Abstract

A robot may be considered as a machinewith built-in intelligence, called

artificialintelligence. A robot replaces the role of ahuman being to perform
a particular task.Several disciplines of Science, Technologyand Engineering are
involved in building asuitable robot for a specific application;thus making the field of
robotics a highlyinterdisciplinary area of specialization.Robotics encompasses
mechanicalengineering, electrical & electronicsengineering, (combination
beingMechatronics), computers, manufactureengineering, material technology
andseveral other fields of specialization. To build intelligence into the robot,
powerfulcomputers with artificial intelligence,artificial neural networks,
fuzzy logic,genetic algorithms etc., are involved.The paper presents a short introduction
tothe basics of robotics in the context of artificial intelligence. It gives an overviewon
robotic history, including the moviesassociated with the field robotics. The
lawsgoverning the making of robots arementioned in this paper. Hardware andsoftware
requirements and working of robots are explained in the paper. Anoverview of modern
robots like mobilerobots, industrial robots, service robots,military robots, telerobot,
BEAM robots,humanoid robots, microbot is given in the paper.The paper
concludes with the state-of-the-art and the near future research areas in thefield of
robotics. A collection of manydifferent kinds of robots that are under usetill date are
shown in this paper.
1.

Introduction
A robot is a machine that contains sensors,control systems, manipulators,
power supplies and software all working together to perform a task. Designing,
building, programming and testing a robot is acombination of physics,
mechanicalengineering, electrical engineering,structural engineering, mathematics
andcomputing. In some cases biology,medicine, chemistry might also beinvolved.Robots can
also be defined as the physicalagents that perform tasks by manipulatingthe physical
world. They are equippedwith sensors to perceive their environmentand effectors
to assert physical forces on it.Robots exhibit three key
elements:Programmability, implying computationalor symbol- manipulative
capabilities that adesigner can combine as desired (a robot isa computer);Mechanical
capability, enabling it to act onits environment rather than merelyfunction as a data
processing or computational device (a robot is amachine); andFlexibility in that it can
operate using arange of programs and manipulates andtransport materials in a variety
of ways.
2.

History
The term robot derives from the Czechword robota, meaning forced work
or compulsory service, or robotnik, meaningserf. It was first used by the
Czech playwright Karel Capek in 1918 in a shortstory and again in his 1921 play R. U.
R.,which stood for Rossum's UniversalRobots. Rossum, a
fictional Englishman,used biological methods to invent andmass- produce "men" to
serve humans.Eventually they rebelled, became thedominant race, and wiped out
humanity.The play was soon well known in English-speaking countries.The first known
functioning robot wascreated in the 1738 by, Jacques deVaucanson who made an android
that played the flute Once technology advanced to the pointwhere people foresaw
mechanicalcreatures as more than toys, literaryresponses to the concept of robots
reflectedfears that humans would be replaced bytheir own creations. Frankenstein
(1818),sometimes called the first Science fictionnovel has become synonymous with
thistheme.The term ³Robotics´ was coined byRussian born American scientist
and writer Isaac Asimov.With robots a reality and intelligent robotsa likely prospect,
a better understanding of interactions between robots and human areembodied in such
modern films asSpielberg¶s A.I. (movie) (2001), Proyas I,Robot (2004) and Shankers Robo
(2010).

3.

Robotics and A.I

Arti¿cial intelligence is a theory. The baseobject is the agent who is the "actor". It
isrealized in software. Robots aremanufactured as hardware. The
connection between those two is that the control of therobot is a software agent
that reads datafrom the sensors decides what to do nextand then directs the effectors to
act in the physical world.
4.

The Laws of Robotics

Given by science fiction author IsaacAsimovThe 1940 Laws of RoboticsFirst Law:A
robot may not injure a human being, or,through inaction, allow a human being tocome to
harm.Second Law:A robot must obey orders given it byhuman beings, except where such
orderswould conflict with the First Law.Third Law:A robot must protect its own
existence aslong as such protection does not conflictwith the First or Second Law.Asimov's
Revised Laws of Robotics (1985)Zeroth Law:A robot may not injure humanity,
or,through inaction, allow humanity to cometo harm.First Law:A robot may not injure a
human being, or,through inaction, allow a human being tocome to harm, unless this would
violatethe Zeroth Law of Robotics.Second Law:A robot must obey orders given it
byhuman beings, except where such orderswould conflict with the Zeroth or
FirstLaw.Third Law:A robot must protect its own existence aslong as such protection does
not conflictwith the Zeroth, First, or Second Law.An Extended Set of the Laws of
RoboticsThe Meta-LawA robot may not act unless its actions aresubject to the Laws
of RoboticsLaw ZeroA robot may not injure humanity, or,through inaction, allow
humanity to cometo harmLaw OneA robot may not injure a human being, or,through
inaction, allow a human being tocome to harm, unless this would violate ahigher-
order LawLaw TwoA robot must obey orders given it byhuman beings, except where such
orderswould conflict with a higher-order LawA robot must obey orders given it by
super ordinate robots, except where such orderswould conflict with a higher-order
LawLaw ThreeA robot must protect the existence of asuper ordinate robot as long as
such protection does not conflict with a higher-order LawA robot must protect its own
existence aslong as such protection does not conflictwith a higher-order LawLaw Four A
robot must perform the duties for whichit has been programmed, except where
thatwould conflict with a higher-order lawThe Procreation Law. A robot may not take
any part in thedesign or manufacture of a robot unless thenew robot's actions are
subject to the Lawsof Robotics.

5.

Hardware and softwarerequirements

5.1. Robot hardware5.1.1. Sensors:Sensors are the perceptual interface between
robots and
their

environment. They
are two types of sensors-passive sensorsand active sensors.Passive sensors like
cameras, whichcapture signals that are generated by other sources in the
environment.Active sensors like sonar, radar, and laser emit energy into the
environment. Thisenergy is reÀected by objects in theenvironment. These
reÀections can then beused to gather the information needed.Generally active
sensors provide moreinformation than passive sensors. But theyalso consume more
power. This can lead toa problem on mobile robots which need totake their energy with
them in batteries.These are sensors that either ‡ record distances to
objects or ‡ generate an entire image of theenvironment or ‡ measure a
property of the robot itself.Many mobile robots make use of range¿nders, which
measure distance to nearbyobjects.The other extreme are long-range sensorslike
the Global Positioning System (GPS).The second important class of sensors
isimaging sensors. These are cameras that provide images of the environment
thatcan then be analyzed using computer vision and image recognition techniques.The
third important class is proprioceptivesensors. These inform the robot of its
ownstate. To measure the exact con¿gurationof a robotic joint motors are oftenequipped
with shaft decoders that countthe revolution of motors in smallincrements. Another
way of measuring thestate of the robot is to use force and torquesensors. These
are especially needed whenthe robot handles fragile objects or objectswhose exact
shape and location isunknown.
5.1.2.
Effectors:Effectors are the means by which robotsmanipulate the environment, move
andchange the shape of their bodies.To understand the ability of a robot tointeract with the
physical world we willuse the abstract concept of a degree of freedom (DOF). We count one
degree of freedom for each independent direction inwhich a robot, or one of its effectors
canmove. As an example let¶s contemplate arigid robot like an autonomous
underwater vehicle (AUV). It has six degrees of freedom, three for its(x, y, z) location
inspace and three for its angular orientation(also known as yaw, roll and pitch).
TheseDOFs de¿ne the kinematic state of therobot. This can be extended with
another dimension that gives the rate of change of each kinematic dimension. This is
calleddynamic state.Robots with non rigid bodies may haveadditional DOFs. For
example a humanwrist has three degrees of freedom ± it canmove up and down, side to side
and canalso rotate. Robot joints have 1, 2, or 3degrees of freedom each. Six degrees
of freedom are required to place an object,such as a hand, at a particular point in
a particular orientation.The manipulator shown in Figure 1 hasexactly six degrees of
freedom, created by¿ve revolute joints (R) and one prismatic joint (P). Revolute joints
generaterotational motion while the prismatic jointsgenerate sliding motion.If you take
your arm as an example youwill notice, that it has more than sixdegrees of freedom. If
you put your handon the table you still have the freedom torotate your elbow. Manipulators
whichhave more degrees of freedom than re-quired to place to end effectors to a
targetlocation are easier to control than robotshaving only the minimum number
of DOFs.