Robotics 2000

Lang Doster and Aaron Doss

Updated: 4/10/2000

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
- 3 Laws Of Robotics
  - Popular science fiction writer Isaac Asimov created the Three Laws of Robotics:
  - #1 A robot must not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  - #2 A robot must always obey orders given to it by a human being, except where it would conflict with the first law.
  - #3 A robot must protect it's own existence, except where it would conflict with the first or second law.
- 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...
  - History of robotics
Where we're at today
- Lego Mindstorms
- Robotic ants
- Ramona
- http://www.cs.brown.edu/research/robotics/robots/ramona.html
- COG
- The IHI chimney sweep
- Mobile Robots
  - Walking
  - Rolling
- IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
Future of Robotics
- House-Cleaning Robot (2005)
  - Nothing like Rosie (off Jetsons!)
  - "Imaging a fleet of mice or cockroach-sized robots scurrying around the floor."
  - Might be statically charged
- Self-Driving Taxi (2019)
  - Will use GPS and Vision
  - Restricted areas
- 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
  - 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
  - Megascale Enginerring-How large structures and projects can we create?
People in Robotics
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
  - http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/IOP.html 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!"
  - http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html
  - 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.
- Robotics -a list of journals and periodicals
Pictures
- Robug
- T3,Marwin, Robert
- Long Range Science Rover
- Robotoy
- Image Archive (various 3-D images and SIRDS images)
- Arm Movement
Research Institutes
URLs
- Robot information central--index, basic, links, graphics, long
  - A long list of many robotics sites. http://www.robotics.com/robots.html
- Stanford robotics laboratory--index, short, basic, links, and graphics
  - Provides links to other sites at Stanford robotics lab. http://robotics.stanford.edu/home.html
- 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
  - Caltech's 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
- 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
- MIT Robotics and Electronics Cooperative--index, basic, short, links
  - A small list of robotics related websites. http://web.mit.edu/rec/www/
- IEEE Robotics and Automation Society --tutorial, intermediate, links, short
  - Brief discussion on the advances in robtics. http://www.ncsu.edu/IEEE-RAS/
- History of Robotics--index, short, graphics, links, basic
  - Discusses the history and the industry of robotics.http://web.mit.edu/sts001/www/Team10/team10page1.html
- Australian Robotics Corporation
- Rice University
- Cool Robots
- Naval and Wartime Robotics
- Arrick Robotics

Go Back to CS 98 Home Page