8/11/2019 Getting Started in Robotics
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RO OTI S
Getting started
in
robotics
THE WORD ROBOT CONJURES UP
many different images in people s
minds;
everything
from Hol
lywood s lovable creat ions to the
monstrous
machines that many
once
believed would someday
take
over
the
Earth. Regardless of
what you the think of them, they
are
everywhere today.
For
in
stance,
your
car was probably as
sembled and inspected fo r defects
on a robotic assembly line.
Even so, the number of prob
lems
found
in
new
cars tel ls a lot
about the state of robotics tech
nology. Robots are prone to make
many mistakes; after all,
look
at
who created them owever
those system miscalculations are
not
the same misjudgments of
which
man is so often guil ty. They
are, instead, problems that arise
due to the
limitations
of the tech
nologies involved. Today, the field
of robotics iswhere personal com
puters were n the mid-1970 s.
Our
purpose
In this column, we'll t ry to keep
you up to date on the latest hap
penings in
robot ics f ie ld . We' ll
also cover several technical topics
and
look
at numerous robotic de
vices that you can build. You ll re
ceive
instructions
on
building
a
robotics laboratory, an intelligent
platform, and an ultrasonic vision
system.
We'll inc lude indepth product
reviews of the various robots. And
you'll have the
opportunity
to read
about those
products before
you
see them anywhere else.
And
since the
field
is sti ll in its infancy,
believe it
or
not, you can make a
significant contribution through
personal research. As a reader of
Radio Electronics you are used to
lG l
participating in new technologies.
For example, the first construction
details fo r a personal computer
appeared in these pages.
Personal robots
About two
and a half years ago,
personal robots came to the atten
tion of consumers through the in
t roduct ion o f RB Robot Corp.'s
14618 W.
6th
Ave.
Golden, Colo
rado) small cylindrical rover the
RB 5X That microprocessor-based
unit could directly
execute BASIC
programs entered by the user
from
a remote terminal. Several design
changes have occurred since its in
troduction, including
the addition
of an ultrasonic range finder and a
somewhat articulated arm.
Shortly
thereafter, U.S. Heath
Co. (Benton Harbor, Ml 49022 in
troduced its
HERO
(see Fig. 1).
Both the Heath and RB products
showed that
there
was considera
ble interest in
building
and experi
menting with intelligent vehicles.
Some
t ime
after HERO and
RB 5X made
their
debut, a new
company headed up by Atari's
founder, Nolan
Bushnell,
intro
duced the Tapa robot. That unit
was
much ta lle r,
with a
more
human-like appearance;
but
its
limited capabilities and non-exis
tent
third-party support kept it
from
reaching its full potential. To- .
day, Heath s HERO is said to be
leading in sales, with a
rumored
8000 mach ines in
existence
:
owever t he f ie ld is constantly
widening.
ndustri l robotics
Although the public views the
robotic production line asmerely a
collection
of mechanized arms,
the
industry
is having a love affair
with those
mechanical marvels.
Assernbly-line robots are usually
supplied
materials via a system of
intelligent, roving, driverless vehi
cles. Those vehicles are built using
a combination of technologies, in
cluding mechanical engineering,
electronics engineering, and
cC?m-
puter science.
From those fields come the de
sign of the various robot parts. For
example, mechanical
engineering
provides the body structure, the
wheeled
mechanics, and the arm
linkages. Electronics
engineering
contributes the
control circuitry
and
various
sensory dev ices
needed
to help
make the
robot
system interact
with
its environ
ment.
The sensors include sonic dis
tance-rneasuring systems, tactile
sensors fo r
finger
t ips, wheel
position feedback sensors based
on optoelectronic
or Hall-effect
technologies,
etc. Computer sci-
ontinue on page
