Saturday 20 April 2013

EPRSC / AHRC principles of robotics

In 2011, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPRSC) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) of Great Britain jointly published a set of five ethical "principles for designers, builders and users of robots" in the real world, along with seven "high-level messages" intended to be conveyed, based on a September 2010 research workshop:
  1. Robots should not be designed solely or primarily to kill or harm humans.

  2. Humans, not robots, are responsible agents. Robots are tools designed to achieve human goals.

  3. Robots should be designed in ways that assure their safety and security.

  4. Robots are artifacts; they should not be designed to exploit vulnerable users by evoking an emotional response or dependency. It should always be possible to tell a robot from a human.

  5. It should always be possible to find out who is legally responsible for a robot.

The messages intended to be conveyed were:
  1. We believe robots have the potential to provide immense positive impact to society. We want to encourage responsible robot research.

  2. Bad practice hurts us all.

  3. Addressing obvious public concerns will help us all make progress.

  4. It is important to demonstrate that we, as roboticists, are committed to the best possible standards of practice.

  5. To understand the context and consequences of our research, we should work with experts from other disciplines, including: social sciences, law, philosophy and the arts.

  6. We should consider the ethics of transparency: are there limits to what should be openly available?

  7. When we see erroneous accounts in the press, we commit to take the time to contact the reporting journalists.

Laws of Robotics

Isaac Asimov, who is taken into account to be the daddy of artificial intelligence, projected three "Laws of Robotics" in 1942, later adding the zeroth Law:

Law 0: A robot may not injure humanity or through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm

Law 1: 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 2: A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with a higher order law

Law 3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with a higher order law

Friday 19 April 2013

ACTUATOR

 An actuator could be a style of motor for moving or dominant a mechanism or system. it's operated by a supply of energy, typically within the sort of an electrical current, hydraulic fluid pressure or gas pressure, and converts that energy into some quite motion. associate mechanism is that the mechanism by that a control system acts upon associate setting. The system may be easy (a mounted mechanical or electronic system), software-based (e.g. a printer driver, golem management system), or a person's or alternative agent.

 Examples and applications


In engineering, actuators are often used as mechanisms to introduce motion, or to clamp associate object thus prevent forestall motion. In electronic engineering, actuators are a subdivision of transducers. they're devices that remodel associate sign (mainly associate electrical signal) into motion. Electrical motors, gas actuators, hydraulic pistons, relays, comb drives, electricity actuators,  digital micromirror devices, electroactive polymers and thermal bimorphs, are some samples of such actuators.

Motors are principally used once circular motions are required, however also can be used for linear applications by remodeling circular to linear motion with a bolt and screw electrical device. On the opposite hand, some actuators are in and of itself linear, like electricity actuators. Conversion between circular and linear motion is usually created via a number of easy varieties of mechanism including:

    Screw: screw jack, ball screw and roller screw actuators all treat the principle of the easy machine referred to as the screw. When actuator nut is rotated, the screw shaft moves in a line. While moving the screw shaft, the nut rotates.

    Wheel and axle: Hoist, belt drive, rack, winch and pinion, chain drive, rigid belt  and rigid chain actuators treat the principle of the wheel and shaft. By rotating a wheel/axle (e.g. drum, gear, pulley-block or shaft) a linear member (e.g. cable, rack, chain or belt) moves.


In virtual instrumentation, actuators and sensors area unit the hardware enhances of virtual instruments

Artificial Intelligence and Robots



 Artificial intelligence (AI) is arguably the foremost exciting field in artificial intelligence. It\'s actually the foremost controversial: everyone agrees that a robot will add work in line, however there isn\'t any agreement on whether or not a mechanism will ever be intelligent.


Like the term \"robot\" itself, AI is tough to outline. final AI would be a recreation of the human thought method -- a unreal machine with our intellectual talents. this could embrace the power to be told with regards to something, the power to reason, the power to use language and therefore the ability to formulate original concepts. Roboticists are obscurity close to achieving this level of AI, however they have created lots of progress with a lot of restricted AI. Today\'s AI machines will replicate some specific components of intellectual ability.

Computers will already solve issues in restricted realms. the fundamental plan of AI problem-solving is extremely easy, although its execution is difficult. First, the AI mechanism or laptop gathers facts a few scenario through sensors or human input. the pc compares this data to keep information and decides what the knowledge signifies. the pc runs through numerous doable actions and predicts that action are most productive supported the collected data. Of course, the pc will solely solve issues it\'s programmed to solve -- it does not have any generalized analytical ability. Chess playing computers are one example of this kind of machine.

Some fashionable robots even have the power to be told in an exceedingly restricted capability. Learning robots acknowledge if bound action (moving its legs in an exceedingly certain approach, for instance) achieved a desired result (navigating an obstacle). The mechanism stores this data and makes an attempt the productive action successive time it encounters a similar scenario. Again, fashionable computers will solely try this in terribly restricted things. They can\'t absorb any kind of data sort of a human can. Some robots will learn by mimicking human actions. In Japan, roboticists have educated a robot to bounce by demonstrating the moves themselves.

Some robots will act socially. Kismet, a mechanism at M.I.T\'s AI research lab, acknowledges body language and voice inflection and responds fitly. Kismet\'s creators have an interest in however humans and babies act, primarily based solely on tone of speech and visual cue. This low-level interaction can be the muse of a human-like learning system.

Kismet and different automaton robots at the M.I.T. AI research lab operate victimization AN unconventional management structure. rather than directive each action employing a central laptop, the robots management lower-level actions with lower-level computers. The program\'s director, Rodney Brooks, believes this can be a a lot of correct model of human intelligence. we have a tendency to do most things automatically; we do not arrange to do them at the best level of consciousness.
The real challenge of AI is to grasp however natural intelligence works. Developing AI is different from building a synthetic heart -- scientists haven\'t got a straightforward, concrete model to figure from. we have a tendency to do grasp that the brain contains billions and billions of neurons, which we predict and learn by establishing electrical connections between totally different neurons. however we do not grasp precisely however all of those connections add up to higher reasoning, or maybe low-level operations. The complicated electronic equipment appears incomprehensible.

Because of this, AI analysis is basically theoretical. Scientists hypothesise on however and why we have a tendency to learn and assume, and that they experiment with their concepts victimization robots. Brooks and his team target automaton robots as a result of they feel that having the ability to expertise the globe sort of a human is important to developing human-like intelligence. It conjointly makes it easier for individuals to act with the robots, that probably makes it easier for the mechanism to be told.
Just as physical robotic style may be a handy tool for understanding animal and human anatomy, AI analysis is beneficial for understanding however natural intelligence works. for a few roboticists, this insight is that the final goal of planning robots. Others envision a world wherever we have a tendency to live aspect by aspect with intelligent machines and use a range of lesser robots for labour, health care and communication. variety of artificial intelligence specialists predict that robotic evolution can ultimately flip America into cyborgs -- humans integrated with machines. Conceivably, individuals within the future might load their minds into a durable mechanism and live for thousands of years!
In any case, robots will definitely play a bigger role in our daily lives within the future. within the returning decades, robots can step by step move out of the economic and scientific worlds and into standard of living, within the same approach that computers unfold to the house within the Nineteen Eighties.

Sunday 24 March 2013

Light Sensors

Switches measure physical contact and light-weight sensors measure the number of sunshine impacting a electric eye, that is essentially a resistive detector.  The resistance of a electric eye is low once it's brilliantly well-lighted, i.e., once it's terribly light; it's high once it's dark. therein sense, a lightweight detector is basically a "dark" detector.  In fixing a electric eye detector, you'll find yourself exploitation the equations we have a tendency to learned higher than, as a result of you'll have to be compelled to modify the connection of the electric eye resistance photo, and therefore the resistance and voltage in your natural philosophy detector circuit. after all since you'll be building the natural philosophy and writing the program to measure and use the output of the sunshine detector, you'll forever manipulate it to form it easier and a lot of intuitive.  What surrounds a lightweight detector affects its properties.  The detector will be secure and positioned in varied ways.  Multiple sensors will be organized in helpful configurations and isolate them from one another with shields.

Just like switches, light-weight sensors will be utilized in many alternative ways:

light-weight sensors will measure:

intensity level,break-beam & differential intensity

light-weight sensors will be secure and centered in several ways that

Their position and radial asymmetry on a robot will build an excellent deal of distinction and impact

Saturday 23 March 2013

What is a robot?

What is the primary factor that involves mind once you consider a robot?
For many folks it’s a machine that imitates a human—like the androids in Star Wars, killer and Star Trek: consequent Generation. but a lot of these robots capture our imagination, such robots still solely inhabit fantasy. folks still haven’t been ready to provides a automaton enough ‘common sense’ to faithfully act with a dynamic world. However, Rodney Brooks and his team at university computer science science laboratory area unit performing on making such mechanical man robots.
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The type of robots that you simply can encounter most often area unit robots that work that’s too dangerous, boring, onerous, or simply plain nasty. Most of the robots within the world area unit of this sort. they’ll be found in motorcar, medical, producing and area industries. In fact, there area unit over 1,000,000 of those form of robots operating for United States these days.
Some robots just like the Mars Rover occupier and also the forthcoming Mars Exploration Rover, or the underwater automaton Greenland caribou facilitate United States study places that area unit too dangerous for United States to travel. whereas different forms of robots area unit simply plain fun for youths of all ages. in style toys like Teckno, Polly or AIBO ERS-220 appear to hit the shop shelves once a year around Christmas time.
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And the maximum amount fun as robots area unit to play with, robots area unit even far more fun to make. In Being Digital, Saint Nicholas Negroponte tells an exquisite story concerning associate degree eight year previous, ironed throughout a televised premier of MITMedia Lab’s LEGO/Logo work Hennigan college. a dedicated anchor, longing for a cute line, unbroken asking the kid if he was having fun wiggling with LEGO/Logo. Clearly cheesed off, however not wish to offend, the kid initial tried to place her off. when her third plan to get him to speak concerning fun, the child, sweating underneath the new tv lights, plaintively looked into the camera and commented, “Yes it’s enjoyable.”
But what specifically may be a robot?
As strange because it may appear, there very isn’t any customary definition for a automaton. However, there area unit some essential characteristics that a automaton should have and this may assist you to come to a decision what’s and what’s not a automaton. it’ll additionally assist you to come to a decision what options you’ll ought to build into a machine before it will count as a automaton.
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An automaton has these essential characteristics:
Sensing initial of all of your automaton would ought to be ready to sense its surroundings. it might try this in ways in which aren’t similar to the means that you simply sense your surroundings. Giving your automaton sensors: lightweight sensors (eyes), bit and pressure sensors (hands), chemical sensors (nose), hearing and echo sounder sensors (ears), and style sensors (tongue) can offer your automaton awareness of its surroundings.
Movement A automaton must be ready to move around its surroundings. whether or not rolling on wheels, walking on legs or propellant by thrusters a automaton must be ready to move. To count as a automaton either the total automaton moves, just like the occupier or simply elements of the automaton moves, just like the North American nation Arm.
Energy A automaton must be ready to power itself. A automaton may well be star supercharged, electrically supercharged, battery supercharged. The means your automaton gets its energy can rely upon what your automaton must do.
Intelligence A automaton wants some quite “smarts.” this can be wherever programming enters the images. A applied scientist is that the one that offers the automaton its ‘smarts.’ The automaton can ought to have how to receive the program in order that it is aware of what it’s to try to to.
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So what’s a robot?
Well it’s a system that contains sensors, management systems, manipulators, power provides and package all operating along to perform a task.  Programming,designing, building  and testing a robots may be a combination of physics, engineering science,  structural engineering,technology, computing and  arithmetic.Medicine, chemistry,biology may also be concerned. A study of artificial intelligence means students area unit actively engaged with all of those disciplines during a deeply problem-posing problem-solving surroundings.

  

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Feedback (Closed Loop) Control

Feedback management may be a means that of obtaining a system (in our case a robot) to realize and maintain a desired state by incessantly comparison its current and desired state. the required state is additionally known as the goal state of the system. Note that it will be associate degree external or internal state: as an example, a thermostat monitors and controls external state (the temperature of the house), whereas a golem will management its internal state (e.g., battery power, by recharging at correct times) or external state (e.g., distance from a wall). If the present and desired state ar identical, the system doesn\'t have to be compelled to do something. however if they\'re not, however will it decide what to do? that\'s what the planning of the controller is all concerning. a sway system should 1st realize the distinction between the present and desired states. This distinction is named the error, and also the goal of any system is to reduce that error. In some systems, the sole data out there concerning the error is whether or not it\'s zero or non-0, i.e., whether or not the present and desired states ar identical. this can be little data to figure with, however it\'s still a basis for management and may be exploited in attention-grabbing ways in which. further data concerning the error would be its magnitude, i.e., however \"far\" the present state is from the required state. Finally, the last a part of the error data is its direction, i.e., is that the current state too shut or too aloof from the needs state (in no matter area it\'s going to be). management is best if we\'ve frequent feedback providing error magnitude and direction. Notice feedback system oscillates round the desired state. within the case of a thermostat, the temperature oscillates round the point, the required setting. Similarly, the robot\'s movement can oscillate round the desired state, that is that the optimum distance from the wall. however will we tend to decrease this oscillation? we will use a smoother/larger turning angle, and that we can even use a variety rather than a group purpose distance because the goal state. currently what happens after you have device error in your system? What if your device incorrectly tells you that the golem is much from a wall, however actually it\'s not? What concerning vice versa? however would possibly you address these issues? Feedback management is additionally known as closed-loop system management as a result of it closes the loop between the input and also the output, i.e., it provides the system with a live of \"progress.\"
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