Robotic Aspects

There are many types of robots; they are used in many different environments and for many different uses, although being very diverse in application and form they all share three basic similarities when it comes to their construction.

Robotic Construction

First: Robots all have some kind of mechanical construction, a frame, form or shape that usually is the solution/result for a set task or problem. For example if you want a robot to travel across heavy dirt or mud, you might think to use tracker treads, So the form your robot might be a box with tracker treads. The treads being the mechanical construction for traveling across the problem of heavy mud or dirt. This mechanical aspect usually deals with a real world application of an object or of itself, example lifting, moving, carrying, flying, swimming, running, walking...etc. The mechanical aspect is mostly the creators solution to completing the assign task and dealing with the physics of the environment around it, example: gravity, friction, resistance…etc. Form follows function.

Electrical Aspect

Second: Robots have an electrical aspect to them in them, in the form of wires, sensors, circuits, batteries …etc. Example: the tracker treadrobot that was mention earlier, it will need some kind of power to actually move the tracker treads. That power comes in the form of electricity, which will have to travel through a wire and originate from a battery, a basic electrical circuit. Even gas powered machines that get their power mainly form gas still require an electrical current to start the gas using process which is why most gas powered machines like cars, have batteries. The electrical aspect of robots is used for movement: as in the control of motors which are used mostly were motion is needed. Sensing: electrical signals are used to determine things like heat, sound, position, and energy status. Operation: robots need some level of electrical energy supplied to their motors and/or sensors in order to be turned on, and do basic operations.

Third: All robots contain some level of computer programming (code), A program is how a robot decides when or how to do something. For example: what if you wanted the tractor tread robot (from our previous examples) to move across a muddy road, even though it has the correct mechanical construction, and it receives the correct amount of power from its battery, it doesn’t go anywhere. Why? What actually tells the robot to move? A program. Even if you had a remote control and you pushed a button telling it to move forward it will still need a program relating the button you pushed to the action of moving forward. Programs are the core essence of a robot, it could have excellent mechanical/electrical construction, but if its program is poorly constructed its performance will be very poor or it may not perform at all. There are three different types of robotic programs, RC, AI and hybrid. RC stands for Remote Control, a robot with this type of program has a preexisting set of commands that it will only do if and when it receives a signal from a control source, most of the time the control source is a human being with a remote control. AI stand for artificial Intelligence, robots with this kind of programing interact with their environment on their own without a control source. Robots with AI create solutions to objects/problems they encounter by using their preexisting programing to decide, understand, learn and/or create. Hybrid is a form of program that incorporates both AI and RC functions, For example: your robot may work completely on its own, encounter a problem, come up with two solutions like an AI system, and then rely completely on you to decide what to do like a RC system. Robots have three aspect of construction mechanical, electrical and programing.