Oct
5
Robotics
Answering Your Robotics Questions
Article by Mike Selvon
Thanks to Science Fiction writers, the image of robots has not always been so well received. For many it means sentient computers coming to take over the world. There have been countless stories written about robots and their nefarious plots to do in humanity.
The likelihood of that happening is pretty small. Especially when you consider how intelligent modern robots actually are. But it is easy to get lost in the hype and not realize how robots have been of great use to humanity for many years.
The robot is not just a man-like device, though there are some that are, that serve out the wishes of its owner. In this article we will cover the basics of robots and what purpose they serve in our world today.
How have robots evolved from their initial concepts?
The robot you see today is a far cry from the robots in the past. Robotics in first century A.D. was more akin to toys. This continued until the 1950′s when the first commercial robot was created by the Unimation Company. Since then robots have begun to fulfill more practical work rather than remain toys. Yes, there is still a huge market for robotic toys but robots now are performing real jobs and services.
It is interesting to note that the first design for a humanoid robot was created by Leonardo da Vinci. Even then there was a thought that one day a thinking machine would eventually resemble a human.
Is there a danger associated with using robots?
As with any machine there are some dangers. In the case of robotics the danger usually comes from the large robots such as those used in the automobile industry. The swinging arms moved by actuators have a set motion.
If something happens and the data is corrupted, it can move out of its set motion and inadvertently harm a passing human. For those individuals who do not work around an industrial robot, it can be dangerous because they are not aware of how it operates.
There have been fatalities associated with robots. The very first was Robert Williams in 1979. He was struck by a heavy robotic arm.
Is there a sentient robot in existence?
Whether or not there is an actual “sentient” robot in existence is all depending on how you view sentience. There are robots that look very human and can perform many functions. At this point it is more about the robots being intelligent machines. Many can actually have the ability to sense its environment and can move without direct human intervention.
One of the requirements of being labeled as “robots” is that it has to have the ability to make some choices on its own. Mechanized devices that cannot meet some of these criteria set forth are simply referred to as machines.
It is important to note that robots do not have to be humanoid in appearance though. If the measure of sentience is by making logical choices and the ability to think independently…there are certainly sentient robots in existence.
Why is there fear of robots performing jobs for society?
Many people view the process of automation as a way for industries and companies to replace human workers. This means lay-offs and a loss of income. Most people do not realize that in many cases a robot is used to aid manufacturing or a process that would typically be too dangerous for a human.
For those robots that appear humanoid, and even act humanoid, it can be very disturbing for some people. They immediately associate these mechanized beings with literature and films in which robots conquer the world.
There is no reason to fear the utilization of robots in jobs at this time. Yes, there may come a time when computer driven, mechanized machines do begin to replace workers. But that time is not quite here yet.
Robotic Explorations: A Hands-On Introduction to Engineering
Robotics – click on the image below for more information.
Robotics
This hands-on, introductory book is based on widely available, custom robotics materials (Handy Board, Interactive C, LEGO Technic). Covers sensors; motors, gears, and mechanism; control; handy board design; construction techniques; DC Motor; and more. Ideal as an introduction to electrical engineering or capstone design. Also appropriate for readers interested in electrical technology robotics.
Robotic Explorations: A Hands-On Introduction to Engineering
Click on the button for more Robotics information and reviews.
Robotics question by Jeff: What would be the best university in Canada to study robotics?
I’ve been interested in robotics since childhood but had no means to learn. I’d love to someday be able to work on projects like the Honda Asimo robot or the HAL exoskeleton. Where would the best place to study in Canada be? Also, would it better to pursue computer engineering, electrical engineering, or electronics engineering?
Robotics best answer:
Answer by hanweipaulchen
I know the University of Calgary is building two indigenous Canadian spacecraft (NEOSSat and Northern Light).
A good introduction to robotics,
The basic content of this book is excellent. It provides a readily accessible introduction to the principles of engineering. This book could easily be used as the text for a first year course in a unified engineering curriculum including Computer Science. The one flaw with this book is that it appears to have been rushed out by the publisher. Many of the page references are to the wrong pages and some of the pictures are rather blurry. Finally, the instructions for creating and downloading ICB files to incorporate assembly language modules for interrupt side programming and similar purposes needs to be reworked in a future edition. I hope that a future edition will also have a chapter on electrical design and construction techniques to compliment the chapter on mechanical techniques. I also look forward to a third chapter on sensing and possibly a second chapter on control theory. Regardless, this is overall an excellent book and should be acquired by anyone interested in small robots.
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|MIT 6.270 in book form,
I just finished participating in the MIT 6.270 Autonomous Robot Competition. This book really pulls together everything you need to understand how to build a robot from Lego parts, and interface it to the real world using a variety of sensors and actuators (aka motors). There is so much to be learned by actually BUILDING a robot – this is a great book to help you dig into your own project. You can order the same hardware and software used in the MIT class off the internet as well.
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|@theonelinerkid You might be able to use a solar panel in conjunction with a battery but the voltage going to the servos and the analog oscillators needs to be fairly stable otherwise they’ll be excessive glitching. Perhaps in full sunlight with a voltage regulator but I’ve never tried it that way.
coule it use a sloar panel and work in light? how would you make this
holy sh@#..this guy is god to me no sh@#…he has nailed it down to reflex he could change mankind…;}
all of this is freaking awesome!
@LoreKrill Have fun experimenting!
Success. Pulse 1.3 mS wide. Change cap – now ‘MKT 1.0 uF K 250 V’ everything seems to work. Now hours of educational fun. Best regards. Thanks very much for quick reply, much appreciated.
@LoreKrill I’ve seen this problem before. It’s either a pulse width at pin 3 that’s outside of about 0.7 to 2.3 mSec or the feedback potentiometer in the servo itself isn’t set correctly. Do you have an oscilloscope?
Maybe it’s too late at night… I get the pulse at ‘servo out’ (at pin 3) and I’m assuming that any ‘add-on’ bubbles (ie potentiometer/servo tester) are then tied to pin 5… I’ve read all the comments and it seems everybody else got it but me… With a continuous-rotation servo I have to apply the signal line from pin 3 to get rotation and that seems to work fine. With a standard TowerPro servo all I ever get is an attempt at clockwise rotation – regardless of potentiometer setting.
Thanks
this guy is my hero. wow.
@keithosmarferrer No, you have to use servos. DC motors themselves have no feedback. Inside of a servo there’s a potentiometer that provides position feedback info to the servo itself.
One can always make there own simple servos using a DC gearhead motor, potentiometer and a few op amps. I’ve made a ball smacker doing this but just using a servo is a much easier way to get started in playing with dynamic systems. Just use a servo.
Home brew servo design would require its own video.
@roboanalogtom can i use a dc motor instead of servos?
@t3du I usually use a single transistor sine wave oscillator. Pretty much any oscillator of low enough frequency (1 Hz or so) can work. A 555 timer set up as a 1 Hz or so square wave generator with a low pass filter works well.
I strongly recommend getting an oscilloscope if you’re going to start playing with sine or other oscillators. I do show in the vid, though, that one can use a cheap analog multimeter to set up and tune a single transistor sine oscillator. Connect the oscillator to pin 5
Tom tell me how you can sweep (i mean moving left-right) your servos using the ic 555 like your robot, Thanks for your teachings
@keithosmarferrer All of the schematics are in the video. It’s just that 555 circuit with a LDR and a resistor.
@roboanalogtom where can i find the circuit of the ball smacker? thanks….advance
Great video. Great applications for simple IC chip. Keep up the good work.’
J.P.
@roboanalogtom How you sweep your sservos using the ic 555. I have the hextronik 900 for my studies of your projects
@t3du The most likely problem is that you don’t have the potentiometer connected to pin 2 adjusted properly. This is set up as a very high gain DC amplifier (there’s no capacitor between the mic and the op amp) so adjustment of that potentiometer is very important. Tweak the potentiometer so that your LED always stays on and then and then adjust it back to where it only comes on with sound.
Let me know if this solves the problem.
@roboanalogtom Dude the 555 sound servo… I setup circuit seen on 2:20 min from the video the output was conected to pin 5 for astable 555 (works fine the astable, thanks for you), but the lm358 cant oscillate. I tried put a led to pin 1 and snap the mic but the doesnt blink to test first to get connected to the 555. Could you please help me a little more nad thanks
@t3du For all circuits, pin 5 is used as the input to modulate the 555 timer and pin 3 outputs to the servo. The 555 timer is running in astable mode.
Tom: the 555 sound sensor test servo in the output pin must will connected to pin 2 or pin 7 for the 555???. By the way the 555 must setup as astable or mono. Thanks
Congrats on the multiple wins!
@teehbr Good question! The reason is that in my experience, 1uF caps tend to have a better tolerance while a lot of the .1uF caps true value can be all over the place. I wanted to make this as easy as possible for the beginner to duplicate without an oscilloscope. This is actually the only reason why I showed a 1uF cap but a wide variety of cap/resistor values could be used.
In the end it doesn’t matter as long as the circuit produces the 1-2mSec pulse with the proper input to pin 5.
Why not use C = 100 nF, R1 = 15k, R2 = 330k, will be a t1 = 0.00104 and fq = 40 Hz +/- 10% ?
the input pin5 receive a sine wave 0-5v and 0V is to 1 ms and 5V to 2 ms, modulade ?