in practice, a robot is a mechanical device that automatically performs work. Robots can accept human command, execute pre-programmed programs, and act according to the principle program formulated by artificial intelligence technology. Robots perform tasks that replace or assist human work, such as manufacturing, construction, or dangerous work.
Robots can be the product of advanced integrated cybernetics, mechatronics, computers, materials and bionics. At present, it has important applications in industry, medicine and even military fields.
European and American countries believe that robots should be computer-controlled automatic machines with changeable functions through programming, but Japan does not agree with this statement. The Japanese believe that "a robot is any advanced automatic machine", which includes the kind of manipulator that needs to be manipulated by one person. Therefore, many Japanese concepts of robots are not defined by Europeans and Americans.
Now, the international concept of robot has gradually approached the same. Generally speaking, people can accept that a robot is a machine that realizes various functions by its own power and control ability. The United Nations Organization for Standardization adopted the definition of robot given by the American Robotics Association: "A programmable and multifunctional manipulator used to carry materials, parts and tools; Or a specialized system with changeable and programmable actions to perform different tasks. "
The evaluation criteria of robot ability include: intelligence, which refers to feeling and perception, including memory, operation, comparison, identification, judgment, decision-making, learning and logical reasoning; Function refers to flexibility, universality or space occupation; Physical energy refers to force, speed, continuous operation ability, reliability, combination, life, etc. Therefore, it can be said that the robot is a three-dimensional coordinate machine with biological functions.
the history of robot development
in p>192, karel capek, a Czechoslovakian writer, coined the word "robot" in his sci-fi novel "Robot Universal Company in Rosam" according to Robota (meaning "hard labor" in Czech) and Robotnik (meaning "worker" in Polish).
Elektro, a home robot made by Westinghouse Electric Company, was exhibited at the new york World Expo in p>1939. It is controlled by cables, can walk, can speak 77 words, and can even smoke, but it is far from really doing housework. But it makes people's longing for home robots more specific.
In p>1942, American science fiction master Asimov put forward the "Three Laws of Robots". Although this is only a creation in science fiction, it later became the default research and development principle in academic circles.
In p>1948, norbert wiener published Cybernetics, which expounded the laws of communication and control functions in machines and human nerve and sensory functions, and took the lead in proposing an automated factory with computers as the core.
in p>1954, George Devol, an American, made the world's first programmable robot and registered a patent. This kind of manipulator can do different jobs according to different programs, so it is universal and flexible.
at Dartmouth conference in p>1956, Marvin Minsky put forward his view on intelligent machines: intelligent machines "can create abstract models of the surrounding environment, and if they encounter problems, they can find solutions from the abstract models". This definition will affect the research direction of intelligent robots in the next 3 years.
In p>1959, Devall and the American inventor Joseph Engelberg jointly made the first industrial robot. Subsequently, Unimation Company, the world's first robot manufacturing factory, was established. Because of Engelberg's research and promotion of industrial robots, he is also known as the "father of industrial robots".
in p>1962, American AMF company produced "VERSTRAN" (meaning universal handling), which became a truly commercialized industrial robot like Unimate produced by Unimation company, and was exported to all countries in the world, which set off a worldwide upsurge in robot and robot research.
from p>1962 to 1963, the application of sensors improved the maneuverability of robots. People try to install all kinds of sensors on robots, including the tactile sensor adopted by Ernst in 1961, the pressure sensor used by tomovic and Bonny in the world's earliest dexterous hand in 1962, and McCarthy began to add visual sensing system to robots in 1963, and in 1965, he helped MIT launch the world's first robot system with visual sensors that can identify and locate building blocks.
in p>1965, the laboratory of applied physics of Johns Hopkins University developed the Beast robot. Beast has been able to correct its position according to the environment through sonar systems, photocells and other devices. Since the mid-196s, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and Edinburgh University in the United Kingdom have successively set up robot laboratories. The United States has begun to study the second generation of robots with sensors and "feelings" and is heading for artificial intelligence.
In p>1968, Stanford Research Institute announced their successful robot Shakey. It has a visual sensor that can find and grab building blocks according to human instructions, but the computer that controls it is as big as a room. Shakey can be regarded as the world's first intelligent robot, which opened the prelude to the research and development of the third generation robot.
in p>1969, Ichiro Kato's laboratory of Waseda University in Japan developed the first robot that walked on two feet. Ichiro Kato has been devoted to the study of humanoid robots for a long time and is known as the "father of humanoid robots". Japanese experts have always been good at developing humanoid robots and entertainment robots, and later went further, giving birth to ASIMO of Honda and QRIO of Sony.
in p>1973, for the first time in the world, the robot T3 of Cincinnati Milacron Company of the United States was born.
in p>1978, Unimation company of the United States launched PUMA, a general industrial robot, which indicated that the industrial robot technology was fully mature. PUMA still works in the front line of the factory.
In p>1984, Engelberg pushed the robot Helpmate, which can deliver meals, medicines and emails to patients in hospitals. In the same year, he also predicted: "I will let the robot clean the floor, cook, go out and help me wash the car and check the safety."
In p>1998, Lego Company of Denmark introduced the Mind-storms suite, which made robot manufacturing as simple as building blocks and could be assembled at will, and made robots enter the personal world.
In p>1999, Sony Corporation of Japan launched AIBO, a dog robot, which was sold out immediately. Since then, entertainment robots have become one of the ways for robots to enter ordinary families.
in p>22, iRobot company in Denmark introduced Roomba, a vacuum cleaner robot, which can avoid obstacles, automatically design the travel route, and automatically drive to the charging stand when the power is insufficient. Roomba is the largest and most commercialized home robot in the world.
In June p>26, Microsoft Corporation launched Microsoft Robotics Studio, and the trend of modularization and platform unification of robots became more and more obvious. Bill Gates predicted that domestic robots would soon sweep the world.
robot classification articles
Like being born in science fiction, people are full of illusions about robots. Perhaps it is precisely because of the vague definition of robot that people are given full imagination and creative space.
operational robot: it can be automatically controlled, repeatedly programmed, multi-functional, has several degrees of freedom, can be fixed or moved, and is used in related automation systems.
Program-controlled robot: It controls the mechanical actions of the robot in turn according to the pre-required sequence and conditions.
Teaching the reproducible robot: by guiding or other means, the robot is taught to act first, and the working program is input, and then the robot automatically repeats the operation.
CNC robot: it is not necessary to make the robot move, and it is taught by numerical values, languages, etc., and the robot works according to the taught information.
sensory control robot: uses the information obtained by sensors to control the robot's actions.
adaptive control robot: the robot can adapt to the change of environment and control its own actions.
learning control robot: the robot can "experience" the working experience, and has certain learning function, and applies the "learned" experience to the work.
intelligent robot: a person who uses artificial intelligence to decide his actions.
According to the application environment, Chinese robotics experts divide robots into two categories, namely industrial robots and special robots. The so-called industrial robot is a multi-joint manipulator or multi-degree-of-freedom robot facing the industrial field. And special robots are all kinds of advanced robots except industrial robots, which are used in non-manufacturing industries and serve human beings, including service robots, underwater robots, entertainment robots, military robots, agricultural robots, robotic machines and so on. Among the special robots, some branches are developing rapidly and tend to be independent systems, such as service robots, underwater robots, military robots and micromanipulators. At present, international robotics scholars divide robots into two categories from the application environment: industrial robots in manufacturing environment and service and humanoid robots in non-manufacturing environment, which is consistent with the classification in China.
Aerial robots are also called unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In recent years, among the military robot families, UAVs are the fields with the most active scientific research activities, the greatest technological progress, the largest investment in research and procurement, and the richest practical experience. For more than 8 years, the development of unmanned aerial vehicles in the world has basically been based on the United States, which ranks first in the world in terms of technical level and types and quantities of unmanned aerial vehicles.
robot varieties
"Ranger" UAV
Looking at the history of UAV development, it can be said that modern warfare is the driving force for the development of UAV. The influence of drones on modern warfare is also growing. During World War I and World War II, although drones appeared and were used, they did not play a significant role because of their low technical level. In the Korean War, the United States used unmanned reconnaissance planes and attack planes, but the number was limited. In the subsequent Vietnam War and Middle East War, UAV has become an indispensable weapon system. In the Gulf War, the Bosnia-Herzegovina War and the Kosovo War, drones have become the main reconnaissance aircraft.
French "kestrel" UAV
During the Vietnam War, the US Air Force suffered heavy losses, with 2,5 planes shot down and more than 5, pilots killed, which caused public outcry in the United States. For this reason, the U.S. Air Force uses drones more. For example, the "Buffalo Hunter" drone has carried out more than 2,5 missions over North Vietnam, taking photos at ultra-low altitude, and the damage rate is only 4%. The AQM-34Q 147 Firebee UAV has flown more than 5 times, carrying out electronic eavesdropping, radio interference, throwing metal chaff and opening channels for manned aircraft.
High-altitude unmanned reconnaissance plane
In the battle of Bekaa Valley in 1982, the Israeli army discovered it through aerial reconnaissance. Syria has concentrated a large number of troops in the Bekaa Valley. On June 9, the Israeli army dispatched the American E-2C Hawkeye early warning aircraft to monitor the Syrian army, and at the same time dispatched more than 7 unmanned aerial vehicles such as scouts and fierce dogs every day to conduct repeated reconnaissance on the air defense positions and airports of the Syrian army, and transmitted the captured images to the early warning aircraft and the ground command. In this way, the Israeli army accurately found out the position of the Syrian radar, and then launched the "Wolf" anti-radar missile, destroying many Syrian radars, missiles and self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, forcing the Syrian radar not to turn on, creating conditions for the Israeli army to attack targets with manned aircraft.
Ghost UAV
When the Gulf War broke out in p>1991, one of the first problems faced by the US military was to find Iraq's hidden Scud missile launcher in the vast sand sea. If a manned reconnaissance plane is used, it must fly back and forth over the desert, and it is extremely dangerous to be exposed to the anti-aircraft fire of the Iraqi army for a long time. To this end, drones have become the main force of US air reconnaissance. During the whole Gulf War, "Pioneer" UAV was the most used UAV by the US military. The US military deployed six Pioneer UAV companies in the Gulf region, with a total of 522 sorties and a flight time of 1,64 hours. At that time, no matter day or night, there was always a pioneer drone flying over the bay every day.
In order to destroy the solid fortifications built by the Iraqi army along the coast, on February 4th, the battleship Missouri sailed to the offshore area by night, and the Pioneer UAV took off from its deck, and took the images of the ground targets with an infrared reconnaissance instrument and sent them to the command center. A few minutes later, the 46 mm naval gun on the warship began to bombard the target, and the drone constantly calibrated the naval gun. After that, the USS Wisconsin took the place of the USS Missouri, and the artillery position, radar network and command and communication hub of the Iraqi army were completely destroyed by such continuous shelling for three days. During the Gulf War, there were 151 sorties of pioneer drones that only took off from two battleships, flying for more than 53 hours, completing the tasks of target search, battlefield alert, maritime interception and naval artillery support.
Launching the Brevel UAV
In the Gulf War, the Pioneer UAV became the pioneer of the US Army. It conducted aerial reconnaissance for the 7th Army of the Army, photographed a large number of images of Iraqi tanks, command centers and missile launching positions, and sent them to helicopter units. Then the US military dispatched Apache attack helicopters to attack the targets, and called artillery units for fire support when necessary. Pioneer aircraft has a strong survivability. Of the 319 flights, only one was hit, and 4 ~ 5 crashed due to electromagnetic interference.
in addition to the U.S. military, Britain, France and Canada have also dispatched drones. For example, the French "Young Deer" division is equipped with a "Marte" drone platoon. When the French army went deep into Iraq to fight, it first sent drones to spy on the enemy. According to the reconnaissance, the French army escaped the Iraqi tanks and artillery positions.
In the Bosnian War in p>1995, Predator UAV was quickly transported to the front because of the urgent need of troops. Predators played an important role in NATO air raids on supply lines, ammunition depots and command centers of Serbian forces. It first conducts reconnaissance, guides manned aircraft to attack after finding the target, and then evaluates the results. It also provides the United Nations peacekeeping forces with information on the movement of military vehicles on major roads in Bosnia and Herzegovina to judge whether the parties have complied with the peace agreement. Therefore, the US military called the Predator "a low-altitude satellite on the battlefield". In fact, satellites can only provide instantaneous images of the battlefield, while drones can hover over the battlefield for a long time, thus providing continuous real-time images of the battlefield. UAVs are much cheaper than using satellites.
On March 24, 1999, NATO led by the United States started indiscriminate bombing of Yugoslavia under the guise of "safeguarding human rights", and the "Kosovo War" broke out, which shocked the world. During the 78-day bombing, NATO flew out.