Robot Classification

We have classified robots alphabetically according to the name that the students have given their robot. Robots are often classified according to their generation, level of intelligence, level of control and level of programming language.

Alien Streetcleaner and Woodcutter This robot has wings, antennae, and green and blue lights that flash. "The Alien Streetcleaner and Woodcutter" moves forwards and backwards, as well, it has a light sensor to tell the robot when it is approaching an obstacle. Imagine this crazy Alien cleaning your street and cutting your wood!

The Beetle This robot is very strong and powerful. The RCX box is secured to the top of the robot. The motor attachment design was strengthened, which helped the gears stay meshed together properly. A touch sensor prevents the Beetle from bumping into walls, while the light sensor turns on the the light when it g dark.

Bug Our bug moves forwards and backwards and keeps going until it bumps into something. It changes direction when it does bump into something. Also the eyes light up while it is going and turn off when it bumps into something. Dr. Friesen added an additional challenge to us. We needed to create our robot using only one motor so that we would learn how to use gears and pulleys to transfer energy.

Car We built a car with two different sensors, a touch sensor and a light sensor. The light sensor would work at the front of the car and the touch sensor at the back of the car. When the car approaches an object and gets too close, it will turn to avoid the object. When the car backs into an object it will stop and move forward. Dr. Friesen added an additional challenge to us. We needed to create our robot using only one motor so that we would learn how to use gears and pulleys to transfer energy.

Cricket Our cricket moves forwards and backwards using a pulley to drive the wheels. It shows that you can have a robot travel without being built with the RCX unit. The Cricket is not an autonomous robot.

Driller (video link) Our robot drills through things, like paper. To put our robot to the test, we decided to battle a friend's robot and guess what, we won, but our front wheels fell off.

Giraffe Robot We created a giraffe robot. Animal robots are fun to make. They help you to understand how an animal moves. It was a real challenge to make the head of our giraffe go up and down while the it was moving forwards and backwards. Dr. Friesen added an additional challenge to us. We needed to create our robot using only one motor so that we would learn how to use gears and pulleys to transfer energy.

The Killer Dragster This robot is an aerodynamic dragster built for racing. It uses gears instead of pulleys. The structure of the dragster is strong because, in the beginning, it tended to break appart due to the incredible speed that it travelled. This new and improved dragster travels at a super speed and stays together at the same time. A touch sensor keeps the robot from running into obstacles.

Madison the Cat This robot is designed to catch mice. The robot's two eyes light up and its tail wags as it moves. This robot was also very structurally strong. By bracing the motor on the back of the robot, the creators of Madison did not experience a problem with the forces that the gears exerted on the structure. The design enabled Madision to climb steep hills. This group also built a baby cat named Sreva, that sits on Madison's back.

The Pooper Scooper Dog owners would pay a fortune for a robot that would clean up the dog poop and if these young designers could invent a robot to perform this tedious, smelly task, they would be able to market it and become rich.

Robo (video link) Robo , our robot is quite unique. It can "walk". We were very excited by this challange and quickly figured out that a two legged robot was impossible. Our three legged robot is designed to hit an object, turn away and continue on its way. We accomplished this with a touch sensor.

The Rocket Meet the Killer Dragster's competition. Despite numerous attempts and many rebuilds, this robot always came in second. A light sensor keeps the car from running into obstacles, like the Killer Dragster.

Scaredy Cat We wanted to create a robot that behaved like a frightened cat. It moves forwards and backwards and keeps going until the light sensor registers that it is now dark which means that it has bumped into something. It quicky changes direction when it bumps into something so it looks like it is afraid. scardy cat robot that went forwards and backwards. Dr. Friesen added an additional challenge to us. We needed to create our robot using only one motor so that we would learn how to use gears and pulleys to transfer energy.

Ship Loading Robot This robot moves film containers filled with sand from a loading dock to a ship. This site contains the various robots that were created to solve the problem.

The Tank The tank was originally intended to shoot cannons. Gears move a platform with a cannonball on it. Once the platform was moved to a certain point the cannonball would pop off the platform like it was being shot.

Y2K1 Music Bug This robot sings Beethoven's Fifth Symphony while it covers a terrain.

What is a robot?

Well it is a system that contains sensors, control systems, manipulators, power supplies and software all working together to perform a task. Designing, building, programming and testing a robots is a combination of physics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, structural engineering, mathematics and computing. In some cases biology, medicine, chemistry might also be involved. A study of robotics means that students are actively engaged with all of these disciplines in a deeply problem-posing problem-solving environment.

What exactly is a robot?

As strange as it might seem, there really is no standard definition for a robot. However, there are some essential characteristics that a robot must have and this might help you to decide what is and what is not a robot. It will also help you to decide what features you will need to build into a machine before it can count as a robot.

A robot has these essential characteristics:

• Sensing First of all your robot would have to be able to sense its surroundings. It would do this in ways that are not unsimilar to the way that you sense your surroundings. Giving your robot sensors: light sensors (eyes), touch and pressure sensors (hands), chemical sensors (nose), hearing and sonar sensors (ears), and taste sensors (tongue) will give your robot awareness of its environment.
• Movement A robot needs to be able to move around its environment. Whether rolling on wheels, walking on legs or propelling by thrusters a robot needs to be able to move. To count as a robot either the whole robot moves, like the Sojourner or just parts of the robot moves, like the Canada Arm.
• Energy A robot needs to be able to power itself. A robot might be solar powered, electrically powered, battery powered. The way your robot gets its energy will depend on what your robot needs to do.

Intelligence A robot needs some kind of "smarts." This is where programming enters the pictures. A programmer is the person who gives the robot its 'smarts.' The robot will have to have some way to receive the program so that it knows what it is to do.

Robot

http://japanrobots.blogspot.in/

A robot is a machine designed to execute one or more tasks repeatedly, with speed and precision. There are as many different types of robots as there are tasks for them to perform.

A robot can be controlled by a human operator, sometimes from a great distance. But most robots are controlled by computer, and fall into either of two categories: autonomous robots and insect robots. An autonomous robot acts as a stand-alone system, complete with its own computer (called the controller). Insect robots work in fleets ranging in number from a few to thousands, with all fleet members under the supervision of a single controller. The term insect arises from the similarity of the system to a colony of insects, where the individuals are simple but the fleet as a whole can be sophisticated.

For many people it is a machine that imitates a human—like the androids in Star Wars, Terminator and Star Trek: The Next Generation. However much these robots capture our imagination, such robots still only inhabit Science Fiction. People still haven't been able to give a robot enough 'common sense' to reliably interact with a dynamic world. However, Rodney Brooks and his team at MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab are working on creating such humanoid robots.

The type of robots that you will encounter most frequently are robots that do work that is too dangerous, boring, onerous, or just plain nasty. Most of the robots in the world are of this type. They can be found in auto, medical, manufacturing and space industries. In fact, there are over a million of these type of robots working for us today.

And as much fun as robots are to play with, robots are even much more fun to build. In Being Digital, Nicholas Negroponte tells a wonderful story about an eight year old, pressed during a televised premier of MITMedia Lab's LEGO/Logo work at Hennigan School. A zealous anchor, looking for a cute sound bite, kept asking the child if he was having fun playing with LEGO/Logo. Clearly exasperated, but not wishing to offend, the child first tried to put her off. After her third attempt to get him to talk about fun, the child, sweating under the hot television lights, plaintively looked into the camera and answered, "Yes it is fun, but it's hard fun."