Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be defined as the study of methods by which a computer can simulate aspects of human intelligence. One aim of this study is to design a computer that might be able to reason for itself. Another aspect of AI is the ability of the computer to search knowledge in a database for the best possible reply to a question, because this has strong parallels with the way that we solve problems ourselves.
AI divides roughly into two schools of thought: Conventional AI and Computational Intelligence
.Conventional AI mostly involves methods now classified as machine learning
, characterized by formalism
and statistical analysis
. This is also known as symbolic AI, logical AI, neat AI
and Good Old Fashioned Artificial Intelligence (GOFAI)
The site of the
DARPA Grand Challenge
on race day, fronted by the
Team Case vehicle, DEXTER
The DARPA Grand Challenge is a prize competition for driverless vehicles, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the most prominent research organization of the United States Department of Defense. United States Congress has authorized DARPA to award cash prizes to further DARPA's mission to sponsor revolutionary, high-payoff research that bridges the gap between fundamental discoveries and military use.
DARPA has the technologies needed to create the first fully autonomous ground vehicles
capable of completing a substantial off-road course within a limited time. The third event, The DARPA Urban Challenge, which took place on November 3, 2007 and was broadcast via webcast,
further advanced vehicle requirements by including autonomous operation in a mock urban environment.
Remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) is the common accepted name for tethered underwater robots in the offshore industry. ROVs are unoccupied, highly maneuverable and operated by a person aboard a surface vessel. Most ROVs are equipped with at least a video camera and lights. Additional equipment may include sonars, magnetometers, a still camera, a manipulator or cutting arm, water samplers, and instruments that measure water clarity, light penetration and temperature.
The US Navy
funded most of the early ROV technology development in the 1960s
. This created the capability to perform deep-sea rescue operations and recover objects from the ocean floor. The offshore oil & gas industry created the work class ROVs to assist in the development of offshore oil fields. They are used extensively both in the initial construction of a sub-sea development and the subsequent repair and maintenance.
Military robots are autonomous or remote-controlled devices designed for military applications. Such systems are currently being researched by a number of militaries. Already remarkable success has been achieved with unmanned aerial vehicles like the Predator drone, which is capable of taking surveillance photographs, and even accurately launching missiles at ground targets, without a pilot. A subclass of these are Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles, which are designed to carry out strike missions in combat.
Robots are used increasingly in wartime situations to reduce human casualties, being used for a mix of both combat against the enemy and non-combat roles such as scouting and bomb disposal
. At present stages robot casualties are less financially damaging than human, SWORDs taking $230,000 to produce while the average cost of a U.S. soldier from enlistment to internment is $4,000,000.
An industrial robot is officially defined by ISO as an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator programmable in three or more axes. The field of industrial robotics may be more practically defined as the study, design and use of robot systems for manufacturing. Typical applications of industrial robots include welding, painting, ironing, assembly, pick and place, palletizing, product inspection, and testing, all accomplished with high endurance, speed, and precision.
The most commonly used robot configurations for industrial automation
, include articulated robots
, SCARA robots
and gantry robots
. In the context of general robotics, most types of industrial robots would fall into the category of robot arms.
Robotica was a robot combat show produced for the American television cable channel TLC, a subsidiary of the Discovery Channel. Three seasons of Robotica were produced. The shows first aired in April 2001, with the final season beginning in late 2002. Show hosts for the first season were Ahmet Zappa, Tanika Ray, and Tanya Memme. For the second and third seasons, Dan Danknick replaced Tanika Ray. Robotica reruns are currently showing in several European countries.
Each preliminary show in the first season of Robotica
featured four robots weighing as much as 210 pounds paired off in a series of three challenges. The winners of each pairing faced each other in a Robot-sumo
style "Fight to the Finish" to determine the winner of the show. Robotica
seasons 2 and 3 featured redesigned challenges. The Speedway was eliminated, The Gauntlet was redesigned, and The Maze had been completely re-done and renamed The Labyrinth.
Mechatronics is the combination of Mechanical engineering, Electronic engineering, Computer engineering, Software engineering, Control engineering, and Systems Design engineering in order to design, and manufacture useful products. Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary field of engineering, that is to say it rejects splitting engineering into separate disciplines.
Originally, mechatronics just included the combination between mechanics and electronics, hence the word is only a portmanteau of mechanics and electronics; however, as technical systems has become more and more complex the word has been "updated" during recent years to include more technical areas.
French standard NF E 01-010 gives the following definition: "approach aiming at the synergistic integration of mechanics, electronics, control theory, and computer science within product design and manufacturing, in order to improve and/or optimize its functionality".
Automation, roboticization or industrial automation or numerical control is the use of control systems such as computers to control industrial machinery and processes, replacing human operators. In the scope of industrialization, it is a step beyond mechanization. Whereas mechanization provided human operators with machinery to assist them with the physical requirements of work, automation greatly reduces the need for human sensory and mental requirements as well.
Specialised hardened computers, referred to as programmable logic controllers
(PLCs), are frequently used to synchronize the flow of inputs from physical sensors and events with the flow of outputs to actuators and events. This leads to precisely controlled actions that permit a tight control of almost any industrial process. Human-machine interfaces
(HMI) or computer human interfaces
(CHI), formerly known as man-machine interfaces
, are usually employed to communicate with PLCs and other computers, such as entering and monitoring temperatures
or pressures for further automated control or emergency response.
I, Robot is a science fiction film filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, but produced in the United States released on July 16, 2004, attributed to Isaac Asimov's Robot Series, especially a short-story collection of the same name. It is technically based on Hardwired, a freelance script by Jeff Vintar, but bears some significant resemblance to a pre-Asimov, 1939 classic sci-fi short story, "I Robot" by Eando Binder, after which the Asimov collection was named by its publisher against Asimov's wishes.
Set in the year 2035
, the film stars Will Smith
as Detective Del Spooner, a technophobic
homicide detective who is faced with an unprecedented murder mystery. The victim is Dr. Alfred Lanning
(played by James Cromwell
); the suspect is the prototype NS-5
robot Sonny (Alan Tudyk
). Robots are bound by the Three Laws of Robotics
, which should make harming a human impossible.
An Actroid is a humanoid robot with strong graphic human-likeness developed by Osaka University and manufactured by Kokoro Company Ltd. It was first unveiled at the 2003 International Robot Exposition in Tokyo, Japan. The Actroid is a pioneer example of a real machine similar to imagined machines called by the science fiction terms android or gynoid. It can mimic such lifelike functions as blinking, speaking, and breathing. The "Repliee" models are interactive robots with the ability to recognise and process speech and respond in kind.
Internal sensors allow Actroid models to react with a natural appearance by way of air actuators placed at many points of articulation in the upper body. So far, movement in the lower body is limited. The operation of the robot's sensory system in tandem with its air powered movements make it quick enough to react to or fend off intrusive motions, such as a slap or a poke. Artificial intelligence
possessed by the android give it the ability to react differently to more gentle kinds of touch, such as a pat on the arm.
David Hanson is an American robotics designer and researcher, best known as the creator of a series highly realistic humanoid robots. Hanson was educated as a designer and artist. In 1996, Hanson received a BFA in film/animation/video (FAV) from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). While a student at RISD, Hanson tinkered with robotics and AI at Brown University.
In addition to hardware development, Hanson and his company (Hanson Robotics Inc) develop "conversational personnas." Hanson's robots use speech recognition software
, natural language processing, computer vision
, and Hanson's own AI systems for responsive animations and 3D spatial reasoning and sensory fusion. Hanson has also created "robotic humanoid
sculptures" named K-Bot, Vera, and Eva (now at the University of the West of England (UWE), in Bristol). Hanson's latest robot, the androgynous android (or "androgynoid") Jules, also now resides at UWE, for use in cognitive science research and AI development.
A robotic spacecraft is a spacecraft with no humans on board, that is usually under telerobotic control. A robotic spacecraft that leaves Earth's orbit is often called a space probe. Many space missions are more suited to telerobotic rather than crewed operation, due to lower cost and lower risk factors. Outer planets such as Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are too distant to reach with current crewed spaceflight technology, so telerobotic probes are the only way to explore them. Many artificial satellites are robotic spacecraft.
Robotic spacecraft use telemetry
to radio back to Earth acquired data and vehicle status information. Command systems were developed to allow remote control from the ground. Increased autonomy
is important for distant probes where the light travel time prevents rapid decision and control from Earth. Newer probes such as Cassini-Huygens
and the Mars Exploration Rovers
are highly autonomous and use on-board computers to operate independently for extended periods of time.
Ekso Bionics develop and manufacture intelligently powered exoskeleton bionic devices that can be strapped on as wearable robots, and can enhance the strength, mobility, and endurance of soldiers and paraplegics. They are the original developers of HULC, now under military development by Lockheed Martin, and the current developers of Ekso (formerly eLEGS), which allows wheelchair users to stand and walk.
Ekso was selected as WIRED
magazine's number two "Most Significant Gadget of 2010",
and was included in Time
magazine's "50 Best Innovations of 2010".
It's a notable article about a company that conducts research on bionics to make accessible bionics to people having mobility disorders.--Kondicherry (talk) 12:31, 31 January 2012 (UTC)