Category: Robots

Business Case

The case project was instigated by the development of a new artificial intelligence application that was very powerful in 2013. Even though most international manufacturing is carried out in India and China, there has been a need to rebuild high value-added manufacture in all countries with increased use of industrial robotics. With improved CSIRO technology, the case project hopes to create new robots that have the capacity of being re-programmed about verbal instructions that are based on various tasks. The objectives, key performance indicators and major, major deliverables and any major milestones of the project are highlighted below.

Project Objective

To develop and manufacture a new family of highly flexible, “intelligent” robots physically robust enough to handle heavy industry tasks but small enough to work alongside humans performing high precision, detailed technical assembly.

Key Performance Indicators (Measure of success)

The performance of this project will be assessed through the examination of whether or not the objectives of the project were met. As such, the measure of success will focus on ascertaining whether or not the project develops a new family of highly flexible, “intelligent” robots that can be used in handling heavy industry tasks.

Major Deliverables and Major Milestones

Major Deliverables

The major deliverables for this project include:

• Expanding the new plant.
• Production of an initial model of the Bionic Digger.
• Design “intelligent” robots that are physically strong.
• Launch a very small product that could work in the warehouses and loading docks.

Major Milestones

The major milestones for the project include:

• Survey the mine site to confirm accessibility and potential risks- May 5
• Install a central computer control overall operations of the robots on site- May 7
• Provide an initial database to the robots showing the site layout- May 8
• Conduct a trial run over two shifts under the supervision of the OHS sub-contractor and ARI to confirm safety and conduct benchmarks – May 10
• Progressively roll-out the robots across the site through all shifts with the support of the technical sub-contractor – May 11-15
• Collect operational performance data per robot and per shift- May 11-15
• Analyze data to confirm technical feasibility – May 18
• Review the OHS report with the sub-contractor to identify compliance and outstanding issues – May 19
• Develop standard operating procedures to cover use with human workers and as a standalone device for use where humans could be at risk- May 20
• Recommend and document any required changes to product or manufacturing- May 21
• Phase 2: May 21-28: Setting the test production volumes, identifying suitable clients for test purposes, contract negotiations for the test period and obtaining product feedback from customers.

Stakeholder management

Effective management of any project is critical for the achievement of any set goals and objectives. Having a clear definition of the roles and responsibilities of each of the key players in any given project is very important in the project’s scope management. As pointed out by Atkinson, Crawford and Ward (698), defining the role of the key stakeholders avoids duplicating work and is effective in the promotion of teamwork. For example, in the case, Australian Robotics Inc. (ARI), the stakeholders involved in the project include:

1. The government
2. Mega Bank
3. Engineers and technicians: Provides and inspects the technical components of the project, ensures that the operations are within the required time limits and inspects the materials being used. This is through the management of the deliverables and checklist for the requirements and monitors the progress of the construction works and undertakes process evaluations.
4. Project manager: The project manager is tasked with the coordination of the project processes, makes sure that there is a project charter and develops the work plan to be used in the execution of the project, liaises with the government to ensure that there are funds to buy the required materials and fund the services (Ponnappa 3). Secondly, the manager delegates work to the people in the various operations units and ensure that the documents required for the project are secured. Also, the project manager carries regular inspections to determine the progress of the project.
5. Sub-contractors
6. International manufacturers of conventional mining equipment
7. Computer technical support.

Given the objectives of the project, of developing robots that can be used in the mining areas, the government will have a lot of concerns as far as the reduction of employment in the country is concerned. Besides, the international manufacturers of conventional mining equipment will also be concerned by the negative effect likely to be brought about by the development of the proposed project as far as the sale of mining equipment is concerned. For this reason, the government and the international manufacturers of conventional mining equipment may try to oppose the project.

Secondly, the Mega Bank Mega Bank is another key shareholder of ARI, which will have a significant impact on the success of the project. The bank will be concerned by the payback period of the project since the company is heavily geared to quick returns. However, to manage the concerns of each of the stakeholders, adequate knowledge about the activities and the requirements for each stakeholder will be provided to ensure that there is effective teamwork during the implementation of the project.

This will play a critical role in ensuring that the project runs as planned in its lifecycle (Fageha and Aibinu 6). The development of the project will be beneficial to the government as a source of revenue through taxes. Although the project might have some negative impact on the mining sector as far as employment is concerned, the project will also create employment for the designers and developers of the robots, as well as technical support staff in the mining sites. As such, the project will be beneficial to the government and the community; a factor that will help in reducing the resistance from various stakeholders to develop the project.

As far as the Mega Bank is concerned and its interests of a fast return on investment, the company will be provided with the necessary information such as projected cash flow to have clear information on the expected payback period of any invested cash.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The table below shows the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for this project. The entries are based on the major areas of work and deliverables or milestones.

Project Schedule

The table below lists the major areas of work from the project’s WBS and offers a description of the methods to be used to obtain time and effort estimates for each area of work, as well as the person who would be responsible for providing that information or estimate.

Project Budget

The table below shows major activities from the WBS and the resources required to do a particular activity.

Risks

The development of any project can be affected by several risks that adversely affect the successful completion of the concerned project (Lai 94). In the case of this project, some of the most probable impact risks are listed below. The risk table below describes the priority of the risks as well as how such risks might be mitigated if they occurred.

Quality Controls

The use of items of high quality is important in any project as the quality of the materials determines the quality of the end product. In this case, the project will require making use of quality materials such as the plastics, wood and, soldering tools and any metal used in the making the robots. What are the major items in this case study that require some quality standards and quality control? (You may list them in a table). What methods would you recommend?

Procurement

The success of this project will be determined by the availability of the necessary resources as outlined above. As far as the personal resources are concerned, the project will sub-contractors in some of the workers, and suppliers in the case of materials and equipment. Some of the areas that will require a sub-contractor in this project include observing all the site work and providing an OHS report for both the mine and ARI. Secondly, a separate contract will be needed to provide computer technical support on-site. Also, the company will require sub-contracting individuals to carry out the feasibility study. Suppliers for different materials will also be contracted, such as in the case of providing robots and control systems on the site.

There are four types of contracts including period contracts, standard form contracts, verbal contracts and written contracts (Meredith and Bjorg 41). The written type of contact will be used for all the suppliers of various materials. The rationale for the choice of this type of contract is based on the fact that written contracts are very effective in minimizing risks since they offer proof in writing regarding any agreement between the supplier and the recipient. Besides, written contracts are best in preventing misunderstanding between the involved parties as well as minimizing cases of disputes (Miller 705). As such, in the case of the current project, the suppliers will ensure that they adhere to the contract and supply the required materials as stipulated in the contract. As well, the written contract has an option for highlighting means of solving any dispute in payment, as well as solving performance-related issues.

Works Cited

Atkinson, Roger, Lynn Crawford, and Stephen Ward. “Fundamental Uncertainties in Projects and the Scope Of Project Management”. International Journal of Project Management 24.8 (2006): 687-698. Print.

Fageha, Mohammed and Ajibade Aibinu. “Identifying Stakeholders’ Involvement That Enhances Project Scope Definition Completeness In Saudi Arabian Public Building Projects”. Built Environment Project and Asset Management 6.1 (2016): 6-29. Print.

Lai, Sen-Tarng. “A WBS-Based Plan Changeability Measurement Model for Reducing Software Project Change Risk”. LNSE (2014): 94-99. Print.

Meredith, Liz and Steve Bjorg. “Contracts And Types”. Communications of the ACM 46.10 (2003): 41. Print.

Miller, Daniel. “Subcontracting And Competitive Bidding On Incomplete Procurement Contracts”. The Rand Journal of Economics 45.4 (2014): 705-746. Print.

Ponnappa, Gitanjali. “Project Stakeholder Management”. Project Management Journal 45.2 (2014): 3. Print.

Introduction

The creation of the autonomous mobile robot (AMB) project is the most important branch of the unit, HES 1305 ROBOTICS AND MECHATRONICS PROJECT 2. The plan, design, building, programming, testing, as well as debugging the different components of the project, would involve teams which consist of three members.

The purpose of the autonomous mobile robot would be to travel through a maze while avoiding going over the wall of the maze. In addition, the AMB would also be required to look for certain types of “pucks or meteorites” that would be identified by their colours, in a mission, which is simulated, in Antarctica.

As a result of the intricacies of the predicted settings, the AMB would be required to carry and place the meteorites or pucks in their respective base camps; they should not be thrown or rolled on the ground. In addition, the robots would not be allowed to get rid of unwanted pucks from the camps, or destroy other robots.

The project is in fact a competition pitting different teams against one another. Each team would provide one robot in the competition area to collect as many meteorites and place them in the specified camps. The teachers and staff of Swinburne University provided all the sensors, LEGO parts, software, and actuators.

The Method Of Design

Design Philosophy

One vital building block of artificial intelligence involves creation of a robot that has the ability to function under diverse and indeterminate environments, while under partial supervision.

The Development of the Design

Being the first time that we are taking part in this type of competition, we decide to work out a plan that would help us develop the autonomous mobile robot in the given surroundings.

The most important part of the design involved coming up with a solution that would help the robot grab and flip over the meteorite or puck. After that, we had to go backwards with the intention of building a structure that could support all the equipment, actuators, and sensors, in order to produce a practical robot in the contest atmosphere.

Design Process

Hardware Part – (Name of Team member who handled this part)

Handy board

Autonomous robot control is usually attained by means of a Handy Board [Martin 2001]. The Handy Board was found to be a battery-powered and hand-held microcontroller board. It was perfect for both educational and personal robotics projects. It was based on the structure and functions of the Motorola 68HC11 microprocessor.

Figure I

The Handy Board contained the following parts:

• Processor: Motorola 68HC11 8-bit microcontroller with 2MHz speed
• RAM: 32KB battery-backed fixed RAM
• Screen: 16×2 character LCD display unit
• Four 1A motors support
• 6 Servo motor controllers
• 9 Analog and 7 Digital inputs
• 16 Analog and 8 Digital outputs
• Infrared I/O capabilities
• Serial interface capacities
• Sound output
• 11cm x 8.5cm x 5.25 cm (L x W x H – with LCD screen, expansion board, and battery)

Figure II

The Handy Board manages Interactive C (IC). The Interactive C is a custom-made version of ANSI C programming language. Interactive C is the most widely held compiler software that is made use of with the Handy Board.

In addition, the Interactive C software is a multi-tasking compiler; it has a user command line that is used for dynamic expression evaluation and compilation (Martin, 2001). The IC is sustained by the Kiss Institute for Practical Robotics (KIPR). The figure above (figure II), demonstrates the running of the IC compiler on Windows XP.

Procedure followed for programming the Handy Board using Interactive C

Step 1: The Handy Board was connected to the computer using either the Serial Interface or the USB.

Step 2: The wall adapter was then used to supply power to the Handy Board.

Step 3: Afterwards, the Interactive C compiler software was launched on the computer.

Step 4: The board was then initialized with firmware. This was achieved by holding Handy board in a unique bootstrap download mode and then clicking on the download firmware found on the tools menu of the IC compiler software.

Step 5: After completion of downloading the firmware, the Handy Board beeped, and the Interactive C welcome message appeared on the LCD screen of the Handy Board. This means that the Interactive C is now ready for use.

After finishing configuring the system, we are now ready to write the necessary programs using Interactive C IDE software. Then later, we would compile it, and after that download it on to the Handy Board that will run that program.

Sensors

Each LEGO kit was supplied with the following sensors:

Table I

Out of all these sensors, our interest and use will be limited to Combined Lego Motor & Gearbox, Micro switch, Shaft Encoder, Phototransistor, LEDs, as well as IR Emitter/Detector.

LED is the short form of a light-emitting diode. Just like the name suggests, an LED is basically a diode that gives off light.

The difference between LEDs and other incandescent bulbs:

LEDs are different from ordinary incandescent bulbs in the sense that they are short of a filament, which burns out. As a result, they do not get especially hot. They are solely lighted up by the motion of electrons in a semiconducting material. In addition, they could last as long as a typical transistor.

Advantages:

The use of LEDs endows the user with a number of advantages in comparison to the use of regular incandescent sources of light. Some of these advantages include enhanced robustness, lower consumption of energy, longer lifetime, greater durability, smaller size, improved reliability and faster switching (Jones, Flynn & Seiger. 1999; Papert & Harel, 1991).

How LEDs work?

Figure III

When an LED is switched on, i.e. forward biased, electrons in the PN Junction are capable of recombining with the holes found within the device. As a result, energy is released in the form of photons.

Consequently, the energy gap of the semiconductor has some bearing on the colour of the light, or the wavelength of the radiation. This is to mean that doping has some bearing on the wavelength of the Electromagnetic radiation which will be given off.

In general, light-emitting diodes are usually made from substrates of Aluminium-gallium-arsenide (AlGaAs). From Electromagnetic spectrum, the wavelength for red is normally between 620 and 750 nm, while that for blue is between 450 and 475 nm. In other words, Red LED and Blue LED means that their doping components are such that the emitted wavelengths range between 620 and 750 nm, and between 450 and 475 nm in that order.

Figure IV

LEDs have two major uses; visual indicators and light emitters. As visual indicators, they detect the presence of things. When used as light emitters, they are usually detected by other detectors, such as phototransistors and photodiodes. Interestingly, they can be used as narrow band light sensors. Here, they operate in the reverse-bias mode. They act in response to incident light as opposed to emitting light.

Phototransistor:

Figure V

A phototransistor can be described as a transistor that operates differently from common transistors. Unlike common transistors, whose operation modes are under the control of the applied input voltage, the operation mode of the phototransistor is can be directed by light, or the wavelength of the light.

The structure of a phototransistor varies from that of a common transistor, at least in two distinct ways;

1. While the phototransistor has a transparent window that allows light to shine on the junctions, ordinary transistors do not have such windows.
2. An ordinary transistor has more surface area than a phototransistor, hence is able to maximize the area of light capture.

When the junction is struck by light photons, there is formation of a base current. As a result, the received power is converted into a collector current by the phototransistor.

The phototransistor that comes with the LEGO kit has its peak response at 850 nm and its spectral sensitivity is higher than 30 per cent for light radiation that ranges between 6oo nm and 900 nm.

The achievement of different gain and frequency of operation (bandwidth) is dependent on the amplifiers, or circuits, formed with these phototransistors. The positive thing that is exhibited is that the frequency and gain response is reliant on the light and its wavelength.

Infra Red (IR) Emitter/Detector:

The infrared emitter or detector is a circuit that is created using LEDs and phototransistors (Martin, 1994). The purpose of the IR emitter/detector is either to give off or to detect infrared radiation. An extremely fundamental infra red emitter/detector circuit is shown and described below.

Figure VI

This custom made circuit has one disadvantage; the use of this custom made circuit means that the ambient infra red light would constrain its detecting devices (Martin, 1994).

The IR emitter/Detector that came with the LEGO kit had its peak response at 940 nm, with peak sensitivity for about 880 nm wavelengths. The IR Emitter/Detector has found many uses in robotics; it can be used for colour detection, transmitters, motion detection, obstacle detection, and encoders.

Shaft Encoder:

Shaft encoders can also be referred to as rotary encoders. In essence, it is an electro-mechanical piece of equipment that translates the total amount of mechanical rotation, or angle, into a corresponding amount of current (Sutton & Barto, 1998).

As a result, knowledge in relation to the amount of current offers information regarding the amount of rotation of the shaft, or the wheel connected to the shaft.

In general, there exists, two kinds of shaft or rotary encoders;

1. Absolute shaft encoders
   1. These types of encoders are the ones that provide us with information regarding the complete angle of rotation of the shaft.
   2. The digital type of absolute shaft encoders generates distinctive digital code for each different angle of the shaft.
   3. There exist two fundamental kinds of absolute digital rotary encoders. These are optical encoders and mechanical encoders.
2. Incremental shaft encoders
   1. These types of rotary encoders are the ones that provide us with information regarding the angles or rotations with regard to their previous states.

The angles of rotation that are provided by the shaft encoders are in coded form. The two available and most popular methods used for encoding are Gray encoding and standard binary encoding.

It is worth noting that for all advanced jobs, which involve the rotation of the wheel, there must be a feedback mechanism that comes from the wheels.

As a result, it is vital that the control program is aware of the extent to which the wheel would rotate to with the intention of either altering the speed of rotation of the different wheels, or simply making sure that the vehicle is motionless and no unknown force is acting on it. This is basically the reason why shaft encoders are employed.

Micro switch:

Figure VII

A micro switch can also be referred to by its technical name, miniature snap-action switch. As implied by its name, the micro switch is a switch that calls for a comparatively miniature movement of the actuator button, with the intention of producing a relatively large amount of high velocity motion of the electrical contacts in spite of the speed of actuation.

Micro switches are popular and their use is widespread. This is attributed to their relatively low cost, as well as high durability. They undergo more than one million cycles; for heavy duty models, this may go up to ten million cycles. There are many places and gadgets that require micro switches for proper functioning. Some of these areas include machinery, vehicles, industrial controls, appliances, and numerous other areas for control of electrical circuits. Some common but particular areas where micro switches are employed include the door interlock systems on microwave ovens, safety and levelling switches in elevators, detection of faults in photocopiers, such as paper jams, and vending machines. Miniature snap-action switches are frequently made use of in tamper switches on gate valves of fire sprinkler systems, in addition to other water piping systems. In this application, it is vital to be conscious of whether valve has been shut, or it is open.

Combined Lego Motor & Gearbox:

Figure VIII

There are DC motors that were provided in Lego kit. These motors are great for building robots in view of the fact that they are powerful and compact. They normally rotate at thousands of rotations per minute.

Nevertheless, most electric motors are in actual fact lacking in torque. In other words, this can be attributed to the fact that they cannot push incredibly hard. If hooked directly up to the motor’s shaft, we can note that it can hardly rotate the wheel, let alone nudge a whole robot.

Despite the fact that they have inadequate torque, what they do have in plenty, is speed. In reality, if the shaft is running freely, it can rotate at a rate of numerous thousands revolutions per minute. As a result, this speed is much faster than what one wants for a robot to drive in any case. Therefore, we could do with gearboxes with the intention of trading some of this unnecessary speed for additional torque.

Figure IX

The LEGO system is composed of a wide range of gears with varying functions (Brooks, 1986). On the other hand, for universal purposes, 8, 24, and 40-tooth gears can be employed. These are the easiest and most efficient to utilize of the group for the reason that their diameters are selected, such that they can be interlocked with one another at standard LEGO distances.

Through gear reductions, one is able to translate speed into torque (or the other way round by application of this technique in reverse). Suppose an 8-tooth gear is employed in turning a 24-tooth gear. Given that the smaller gear is required to rotate three times in order to turn the large gear once, the axle with the 8-tooth gear spins faster than the other.

As a result of this exchange for this reduction in speed, the axle is now able to apply three times as much torque. Consequently, this generates a gear reduction ratio of 3:1. This implies that we are relinquishing a factor of three of speed and swapping it over for production of three times the torque.

Lego parts

Figure X

Each component of the LEGO has its work cut out for it (Overmars. 2000). A number of those components are available and are simply used to join two parts that are not able to be stick together with one another.

A number of other parts, for instance rollers, are supposed to hook up the wheels with a few other parts of the robot with the intention of making the wheels move with mush ease. What is more, a number of parts are large in size, which could be utilized as the base of the robot; therefore, we could place many parts on.

In addition, they could be used to connect parts that are relatively far away in distance from each other. A good number of the components that we employed in the creation of our robot were the thick red bars and long red bars that assisted us in connection between the wheels.

Into the bargain, we used the big bars that have a large area to make use of it as the base of our robot. Furthermore, we could include on those big bars with the broad areas handy board, the battery, and a number of small components that could furnish a better look to our robot. In addition, we made use of the linking parts to a large extent that is on grey to join the parts which we experienced a few difficulties in connecting them together.

Assembly Part – (Name of team member who did this part)

Grabbing Mechanism

The hardest part of the whole project was finding a solution to the problem of grabbing flip over the puck. So as to come across a superior and realistic arm, we stumbled upon a possible like way out on the internet (Williamson, 1998).

The ultimate form of the grabbing piece of equipment has two motors; the work of one of the motors was to spin the arm, while the other motor had to push the meteorite aside.

Chassis

The chassis had to have enough strong in order to give support to handy board, batteries, and all the other sensors that the robot needed.

Figure XI

Sensors (Name of team member who did this part)

It is worth noting that sensors are the most significant components of the robot (“How to Make a Robot – Lesson 7: Using Sensors”, 2011). When robots have them, they are able to feel, look at and make out the disparity in their surroundings.

To enable the robot to verify whether there existed a puck or meteorite in the vicinity of the loading area, we employed one blue led as well as one phototransistor. The purpose of the blue LED was to give off a light beam that would be used by the phototransistor.

There are cases when the beam light would be broken; this means that a puck or meteorite is in the loading region. After verifying this and finding a puck in the region, the function of the second phototransistor was to verify the colour of the puck.

Readings ranged from 50 to 185 for the red puck. On the other hand, readings were larger than 200 for blue puck. The function of the third phototransistor was to rummage around for the base light with the intention of finding a way back to the base. In case the indicated value was less than 10, this showed the correct direction to the base.

An infra red (IR) emitter/detector was made use of with the purpose of determining the exact location of the base. In case the indicated value was higher than 236, then the location of the black line and subsequently, the location of the goal area was illustrated.

In addition, the Infra red (IR) range finder was employed in the verification of the ultimate position of the goal area. Lastly, the 4 micro switches were used to “feel” the obstacles as the robot moved around.

Motors and the Motor drive mechanism

As a result of restriction on the available materials and constituent parts of LEGO, the drive mechanism was made to order for two motors.

Figure XII

The steering mechanism of the robot was very heavy. The robot used big wheels at the front, and small ones at the rear.

The option of making use of rear small wheels was attributed to minimising friction, as well as having a good manoeuvrability. The robot created had major strength; it was very robust. The robustness of the robot ensured that it continued to manoeuvre in every environment it was subjected to.

Conclusion

This project report has covered all the things the team worked on in the hope of producing a successful robot. In addition, the report also looked at the constituent parts that were used to create the robot, and how the team employed them with the aim of building a physically powerful and innovative robot that could not be easily damaged or broken.

In addition to that, the project report offers a number of concise ideas in relation to the Interactive C (IC) program and the Handy board. The IC program was used to program the robot so that it could be able to perform the mission as the team wanted it to do.

I believe that this activity was an extremely interesting experience. The fact that were could be responsible for creation of a robot that could do a fine job by holding a verifying, collecting and putting a puck in its rightful place as the required by the task.

The only initial challenge we faced was the manner in which we could thrust the arms of the robot into the exact place, and how the team could make them turn. This was soon overcome and the team successfully completed the task.

References

Brooks. R.A. (1986) A robust layered control system for a mobile robot. IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation, RA-2:14–23.

“How to Make a Robot – Lesson 7: Using Sensors.” (2011) Go Robotics. Web.

Jones, J.L., Flynn, A. M. and Seiger, B.A., 1999. Mobile Robots: Inspiration to Implementation. Massachusetts: A K Peters, Ltd.

Martin, F.G., 2001. Robotic Explorations: a Hands-on Introduction to Engineering. Massachusetts: Prentice Hall.

Martin, F.G.,1994. Circuits to Control: Learning Engineering by Designing LEGO Robots, doctoral dissertation, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts Inst. of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

McKerrow, P.J., 1993. Introduction to Robotics. Boston: Addison-Wesley.

Overmars, M., 2000. Lego robots tips and tricks. Web.

Papert S. and Harel, I. eds.,1991. Constructionism. Westport, Conn.: Ablex.

Sutton, R.S. and Barto, A.G.,1998. Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.

Williamson, B., 1998. The Lego: FetchBot. Freelug. Web.

Project ‘Cyborg’ is perhaps one of the most interesting projects in the science and technology of robotics. However, experiments involved in the project equally attract some ethical concerns due to its use of human beings as laboratory animals.

Pioneered by Ken Warwick, a renowned British professor of robotics at the University of Reading, project Cyborg aims at developing robots that can mimic humans through a connection between the control center of the robot and human nervous system (Warwick, 2004a).

Moreover, it aims at controlling robots from a remote location. In addition, it aims at connecting the nervous systems of two people in order to observe the possible control a person can have over a robot. Although the experiment has been developed in the modern world, there is a lot to be compared between Project Cyborg and project ‘New Electrical Apparatus’ by Nicholson and Carlisle in late 18^th century.

Specifically, it is arguable that the two experiments raise relatively similar and equal concerns over the use of human nervous system in self-experimentation. This is especially because the two experiments involve interfering with the physiological integrity of the nerves and flow of stimuli by introducing an external electric current.

The purpose of this discussion is to address the question ‘ethically speaking, is the self-experimentation done by Nicholson and Carlisle significantly different from the self-experimentation Ken Warwick is doing on himself for Project Cyborg?’

In this project, which started in 1998, a number of arrays were developed into an electrode and implanted as a chip into the median fibers of Professor Warwick’s left arm (Warwick, 2004a). The array was passed through a surgical incision below the professor’s elbow joint, which allowed the surgeons to insert a microelectrode array into the body and enabling it fire some electric stimulus into the professor’s nerve fibers.

The neural interface developed between the microarray chip and the nerve endings of the professor’s arm successfully enabled the human subject (Professor Warwick) to control an intelligent (artificial) hand as well as an electric wheelchair. This proved that humans could control robots using a neural interface, which makes the robots ‘think’ and act as humans (Warwick, 2004a).

Secondly, the project went ahead to assume a remote functionality, where a connection between the microchip in the professor’s hand (then Columbia University, USA) and a robotic arm in the university of Reading through the internet. In this way, Professor Warwick was able to control the remote arm through this online connection, adding to the proof that robots can mimic humans in remote locations.

Finally, the project assumed a bidirectional functioning, where another chip implanted in the left arm of Warwick’s wife allowed a purely electronic communication between the nervous systems of the two subjects (Warwick, 2004b).

Ethically and scientifically speaking, the experiments in project Cyborg have a number of similarities with the ‘self-experiments’ by William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle in late 18^th century.

First, Nicholson (1800) report that they used their own bodies to feel the effect of an electric current generated electrochemically by inserting piles of zinc rods in a bath of salty water and connecting them through a wire to silver leads of similar sizes inserted in the same bath (Nicholson, 1800).

As the two scientists attempted to investigate the discoveries by Volta, they extensively exposed their bodies to electric currents of differing magnitudes.

This is quite similar to the connection between Professor Warwick’s nerves and the electronic array in the implanted chip. In fact, the electronic connection between the nerves and the external electric current in both experiments was felt as an ‘interference’ with the physiological flow of synaptic stimuli through human nerves.

Secondly, it raises a question of ethics when considering the fact that the need to determine the intensity and extent of the connection between the biological and synthetic stimulus was an area of interest, and that exposing the internal surfaces of the body was done through inserting the external stimulus by an incision on the skin.

Although the case of project Cyborg involved a purely clinical process that ensured a safe insertion of the chip under the professor’s skin, it is quite similar to the case of the project by Nicholson and Carlisle, where a wound was used to convey electric currents to the nerve endings below the human skin (Nicholson, 1800).

Finally, an ethical concern emerges in the practices involved in both experiments because in both cases, the purpose is to prove a chemical/electrical question rather than solving a medical problem. In fact, although Project Cyborg included some medical expertise, the purpose is significantly similar to the project by Nicholson and Carlisle largely because a medical achievement is not one of their aims.

In conclusion, counterarguments against this thesis may arise. For instance, it is possible to argue that the two experiments are ethically different because Project Cyborg involved a clinical approach, while Nicholson and Carlisle’s experiment was largely unhygienic because a wound was used as an incision to reach the nerve endings.

In addition, it can be argued that although the two projects involved some steps that could interfere with human nerves, Project Cyborg is much ethical than the accidental experiment of the 18^th century. This is because Warwick and his colleagues had the modern information and necessary resources to measure the potential impact of interfering with the nerves, and thereby providing an effective solution.

References

Nicholson, W. (1800). Account of the New Electrical Apparatus of Sig. Alex. Volta. Nicholson’s Journal of Natural Philosophy, 4, 179–187.

Warwick, K. (2004a). I, Cyborg. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Warwick, K. (2004b). The next step towards true Cyborgs? Web.

Introduction

In the year 1988, the Abu Dhabi Women College opened its doors as one of the higher colleges of technology. The college was started with the aim of attending to the educational needs of the female students in a country where education was predominated by male student. This college has realized increased growth in the number of student since its inception. It is rated as the largest college among the existing 14 campuses.

The current enrollment of students exceeds 2500 per year. In the year 2009, the college opened a second banch in the city of khalifa to cater for the students who encounter problems relocating to the capital city. The college has several faculties namely business, communication and information technology, education, and health sciences. The instruction language of the college is English.

The college offers its study programs as diplomas, higher diplomas, bachelor degree, masters and doctorate degrees. The main administration personnel and building are found at the main campus in Abu Dhabi. The senior management includes chancellor, vice chancellor, deputy vice chancellor and deans. This report targets at implementing a robot that can make tours for visitors to the Abu Dhabi women college.

Current system

The college provides third level education that is conducted in universities. ADWC, also, hosts pupils who are in the 10 to 12 grade from both government and private institutions. The purpose of this hosting is to enlighten the upcoming student on what they should expect in the higher education institutions.

Furthermore, the students are advised on methods that they can apply to reach their academic goals. The occasion is steered by school faculty staff and volunteer students who take the junior student through the experience of high school education and introduce them to tertiary education experience.

The lectures and teachers play another role of providing technical information. The lecturers are responsible for informing the visiting student on the various programs that the university offers within their area of expertise. In addition, lectures explain how each of the degree programs is subdivided to facilitate specialization.

This means that, the lectures take the student through combination of subjects that a student needs to take at the 12^th grade and the required points that are needed for one to be enrolled in a certain program. Also, lectures take the student through the careers opportunities that are associated with a certain line of specialization.

Faculty members play a role in the tours. The staffs are responsible for taking the young women through the operation of the university. In this regard, staff members take up position at their station of duty. For instance, the student will be guided through the operation procedural of the library by the librarians while laboratory procedures will be handled by the laboratory technicians.

Student volunteers take up the bulk part of the work that goes on during these tours. First, these volunteer students are responsible on preparing the operations for those students who will visit to the university. This means that they will design tour places and tour schedule for the visiting students. Secondly, they identify the number of student that could be handled effectively.

The university allows 120 students from each school. The student will, therefore, identify which schools to invite and how to balance the schools in order to expose as many students as possible from different school to expectations of university education.

The assembly hall serves as the convergence point. This is where the students are subdivided into smaller groups of 30 students. At the assembly hall, the lectures step in to explain on various issues as mentioned earlier. This role is carried out by a minimum of six lecturers. After the talk, the students are taken through various school facilities where they are guided by the people in charge.

The role of the students is to guide the visiting students in finding directions and controlling their movement. After the tour, another bunch of volunteer student will be waiting at block B to help the student fill in the survey forms. This survey helps the university to evaluate whether these students benefited from the tour.

The current system is manual and slows the operation of the university. Although the program has a good intent, it should not be at the expense of the efficient learning process of the current students. As such, the following are the challenges, advantages and disadvantages of this system.

Challenges of the current system

Adherence to the number limit is not always observed. This means that the student send invitation to school requesting them to send 120 students per school. Some school has violated that requirement concessionary. This will result to confusion among the volunteer who are compelled to guide a large number of student.

In several occasions, the student service has been forced to seek additional staff from other departments since they are overwhelmed by the number of visiting pupils. This happens especially when the student are filling in the survey form.

When invitation is sent, the invited institution is required to confirm its attendance. In many occasions, some institutions have cancelled their attendance during the last minutes. This is disadvantageous to the university since it will amount to wastage of resources. Other invited schools confirm their attendance but fail to show on the event.

This causes a lot of mix up and time wastage since the organizers have planned for a specific number of visitor but they experience a short fall in that number. This, further, means that the volunteering students will have wasted their time preparing for that day.

The university ensures balances on invitation to ensure that each school within their reach has a fair chance for invitation. This means that not all available schools are invited. As a result, the university invites specific schools each year. However, some schools do not get in touch with the university to confirm or cancel their attendance. This, therefore, causes the difficulties in the planning process.

The process lowers the functioning rate of school operation. This is because of some personnel taking part in the event organization and actualization not being available to conduct their routine duties. This means that some services will not be available. If the services are available, they will be at a slow pace.

Advantages of the current system

1. The tour offers exposure to young students which will help them to psychological prepare for higher education.
2. The students interact with other students from other institutions. This helps them to share ideas and establish useful peer networks.
3. The students gain information on career paths and career opportunities that are associated with certain degree specialties.
4. The students get insights on how to match their talent and career choices.
5. The tour helps the university in fulfilling its social obligation of nurturing young talents.
6. The volunteer students develop role of civic and professional responsibility to taking part in shaping of the society.
7. The tour provides an interactive platform between university student and pupils.

Disadvantages of the current system

1. The students miss crucial classes especially those taking practical classes.
2. The teachers waste a lot of student’s class time when the pupils go on this tour.
3. The lecturers miss lectures since they are involved in guiding the students on degree programs.
4. The tour slows university operations due to involvement of student, lecturers and faculty staff in this tour.

The main disadvantage of this system is loss of time. This has led to a thought of development of robotic system that will take over from the manual system. The system is meant to improve on the advantages that are associated with current system and eliminate disadvantages of the current system.

Robot system

The robot set for development focuses on doing real human tasks. The success of the robot will be facilitated by coupling with specificities that are developed through feasibility study.

The application space that is meant to influence the development of this robot involves manipulation of tasks in human scale. The study case relies on the event where the college hosts pupils in 10^th to 12^th grade which are the most complex. The robot should fulfill the following essentials.

Safety

A robot is meant to function in a human capacity scale. This means that it will interact with human beings especially in taking instruction.

The robot will, therefore, have measures to secure and guarantee safety during execution of activities. This safety is emphasized through robotic structure and design. At this point, structure of the robot must be rigid enough to handle breakage, obstacle, weather fluctuation and movement (Baer, 2008).

Machine learning

Adopting a robot will translate into making the tour an occasion of machine learning. In this mode of learning, the robot will take the responsibility of explaining and taking pupils through the required curriculum coverage of the tour. This means that the tour will be generalized in order to facilitate uniformity of content coverage.

Information management systems

The flow of information in an organization is facilitated by an established information management system (Hunt, 1983). The system should be well structured to meet the dynamic and organizational structure. It should, therefore, convey accurate information.

Communication breakdown is caused by failure of information management system which leads to confusion and inappropriate decision making. The following are systems that should be installed to enable effective operation of the robotic system.

Artificial intelligence system

Artificial intelligence system is a wide range of research that facilities development of computer based systems capable of simulating human behavior. The robot is required to have this system for its semi-autonomous nature.

This will be vital in saving time to execute routine instruction as well reprogramming non-routine actions. The robots will not only be used in the tours, but also in other functions that the university undertakes that involves visitors.

Expert system

This is an advanced artificial intelligence system technology. The system will ask users a series of questions in order to determine the required answer. Under this system, it attempts to codify and manipulate knowledge other than information.

The installation of the system is important in handling the explanations of technical issues such as explaining the career opportunities and explaining degree programs offered by the university. In addition, this system will help the robots to assist the controlling staff on the event progress. This is due to its capacity on addressing certain issues at a particular time.

Executive information system

This is the highest level of information system that will be installed in the robot. The system will be accessed by the senior management staff. It will help in collecting data from the visiting pupils and presenting it to the senior management staff. This will enhance policy makers to get the data without any human error or manipulation.

Data categorization

Various departments in an organization require different information in order to function effectively (Kang, 2011). The information management should, therefore, establish a criterion to categorize, differentiate and move data to a step further in establishing the most effective means of relaying information to the relevant audience.

There will be relatively large amount of data that is supposed to be collected and disseminated during that event. This means that the robot must have a system that will categorize data at a given period. In addition, the categorization criterion will be needed in storing acquired information in the right section of storage devices of the computer.

Data Collection Confidentiality

Organizations are sometimes caught up in wrangles that require information gathering through investigations. In such cases, there should be a well established system and strict rules regarding confidentiality (Harres, 2013). The organization should prioritize the safety of information sources first. Such systems should, also, be applied in handling of complains, recommendations and complements.

In cases where there are more than professional relations and personal relationships, there should be a clear directions to uphold professionalism. The robot will serve as a good method to enhance confidentiality of the data. This is because a pupil who may experience some unpleasant behavior from a student or staff can file a complaint with the robot without fears.

Information control

There are two methods used in information controls. These are decentralized information control system and centralized control system. The technicalities of these two systems arise with relative sizes of events. Decentralized control strategy involves controlling information from various automated centers. However, they must follow the guidelines provided by the head office.

On the other hand, centralized strategy control involves coordination of information from one central point. These two aspects of information management will be applied by the robotic system.

This means that the robots will be programmed to disseminate certain level of information relating to the university. This will be regulated by the university head office. In addition, the level of information disseminated by the various faculties and departments will be determined from the people in charge.

Relevance of the Information

Information management should incorporate a system of filtering out unnecessary information from reaching the target audience. Relevance of data saves time in the decision making process and improves the quality of decisions made. The pupils who attend the tour are in 10^th to 12^th grade. This means that the robot has to manage the information so that it covers on the universal needs of each of the three grades.

For instance, if a student attends the tour in her 10^th, 11th and 12^th grades, she will only learn about the same thing for the three visits. A robotic system will ensure that the pupils in the three grades cover different material such that the pupils are assured of different topic coverage if they visit thrice to the university. This helps the system to deliver relevant information for each grade.

Challenges to the Robotic System

The main challenge is controlling information. There is no standard measure of determining the needs of every pupil. Each student will have unique expectation from visiting to the university. The robotic system is generalized and sidelines cases that are unique. The system will, therefore, face challenges in answering questions.

The student may be reluctant to interact with the robot. Considering the state of technological advancement in the United Arab Emirates, few pupils have ever seen a robot. This will create excitement among students or disseminate others into induction of fear. The system fails to deliver due to limited interaction with the system.

Advantages

1. The robotic system saves student time. This is because the students will not be required to aid in visiting students through the institution. This will be done by the robots.
2. The system will save preparation time. Student, staff and lecturers spend a lot of time preparing materials that to be used for the educational tour in the university. This will be eliminated since only one copy will be required to update all the robots.
3. Pupils will be interested in understanding how the robots work. This may influence students into taking a lot of interest in science and technology.
4. The robotic system enables automated collection of data and data categorization during the end of tour survey.
5. The robotic system enables the university to study on methods of improving machine learning.
6. The robotic system will not be affected by the number of pupils who turn up for the event.
7. The robot can be taken to the individual schools instead of arranging journeys to transport students to the college.
8. The robotic system eliminates time wastage since it is effective in implementing its tasks without delays.
9. The system eliminates the chance of slowing down university operations

Disadvantages

1. The robotics system eliminates the platform where university and pupils can interact.
2. The method may not determine the optimal information to disseminate especially when responding to non-structured questions.
3. The robot will still require supervision since the pupil may tamper with it
4. The system is disadvantageous to people with disabilities such as sight and hearing.

Conclusion

Technology has revolutionized the way human beings have been carrying out their activities. In this regard, robots have become knowledgeable friends to man. This is because they have the ability to carry out human simulations.

Although there is no university that is known to have a robotic system responsible for taking visitors around the school, there are reasons to believe that such a system will come to be in the future. It will be an honor if our university was the first to generate such a system.

References

Baer, P. A. (2008). Platform-Independent Development of Robot Communication Software. Kassel: Kassel Univ. Press.

Harres, D. (2013). MSP430-based Robot Applications A Guide to Developing Embedded Systems. Burlington: Elsevier Science.

Hunt, V. D. (1983). Industrial robotics handbook. New York, N.Y: Industrial Press.

Kang, S. (2011). Robot development using Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Robotic Welding

Modern technologies are transforming the way manufacturing companies and suppliers of raw materials pursue their objectives. Such innovations improve the levels of efficiency and productivity, thereby making it possible for companies to achieve their business goals. This discussion gives a detailed analysis of robotic welding and its benefits.

Definition

The emergence of robots is a modern development associated with human technological breakthroughs. Epping and Zhang (2018) define robotic welding as the utilization of programmable systems and tools that mechanize and automate the way welding is done. The developed robots are capable of handling the targeted parts and completing the welding process successfully (“The benefits of robotic,” 2020). The attributes associated with this invention explain why it has become common in different sectors.

Advantages and Disadvantages

This form of welding has unique advantages that make it favorable for many manufacturing companies. First, the process minimizes the overall costs of production in different industries (“Top ten advantages,” n.d.). Second, robotic welding is precise and capable of handling large metal parts. Third, the technology can operate in unforgiving conditions or environments, such as increased temperatures (Epping & Zhang, 2018). Fourth, robot welding is accurate and minimizes potential errors.

Several disadvantages make robotic welding inappropriate or ineffective for many organizations. The first one is that huge startup costs are needed to implement this form of technology (“What are the advantages,” n.d.). The second one is that different professionals and programmers are needed to monitor the operational effectiveness of the welding process (Epping & Zhang, 2018). The third bottleneck is that the system might not detect defections and will weld continuously depending on the installed software. Finally, many companies relying on robotic welding have increased chances of recording poor production when such technologies collapse.

Helping Industries and Manufacturers

The unique benefits of this technology influence its adoption and implementation in different industries and manufacturing companies. While the initial cost for setting up the system might be quite high, many organizations would consider the technology since it can streamline operations and deliver positive results within a short period (“What are the advantages,” n.d). Epping and Zhang (2018) indicate that the process enables companies to acquire the required parts just in time (JIT) and place them on the assembly line. The technology will become part of the lean manufacturing process and maximize production.

In the recent past, many businesses and industries have been focusing on some of the best ways to minimize wastes. The JIT and lean models have been found reliable for delivering this outcome (“Robotic welding advantages”, 2015). Robotic welding makes it possible for such organizations to complete numerous tasks depending on the targeted outcomes while at the same time monitoring defects (Kah et al., 2015). This approach becomes an evidence-based model for minimizing wastes.

Robotic welding technology has been observed to reduce costs of production, deliver high-quality joints, and increase the number of parts welded within a short period. This development is making it possible for many industries to maximize productivity and meet the demands of the increasing number of customers (Epping & Zhang, 2018). The handling of intricate joints explains why this technology will continue to play a positive role in many manufacturing industries.

Conclusion

The above discussion has identified robotic welding as a modern invention that makes it easier for many corporations to achieve their business objectives. The method is fast and capable of decreasing the costs of production and wastes. Manufacturing industries should, therefore, rely on robotic technologies to maximize the satisfaction levels of their clients. Consequently, more organizations will achieve their goals and remain profitable in their respective sectors.

References

1. The benefits of robotic welding in small businesses. (2020). Web.
2. Epping, K., & Zhang, H. (2018). A sustainable decision-making framework for transitioning to robotic welding for small and medium manufacturers. Sustainability, 10(10), 3651-3668. Web.
3. Kah, P., Shrestha, M., Hiltunen, E., & Martikainen, J. (2015). Robotic arc welding sensors and programming in industrial applications. International Journal of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, 10(13). Web.
4. Robotic welding advantages. (2015). Web.
5. Top ten advantages of robotic welding. (n.d.). Web.
6. What are the advantages of robot welding over manual welding? (n.d.). Web.

Introduction

Double Robotics is the creator of Double, a telepresence robot. The robot is based on lateral stability control, self-balancing, and dual kickstands technologies, which allow its simply controlled motion and parking without deteriorating the quality of image transmission (Double Robotics, n.d.). The communication is performed through an iPad, a camera kit, and an audio kit. Doublerobotics.com is the company’s website that provides information about Double, customer stories, and purchasing service.

Online Goals

The goals of the Doublerobotics.com website are to familiarize audiences with the telepresence industry and to convince both corporate and individual potential customers to purchase a robot. There is a wide range of areas and activities where telepresence robots can be used, including attending business meetings and production sites, inspections, medical care, and education (Tsui, Desai, Yanco, & Uhlik, 2011).

The Double Robotics Company claims to be the creator of “the world’s leading telepresence robot” (Double Robotics, n.d., para. 1). For three years, the company has been distributing its products, which currently include Double 2 Full Set and 360 Camera Dolly, as well as separate components of these two sets. The website is concise and straightforward. It features short explanations of the products’ use, frequently asked questions, and customers’ stories. The target audiences identified on the website are businesses, learners, and filmmakers (Double Robotics, n.d.). The pricing section is divided into three parts according to these categories of potential customers.

Actions Available to Users

Besides browsing through the content, Doublerobotics.com users can create accounts, write comments for blog posts, share content in social networking services, and order products. One of the contact options is sending an email to the support service. Another contact option is available when a user returns to the Doublerobotics.com tab after leaving it inactive for some time. A window appears that offers a multiple-choice question, “Why are you leaving the website?” and an open-ended question, “How could we improve the website?” (Double Robotics, n.d.).

It is repeatedly suggested on the website that in case a user does not find the needed information, he or she can call the company’s support service. The telephone number in California is provided with the indication of the appropriate time for a call.

Conversion Events

Conversion events are users’ actions that are associated with achieving the goals of a website. There are many ways to evaluate how much users are interested in a website’s product and how likely they are to purchase it based on their behavior on the website. First of all, deep navigation, i.e., visiting a large number of the website’s pages, is a sign of interest. Users who visit the FAQ page and the Contact Us page also demonstrate their potential interest in buying the product. Other conversion events that can be defined for Doublerobotics.com are contacting the support service, either by filling in a form or making a phone call, searching for information on the website, sharing the content, clicking the link to the Driver App available on the App Store, and browsing through the pricing information.

Applicable Data Filters

The website’s content is sorted according to the categorization of potential customers. The major categories are business and education. Another possible categorization of visitors is recognizing two groups: one is potential users of the technology, and the other one is technicians and developers. Potential users are only interested in general information about the structure, composition, and operation of Doubles. Such visitors pay more attention to the use of the technology, i.e., they spend more time on the website’s sections with customer’s stories. Technicians and developers browse for more details about the way Doubles work, including the data on the lateral stability control, self-balancing, and developer resources.

KPIs and Metrics

For most websites that offer to purchase certain products, KPIs include the time spent on the website, the number of visited segments, and the number of clicks. The higher these indicators are, the closer a website is to its goals. Based on specific characteristics of Doublerobotics.com identified above (goals, available actions, conversion events, and categorization of users), specific KPIs can be identified to include the number of registered users, comments to blog posts, messages to the support service, and likes and shares in social networking services. All these data should be compared to the company’s sales to calculate such metrics indices as conversion rate and revenue per visit, per click, per share, and per contact.

User Stories

As a marketing manager, I would like to know the ratio of repeat visitors to new visitors and the conversion rate for each of these categories. As a social media marketing specialist, I would like to know what content from the website is most shared in social networking services. As a developer, I would like to receive the users’ feedback from technology-related posts on the website’s blog. As a website administrator, I would like to know which pages were viewed the most by users who ultimately ordered the product. As a company’s decision-maker, I would like to know which products are most viewed and most ordered on the website.

References

Double Robotics. (n.d.). Work from everywhere. Web.

Tsui, K. M., Desai, M., Yanco, H. A., & Uhlik, C. (2011). Exploring use cases for telepresence robots. In 2011 6th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) (pp. 11-18). Lausanne, Switzerland: EPFL.

Introduction/Brief overview

Introduces readers to what will be discussed in the paper and to the would-be reviewed articles by Bolonkin and Clocksin

One of the main aspects of today’s living is the fact that, as time goes on, more and more people grow increasingly concerned about the possibility for robots (endowed with artificial intelligence) to eventually replace humans, as the next step of evolution.

There is, however, much of a controversy to the issue in question – whereas, some social scientists consider the mentioned prospect thoroughly plausible, others believe that there are no objective preconditions to expect that the exponential progress in the field of IT will eventually deem the representatives of Homo Sapiens species ‘outdated’. The validity of this suggestion can be illustrated with the help of two recent studies.

Published in 2004, the article titled Twenty-First Century – The Beginning of Human Immortality and written by Alexander Bolonkin represents a peculiar perspective on the subject of immortality in general and the DNA research aimed at locating and influencing the gene responsible for aging in particular. The article first appeared in the journal named Kibernetes and made a breakthrough at the time. According to Bolonkin,

William Clocksin, in his turn, wrote his article in 2004 and titled it Artificial Intelligence and the Future. The article was published in the 361^st volume of the journal Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences and explored the possibility of creating artificial intelligence (AI). To be more specific, Clocksin questions the very possibility of creating AI, as, by definition, intelligence can only be attributed to life forms and not technology, which is merely a tool and, therefore, cannot produce original ideas.

The reason for this is that these articles provide the conceptually incompatible outlooks on what artificial intelligence (AI) really is, and on what account for the qualitative aspects of its functioning. This, of course, implies that the reading of both articles is a must for just about anyone, who strives to form its own logically substantiated opinion, regarding the hypothetical prospect at stake.

Summary

Summarizes the main ideas of each of the mentioned articles.

The main idea, promoted throughout the entirety of Bolonkin’s article, is that the very laws of evolution presuppose the process of people growing increasingly less ‘biological’, which in turn suggests that one day; it will indeed become possible saving one’s consciousness (soul) onto the computer’s hard-drive – hence, allowing humans to attain immortality. Moreover, it will also result in the creation of the so-called ‘e-creatures’, who will have very little to do with the former ways of humanity.

As the author pointed out: “E-creatures will be made of super strong steels and alloys, their brain will be working on radioactive batteries, and power will be supplied by compact nuclear reactors, they will not need air, warmth, water, food, clothes, shelter…” (Bolonkin 1540). In the specified excerpt, the author appeals to the reader’s sense of awe for the grandeur of future science.

It is obvious that Bolonkin exaggerates, yet the picture that he creates by mentioning the scale of future discoveries fuels the reader’s imagination, therefore, making the argument in favor of AI all the more impressive.

The pathos of the article, therefore, comes out in full blue in the specified text. It is quite peculiar that Bolonkin uses negation in order to stir the audience’s delight; more impressively, the specified approach works – the pathos is concealed not in the description of the possibilities, but the compliment that the researcher makes to the power of the human mind.

This idea, however, appears utterly inconsistent with the line of argumentation (as to the prospects of AI), contained in Clocksin’s article. According to the author, one’s intelligence is not being solely concerned with the processing of data in the algorithmic manner, as it happened to be the case with AI – it reflects the varying ability of the concerned individual to properly react to the externally induced stimuli.

As Clocksin noted: “The architecture of animal brains… (is) quite different from the digital computer: a densely interconnected network having comparatively low transmission rate exhibiting alarmingly high levels of stochasticity” (1726). What it means is that, in order for a particular neurological system to be considered intelligent, it must be thoroughly interconnected with the surrounding natural environment.

In other words, people’s intelligence cannot be discussed outside of their endowment with physical bodies, which implies that the creation of ‘non-physical’ but intelligent robots will prove impossible. Thus, there is indeed a good reason to refer to the mentioned articles as being discursively incompatible. Clocksin, unlike Bolonkin discussed above, attempts at appealing to the logics of the audience and puts a stake on the coherency and clarity of his argument.

The researcher, therefore, talks to the reader directly and makes it possible for the dialogue to be established between the author and the audience. This creates the atmosphere that contributes to the development of a unique atmosphere, in which the reader may explore the possibilities of science together with the researcher; as a result, an illusion of a dialogue is created.

This stands in a sharp contrast to what Bolonkin offers; the latter tricks the reader into viewing the future, yet these visions do not involve the presence of the narrator. Herein the key difference between Pathos and Logos lies –while the latter appeals to logics, the former attacks the reader’s imagination, and the two articles in question demonstrate the potential of each concept quite well.

Rhetorical analysis

Identifies the most prominently defined rhetorical devices, deployed in each article.

Both of the reviewed articles also differ, in regards to what appear to be the main rhetorical devices, deployed by the authors. For example, while presenting readers with his line of argumentation, Bolonkin mainly relies on the so-called ‘appeal to pathos’ – hence, the sheer emotional intensity of how he describes the ways of the ‘robotized’ future: “E-creatures will be able to travel freely in the desert, the Arctic and the Antarctic regions, sub-atmosphere, mountain summits, the bottom of the ocean” (1541).

Clocksin, on the other hand, strives to appeal to the readers’ sense of ‘logos’, while arguing that there can be no ‘revolution of robots’, by definition, since there will be no need for them to compete with humans, in the first place. In its turn, this implies that Clocksin’s article is primarily meant to appeal to the analytically minded individuals, who do not allow their emotions to define the ways of how they perceive the surrounding reality.

Despite the fact that both articles handle seemingly similar issues, the way, in which the information is represented to the reader, differs greatly in each source. As it has been stressed above, Clocksin invites the audience for a dialogue, which seems a touch more welcoming than the approach that Bolonkin uses in his article. The latter, in his turn, attempts at creating the impression of a solid study.

Both approaches have their positive and negative aspects; for example, Bolonkin’s article seems a touch more credible because of the use of well thought out arguments that appeal to the reader’s common sense. However, this approach does not allow for creating a link between the author and the audience.

Clocksin, on the contrary, can be viewed as less convincing, yet his manner of talking to the reader leaves the latter willing to explore the issue further.

Comparison

Compares what can be considered the discursive significance of Bolonkin’s article against that of Clocksin.

It appears that the main reason why Bolonkin decided to proceed with writing his article, is that he happened to be fascinated with the very idea of ‘trans-humanism’, according to which, it will be thoroughly natural for humans to be eventually turned into robots.

This explains why there is the strongly defined propagandistic spirit to Twenty-First Century – The Beginning of Human Immortality – as if the author was the least concerned with ensuring the scientific validity of his line of argumentation.

The article’s main purpose is to popularize the notion of ‘robotic immortality’ among as many people, as possible. The same cannot be said about Clocksin’s article – it is there to enlighten readers on a wide array of conceptual approaches to AI, regardless of whether they correlate with that of the author’s own or not.

Discussion

Expounds upon what appear to be the main benefits of one’s exposure to the articles in question.

There can be indeed only a few doubts that the reading of both articles did increase my understanding of the topic. In the aftermath of having read them, I learned that:

1. In the future, the ongoing technological progress will allow people to take full advantage of their existential potential.
2. As time goes on, the robotics-technologies will be helping more and more individuals to enhance their lives to the extent that their ancestors could only dream of.
3. There is no much rationale in expecting the ‘uprising of robots’, simply because there are no objective prerequisites for AI to begin functioning in the same manner, as it happened to be the case with human brain.
4. As of today, there are no even any theoretical ideas, as to how AI could adopt the subtleties of ‘humanness’, as it is often being portrayed in the sci-fi movies.

Analysis

Explains how both articles could be used, within the context of how one may go about participating in the discursively relevant discussions.

It is understood, of course, that both of the reviewed articles can be well used, when it comes down to either promoting the concept of ‘trans-humanism’, as such that has been predetermined to emerge by the very laws of history, or exposing this suggestion, as such that does not hold much water. For example, the reading of Bolonkin’s article would do well for those who, due to being utterly religious, prefer to live in the state of a perceptual arrogance – especially when the technology-related issues are being concerned.

Alternatively, the exposure to Clocksin’s article should prove beneficial to those individuals who seriously believe that it will be eventually possible to for one’s consciousness to be ‘freed’ of its biological carrier (body), without ceasing to remain thoroughly conscious, in the conventional sense of this word.

Conclusion

Concludes the paper and mentions the identified unresolved question.

The main conclusion, in respect to what has been said earlier, can be formulated as follows: Even though human societies will indeed continue becoming increasingly ‘robotized’ in the future, the idea that AI can ever surpass human brain, in the sense of how it defines the interrelationship between causes and effects, does not stand any ground.

Apparently, those who promote the ideas of ‘trans-humanism’, are not being aware of the simple fact that the notion of ‘intelligence’ is much more related to the notion of ‘interactivity’ than to the notion of ‘calculation’.

The most easily notable unresolved question, in this regard, can be well identified the fact that, even though there is no any immediate danger for humanity to be taken over by robots, this possibility cannot be referred to as being 100% implausible – especially if one was to assess it through the lenses of the concept of cyborgization.

Memo

Provides answers to the questions, contained in the assignment.

1. The most difficult aspect of doing research for this essay had to do with the fact that, due to the discussed subject matter having been popularized by the sci-fi films, it proved somewhat difficult for me reflecting upon it from the culturally unbiased perspective.
2. I am very confident in my sources, because they clearly belong to the category of the scholarly ones.
3. Before I began to work on this paper, I identified what can be considered the researched topic’s qualitative aspects.
4. I did not need to redirect my efforts at any point, because throughout the course of the research-process, I remained well focused on probing the discussed issue’s conceptual essence.
5. I think that it is specifically subjecting the concerned topic to an analytical inquiry, which will require the most work.
6. My biggest takeaway from this assignment can be well deemed the fact that, in the aftermath of having completed it, I gained a number of in-depth insights into what may account for the ways of humanity in the future.

Works Cited

Bolonkin, Alexander. “Twenty-First Century – The Beginning of Human Immortality.” Kybernetes 33.9/10 (2004): 1535-1542. Print.

Clocksin, William. “Artificial Intelligence and the Future.” Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 361.1809 (2003): 1721-1748. Print.

Introduction

According to Nourbakhsh and Siegwart mobile robotics is a recent field that has combined technologies from various fields of engineering and science. The essence of mobile robotics is to provide the previously rigid parts of machines with a dexterity rivaling and even exceeding human beings through the complex combination of technologies, such as ‘electrical and electronic engineering, computer engineering and cognitive and social sciences.’[1] Nourbahksh and Siegwart go on to outline that Robots have recently found use in various sectors of the industry and are replacing human beings. They provide the example of ‘manipulators or Robots arms that have the capacity of performing complex and repetitive tasks much easier due to their speed and precision. The speed and precision are particularly mandatory characteristics for most industries that deal with the manufacture of complex and small devices such as laptops and mobile phones. [2]

However, as technological advancements took the stage it became observable that there was still a big room for improvement of the robots. These Robots were being controlled from a central position where someone was required to keep a constant look to ensure that the Robots did not overdo certain tasks. For instance, a robot that is programmed to perform spray painting would continue to spray paint even when there were no vehicles to paint unless it was shut down. This limitation was sufficient for technologists to begin thinking of an ‘intelligent Robot’ that would be fed memory and would perform tasks with the same precision and speed, but with minimum human supervision. Furthermore, it was also realized that to manipulate robots’ movements it would be imperative to first understand how they move. Human beings do not control Robots but rather use the motions by the Robots to control movements. Nourbakhsh and Siegwart outline that ‘…humans perform localization and cognitive activities, but relies on the robot control scheme to control the robot’[3]

Locomotion

A robot is a machine consisting of parts that are immobile on their own. Therefore the question that arises is how a robot achieves the capacity to move freely. Dudek and Jenkin answer this question by outlining that a robot is, a collection of subsystems’ with the capacity to move, perceive, reason, and communicate. The movement helps the robot to explore its environment, the perception helps the robot to respond to changes within its environment and communication provides and interfaces for the exchange of information between the robot and human beings. [4] Among the locomotion methods that have been studied include the wheeled and the legged locomotion methods. The methods are based on the computation of the motions observed in the surrounding fauna. [5]According to Paul Chandana, the morphology of the robot plays an important role in how easily it navigates its environment and responds to instructions. The morphology plays an important role in several factors such as how the sensory and motor aspects of the robot interrelate, the resulting changes, and the complexity of the control system that will be required. [6]Kim and Shim in their research realized that the use of an algorithm would solve the problem of driving the robot at a particular velocity as well as ensuring its stability based on the evolutionary programming. The study realized that the proposed algorithm could provide stability for the robot as evidenced by computer simulations and based on the Lyapunov theory. [7]

Locomotion also includes the dexterity achieved by the outer parts of the robots that assist not only in motion but also in how the robots manipulate the appendages to accomplish various tasks. Therefore, as the autonomous robot moves forward it will also be able to perform tasks with the arm in the same fashion it accomplishes the motions. Motions help a robot to explore its environment, but there should be a similar automated system that enables the robot to perform various tasks. [8] A method proposed by Xiang et al in optimizing the motion of an autonomous robot by reducing redundancies is known as the General Weight Least Norm Control for Redundant Manipulators. This method ensures that the efficiencies lost at the joints of the robots are greatly reduced. The inefficiencies within the joints emanate due to the inability of the various joints to move in unison and harmony. In the findings, Xian realized that the General Weight Least Norm Control for Redundant Manipulators, using a seven degree of freedom manipulators, improved the general path followed by various parts and reduced significantly the limitations presented by the joints. [9] The creation of harmony in the way the different joints move ensures that motion is optimized and that little energy is lost in the process. The other realization is that in most instances the challenges presented in the motion of the appendages of a particular robot are not only limited to the number of joints but can significantly exceed the number of joints. The advantage of the General Weight least is that it has the capacity of reducing even the additional challenges. Figure 1 shows an autonomous robot arm avoiding a cylindrical obstacle by the manipulation of the movements of joints.

Mobile Robot Kinematics

Kinematics is concerned with various aspects of velocity as a robot moves including the angular and the linear velocity of the robot. The computation of the linear and the angular velocity as the robot moves helps in determining the most applicable design for a particular environment. [1] According to Fahimi, most commercial mobile robots are based on the Hilare Model where the linear and the angular velocities are computed and resolved in coming up with a general law that guides the production of subsequent robots. [2] Mobile Kinematics constitutes and important aspects for all mobile robots as it determines the degree of stability that a particular design will be able to achieve in a specific environment. Stability even becomes much more of a prerequisite for autonomous mobile robots because they do not require supervision. Various other important aspects are put into consideration and they include the center of gravity for a particular model in resolving the angular and the linear velocity. [3] The essence is always to come up with laws governed by calculations that will be applicable for a particular design. Figure 2 adapted from NASA[4] shows the example of a robot that was used for the exploration of Mars. This autonomous mobile robot was being operated from the earth’

Perception

Perception is concerned with how the Robots sense changes in the environment and the responses that the robot undertakes. For instance, the vision of the autonomous mobile robot is very important and should therefore be accurate and full of clarity so that the robot can respond according to the memory that has been fed. Louis and Boyer explain that it is important for the robot to be able to use only the existing form of light to process images instead of requiring additional illumination. The most available form of light is generally white light. The algorithm is usually employed to resolve the distance between a particular image and the robot and the algorithm must employ is very sensitive to depth variations. This will have the effect of improving the accuracy of the image. Blur is one particular challenge that designers of mobile autonomous have to deal with. The algorithm is also used in this aspect to estimate the extent of a blur. In most instances, special optics technology is employed to resolve an image observed from different planes. According to Louis and Boyer, the essence is to, ‘find a point spread function that is convolved with the small focal gradient, and image produces a large focal gradient.’[1]

The major challenge in autonomous mobile robotics in terms of perceptions has always been to resolve the robot’s trajectory from the point of origin to a particular destination. In autonomous mobile robots, an additional challenge is presented in how to formulate a sensory strategy that will guide the robot into detecting such aspects as light and analyzing the variations. These challenges require special devices that will guarantee proper detection and response. An example of a design employed to compute the sensory problems is the Amplitude Modulated Continuous Wave (AMCW). This design makes use of a single frequency for reception. [2]Perception of a robot is comparable to the senses of human beings. This implies that after the robot has been fed with the memory of a particular object or situation, the robot will be able to perceive it and respond effectively. In this area, the algorithm method significantly solves the problem when configuring the resolution of distance by the robot. The implication is that accuracy in the determination of distance will be greatly reduced while the extent of vision blur will also be eliminated. This attribute helps the robot to effectively detect obstacles and avoid them, as well as be able to identify a particular target.

Localization and Mapping

According to Chatila Raja, localization and mapping are aspects that should be computed simultaneously so that the performance of the autonomous robot can be maximized. The ability of a robot t autonomously navigate is the essence of autonomy. The robot should have the capacity to construct a spatial representation, make decisions concerning motion, plan the motion and then finally initiate the motion. This challenge is also solved via mathematical laws and the computation of all probabilities. According to Liang et al, tracking of autonomous robots can be almost impossible without the consideration of the kinematics and dynamics because both velocities determine the relative position of the robot. However, the problem with depending on these velocities during localization is that they are subject to interference by noise. Therefore, the most effective method is to establish a method of resolving the location that is not subject to interference by noise. This can emanate ineffectiveness in terms of performance and stability.

Liang et al provide an alternative way of realizing the location. The system introduces a method that does not include measuring dynamics and kinematics. The problem is solved by introducing the sliding observer system in conjunction with the Lyapunov analysis method. The Lyapunov system has so far demonstrated that the system for tracking the robots that are without repercussions and is based on the sliding patch concept. The primary drawback in this perspective is that most autonomous mobile robots have reduced dexterity. The current approach proposes the use of neural networks. [3] Mancha et al propose in this perspective a method that can be used to determine the position of a robot. This method uses camera space manipulation using the linear camera model. Experiments using cameras have determined that this method can reduce the degree of error during positioning significantly. [4] The system uses the basic concepts of cameras in a bid to manipulate space and therefore optimize the process of establishing the position of the robot. [5]Another method proposed by Tahri et al is the decoupling of image-based visual servoing. Figure 3 illustrates the results of this method

Figure 2 (a) represents a picture before the use of the method while figure 2(b) illustrates the same picture after using the method. This method combines the basics 3-D and making use of invariants to control the translational motions. This ensures that a robot can be effectively located. Locating a robot does not eliminate the fact that it is autonomous but ensures that at any one time the position of a robot with regard to the grid resolution can be determined. ¹An example of sliding mode control adapted from Kikuuwe is as in Figure 4

Planning and Navigation

The basis of planning and navigation of autonomous mobile robots is the avoidance of hurdles and being able to manipulate various landscapes and environments effectively. The Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, sonar detectors, and electronic compass are required for identifying the location of the robot and scanning the landscape in front of it to control the unmanned vehicle and start the avoidance operation in case if obstacles are found on its path.

As outlined by Olunloyo and Ayomoh, various strategies are available. One is to modulate the integration between virtual obstacle concept and virtual goal concept in a method termed as a hybrid virtual force field. In their findings, Olunloyo and Ayomoh established that the hybrid virtual force field methodology was ‘versatile and robust’[1]In resolving the challenge of planning the path of unmanned, aerial vehicles, Portas et al outline that the evolutionary algorithm method provides the best solution. The calculations are based on the findings resolved from a GPS receiver. The system uses the concepts within these fields and transfers this concept to unmanned aerial vehicles. Generally, the resolved path of conventional aerial vehicles is arrived at by the consideration of the multiple co-ordinations concerning evolutionary algorithm. [2]

The coordinates of the current location of the robot are to be correlated with the coordinates of the point of destination and desired direction intending to fulfill the control function properly. Being one of the main components of the construction, the GPS receiver and embedded compass provide the robot with the relevant information concerning the actual environment and after processing this data the decisions to turn, to move forward, or to stop can be made. The operation of collision avoidance starts in case if an obstacle is scanned with a sonar detector in the desired direction. The effectiveness of the operation depends upon the accuracy of the information taken from GPS and compass. For this reason, the mechanisms of retrieving the information from each of these components and its processing are of crucial importance.

The essence of Portas’ method is that it ensures that roles such as identification of target and recognition of path are resolved using an evaluation algorithm. [3] In developing the path, Jaillet et al propose that sampling path planning is an efficient way when generating the space where the vehicle will navigate. [4] An autonomous mobile robot should have an inherent ability to explore different terrains while in the process avoiding obstacles and dangers. This capability enables the autonomous robot to operate with minimal human supervision and this constitutes the essence of autonomy. Furthermore, an autonomous robot should also be able to move from the launching point through various obstacles to arrive at the target. The robot should also be able to identify the target using a given marker that will be recognizable to the robot. Figure 5 shows a robot that is used to inspect air ducts. The camera situated at the front can detect different gradients, walls, and points of the intersection during navigation and respond appropriately. [5]

Conclusion

Some decades ago the idea of creating an autonomous mobile robot would have sounded seemed far-fetched. A combination of technologies such as the Lyapunov theories, evolution algorithm, 3-D technology, and camera-based concepts has resulted in the realization of this feat. These technologies have made it easier for robots to navigate terrains while avoiding obstacles and locating targets, perceive different objects within various environments, determine their position and provide this information to a control center and optimize the use of appendages. These basic attributes define the very essence of mobile autonomous robots.

Reference List

Adams, D. Sensor Modeling, Design and Data Processing for Autonomous Navigation. World Scientific Publishing Company, New York, 1998, p. 43.

Conrad, H. Application of Evolutionary Algorithm in Autonomous Mobile Robots. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, p. 82

Dudek, G. and Jenkin, M. computational Principles of Mobile Robotics. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2000, p.15.

Fahimi, F. Autonomous Robots: Modeling, Path Planning and Control, Volume 740. University of Alberta, Edmonton, 2009, p.163.

Gonclaves et al. Vector Fields for Robot Navigation Along Time Varying Curves in n- Dimension. IEEE Transactions on Robotics Journals 26(4), 2010. Web.

Homeler, R. Manipulation of Autonomous Mobile Robots. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, 2001, p.48.

Jailett et al. Sampling Based Path Planning on Configuration Space Cost Maps. IEEE Transactions on Robotics Journals 26(4), 2010. Web.

Kikkuuwe, R. Proxy Based Sliding Mode Control: A Safer Extension of PID Position.. IEEE Transactions on Robotics Journals 26(4), 2010. Web.

Kim, H. and Shim, S. Robust Optimal Locomotion Control Using Evolutionary Programming for Autonomous Mobile Robots.2009, Web.

Liang et al. Adaptive Task Space Tracking Control of Robots without Task Space and Joint Space Velocity Measurement. IEEE Transactions on Robotics Journals 26(4), 2010. Web.

Louis, S. and Boyer, L. Applications of AI Machine, Vision and Robotics. World Scientific Publishing Company, New York, 2005, p. 214.

Mancha et al. Robot Positioning Using Camera Space Manipulation with a Linear Camera Model.IEEE Transactions on Robotics Journals 26(4), 2010. Web.

NASA. Mobile Robot Sojourner.1997. Web.

Nourbakhsh, L. and Siegwart, L. Autonomous Mobile Robots. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, 2005.

Nourbakhsh, R. and Siegwart, R. Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots.Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, 2004.

Olunloyo, s. Ayomo, O. Autonomous Mobile Robot Navigation Using Hybrid Virtual Force Field Concept. 2009, Web.

Portas et al. Evolutionary Trajectory Planner for Multiple UAVs in Realistic Scenarios. IEEE Transactions on Robotics Journals 26(4), 2010. Web.

Ralph, M. & Medhat, A. An Integrated System for User Adaptive Robotic Grasping. IEEE Transactions on Robotics Journals 26(4), 2010. Web.

Schaal, S. From Animals to Animats: Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, 2004, p.33.

Sedirep. A Robot Featuring Pantilt Camera. Web.

Thomas, L & Andrew, A. The Basic Concepts of Robotics. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, 2008, p.198.

Xian et al. General Weighted Least Norm Control for Redundant Manipulators.IEEE Transactions on Robotics. RetrrereJournals 26(4), 2010. Web.

Footnotes

1. Kikkuuwe, R. Proxy Based Sliding Mode Control: A Safer Extension of PID Position.. IEEE Transactions on Robotics Journals 26(4), 2010. Web.

Introduction

For a long time, many surgeons have employed their hands in carrying out surgery of their patients. However, starting from1994, enormous developments started taking place in the field of medicine, one such developments being the innovation and introduction of the first approved robotic surgical device that provided enormous help to surgery processes in hospitals after being licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration (Lowenfels Para. 1). Vijay Kumar Soni has defined a robot as a structure that is automated and has mechanical assembly that has the ability to interact with the environment (Soni Para. 1).

In medicine, robots have been utilized in surgery, more so in providing assistance to the process of surgery thereby relieving human surgeons some work. Today, the field of robot surgery is growing at a first rate due to increased innovation in science and technology. The notable advances that have taken place as far as robot surgery is concerned include “remote surgery, minimally invasive surgery and the unmanned surgery” (Soni Para. 1). Nevertheless, since the conception of robot surgery, there have been many advantages realized from the process while at the same time numerous disadvantages have also been associated with the process. Therefore, the aim of this essay paper will be to look at both the advantages and disadvantages of robot surgery before making conclusion.

Advantages of robot surgery

Soni observes that the robot system or method of providing the key assistance to surgery has many advantages that include “precision, smaller incisions, reduced blood loss, decreased pain, and faster healing time” (Soni Para. 1).

Further, according to the author robot surgery as a new way of carrying out major surgical assignment shows the extent to which revolution has taken place in the fields of medicine and surgery where the doctors have been presented with the opportunity to provide treatment to many patients at a faster rate. On his part, Lowenfels notes that robot surgery equipment has provided surgeons with excellent opportunity to carry out the obvious technical parts of an operation, which generally include “tissue dissection, cauterization, control of bleeding and suturing and because the computer interface smoothes the surgeon’s movements, cases of surgical tremor are highly minimized” (Lowenfels Para. 2).

The advantages the author further notes include: surgery robots are designed as three-dimensional version that are composed of dual-camera photo system that has enabled highly sensitive and tiny operation to be carried out; surgery robots constitute an improved dexterity that is manifested through jointed instruments that have the ability to “simulate the finger and wrist motion” (Lowenfels Para. 8).

Second, surgery robots are effective in decreasing tumor since the computerized system has the ability of simplifying the movements of the hands. Third, the robot surgery further has been observed to increase comfort on the part of the patient as the surgery proceeds, and this results from ergonomic position that the robot assumes as the operation proceeds. Lastly, the robot surgery systems exhibit telesurgical capabilities where it is easier and faster to send instructions from the computer to the remote locations (Lowenfels Para. 8).

Furthermore, the operation carried out using robots is always conducted through small portals, an event that has capability to reduce loses of blood, pain caused by postoperative and lessen period the patient has to undergo hospitalization (Lowenfels Para. 5). Reiterating the point, the author further explains how robot surgery has become beneficial when its applications are done in various surgical fields that include general surgery, pediatric surgery, urologic surgery, and cardiac surgery (Lowenfels Para. 6-8).

Disadvantages of robot surgery

Lowenfels notes the major disadvantages of robot surgery to include” high cost, learning curve, longer operating time, rapidly changing field and loss of haptic sensation” (Lowenfels Para. 8). On their part, Lanfranco, Anthony R., et al (Para. 1) identify some of the disadvantages associated with surgery robots. To them, one disadvantage include the fact that robot surgery still remains as a relatively new field whereby there is still underutilization of technology. The authors note that although numerous studies in form of feasibilities have been carried out, the procedures largely used in the field need to undergo re-designation in order to realize efficient use of robotic arms and increase its efficiency (Lanfranco, Anthony R., et al Para. 1).

Another disadvantage is the cost, where the price for a single robot translates into millions of dollars and as a result majority of surgical operations are yet to optimize this method of surgery. Associated to cost is the expenses the hospitals have to incur in terms of repair and maintenance, as relatively larger budget has to be set aside to cater for eventual repairs and maintenance (Lanfranco, Anthony R., et al Para. 2).

The size of the robot is another limitation affecting the application of robotics. Many designs possess large footprints and unwieldy robotic arms, and considering the shrinking space in the current crowded-operating rooms, it is becoming harder for the robots to fit in the surgical rooms, at the same time putting up larger space to accommodate the systems is even more expensive (Lanfranco, Anthony R., et al Para. 3).

Lastly, there is lack of compatible instruments and other necessary equipment, a scenario that has forced over-reliance on table assistants making it illogic of what a new technology should do. In most cases a new technology should be designed to address the existing shortcomings and not compliment the existing ones (Gerhardus par.15).

Conclusion

Robot surgery presents a successful case in development of technology in medical and surgery fields. The technology is still in its infancy but the benefits are in a first pace filling the mouth of everybody. However, the perfection of the technology has not been guaranteed, with some shortcomings have been identified. Although the shortcomings may not outweigh the benefits, it is recommendable that further improvement of the technology is undertaken in order to have a more reliable and efficient technological equipment as far as the lives of individuals are concerned.

Works Cited

Gerhardus, Diana. “Robot-assisted surgery: the future is here.” Journal of Healthcare Management. 2003. Web.

Lanfranco, Anthony R., et al. Robot Surgery: A Current Perspective: Disadvantages of ROBOT-Assisted Surgery. Annals of Surgery, 2004. Web.

Lowenfels, Albert. B. Robotics. Medscape General Surgery. 2010. Web.

Soni, Vijay K. “Da Vinci Robotic Surgery: Pros and Cons.” Da Vinci Robotic Surgery: Pros and Cons 2010. Web.

Literature Review

This section focuses on the review of literature on servo motors and DC motors, in general as well as in the context of the current research project. The chapter begins with the introduction of servo and DC motors, followed by their usage in the current study. Lastly, the chapter ends with a conclusion of the use of Servo and DC motors in the current work.

Introduction

Servo motors and DC motors

Motors have been by far one of the most crucial components across the factory front. Being the largest consumers of power, the accuracy in motor control is the easiest measure of minimizing energy consumption. Electric motors are generally categorized in terms of their functions as servo meters, gear motors, and so on, as well as by their electrical specifications as Alternating current (AC) and Direct current (DC) motors. While DC motors are given more preference mainly in the variable seed applications, increasing use of AC motors is seen before enhancements in solid-state elements.

In this context, the servo motor is a mechanism that is aimed at positioning and controlling speed in the systems called closed-loop control. The current project makes use of a servo meter to turn over a wide range of speed instructions obtained from the computer. In general, DC and AC servo meters are primarily found in applications depending on their machine structure. DC servo motors have been applied in computers, robotics, numerical control machines, industrial components, speed control of vehicles and alternators, control mechanism purposes, and so forth. Further, the field of control of mechanical linkages as well as robots sees the most potential use and research works of DC motors [1].

On the other hand, servo motors are extensively equipped for applications relating to radio-controlled models, such as cars, planes, robotics, test equipment, industrial automation, etc. Although a servo is not easily defined nor is self-explanatory as its mechanism does not apply to any particular device or machine. Typically, it is a term that applies to a task or a function.

Any electric motor works on the principle of electromagnetism, as aforesaid. Any conductor that carries current creates a cloud of the uniform magnetic field. This conductor is directed at experiencing a magnetic force when it is subjected to an external magnetic field. It should be mentioned that its strength is totally dependent on the current across the conductor, as well as the magnetic power of the field. The inner composition of a simple DC motor is so designed in order to facilitate harnessing of the magnetic interaction taking place between the conductor and an outside magnetic field for developing uniform rotational motion [2] [5].

DC motors are broadly utilized in robotics due to their smaller size and greater energy output. Experts suggest that DC motors, by far, have been a better option for generating power for wheels of a robotic car as well as for other similar mechanical constructions.

DC motor speeds are easily varied hence they are commonly used in applications where there are speed control, servo control, as well as for positioning needs. A servo motor can be either AC or DC, and typically constitutes the drive section and the encoder. Moreover, a servo motor operates more smoothly relative to a stepper motor. It also has a much greater resolution with respect to position control [4].

Essentially, if the work is considered to be the control variable, servo motors are used in closed loop control systems. As shown in the schematic below, the digital servo controller dictates working of the servo motor by transmitting velocity command pulses to the amplifier that is responsible for driving the servo motor.

With this, essential feedback devices such as resolver, tachometer or encoder are either integrated in the servo motor or are placed in isolation, mainly on the external load. A major benefit of this setting is that it offers the exact position of the servo motor as well as its speed feedback compared by the controller to its coded motion profile and utilizes it for modifying its speed signal. Furthermore, servo motors are characterized by a motion profile, which is nothing but a set of instructions loaded within the controller that configures the servo motor working with respect to time period, its position and speed. Indeed, servo motor’s ability to become compatible with the dissimilarities occurring between the motion profile and feedback pulses greatly relies on the kind of controls as well as servo motors utilized [2] [5].

Working of Servo motors

Servo motors fall under a special class of motors mainly designed for applications that involve position control, torque and velocity control. These motors specialize in techniques such as lowering mechanical time constant, lowering electrical time constant, generating permanent magnetic force of high flux density for generating the field, and support of fail-safe electro-mechanical brakes. Furthermore, for application where the load often needs to be speedily accelerated or decelerated, the motor’s mechanical and electrical time constants plays a pivotal role. In such cases, the mechanical time constants are decreased by reducing the rotor inertia.

Therefore, the rotor of such motors generally has an elongated body. Moreover, servos are controlled my transmitting them a pulse having variable width, as shown in the following schematic. As a servo is equipped with an output shaft, a coded signal is used to position it to certain angular position [1]. The servo motor and its shaft put on special angular position depends on the coded pulse greatly. As and when there is a change in the coded pulse, a similar change is detected in the angle at which the shaft is positioned. Practically, servos are seen in radio controlled cars, and robots in particular. Basically, the motors are of very small size and are usually built inside a control circuitry; however, regardless of their size, these motors provide output of tremendous power compared to the size. Hence, it can be noted that a less loaded servo motor does not use up much energy [8].

The following schematic presents the control circuitry, the motor, set of gears and the holding case. Also, 3 wires can be seen that are used for power, ground and control.

Typically, the parameters included in the coded signal are :

1. minimum pulse
2. maximum pulse
3. a repetition rate.

For a given rotation constraint provided by a servo, a neutral position is one at which the servo potentially rotates in equal modulations in the clockwise as well as in the anticlockwise direction. Here, in this context different servos are associated with different constraints across each rotation. Nonetheless, they all fall in the neutral position said to take place at approximately 1.5 milliseconds [6] [9].

The servo motor is made up of a control circuitry and a potentiometer, both connected the shaft or output device. This potentiometer is responsible for enabling the control circuitry to read and control the changing angular positions of the servo meter. When the shaft is positioned at the accurate angle the motors stops operating. In case the control circuitry detects that the angle is incorrect, it will position the motor in the accurate angle or direction. Furthermore, the output shaft of the servo motor is able to travel somewhere close to180 degrees [5]. Depending upon the manufacturer, the motion of the output shaft can be around 210 degrees.

Furthermore, a simple servo motor can be used to determine any angular motion which may usually range from 0 to 180 degrees. In addition, it is unable to mechanically move any beyond this position because of a “stop” that is mounted on top of the primary output gear. In essence, the amount of power given to the motor is directly dependent on the distance it needs to move. Hence, if the shaft tries to turn a larger distance the motor will operate at its maximum speed. However, if it needs to change the position by a smaller angle, the motor operates at a relatively slower speed. This phenomenon is known as proportional control [10].

Furthermore, the control wire is used for communicating the angular position at which servo motor is required to turn. This angle depends on pulse code modulation or pulse width modulation (PWD), which is the duration or modulation of a pulse which is applied to the control wire. As the servo anticipates seeing a pulse for every.02 seconds, the length of the pulse determines the extent to which the motor has turned.

For instance, a pulse having duration of 1.5 milliseconds is likely to make the motor change its position to a complete 90 degree position. This is typically known as neutral position, as aforementioned. Nevertheless, in case the pulse is lesser than 1.5 milliseconds, the motor is likely to turn the shaft to near 0 degrees. And if the pulse has duration greater than 1.5 milliseconds, then the shaft turns to a position much closer to 180 degrees, as mentioned previously [5] [10]. As depicted in the diagram below, one can observe that the duration of the pulse that dictates the angular position of the output shaft is indicated by the green circle with an arrow attached to it.

Working of a DC motor

A DC motor is comprised of 6 fundamental components, namely, axle, rotor, stator, field magnets, brushes and commutator. Most commonly, the external magnetic field in generated in DC motors by high intensity permanent magnets. As shown in the schematic, the stator forms the stationary part of the motor which holds the motor causing and two or more permanent magnetic poles. The stator is responsible for determining the rotation of the rotor along with the axle and the connected commutator. In addition, the rotor is made up of windings or a core, which are electrically attached to the commutator [9].

Furthermore, the geometrical arrangement of the brushes, commutator points, and the rotor armature is such that on application of power, the polarities of the core and the stator magnets will become misaligned. This in turn will enable the rotor to rotate only when it is closely aligned to the field magnets of the stator. Once the rotor is accurately aligned, the brushes will move to the next commutator points and charge the next windings, and so on.

A two-pole motor is an excellent example where the rotation alters the flow of the current to pass in the opposite direction across the rotor winding, thereby flipping the magnetic field of the rotor. This eventually produces continuous rotations. However, practically, DC motors always have poles greater than two. This is commonly chosen so in order to eliminate the creation of “dead spots” within the commutator [3] [7].

There is no better way to view how a simple DC motor is integrated by various components, than by simply opening it up. However, this being a cumbersome job requires the destruction of a good motor. The following diagram represents the interior components of a disassembled DC motor. This motor is a basic DC motor having 3 poles, together with 2 brushes and 3 commutator points. It shows the use of iron core windings which have several benefits.

Firstly, the iron core offers a powerful, rigid support for the armature and is particularly a crucial consideration for higher-torque motors. Also, the core pushes heat far from the rotor windings thereby enabling the motor to be operated at much greater efficiency and speed. Iron construction is also inexpensive in comparison to other forms of construction. However, iron core construction is also associated with several drawbacks. The iron winding has a comparatively greater inertia which tends to restrict motor acceleration. In addition, this mechanism leads to high inductances in rotor windings. This disadvantage tends to restrict the brush as well as commutator existence.

In smaller DC motors, an alternative design is used which is characterized by a “coreless” winding. Structural integrity is obtained through this design as it is highly reliant on the coil wire itself. Therefore, the windings tend to get hollow which calls for placing of the field magnet within the rotor coil. Additionally, coreless DC motors are associated with lesser degree of armature inductance as compared to iron core DC motors having more or less same size, extending brushes and commutator life span [4].

In essence, the coreless design enables manufacturers to produce smaller motors; because of the shortage of iron in their rotors, coreless motors are sensitive to overheating. Therefore, this design is usually used only smaller, low-power DC motors. Again, the inner components of a coreless motor can be said to be instructive, as shown in the figure below [6].

Brushless motors are said to resemble AC motors which also works to generate rotor motion with the help of a moving magnetic field. This can be stated as a sole reason as to why the brushless motors is usually referred to as AC brushless or DC brushless depending on the type of operation of the motor. Interestingly, major applications of brushless DC motors are seen in hard disk as well as a wide array of industrial sectors. Moreover, a brushless DC motor comprises of a rotor in the form of a permanent magnet. Again, such type of a motor features most of the properties as well as laws that are primarily equipped in a DC machine.

Conclusion

A DC motor uses a commutator built upon the shaft which automatically changes the polarity of the armature winding when the shaft rotates. This switching keeps the magnetic fields between the armature and stator in such a state that allows for continuous rotation or the armature. Without commutation the motor shaft would rotate only until the magnetic fields lined up North to South at which time the motor would stop turning. On the other hand, a Servo motor does not make use of a commutator. Instead multiple sets of field windings are located about the stator. A single pair of these field windings is energized at a time.

The shaft rotates into alignment with the energized field and stops movement. In order to make a servo motor turn the fields are energized in turn (STEPS) to make a rotating field. The armature then follows this rotating field. In essence the “Commutation” or switching On/Off of the field coils is done electronically. This can be done with a driver circuit of a micro controller. The advantage of a servo motor is precise rotational control which is based upon the number of steps/rev and any associated gearing. Very precise movements can be performed as attested to by their use in hard drives and automation [6] [7].

Likewise, DC motors provide torque. A high torque DC motor like a car starter is series wound. Other DC motors like shunt wound are used in automation. The advantage with the use of a DC motor is easy speed control by easily varying the voltage applied to the motor. Rotational control of either may be done with some form of feedback. The feedback is used as a signal to a motor controller which will stop the rotation of the shaft with the help of a control of the particular motor in use.

One may also consider using the same motor you currently have and consider providing some means to control the motor controller which drives the motor, such as 4-20 ma input to a motor controller which is designed to drive either a DC motor or Servo motor. Only the existing motor and the mechanical setup need to be retained while the existing manual motor controller can be changed to a type that will interface to your application [9].

Servo motors are extensively used in the field of robotics. It should be mentioned that the size of servos is small. Nevertheless, this ;does not prevent them to show extreme power. Controlled by an in-built circuitry, a servo motor model Futuba S-48 has been exceptionally used as a standard servo for building robotic machineries. As aforementioned, a servo motor derives power in proportion to the applied load. The power may be derived to the mechanical load.

Known for their energy conversion mechanisms, servo motors are made up of a set of tools. These tools are of two kinds, a control circuitry and a case covering to hold these equipments. One can state that the working mechanism of servos is very easy. The shaft or the output device connects the control circuitry within the servo, and the potentiometer. The angular position of this shaft is controlled by the pot by using the coded pulses coming from the control circuitry. In addition, the shaft is positioned between angles o and 180 degrees, typically [10].

References

1. M. Akar and I. Temiz, “MOTION CONTROLLER DESIGN FOR THE SPEED CONTROL OF DC SERVO MOTOR,” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED MATHEMATICS AND INFORMATICS, vol. 1, (4), pp. 131-137, 2007.
2. E. Seale, “DC Motors,” 2003. Web.
3. R. Bickle, “C MOTOR CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR ROBOT APPLICATIONS”, 2003. Web.
4. M. Brain, “How Electric Motors Work,” 2010. Web.
5. J. Davis, “Servo Motors and Controllers,”. Web.
6. J. Mazurkiewicz, “AC vs DC Brushless Servo Motor,” Baldor Electric. Web.
7. Eli, Neil and Paul, “The fastest rc cars in the world!,” 2008. Web.
8. Logo Robots, “Motors,” 1998. Web.
9. The Handy Board, “What is the difference between a DC motor and servo motor?,” 2010. Web.
10. Baldor, “Servo Control Facts,” pp. 3-23. Web.