Basics of Robotics:

Basics

In the initial stages of development of Robotics, it was defined as “a

mulitpurpose machine incorporating a memory and a mechanism intended
to execute various functions automatically, thereby substituting for human
manpower.”

Almost all robots are comprised of a movable body, wheels operated by

motors, and parts which can be moved made of plastic or metal. The
sections are coupled together with joints. Solenoids and electric motors are
used as actuators to operate the robots, while hydraulic and pneumatic
systems are also utilized for this purpose. A combination of all these
systems is also used.

1920

Karel Capek coins the word ‘robot’ to describe machines that resemble humans in his play
called Rossums Universal Robots. The play was about a society that became enslaved by
the robots that once served them.

This idea is now a common theme in popular culture, ie Frankenstein, Terminator, The
Matrix etc.

1932

The first true robot toy was produced in Japan. The ‘Lilliput’ was a wind-up toy which
walked. It was made from tinplate and stood just 15cm tall.

1937

Alan Turing releases his paper “On Computable Numbers” which begins the computer
revolution.
1941

Legendary science fiction writer Isaac Asimov writes the short story ‘Liar!’ in which he
describes the Three Laws of Robotics. His stories were recompiled into the volume “I,
Robot” in 1950 – later reproduced as a movie starring Will Smith.
Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to
come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such
orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict
with the First or Second Law.

1950

Alan Turing proposes a test to determine if a machine truly has the power to think for itself.
To pass the test a machine must be indistinguishable from a human during conversation. It
has become known as the ‘Turing Test’.

1954

George Devol and Joe Engleberger design the first programmable robot ‘arm’. This later
became the first industrial robot, completing dangerous and repetitive tasks on an assembly
line at General Motors (1962).

1957

The Soviet Union launches ‘Sputnik’, the first artificial orbiting satellite. This marks the
beginning of the space race.

1964

The IBM 360 becomes the first computer to be mass-produced.

1968

Stanley Kubrick makes Arthur C. Clark's, 2001: A Space Odyssey into a movie. It features
HAL, an onboard computer that develops a mind of its own.
1969

The U.S. successfully use the latest in computing, robotic and space technology to land Neil
Armstrong on the moon.

1977

The first Star Wars movie is released. George Lucas‘s movie inspires a new generation of
researchers through his image of a human future shared with robots such as the now
famous R2-D2 and C-3PO.

1986

The first LEGO based educational products are put on the market and Honda launches a
project to build a walking humanoid robot.

1994

Carnegie Universities eight-legged walking robot, Dante ll, successfully descends into Mt
Spur to collect volcanic gas samples.
1997

On May 11, a computer built by IBM known as Deep Blue beat world chess champion Garry
Kasparov.

The first Robocup tournament is held in Japan. The goal of Robocup is to have a fully
automated team of robots beat the worlds best soccer team by the year 2050.
1998

LEGO launches its first Robotics Inventions System.

1999

Sony releases the first version of AIBO, a robotic dog with the ability to learn, entertain and
communicate with its owner. More advanced versions have followed.

2000

Honda debuts ASIMO, the next generation in its series of humanoid robots.
2004

Epsom release the smallest known robot, standing 7cm high and weighing just 10 grams.
The robot helicopter is intended to be used as a ‘flying camera’ during natural disasters.

2005

Researchers at Cornell University build the first self-replicating robot. Each ‘robot’ is made
up of a small tower of computerized cubes which link together through the use of magnets.
2008

After being first introduced in 2002, the popular Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner has sold
over 2.5 million units, proving that there is a strong demand for this type of domestic robotic
technology.

Sophia is a social humanoid robot developed by Hong Kong based company Hanson
Robotics 2016

Basic components

 the mechanical linkage

 actuators and transmissions

 sensors

 controllers

 user interface

 power conversion unit

Sensors and Actuators are essential elements of the embedded systems.

These are used in several real-life applications such as flight control system in
an aircraft, process control systems in nuclear reactors, power plants that
require to be operated on an automated control. Sensors and Actuators mainly
differ by the purpose both provide, the sensor is used to monitor the changes in
the environment by using measurands while the actuator is used when along
with monitoring the control is also applied such as to control the physical
change.
 BASIS FOR
SENSORS ACTUATORS
COMPARISON

Basic Used to measure the Impel continuous and

continuous and discrete discrete processes

process variables. parameters.

Placed at Input port Output port

Outcome Electrical signal Heat or motion

Example Magnetometer, Cameras, LED, Laser, Loudspeaker,

Accelerometer, microphones. Solenoid, motor

controllers.

Sensor

A sensor is an electronic instrument that is able to measure the physical

quantity and generate a considerate output. These output of the sensors are
usually in the form of electrical signals. Let’s understand with an example,

suppose we need to control the speed of our vehicle and for that purpose, we
are designing a control system for it. It could not be possible by just fixing the
fuel throttle, it needs to be adjusted at it each moment when the speed changes
(such as in the uphill and downhill). This can be done by using a sensor to
measure the speed of the vehicle and convert it into digital form for the digital
system. So, according to the measured speed, the throttle is adjusted by the
connected electronic device.
How a sensor works.

Sensors are placed as such they can directly interact with the environment to
sense the input energy with the help of sensing element. This sensed energy is
converted into a more suitable form by a transduction element.

There are various types of sensors such as position, temperature, pressure,

speed sensors, but fundamentally there are two types – analog and digital. The
different types come under these two basic types. A digital sensor is
incorporated with an Analog-to-digital converter while analog sensor does not
have any ADC.

Definition of Actuators

An actuator is a device that alters the physical quantity as it can cause a

mechanical component to move after getting some input from the sensor. In
other words, it receives control input (generally in the form of the electrical
signal) and generates a change in the physical system through producing force,
heat, motion, etc

Its hardware device that convert controller command signal into change in
physical parameter e.g. position,velocity

An actuator can be interpreted with the example of the stepper motor, where an
electrical pulse drives the motor. Each time a pulse given in the input
accordingly motor rotates in a predefined amount. A stepper motor is suitable
for the applications where the position of the object has to be controlled
precisely, for example, robotic arm.

Key Differences between Sensors and Actuators

1. A sensor is a device that changes a physical parameter to an electrical
output. As against, an actuator is a device that converts an electrical signal
to a physical output.
2. The sensor is situated at the input port to take the input, whereas an
actuator is placed at the output port.
3. Sensor generates electrical signals while an actuator results in the
production of energy in the form of heat or motion.
4. Magnetometer, cameras, microphones are some of the examples in which
the sensor is used. In contrast, actuators are used in the LED,
loudspeaker, motor controllers, laser, etcetera.
Arduino is a prototype platform (open-source) based on an easy-to-use
hardware and software. It consists of a circuit board, which can be
programed (referred to as a microcontroller) and a ready-made software
called Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment), which is used to
write and upload the computer code to the physical board.

The key features are −

 Arduino boards are able to read analog or digital input signals from different
sensors and turn it into an output such as activating a motor, turning LED
on/off, connect to the cloud and many other actions.

 You can control your board functions by sending a set of instructions to the
microcontroller on the board via Arduino IDE (referred to as uploading
software).

 Unlike most previous programmable circuit boards, Arduino does not need an
extra piece of hardware (called a programmer) in order to load a new code onto
the board. You can simply use a USB cable.

 Additionally, the Arduino IDE uses a simplified version of C++, making it easier
to learn to program.

 Finally, Arduino provides a standard form factor that breaks the functions of the
micro-controller into a more accessible package.

Board Types
 Various kinds of Arduino boards are available depending on different
microcontrollers used. However, all Arduino boards have one thing in
common: they are programed through the Arduino IDE.
 The differences are based on the number of inputs and outputs (the
number of sensors, LEDs, and buttons you can use on a single board),
speed, operating voltage, form factor etc. Some boards are designed
to be embedded and have no programming interface (hardware),
which you would need to buy separately. Some can run directly from a
3.7V battery, others need at least 5V.
Arduino Uno R3, Arduino Uno R3 SMD, Red Board, Arduino Pro 3.3v/8 MHz, Arduino mini
05, Arduino Ethernet, LilyPad Arduino 328 main board.

In this chapter, we will learn about the different components on the

Arduino board. We will study the Arduino UNO board because it is the most
popular board in the Arduino board family. In addition, it is the best board
to get started with electronics and coding. Some boards look a bit different
from the one given below, but most Arduinos have majority of these
components in common.

Power USB
Arduino board can be powered by using the USB cable from your computer. All you need to
do is connect the USB cable to the USB connection (1).

Power (Barrel Jack)

Arduino boards can be powered directly from the AC mains power supply by connecting it
to the Barrel Jack (2).

Voltage Regulator
The function of the voltage regulator is to control the voltage given to the Arduino board
and stabilize the DC voltages used by the processor and other elements.
Crystal Oscillator
The crystal oscillator helps Arduino in dealing with time issues. How does Arduino
calculate time? The answer is, by using the crystal oscillator. The number printed on top of
the Arduino crystal is 16.000H9H. It tells us that the frequency is 16,000,000 Hertz or 16
MHz.

Arduino Reset
You can reset your Arduino board, i.e., start your program from the beginning. You can
reset the UNO board in two ways. First, by using the reset button (17) on the board. Second,
you can connect an external reset button to the Arduino pin labelled RESET (5).

Pins (3.3, 5, GND, Vin)

 3.3V (6) − Supply 3.3 output volt
 5V (7) − Supply 5 output volt
 Most of the components used with Arduino board works fine with 3.3 volt and 5
volt.
 GND (8)(Ground) − There are several GND pins on the Arduino, any of which can
be used to ground your circuit.
 Vin (9) − This pin also can be used to power the Arduino board from an external
power source, like AC mains power supply.

Analog pins
The Arduino UNO board has six analog input pins A0 through A5. These pins can read the
signal from an analog sensor like the humidity sensor or temperature sensor and convert it
into a digital value that can be read by the microprocessor.

Main microcontroller
Each Arduino board has its own microcontroller (11). You can assume it as the brain of your
board. The main IC (integrated circuit) on the Arduino is slightly different from board to
board. The microcontrollers are usually of the ATMEL Company. You must know what IC
your board has before loading up a new program from the Arduino IDE. This information is
available on the top of the IC. For more details about the IC construction and functions, you
can refer to the data sheet.

ICSP pin
Mostly, ICSP (12) is an AVR, a tiny programming header for the Arduino consisting of
MOSI, MISO, SCK, RESET, VCC, and GND. It is often referred to as an SPI (Serial
Peripheral Interface), which could be considered as an "expansion" of the output. Actually,
you are slaving the output device to the master of the SPI bus.

Power LED indicator

This LED should light up when you plug your Arduino into a power source to indicate that
your board is powered up correctly. If this light does not turn on, then there is something
wrong with the connection.

TX and RX LEDs
On your board, you will find two labels: TX (transmit) and RX (receive). They appear in
two places on the Arduino UNO board. First, at the digital pins 0 and 1, to indicate the pins
responsible for serial communication. Second, the TX and RX led (13). The TX led flashes
with different speed while sending the serial data. The speed of flashing depends on the
baud rate used by the board. RX flashes during the receiving process.

Digital I/O
The Arduino UNO board has 14 digital I/O pins (15) (of which 6 provide PWM (Pulse
Width Modulation) output. These pins can be configured to work as input digital pins to
read logic values (0 or 1) or as digital output pins to drive different modules like LEDs,
relays, etc. The pins labeled “~” can be used to generate PWM.

AREF
AREF stands for Analog Reference. It is sometimes, used to set an external reference
voltage (between 0 and 5 Volts) as the upper limit for the analog input pins.