ROBOT

Chintakindi Sanjay ) R OBOTICS : A DVANCED C ONCEPTS & ANALYSIS NPTEL, 2020 1 / 29

 I NTRODUCTION
• Origin of the word robot in 1923 — Translation
of Czech play R. U. R. (Rossum’s Universal Robot
• From Czech word ‘robota’ meaning slave labour!
• Designed to replace human beings, and
depicted as very efficient
• Asimov (Asimov, 1970) Robots are portrayed as
harmless and in control of humans!
• First industrial robot patent in 1954 by George C.
Devol (US Patent No. 2,988,237)
• First robot by Unimation, Inc. (Founded by J.
Engelberger and George C. Devol) called
Unimate – Used by General Motors,New Jersey
automobile plant for die-cast handling and spot
welding.

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• In 1985, a robot, PUMA 560
( Programmable Universal Machine for
Assembly) used for brain biopsy
• In 1988,the Probot developed at
imperial College of London
• ROBODOC- Integrated surgical systems
was introduced in 1992 for hip
replacement
• The first unmanned robotic surgery
took place in May 2006, in Italy
 I NTRODUCTION

PUMA 560 Robot

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Space Shuttle Arm
MARS Rover
Industrial Robots from Fanuc Robotics
Japan da Vinci Surgical Robot (Patient Cart) : Robotic
Surgery System – Can be remotely operated via Internet
A popular kit for making robots
 I NTRODUCTION
Cabin
Extendable legs

Stewart Platform, Gough-Stewart

1965 Tyre Testing platform based Flight
Machine Simulator

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Robotic Fish by University of Essex, UK
Robotic Dog AIBO
 Big Dog 2005
BigDog was designed using funding from the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, and was
created to serve as a "pack mule" for a solider in the battle
field. The robot is about the size of a large dog and
can carry a load of up to 340 pounds (150 kg) at 4
miles/hr while climbing over rough terrain and
steep inclines.
Lucy Bipedal walking robot SONY, Japan
Flying Micro-Robot, Epson
Corp
 D EFINITION
•The Robot Institute of America (1969) defines robot as
“.... a re-programmable, multi-functional manipulator
designed to move materials, parts, tools or
specialized devices through various programmed
motions for the performance of a variety of tasks”.
•Currently the term “robots” are used more broadly as an
“intelligent agent, physical or virtual, capable of doing
a task autonomously or with guidance”.
•Robot – An electro-mechanical machine with
sensors, electronics and guided by computers.
•Key concept is re-programmable and the extent of
•programming — Distinguishes a robot from CNC machine
tools.
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 IMPORTANT DATES IN HISTORY OF
ROBOTS
1770 – Mechanism-driven life-like machines that can draw,
play instruments, and clocks made in Germany and
Switzerland.
1830 – Cam programmable lathe invented.
1921 – Premier of Karel Capek’s play R.U.R.
1942 – Asimov coins the word ‘robotics’ and gives his three
laws of robotics.
1946 – ENIAC, the first electronic computer, developed at
the University of Pennsylvania.
1947 – First electric powered tele-operated robot at MIT.
1948 – Book on feedback control, Cybernetics, written by
Prof. Norbert Weiner of MIT.
1948 – Transistor invented at Bell Laboratories.
1952 – IBM’s first commercial computer, IBM 701.
1954 – First programmable robot patented and designed
by
Devol.
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 IMPORTANT DATES (C ONTD .)
1955 – Paper by J. Denavit and R. S. Hartenberg (1955)
provides a. convention to describe links and joints in a
manipulator
1959 – Unimation Inc. founded by Engelberger; CNC lathe
demonstrated at MIT.
1961 – General Motors buys and installs the first Unimate
at a plant in New Jersey to tend a die casting machine.
1968 – Shakey, first mobile robot with vision capability,
made at SRI.
1970 – The Stanford Arm designed with electrical
actuators and controlled by a computer.
1973 – Cincinnati Milacron’s (T3) electrically actuated,
mini-computer controlled industrial robot.
1976 – Viking II lands on Mars and an arm scoops Martian
soil for analysis.
1978 – Unimation Inc. develops the PUMA robot — even
now seen in University labs!
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 IMPORTANT DATES (C ONTD .)
1981 – Robot Manipulators by R. Paul, one of the first
textbooks on robotics.
1982 – First educational robots by Microbot and Rhino.
1983 – Adept Technology, maker of SCARA robot, started.
1995 – Intuitive Surgical formed to design and market
surgical robots.
1997 – Sojourner robot sends back pictures of Mars; the
Honda P3 humanoid robot, started in 1986, unveiled.
2000 –humanoid robot capable of walking.
2001 – Sony releases second generation Aibo robot dog.
2002-03 – Hollywood/Bollywood movies – ROBOT
Movie on ROBOT - 2005
2004 – Spirit and Opportunity explore Mars surface and
detect evidence of past existence of water.
2007 – Humanoid robot Aiko capable of “feeling” pain.
2009 – Micro-robots and emerging field of nano-robots
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T YPES AND C LASSIFICATION OF
ROBOTS
Various ways of classifying a robot
Fixed or
mobile.
Serial or
parallel.
According to degree of
freedom (DOF). Rigid or
flexible.
Control — Point-to-point, autonomy and
“intelligence”.
Most older industrial robots — Fixed base and
consisting of links connected by actuated joints.
Many modern robots can move on factory floors,
uneven terrains or even walk, swim and fly

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 S ERIAL V S . P ARALLEL
Top Platform

Forearm
Spherical Joint
Waist Shoulder
Prismatic
Joint

Actuator
Motion

U Joint

Extensible Leg
Three rotations at Wrist
Fixed Base
PUMA 560 Serial Robot

Figure 4: Parallel robot —

Figure 3: P U MA 560 serial robot
Gough-Stewart platform

Serial robot — A fixed base, links and joints connected

sequentially and ending in a end-effector
Parallel robot — More than one loop, no natural
end-effector

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 D EGREE - OF - FREEDOM (DOF)
Degree of freedom (DOF) determines capability of a
robot and number of actuated joints
6 (DOF) required for arbitrary task in 3D.
Painting and welding can be done by 5 DOF robot.
Electronics assembly usually done by 4 DOF robot.
For extra flexibility/working volume, 5 or 6 DOF
robot mounted on 2 or 3 DOF gantry or wheeled mobile
robot. Redundant robot with more than 6 DOF for
avoiding obstacles, more flexibility etc.
Arrangement of first three joints (in fixed serial robots) are
classified as:
Cartesian, spherical and cylindrical — Motion described by
Cartesian, spherical or cylindrical coordinates.
Anthropomorphic — Human armlike.
SCARA or Selective Compliance Adaptive Robot
Arm Extensively used in electronic assembly.
Last three joints form a wrist — Orients the end-effector.

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 R IGID V S . F LEXIBLE

Figure 5: P U MA 700 series industrial

Figure 6: Space shuttle robot arm
robot

Most industrial robots are built heavy and rigid for required
accuracy.
Minimising weight for space applications — Links and joints
are flexible!

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 T HE S CIENCE OF R OBOTS
•New robots with improved capabilities made every day.
Technology changes but the underlying science/principles
change more slowly.
•Basic ingredients — Kinematics, dynamics, control,
sensing and programming.
•Kinematics — Motion of a object in three dimensional
space without worrying about the cause.
•6 degrees of freedom (DOF) — 3 translations and 3 rotations of a
rigid link
•6 actuators at joints to achieve 6 DOF — Direct and
•inverse kinematics problem
•Linear and angular velocities of rigid bodies and links Loss/gain of
DOF in velocities and ability to apply/resist external force/moment.
•Serial and parallel manipulator kinematics.

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 T HE S CIENCE OF R OBOTS

•Dynamics — Motion of links and end-effector due to the action

of external forces/moments.
•Obtain equations of motion by using Newton Laws or
Lagrangian formulation
•Direct and inverse problem in dynamics for simulation and control.
•Desired motion and feedback control
•A desired task is converted to a smooth desired motion — Cubic
trajectories.
•Controller ensures that the robot achieves the desired motion.
•Simple PID or newer model-based controllers used for
•improved performance.
•Controllers for force (as well as position) control.
•Linear and non-linear control schemes used in robots.

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 T HE T ECHNOLOGY OF R OBOTS

•Robot is a sophisticated and expensive equipment!

•Components = robot undergoes constant
improvement and advancement and hard to keep
up!
•Main components: mechanical components, actuators,
transmission devices, sensors, electronics and
computers.
•Mechanical components — Links and joints
•Links should be strong and lightweight — Usually die-cast
sections.
•Joints are friction and backlash free to the extent possible.
•Actuators are electric, pneumatic or hydraulic.
•Transmission device needed/required to transfer
motion
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 T HE T ECHNOLOGY OF R OBOTS
•Sensors enable a robot to posses “touch and feel”, sense motion
and force, and to “see” and “learn”
•Sensors are required for feedback control — Internal
sensors.
•External sensors — Touch and force, distance measuring and
cameras to “see”.
•Specialised sensors for welding, painting, assembly and other
industrial operations.
•Computers and software — More expensive than hardware!

•One or more processors to control motion of actuators. Processor for

signal processing and sensing.
•Processor for user interface, data logging, communication and other
activities.
•Off-line programming system with user friendly to train
operator, verify motion and reduce downtime of a robot.

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