Working Robots

by Fred D'Ignazio

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810463342
• ISBN13: 9780810463349
• Release Date: August 1984
• Publisher: Sams
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Shakey

In 1969, scientist at SRI International completed the first version of a mobile, computerized robot called Shakey. Shakey's brain used a program called STRIPS (Stanford Research Institute Problem Solver) because the algorithm strips away subgoals as it goes and like the human grain it organizes hierarchially, with lower level feeds too higher level, with the higher levels giving commands too the lower level. Shakey was self-programming robot and received instructions in humanlike terms. For example, the "Push tree boxes together" cause Shakey to buzz around the room, using its TV eye and robotic brain looking for a box, finding three of them, and pushing them together. Shakey had to learned a template for what a box was and then recognize too push them together. In the next example, The verbal command of "Push the box off the platform" was given to Shakey; Shakey roomed around the platform until it found a ramp, traversed up the ramp onto the platform, found the box, and pushed it off the platform. Robots recognize objects by comparing edges of the object to templates in its memory; it can make not of the concaves, measure them, and count them; the robot can then locate quicley the correct template; mathematical equations compute translation, rotation, and scale allowing the algorithm to complete a template match. The robot must recognize object fast enough to be productive; robots with recognition capability are more flexible than robots that operate solely by position. Robots at work have a wide range of application. Legged robots can be used in undersea exploration, too cut down trees, in mining exploration, and hazardous environments. On idea is to use walking drones to maintenace the Alaskian oil pipeline crossing thousands of miles of tundra, monitoring and inspecting for oil leaks and acts of vandalism. Six legged robots were covering difficult terrain and were perceived as hopeful for firefighter rescues and nuclear power plant access to hazardous areas. Battelle Lab micro mouse used infrared, six computer chips for intelligence and it showed the amazing ability to learn maze like passageways by trail and error and inductive reasoning. By 1990, there were 200,000 robots. Unimation was the world's first manufacturer of industrial robots releasing 7,000 in the first year. The first unimate went to GM in one of its assembly lines. An Unimate for home usage was demonstrated as a prototype, as its robotic arm cleaned a window and watered a plant. The Unimate of the future will be more mobile and capable of more tasks, including food preparation. Japan has 10,000 robots working in its factories, 2,000 added each year. Japan uses robots as a solution to face the acute labor shortages. Each Unimate robot cost between 30k to 60k. Robot demand is project to grow rapidly matching the growth of computer demand. The great robot race is on. Robots are cheap compared to the rising cost of labor; robots year cost increases are h