Robotic Bugs

Mechanical Engineers Have New Bug-Inspired Robot That Senses Its Way With Flexible Antenna
Researchers have developed a flexible, sensor-laden artificial antenna to help a robotic "bug" move and navigate just like the common cockroach. The bug can curry along walls, turn corners, avoid obstacles, and feel its way through the dark. In rescue operations, such robots could be sent to explore collapsed buildings and other situations that could pose hazards or just be inaccessible to humans.

To most of us, cockroaches are a nasty nuisance. But engineers are now using them as role models for designing robots.

Now, mechanical engineers have a new bug-inspired robot device to send into risky rescues like earthquakes.

"The idea is that to make robots become more and more capable of going into dangerous environments without a human being there guiding it on every step," says Noah Cowan, who is a mechanical engineer at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Most robots can't "see" when lights are dim. But the key to this robot's success is its cockroach-like antenna that helps it scurry along walls, turn corners, avoid obstacles, and feel its way through the dark. "Our sensor is flexible and reaches out and touches an object, so if there's clouds or smoke, the sensor doesn't have a problem, it will still follow along the surface jus
t fine,"


The antenna is attached to a wheeled robot made of a flexible, rubber-like material. It has six embedded sensors. When one of them bumps into an object, it feeds an electrical signal to a tiny computer inside the robot, steering the robot away from or closer to the object.

"I envision not one or two but dozens of robots traveling through a building on their own," Cowan explains, "rather than one human operator trying to remote control a single robot."

Scientists are currently working on perfecting their roach-inspired robot before it can be made available to emergency response teams. Researchers are hopeful their roach robot will kick off an invasion of future rescue robots.

HUMANOIDS

A humanoid robot is a robot with its overall appearance based on that of the human body.


In general humanoid robots have a torso with a head, two arms and two legs, although some forms of humanoid robots may model only part of the body, for example, from the waist up.

Some humanoid robots may also have a 'face', with 'eyes' and 'mouth'.

Androids are humanoid robots built to resemble a male human, and Gynoids are humanoid robots built to resemble a human female..

ROBOT CALIBARATION

Robot calibration is the process of identifying the real geometrical parameters in the kinematic structure of an industrial robot, i.e., the relative position and orientation of links and joints in the robot.

A calibrated robot has a higher absolute positioning accuracy than an uncalibrated one, i.e., the real position of the robot end effector corresponds better to the position calculated from the mathematical model of the robot.



Absolute positioning accuracy is particularly releveant in connection with robot exchangability and off-line programming of precision applications.

Besides the calibration of the robot, the calibration of its tools and the workpieces it works with can minimize occurring inaccuracies and improve process security..

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS

An industrial robot is an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator programmable in three or more axes.

The field of industrial robotics may be more practically defined as the study, design and use of robot systems for manufacturing (a top-level definition relying on the prior definition of robot).

Typical applications of industrial robots include welding, painting, ironing, assembly, pick and place, palletizing, product inspection, and testing, all accomplished with high endurance, speed, and precision.



The most commonly used robot configurations for industrial automation, include articulated robots, SCARA robots and gantry robots.

In the context of general robotics, most types of industrial robots would fall into the category of robot arms..

wha is a ROBOT?

A robot is a mechanical or virtual, artificial agent.
It is usually an electromechanical system, which, by its appearance or movements, conveys a sense that it has intent or agency of its own.


The word robot can refer to both physical and virtual software agents, but the latter are usually referred to as bots to differentiate. Robots can be placed into roughly two categories based on the type of job they do: Jobs which a robot can do better than a human.

Here, robots can increase productivity, accuracy, and endurance. Jobs which a human could do better than a robot, but it is desirable to remove the human for some reason.

Here, robots free us from dirty, dangerous and dull tasks. Manipulation Robots which must work in the real world require some way to manipulate objects; pick up, modify, destroy or otherwise have an effect.

Thus the 'hands' of a robot are often referred to as end effectors, while the arm is referred to as a manipulator.




Most robot arms have replacable effectors, each allowing them to perform some small range of tasks.

Some have a fixed manipulator which cannot be replaced, while a few have one very general purpose manipulator, for example a humanoid hand. Grippers: A common effector is the gripper.

Usually it consists of just two fingers which can open and close to pick up and let go of a range of small objects. Vacuum Grippers: Pick and place robots for electronic components and for large objects like car windscreens, will often use very simple vacuum grippers.

These are very simple, but can hold very large loads, and pick up any object with a smooth surface to suck on to. General purpose effectors: Some advanced robots are beginning to use fully humanoid hands, like the Shadow Hand (right), or the Schunk hand.

These highly dexterous manipulators, with as many as 20 degrees of freedom and hundreds of tactile sensors can be difficult to control.

The computer must consider a great deal of information, and decide on the best way to manipulate an object from many possibilities. Locomotion For simplicity, most mobile robots have wheels.

However, some researchers have tried to create more complex wheeled robots, with only one or two wheels. Two-wheeled balancing: While the Segway is not commonly thought of as a robot, it can be thought of as a component of a robot.

Several real robots do use a similar dynamic balancing algorithm, and NASA's Robonaut has been mounted on a Segway. Ballbot: Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed a new type of mobile robot that balances on a ball instead of legs or wheels.

"Ballbot" is a self-contained, battery-operated, omnidirectional robot that balances dynamically on a single urethane-coated metal sphere.

It weighs 95 pounds and is the approximate height and width of a person.

Because of its long, thin shape and ability to maneuver in tight spaces, it has the potential to function better than current robots can in environments with people.

Walking is a difficult and dynamic problem to solve.

Several robots have been made which can walk reliably on two legs, however none have yet been made which are as robust as a human.

Typically, these robots can walk well on flat floors, can occasionally walk up stairs.

None can walk over rocky, uneven terrain..