Chapter 6 Pg.

217 - 229

6.1
Robotics
Definition :
 A Robot is a movable, mechanical device that
responds under the control of a computer program.
 Robotics is a branch of (computer) science that
brings together the design, construction and
operation of robots.
3 Laws :
Robotics is composed its three laws :
I. A robot may not injure a human through action or
inaction
II. A robot must obey orders given by humans, unless
it comes into conflict with law 1
III. A robot must protect itself, unless this conflicts with
law 1.
 Why the Robots are used?
 One of the first issues the manufacturing company
would consider is cost. Savings will probably be made
in relation to the cost of employing a person.
 People can get tired and, when they do, the quality
of their work may well suffer.
 There are some workplaces that are particularly
hazardous for human beings e.g. Nuclear Reactor.
 Humans need certain standards of canteen, light
and air in a factory in which to work but robots do
not need such things.
 Features of Robots
 A mechanical structure or framework. This is the body of the
robot.
 Electrical components such as:
 Sensors to record its environment, for example, the position
of the component it is building.
 Microprocessors, to take the reading from the sensor and
decide the action to perform.
 they have a ‘brain’ known as a controller that determines the
action to be taken to perform a certain task
 actuators, to make the robot move
 can make use of end effectors (different attachments to allow
them to carry out specific tasks such as welding, spraying,
cutting or lifting).
 Robots are also programmable; a program can be written for
the robot to follow
 Important Notes
Many robots don’t possess artificial intelligence (AI)
since they tend to do repetitive tasks rather than
requiring adaptive human characteristics.
It is important not to confuse physical robots with
software robots such as:
– search engine bots or WebCrawlers ( scanning web
sites)
– chat bots (these are programs that pop up on
websites that seem to enter some form of
conversation with the web user –
 Physical Robots:
 Independent Robots: they have no direct human
control (they are said to be autonomous)
Dependent Robots:
they have a human who is interfacing directly with
the robot (the human interface may be a computer
or a control panel)
can supplement, rather than totally replace(in a car
assembly plant where both humans and robots work
together to produce a car)
Robotic Application 1
Robotic Application 2
Robotic Application 3
Robotic Application 4

Reconnaissance drone (taking aerial photographs)

Robotic Application 5
 Other Applications :
Robots in factories include:
 Welding metal parts in a factory (for example, car
body panels)
 Spray painting panels
 Laser cutting of patterns (for example, in metal,
plastic, leather) with a high precision and very little
waste
 Bottling and canning in the food and drinks industry
 Warehouse logistics (for example, location of items
and loading onto correct lorry).
Other Applications :
Robots in the home
 Autonomous floor sweepers
 Autonomous lawn mower
 Ironing robots (for example, ‘Dressman’)
 Pool cleaning
 Automatic window cleaners
 Entertainment (‘friend’ robots)
Other Applications :
Robots in the form of Drones
 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are drones
that are either remotely controlled or totally
autonomous using embedded systems
 can be used in reconnaissance (for example,
taking aerial photographs)
 can be used to make parcel deliveries (for
example, Amazon).
Application 1: Industry
 Application 1: Industry
Control of robots is either through embedded
(built-in) microprocessors or directly linked
to a computer system.
Programming of the robot to do a series of
tasks is generally done in two ways:
1. The robot is programmed with a sequence
of instructions which allow it to carry out the
series of tasks (for example, spraying a car body
with paint).
2. Alternatively, a human operator manually
carries out the series of tasks; In our example, we
will assume an , object is being painted using a
robot arm.
 Application 1: Industry
Different end-effectors allow the robot arm to
carry out many different tasks:
1. the robot arm is guided manually by a
worker when spraying the object; each
movement of the arm is stored as an
instruction on the computer; or
2. the worker straps sensors to his own arm
and sprays the object; each movement is
stored as a set of instructions on a
computer; the sensors send back
information such as position relative to the
object
 Application 1: Industry
Advantages and Disadvantages
Application 1: Industry
Application 2: Transport
 Application 2: Transport
Autonomous cars and buses:
Autonomous cars use sensors, cameras,
actuators and microprocessors (together with
very complex algorithms) to carry out their
actions safely.
Sensors (radar and ultrasonics) and cameras
allow the control systems in cars to perform
critical functions by sensing the dynamic
conditions on a road. They act as the ‘eyes’ and
‘ears’ of the car.
 Application 2: Transport
Microprocessors process the data received
from cameras and sensors and send signals to
actuators to perform physical actions, such as:
 change gear
 apply the brakes
 turn the steering wheel
Cameras catch visual data from the
surroundings, while radar and ultrasonics allow
the vehicle to build up a 3D image of its
surroundings (very important when visibility is
poor, such as heavy rain, fog or at night).
 Application 2: Transport
Since the traffic light shows red, the
microprocessor must send signals to actuators
to apply brakes and put the gear into ‘park’.
 Application 2: Transport
Advantages and Disadvantages
Application 2: Transport
 Application 3: Agriculture
We will consider the following five areas where
robotics could play a big role:
 Harvesting/picking of vegetables and fruit
 Weed control
 Phenotyping (plant growth and health)
 Seed-planting and fertiliser distribution
 Autonomous labour-saving devices.
 Application 3: Agriculture
Harvesting and Picking :
 robots have been designed to do this labour-
intensive work; they are more accurate (only pick
ripe fruit, for example) and much faster at
harvesting
 for the reasons above, this leads to higher yields
and reduces waste (for example, vegebot
(Cambridge University) uses cameras to scan, for
example, a lettuce and decide whether or not it is
ready to be harvested
 a second camera in vegebot (near the cutting
blades) guides an arm to remove the lettuce from
its stalk with no damage.
 Application 3: Agriculture
Harvesting and Picking :
 Application 3: Agriculture
Weed (unwanted plants) Control :
 weed management robots can distinguish
between a weed and crop using AI
 weed control robots use GPS tracking to stay on
course to move along the rows of vines and
remove the weeds; a weed removal blade is
operated by an actuator under the control of
the controller (microprocessor) in the robot
 very often a drone (flying robot) is used first
to do an aerial view of the vineyard, so that
a programmed course of action can be
produced
 Application 3: Agriculture
Weed (unwanted plants) Control :
 Application 3: Agriculture
Phenotyping:
 Phenotyping is the process of observing physical
characteristics of a plant in order to assess its
health and growth
 robots designed to do phenotyping are equipped
with sensors (including spectral sensors and
thermal cameras) that can create a 3D
image/model of the plant, thus allowing it to be
monitored for health and growth
 machine learning is used to recognise any issues
with leaves (for example, if they have a blight or
have the wrong colour)
 Application 3: Agriculture
Phenotyping:
 Application 3: Agriculture
Seed-planting drones and fertiliser
distribution:
 drones (flying robots) can produce an aerial image
of a farm sending back a ‘bird’s eye view’ of the
crops and land
 they allow seed-planting to be done far more
accurately
 they also allow for more efficient fertiliser-
spreading to reduce waste and improve coverage
 Application 3: Agriculture
Seed-planting drones and fertiliser distribution:
Application 3: Agriculture
Application 3: Agriculture
 Application 4: Medicine
How robots can help out:
 robots are used in surgical procedures, which
makes the operation safer and also makes the
procedures quicker and less costly
 robots can be used from monitoring patients to
doing actual minor surgery
 the disinfecting of rooms and operating theatres
can all be done by autonomous robots (similar to
the types described in agriculture)
 robots can take blood samples from patients:
I. less painful to patients since the robot is better at
determining a ‘good vein’
II. safer to doctors and nurses if the patient has an
infectious disease.
 Application 4: Medicine
How robots can help out:
 microbots can be used in target therapy(remedy):
 these use microscopic mechanical components
(including microprocessor) to localise a drug or
other therapy to target a specific site causing less
damage to surrounding tissue
 prosthetic limbs are now mini robots in their own
right (since they meet the three characterisations
of what defines a robot)
 bionic skins and neural implants that interface with
the human nervous system (of the damaged limb)
giving feedback to allow for better control of the
prosthetic limb (again sensors and actuators are
used to give humanlike responses, such as grip).
Application 4: Medicine

Surgical Procedures
Application 4: Medicine

Prosthetic Limbs
 Application 4: Medicine

Disinfecting rooms and operation Threater

Application 4: Medicine
 Application 4: Medicine
applications
 Application 4: Medicine
Advantages n disadvantages
 Application 5: Domestic Robots
1. Autonomous Vacuum Cleaners :
 these use proximity sensors and cameras to avoid
bumping into obstacles and allows them to cover a
whole room automatically
 these robots have a microprocessor to control the
overall operation of the device; this also allows the
user to program the device
 actuators are used to control motors which allow
movement forward/ backward and from side to
side
 Application 5: Domestic Robots
2. Autonomous Grass Cutters (mowers):
 these use the same type of sensor, camera,
microprocessor and actuator set up as vacuum
cleaners
 Application 5: Domestic Robots
Personal Assistant ( Vector ) :
A personal assistant robot could be incredibly useful in
a variety of ways: Household Chores: It could clean
floors, do laundry, wash dishes.
 This is a robot controlled by a micro-processor that also
uses cloud connectivity to connect to the internet
 It understands voice commands (using a microphone)
and will answer any questions it is asked
 It also makes use of an HD camera, utilising computer
vision, allowing it to recognise somebody’s face as well as
navigate a room (using proximity sensors and actuators)
to steer around objects in its way.
Application 5: Domestic Robots
Applications
Application 5: Domestic Robots
Advantages and Disadvantages
Application 6: Entertainment
Applications
Application 6: Entertainment
Advantages and Disadvantages:
Application 7:
Application 8:
 Application 8: Controlling opening/
closing doors of train
Sensors above the doors detect the presence of
passengers waiting to enter or leave the train; a
pressure sensor is also used to detect passengers
standing between the doors (to prevent the doors
closing if a passenger is ‘in the way’).
 The sensor data is constantly sent back to a
microprocessor in a central location.
 The microprocessor determines if it is safe to
open or close doors by checking sensor data; the
whole system is automatic.
Data is sent to actuators to operate the motors
closing and opening the doors.
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Specimen 2023 P1 [a] Q6

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May/ June 2024 / 11 Q8

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