Robotics

MarKa' Scott and Wendy Rhodes

What is Robotics?

"A reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move, material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through various programmed motions for the performance or a variety of tasks"

Robot Institute of America, 1979

Other definitions include: Force through intelligence. Where AI meets the real world.

Websters says: An automatic device that performs functions normally ascribed to humans of a machine in the form of a human.

Study and the use of robots.

History of Robotics
- Origination
  - 'Robot' coined by Czech playwright Karel Capek ("chop'ek") meaning forced labor or serf
  - Introduced into Capek's play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)
  - 'Robotics' first used in Runaround, published in 1942
- Research
  - 1890's Nikola Tesla's Teleoperated devices
  - 1940's Grey Walter's Machina and the John Hopkins Beast
  - Late 1960's SRI's Shakey
  - Late 1970's Moravec's Stanford Cart
- Industrial
  - Late 1950's Devol and Engelberger's Unimates
  - Mid 1980's Robot industry growing fast
  - Early 1990's Back to mid 80's revenue levels
  - Late 1990's Exciting times ahead...
Where we're at today
- The IHI chimney sweep
- Inch square robots
- Food scavengers
- Play Tag
- Find shade
- Grasping an object in microgravity
- Mobile Robots
  - Walking
  - Rolling
Future of Robotics
- Self-Driving Taxi (2019)
  - Will use GPS and Vision
  - Restricted areas
- House-Cleaning Robot (2005)
  - Nothing like Rosie (off Jetsens!)
  - "Imaging a fleet of mice or cockroach-sized robots scurrying around the floor."
  - Might be statically charged
- Self-Replicating Robot (2044)
  - 'Self-replicating lunar factories were within the range of conceivable technology [in 1980].'
  - 'No one is knocking down engineers' doors with the billion-dollar R&D budget necessary to build the things.'
  - It will happen with nanotechnology first.
- C-3PO Becomes Reality
  - More like R2D2 (remember "Star Wars")
  - By the time we can, we will not want to
- Military Satellites
  - map terrain (high resolution)
  - differentiating between a commercial jet and an enemy fighter plane
- Medical Uses
  - Nanotechnology
  - Robotic Surgery
  - Gastrointestinal Robot
- Terminology
  - Transhumanism-Philosophies of life (such as extropian perspectives) that seek the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyound its currently human form and human limitations by means of science and technology, guided by life promoting principles and values.
  - Biotechnology-Living beings or living technology
  - Nanotechnology-Manipulating matter at molecular scales
  - Space Technology and Colonization-What are the prospects of space?
  - Complex Systems-Can we control it or even use it?
  - Advanced Computing-Transhuman technologies will require tremendous process power
  - Information Managment-Information is becoming just as important as energy
  - Megascale Enginerring-How large structures and projects can we create?
  - Space Time Enginerring-Can we build artifacts out of space-time inself?
People in Robotics
- Rodney Brooks
- James Trevelyan
- Ralph C.Merkle
- Hans Moravec
Articles
- Nanotechnology (links to get there)
  - The Foresight Update is a newsletter published by the Foresight Institute and is an excellent way to keep abreast of developments and events in this rapidly moving area. Most issues are available from Foresight. Josh Hall's nanotechnology site also has issues.
    The first journal article on molecular nanotechnology. The journal Nanotechnology covers nanotechnology both in the specific sense used here and in the broader sense. It has had a special issue for each of the Foresight Conferences on Molecular Nanotechnology and is well worth reading. Ask your library to subscribe! Nanotechnology is published by the Institute of Physics Publishing.
- Nanotechnology (ready to read)
  - There's plenty of room at the bottom, by Richard P. Feynman, is a classic 1959 article which discusses the limits of miniaturization and forecast the ability to "...arrange the atoms the way we want; the very atoms, all the way down!"
  - Molecular engineering: an approach to the development of general capabilities for molecular manipulation, by K. Eric Drexler.
  - Steps towards molecular manufacturing discusses the design of molecular building blocks that could be used in conjunction with positional control in solution (no vacuum) to build a useful range of non-diamondoid molecular structures, including early assemblers.
- Transactions-a list of magazines and journals (takes a long time to download)
- Robotics -a list of journals and periodicals
Pictures
- Robug
- T3,Marwin, Robert
- FPOM
- FiFi and Josie (Robot Theatre)
- CRIP
- Long Range Science Rover
- Robotoy
- R2D2
- Image Archive (various 3-D images and SIRDS images)
- Arm Movement
Games (list of various games pertaining to robots)
Research Institutes
- NASA/Space Robotics
- Government/Military Lab Robotics
- University Robotics
URLs
- Robotics--index, interm, long, graphics, links
  - Provides links to different sites such as, space robotics, government labs, university robotics, and the different types of robots. http://robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/people/welch/other-robotics.html
- Dawson's Margin Notes on Vehicles--index, interm., medium, links, graphics
  - Provides links keyed to Valentino Braitenberg's book, Vehicles. That book was seminal in the area of synthetic psychology, or psychology from the bottom up. The vehicles are mechanistic thought experiments whose "physiology" is known, making their behavior more easily explainable. http://web.psych.ualberta.ca/~mike/Pearl_Street/Vehicles/home.html
- Robotics Home Page--short, interm, basic, graphics, links
  - Discusses the faculty, students, its robotics lab at the university. It also discusses the school's atmosphere. http://robby.caltech.edu/
- Collective Robotic Intelligence Project (CRIP)--index,basic, medium, graphics, links
  - Contains publications and photographs of robots. There are also short abstracts about each robot. http://web.cs.ualberta.ca/~kube/research.html
- Isl Center for Robotics and Automation--short, basic, links, graphics
  - Discusses the purpose of the school, the various areas of disciplines. Also, the history and research projects dealing with robotics are discussed. http://isl-garnet.uah.edu/
- Robot Spatial Perception by Stereoscopic Vision and 3D Evidence Grids--medium, basic, index, graphics, links, plain text
  - Discusses programs about 3-D images and evidence on 3-D grids. Contains photos of 3-D images. http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/9609.stereo.paper/SGabstract.html
- Nanotechnology--basic, long, graphics, links
  - Brief introduction about core concepts about molecular nanotechnology. Also discusses the medical aspect of robotics. http://nano.xerox.com/nano
- What is Robotics?--basic, long, links, graphics
  - Discusses frequently asked questions about robotics. Contains different areas of robotics. http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~nivek/faq/1.html

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