Intro to Robotics It’s YOUR FUTURE

Robotics Introduction What is a Robot? What are examples of a robot? What can robots do? What can’t robots do? How are robots used in our daily lives?

What is a Robot? A robot is a device that is built to independently perform actions and interact with its surroundings.

The Five Best Robots

Types of Robots Mobile robots . Robotic arms . Autonomous vehicles.

Robot Applications Robots can serve as waiters and cooks.. Agricultural robots. Domestic robots.

Robot Applications Medical robots. Household robots with full use. Space Exploration

Robot designs Shape. Color. Size.

Robots in our daily life How are robots used in our daily lives? What is possible with a Robot? What are some unexpected Robots? - In what ways do robots need to interact with their surroundings? - Give specific examples of a robot and the type of movement or sensors it will need.

What do we need the robot to do? Moving: The robot must be able to control some set of motors to move how and when we want it to. Sensing: The robot must be able to perceive its environment through sensors locate obstacles to avoid, and objects of interest that we want it to interact with. Plan/Act: The robot must be able to make decisions using its processor based on it’s sensors and feed them to it’s actuators to be able to move.

Robot Components Brain Sensors Motors

Quick review of Human Body. Let’s start comparing it to robots! Human Sensors 5 senses are all detected by sensors on your body – what are they? Brain Your brain makes decisions based on information from body’s sensors or simply through choice and commands body to perform actions- What is the equivalent in robots? Body/Structure Bones give you stability, muscles allow you to move Nervous system Sends signals from the sensors to the brain Sends signals from the brain to the muscles

Let us now compare movement in humans to movement in robots

How Does a Robot Move? The robot that this lesson works with is called the ‘CLAWBOT’ This robot is made up of VEX IQ Items. The parts of the robot that make it move are called motors. These are like which part of the human body? The motors spin and cause the wheels to push off against the ground, causing the robot to move

the “Brain” of your robot The Robot has a small computer that acts as the brain of the robot. This robot needs to be programmed in order for it to run. Why does a robot need a program to run? The program tells the Brain where to move and when to take in information from the sensors.

What makes up the “nerves” of your robot? The “nerves” of your robot are its wires, which send signals to the motors from the computer and to the computer from the sensors.

Comparing Human vs. Robot VEX IQ ROBOT Sensing FIVE SENSES – eyes, nose, ear, skin and tongue SENSORS Decision making BRAIN Robot Brain Transmission of information NERVES WIRES Moving MUSCLES MOTOR

How do the motors help the robot move? The computer sends a command through the wires to the motor to rotate forward. The motor turns the wheels. The wheel then pushes against the ground, and makes the robot move. The robot does not “know” anything. It only can do what you tell it to do, nothing more. Do you see how this is similar to how the brain tells muscles to move?

Example We are going to set our robots in front of a wall. What our program should do is make the robot move forward until it gets close to the wall, then back up Remember, we have to be very specific with the robot. How can we make sure the robot knows when it’s going to hit the wall? The ultrasonic sensor sends out a signal and waits until it bounces off of some object and comes back. It then sends a message to the Brain through the wires, telling how long it took for the signal to come back. The Brain calculates how far away the object is.

What is a sensor? Takes readings from physical environment and turns it into an electrical message/signal. Sensors we will work with: Touch- hit something and it react Light- can sort by color or detect light from dark Sonar/ultrasonic- tells how far away things are

Summary What have you learned about the following things: What is a robot (in your own words) Building a robot Programming a robot What parts do robots need?