What is Robotics?

When we hear the word “robot” the first thing which pops up in our mind is a skeletal structure with two hands and legs with a bulging eyes and if more imaginative, robots comes with antennas on their head. Well, I am sorry to break your heart! All robots are not so… If you want to define a robot for examination point of you there are tons of definition out there. Here is the Wikipedia answer. To tell you the truth am not happy with the way even they define too.

Here is my definition: “Robots are assistants/helpers!” If you write this for an exam I am pretty sure you will rock in that paper 😀 You’ll be getting a special award for it. Dear friends, yes robots are mere helpers which on providing a certain information and instructions it can perform its action. It is not necessary that they have limbs and head! (please do not think a robot as shown in the movies) Robots may even have wheels, no limbs, no head, and even no physical structure at all. Robots can just be a single line of code! Yes, it is true. There are robots everywhere in our surrounding. Almost all the gadgets which we use today are robots of a kind. The thing is you need to understand is they are helpers!

Issac Asimov

The study of robots is called robotics. This may deal with any of the robots which I mentioned above. The conventional thinking of what a robot needs to be changed. This is creating restrictions in the field of robotics. People hardly imagine a robot of different kind. For your information, the robot which looks similar to a human being or human-like robots are called humanoid robots. And the construction of a humanoid robot is a mammoth task.

There are many modules in a robot which constitute to a final structure which we all see. If a robot picks up a cup of coffee which kept on top of a table it looks so simple to a normal person. As if what is the great deal in doing that? Yes there is a great deal in doing that operation! First the robot need to initialize its components attached to it and get a feedback from the sensors about the position of the robot in the world. Then the robot needs to perform the complex mathematics of Kinematics and Inverse Kinematics to move from its current position to the a comfortable position near the table. Then it needs to use a sensor or camera to position where the cup of coffee is. Ah the camera, do not mistake my friends the robot needs to process the information from the camera it needs to perform tons of operation on it to actually get the position of the cup and then it needs to again perform its mathematical calculation to move its arm and place it near the cup of coffee. No, its not over! Then the end-effector (the palm) of the robot needs to hold the cup and make sure that the pressure is right to hold the cup and lift it up against the force of gravity in a apt force. Ah yes! I guess you might have drunk the cup of coffee by now… But yes to all those people who say what’s the great deal in it, this is the answer I have cut short a lot of other activities and functions which the bot performs in real time to save you from running away.

Isn’t it interesting to see how a robot functions? Just think of it step-by-step. Now think of all the robots which you use everyday and think of its operation and ponder upon how it functions. This will build creativity in you plus you can end up with a new mechanism to perform another complicated task. My final word to all the robot enthusiast out there, “Be curious and be a simple teacher to the robot. Think of it as a baby who is just born into your hands and teach him/her what you like the most. Then you will come up with wonderful robots in the world as your kids.”

Feel free to share your views.

Vishal