Robotics

Abstract

Their ability to modify their own behavior distinguishes robots from traditional production machines. As progress in AI increases their capabilities, robotic functions will become more generic. The term "robot" can mean a wide range of things, from simple mechanical devices executing repetitive motions to machine analogs ofhumans possessing equivalent or often superior intelligence and physical capabilities. In this article, we are concerned with robots useful in automating the manufacture of electrical, electronic, and small electromechanical machines. The long-term prospects for these applications are fascinating when we consider that robots will be made from the same components they will be assembling. Typically, automation is the handling of activities or objects by a machine or through a highly prescribed set of manual activities. Within the factory environment, data handling , production scheduling, inventory control, communications, and the manufacturing process itself have been automated for decades. Automation techniques in manufacturing include the use of common and interchangeable components, special-purpose machinery, highly optimized processes, progressive assembly, and time-motion studies' traditionally typified by automobile assembly. Relatively new is CAM, which allows us to engineer more flexibility into production lines. Hence, a variety of similar products can now be manufactured , where previously only a single product or a few types could be made. Moreover, this flexibility can be provided on short notice. The intent is to bring the manufacturing economies of scale to small production lots. Indeed, the futuristic and perhaps utopian promise of CAM, and the inextricably linked CAD, is that someday we can manufacture every product according to the specifications of the purchaser. One powerful and necessary tool in this effort is robotics, the collection of techniques and devices that implement the pro-grammable handling and manipulation of the components in a finished product. A robot has several characteristics that distinguish it from a conventional machine in the manufacturing domain , the most important of which is its general-purpose nature. Although programming and some additional tooling, primarily parts feeders and end effectors (robot "hands"), must be supplied to adapt a robot to a specific application, the same basic robot can be used in vastly different tasks. Sensory input-material needed for a robot to interact with its environment-is provided from a range of mechanisms and techniques from simply determining the presence or absence of