  of Mars on July 4, 1998

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Exploring Robots

• They store up muscle energy, so to speak, and
  then they boink themselves off in various
  directions.
• They create a cellular communication network, on
  a node-to-node basis.
• We're envisioning a fleet of these little guys
  being sent to some promising landing site

Exploring Caves With Hopping Microbots
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Exploring Robots
Wall Climbing and Manipulating Robot

• www.societyofrobots.com/robot_asme.shtml

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Exploring Robots
robotic automatic weather stations (AWS)
http//aadc-maps.aad.gov.au/aadc/aws/index.cfm
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Security Robots
Remotec Mine-Disposal Robots

John Bloomfield's prototype guardian robot
www.defenseindustrydaily.com/cat/robots/page/1/
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Security Robots

• Developed by SARCOS, this wearable robot suit
  fits around your body like an exoskeleton,
  enabling soldiers to easily lift 200-pounds with
  little effort.

http//www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/fea
ture-wearable-exoskeleton-turns-humans-into-super-
soldiers-with-video-
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Security Robots

• iRobots rugged and versatile robots handle
  dangerous tasks and keep personnel safe
• Police need certain types of robots for
  bomb-disposal and for bringing video cameras and
  microphones into dangerous areas, where a human
  policeman might get hurt or killed. 
• The military also uses robots for (1) locating
  and destroying mines on land and in water, (2)
  entering enemy bases to gather information, and
  (3) spying on enemy troops.

• http//www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid71

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Helping Robots

• Friendly Robotics Robomow
• http//www.friendlyrobotics.com/

• IRobot Scooba
• http//www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid128

• IRobot Looj http//www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid35
  4

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Helping Robots
Hondas Asimo
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Helping Robots

• The HelpMate robots, made by the San Diego-based
  Pyxis Corp., can cart around hospital items, such
  as food trays, pharmaceuticals, lab specimens,
  X-rays, bandages and blankets.
• They save nurses trips to cafeterias, pharmacies
  and central supply areas.
• Saves hospitals the costs of human couriers.

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Cooperative Robots

• Why build cooperating robots?
• Decreased cost (through simpler individual robot
  design)
• Decreased task completion time (through
  parallelism)
• Increased reliability, robustness (through
  redundancy)
• Increased scope for missions inherently
  distributed in
• Space
• Time
• Functionality

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Cooperative robotics

• Characterized as intelligent systems that
  integrate perception, reasoning, and action to
  perform cooperative tasks under circumstances
  that are insufficiently known in advance, and
  dynamically changing during task execution.

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Cooperative robotics
www.csm.ornl.gov/cap.html
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Cooperative Robots

• http//groups.csail.mit.edu/drl/wiki/index.php/Mul
  tiShady
• A self-assembly and reconfiguring truss system
  that can be used in construction type activities

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Cooperative Robots
Application Domain

• mining
• construction
• planetary exploration
• Simulation and modeling
• automated manufacturing
• search and rescue missions
• cleanup of hazardous waste
• industrial/household maintenance
• nuclear power plant decommissioning
• security, surveillance, and reconnaissance

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Cooperative Robots
http//www2.parc.com/spl/members/yzhang/pub/Modula
rRobots/icar01.pdf
Self-Reconfigurable Robots
http//www.araa.asn.au/acra/acra2001/Papers/Jantap
re.pdf
A snapshot of sidewinder like locomotion (left)
and the rolling track (above).
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Cooperative Robots

Claytronics
Long-Term Goal the Synthesis of 3D Scenes
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Toy Robots

• Drive robot manually via web browser
  with live video feed
• Built in proximity sensors can be toggled on
  or off to assist when driving the robot manually
  
• Archive video on demand or via schedule
• Control access to robot and video feed via
  multiple user accounts
• Roving mode allows autonomous exploration
  with basic vision detection
• Wireless control up to 300 feet from host
  computer
• Fully open source and programmable

SRV-1 Mobile Surveillance Robot
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Toy Robots

• http//www.gilb.com/community/tiki-page.php?pageNa
  meRobot20Workshop