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74-925: Wonder Workshop is an education and robotics startup based in Silicon Valley in the United States. Formerly called Play-i, Wonder Workshop ran a crowdfunding campaign in November 2013, where they introduced the robots Bo and Yana. They were subsequently renamed Dash and Dot before their launch in 2014. The company has currently raised $ 15.9 million in funding from Madrona Venture Group, CRV, WI Harper, Google Ventures, and others. Wonder Workshop introduced Dash and Dot in December 2014. They are robots targeted at teaching creative problem-solving and computational thinking. They came with four free apps compatible with iOS and Android devices. Dash and Dot shipped to 37 countries including

148-587: A gyroscope to detect how much a robot is falling and then drive the wheels proportionally in the same direction, to counterbalance the fall at hundreds of times per second, based on the dynamics of an inverted pendulum . Many different balancing robots have been designed. While the Segway is not commonly thought of as a robot, it can be thought of as a component of a robot, when used as such Segway refer to them as RMP (Robotic Mobility Platform). An example of this use has been as NASA 's Robonaut that has been mounted on

222-401: A keyboard , play piano, and perform other fine movements. The prosthesis has sensors which enable the patient to sense real feelings in its fingertips. Other common forms of sensing in robotics use lidar, radar, and sonar. Lidar measures the distance to a target by illuminating the target with laser light and measuring the reflected light with a sensor. Radar uses radio waves to determine

296-521: A Segway. A one-wheeled balancing robot is an extension of a two-wheeled balancing robot so that it can move in any 2D direction using a round ball as its only wheel. Several one-wheeled balancing robots have been designed recently, such as Carnegie Mellon University 's " Ballbot " which is the approximate height and width of a person, and Tohoku Gakuin University 's "BallIP". Because of the long, thin shape and ability to maneuver in tight spaces, they have

370-509: A beetle inspired BFR is the prototype by Phan and Park, and a dragonfly inspired BFR is the prototype by Hu et al. The flapping frequency of insect inspired BFRs are much higher than those of other BFRs; this is because of the aerodynamics of insect flight . Insect inspired BFRs are much smaller than those inspired by mammals or birds, so they are more suitable for dense environments. A class of robots that are biologically inspired, but which do not attempt to mimic biology, are creations such as

444-465: A certain measurement of the environment, or internal components. This is essential for robots to perform their tasks, and act upon any changes in the environment to calculate the appropriate response. They are used for various forms of measurements, to give the robots warnings about safety or malfunctions, and to provide real-time information about the task it is performing. Current robotic and prosthetic hands receive far less tactile information than

518-589: A fundamentally different principle, whereby tiny piezoceramic elements, vibrating many thousands of times per second, cause linear or rotary motion. There are different mechanisms of operation; one type uses the vibration of the piezo elements to step the motor in a circle or a straight line. Another type uses the piezo elements to cause a nut to vibrate or to drive a screw. The advantages of these motors are nanometer resolution, speed, and available force for their size. These motors are already available commercially and being used on some robots. Elastic nanotubes are

592-438: A gentle slope, using only gravity to propel themselves. Using this technique, a robot need only supply a small amount of motor power to walk along a flat surface or a little more to walk up a hill . This technique promises to make walking robots at least ten times more efficient than ZMP walkers, like ASIMO. A modern passenger airliner is essentially a flying robot, with two humans to manage it. The autopilot can control

666-671: A human. There has been much study on human-inspired walking, such as AMBER lab which was established in 2008 by the Mechanical Engineering Department at Texas A&M University. Many other robots have been built that walk on more than two legs, due to these robots being significantly easier to construct. Walking robots can be used for uneven terrains, which would provide better mobility and energy efficiency than other locomotion methods. Typically, robots on two legs can walk well on flat floors and can occasionally walk up stairs . None can walk over rocky, uneven terrain. Some of

740-424: A humanoid hand. For simplicity, most mobile robots have four wheels or a number of continuous tracks . Some researchers have tried to create more complex wheeled robots with only one or two wheels. These can have certain advantages such as greater efficiency and reduced parts, as well as allowing a robot to navigate in confined places that a four-wheeled robot would not be able to. Balancing robots generally use

814-561: A metal wire running through it. Hands that resemble and work more like a human hand include the Shadow Hand and the Robonaut hand. Hands that are of a mid-level complexity include the Delft hand. Mechanical grippers can come in various types, including friction and encompassing jaws. Friction jaws use all the force of the gripper to hold the object in place using friction. Encompassing jaws cradle

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888-578: A motor and a leadscrew. Another common type is a mechanical linear actuator such as a rack and pinion on a car. Series elastic actuation (SEA) relies on the idea of introducing intentional elasticity between the motor actuator and the load for robust force control. Due to the resultant lower reflected inertia, series elastic actuation improves safety when a robot interacts with the environment (e.g., humans or workpieces) or during collisions. Furthermore, it also provides energy efficiency and shock absorption (mechanical filtering) while reducing excessive wear on

962-406: A payload of up to 0.8 kg while performing a parabolic climb, steep descent, and rapid recovery. The gull inspired prototype by Grant et al. accurately mimics the elbow and wrist rotation of gulls, and they find that lift generation is maximized when the elbow and wrist deformations are opposite but equal. Insect inspired BFRs typically take inspiration from beetles or dragonflies. An example of

1036-644: A power source. Many different types of batteries can be used as a power source for robots. They range from lead–acid batteries, which are safe and have relatively long shelf lives but are rather heavy compared to silver–cadmium batteries which are much smaller in volume and are currently much more expensive. Designing a battery-powered robot needs to take into account factors such as safety, cycle lifetime, and weight . Generators, often some type of internal combustion engine , can also be used. However, such designs are often mechanically complex and need fuel, require heat dissipation, and are relatively heavy. A tether connecting

1110-479: A promising artificial muscle technology in early-stage experimental development. The absence of defects in carbon nanotubes enables these filaments to deform elastically by several percent, with energy storage levels of perhaps 10  J /cm for metal nanotubes. Human biceps could be replaced with an 8 mm diameter wire of this material. Such compact "muscle" might allow future robots to outrun and outjump humans. Sensors allow robots to receive information about

1184-575: A robot, the parts which convert stored energy into movement. By far the most popular actuators are electric motors that rotate a wheel or gear, and linear actuators that control industrial robots in factories. There are some recent advances in alternative types of actuators, powered by electricity, chemicals, or compressed air. The vast majority of robots use electric motors , often brushed and brushless DC motors in portable robots or AC motors in industrial robots and CNC machines. These motors are often preferred in systems with lighter loads, and where

1258-496: A six-wheeled robot. Tracked wheels behave as if they were made of hundreds of wheels, therefore are very common for outdoor off-road robots, where the robot must drive on very rough terrain. However, they are difficult to use indoors such as on carpets and smooth floors. Examples include NASA's Urban Robot "Urbie". Walking is a difficult and dynamic problem to solve. Several robots have been made which can walk reliably on two legs, however, none have yet been made which are as robust as

1332-460: Is a material that contracts (under 5%) when electricity is applied. They have been used for some small robot applications. EAPs or EPAMs are a plastic material that can contract substantially (up to 380% activation strain) from electricity, and have been used in facial muscles and arms of humanoid robots, and to enable new robots to float, fly, swim or walk. Recent alternatives to DC motors are piezo motors or ultrasonic motors . These work on

1406-523: Is about 1.06 kg/liter. This can be contrasted with the density of adipose tissue (fat), which is 0.9196 kg/liter. This makes muscle tissue approximately 15% denser than fat tissue. Skeletal muscle is a highly oxygen-consuming tissue, and oxidative DNA damage that is induced by reactive oxygen species tends to accumulate with age . The oxidative DNA damage 8-OHdG accumulates in heart and skeletal muscle of both mouse and rat with age. Also, DNA double-strand breaks accumulate with age in

1480-436: Is arranged in regular, parallel bundles of myofibrils , which contain many contractile units known as sarcomeres , which give the tissue its striated (striped) appearance. Skeletal muscle is voluntary muscle, anchored by tendons or sometimes by aponeuroses to bones , and is used to effect skeletal movement such as locomotion and to maintain posture . Postural control is generally maintained as an unconscious reflex, but

1554-456: Is divided along the embryo 's length into somites , corresponding to the segmentation of the body (most obviously seen in the vertebral column . Each somite has three divisions, sclerotome (which forms vertebrae ), dermatome (which forms skin), and myotome (which forms muscle). The myotome is divided into two sections, the epimere and hypomere, which form epaxial and hypaxial muscles , respectively. The only epaxial muscles in humans are

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1628-408: Is found within the walls of blood vessels (such smooth muscle specifically being termed vascular smooth muscle ) such as in the tunica media layer of the large ( aorta ) and small arteries , arterioles and veins . Smooth muscle is also found in lymphatic vessels, the urinary bladder , uterus (termed uterine smooth muscle ), male and female reproductive tracts , the gastrointestinal tract ,

1702-403: Is involuntary, striated muscle that is found in the walls and the histological foundation of the heart , specifically the myocardium. The cardiac muscle cells , (also called cardiomyocytes or myocardiocytes), predominantly contain only one nucleus, although populations with two to four nuclei do exist. The myocardium is the muscle tissue of the heart and forms a thick middle layer between

1776-409: Is no smooth muscle. The transversely striated type is the most similar to the skeletal muscle in vertebrates. Vertebrate skeletal muscle tissue is an elongated, striated muscle tissue, with the fibres ranging from 3-8 micrometers in width and from 18 to 200 micrometers in breadth. In the uterine wall, during pregnancy, they enlarge in length from 70 to 500 micrometers. Skeletal striated muscle tissue

1850-454: Is non-striated and involuntary. Smooth muscle is found within the walls of organs and structures such as the esophagus , stomach , intestines , bronchi , uterus , urethra , bladder , blood vessels , and the arrector pili in the skin that control the erection of body hair. Skeletal muscle is broadly classified into two fiber types: type I (slow-twitch) and type II (fast-twitch). The density of mammalian skeletal muscle tissue

1924-400: Is of particular importance as it drives the non-conservative passivity bounds in an SEA scheme for the first time which allows a larger selection of control gains. Pneumatic artificial muscles also known as air muscles, are special tubes that expand (typically up to 42%) when air is forced inside them. They are used in some robot applications. Muscle wire, also known as shape memory alloy,

1998-912: Is to design machines that can help and assist humans . Many robots are built to do jobs that are hazardous to people, such as finding survivors in unstable ruins, and exploring space, mines and shipwrecks. Others replace people in jobs that are boring, repetitive, or unpleasant, such as cleaning, monitoring, transporting, and assembling. Today, robotics is a rapidly growing field, as technological advances continue; researching, designing, and building new robots serve various practical purposes. Robotics usually combines three aspects of design work to create robot systems: As many robots are designed for specific tasks, this method of classification becomes more relevant. For example, many robots are designed for assembly work, which may not be readily adaptable for other applications. They are termed "assembly robots". For seam welding, some suppliers provide complete welding systems with

2072-689: The Entomopter . Funded by DARPA , NASA , the United States Air Force , and the Georgia Tech Research Institute and patented by Prof. Robert C. Michelson for covert terrestrial missions as well as flight in the lower Mars atmosphere, the Entomopter flight propulsion system uses low Reynolds number wings similar to those of the hawk moth (Manduca sexta), but flaps them in a non-traditional "opposed x-wing fashion" while "blowing"

2146-399: The erector spinae and small intervertebral muscles, and are innervated by the dorsal rami of the spinal nerves . All other muscles, including those of the limbs are hypaxial, and innervated by the ventral rami of the spinal nerves. During development, myoblasts (muscle progenitor cells) either remain in the somite to form muscles associated with the vertebral column or migrate out into

2220-440: The neurotransmitter acetylcholine . Smooth muscle is found in almost all organ systems such as hollow organs including the stomach , and bladder ; in tubular structures such as blood and lymph vessels , and bile ducts ; in sphincters such as in the uterus, and the eye. In addition, it plays an important role in the ducts of exocrine glands. It fulfills various tasks such as sealing orifices (e.g. pylorus, uterine os) or

2294-434: The respiratory tract , the arrector pili of skin , the ciliary muscle , and the iris of the eye . The structure and function is basically the same in smooth muscle cells in different organs, but the inducing stimuli differ substantially, in order to perform individual actions in the body at individual times. In addition, the glomeruli of the kidneys contain smooth muscle-like cells called mesangial cells . Cardiac muscle

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2368-503: The 1980s by Marc Raibert at the MIT Leg Laboratory, successfully demonstrated very dynamic walking. Initially, a robot with only one leg, and a very small foot could stay upright simply by hopping . The movement is the same as that of a person on a pogo stick . As the robot falls to one side, it would jump slightly in that direction, in order to catch itself. Soon, the algorithm was generalised to two and four legs. A bipedal robot

2442-402: The U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, European countries, India, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong. In 2017, Wonder Workshop launched a new robot for ages 11 and older named Cue. Cue is similar to Dash in its shape and size and comes in different colors. The robot became first available on September 28, 2017. Robotics Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of

2516-406: The angle of attack range over which the prototype can operate before stalling. The wings of bird inspired BFRs allow for in-plane deformation, and the in-plane wing deformation can be adjusted to maximize flight efficiency depending on the flight gait. An example of a raptor inspired BFR is the prototype by Savastano et al. The prototype has fully deformable flapping wings and is capable of carrying

2590-592: The appearance of the flexed biceps resembles the back of a mouse. The same phenomenon occurred in Greek , in which μῦς, mȳs , means both "mouse" and "muscle". There are three types of muscle tissue in vertebrates: skeletal , cardiac , and smooth . Skeletal and cardiac muscle are types of striated muscle tissue . Smooth muscle is non-striated. There are three types of muscle tissue in invertebrates that are based on their pattern of striation: transversely striated, obliquely striated, and smooth muscle. In arthropods there

2664-469: The body to form all other muscles. Myoblast migration is preceded by the formation of connective tissue frameworks, usually formed from the somatic lateral plate mesoderm . Myoblasts follow chemical signals to the appropriate locations, where they fuse into elongate skeletal muscle cells. The primary function of muscle tissue is contraction . The three types of muscle tissue (skeletal, cardiac and smooth) have significant differences. However, all three use

2738-402: The body. In vertebrates , the three types are: Skeletal muscle tissue consists of elongated, multinucleate muscle cells called muscle fibers , and is responsible for movements of the body. Other tissues in skeletal muscle include tendons and perimysium . Smooth and cardiac muscle contract involuntarily, without conscious intervention. These muscle types may be activated both through

2812-560: The contraction has occurred. The different muscle types vary in their response to neurotransmitters and hormones such as acetylcholine , noradrenaline , adrenaline , and nitric oxide depending on muscle type and the exact location of the muscle. Sub-categorization of muscle tissue is also possible, depending on among other things the content of myoglobin , mitochondria , and myosin ATPase etc. The word muscle comes from Latin musculus , diminutive of mus meaning mouse , because

2886-473: The design, construction, operation, and use of robots . Within mechanical engineering , robotics is the design and construction of the physical structures of robots, while in computer science , robotics focuses on robotic automation algorithms. Other disciplines contributing to robotics include electrical , control , software , information , electronic , telecommunication , computer , mechatronic , and materials engineering. The goal of most robotics

2960-560: The environment or the robot itself (e.g. the position of its joints or its end effector). This information is then processed to be stored or transmitted and to calculate the appropriate signals to the actuators ( motors ), which move the mechanical structure to achieve the required co-ordinated motion or force actions. The processing phase can range in complexity. At a reactive level, it may translate raw sensor information directly into actuator commands (e.g. firing motor power electronic gates based directly upon encoder feedback signals to achieve

3034-457: The feet in order to maintain stability. This technique was recently demonstrated by Anybots' Dexter Robot, which is so stable, it can even jump. Another example is the TU Delft Flame . Perhaps the most promising approach uses passive dynamics where the momentum of swinging limbs is used for greater efficiency . It has been shown that totally unpowered humanoid mechanisms can walk down

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3108-449: The fluid path around the electrodes is deformed, producing impedance changes that map the forces received from the object. The researchers expect that an important function of such artificial fingertips will be adjusting the robotic grip on held objects. Scientists from several European countries and Israel developed a prosthetic hand in 2009, called SmartHand, which functions like a real one —allowing patients to write with it, type on

3182-412: The functional end of a robot arm intended to make the effect (whether a hand, or tool) are often referred to as end effectors , while the "arm" is referred to as a manipulator . Most robot arms have replaceable end-effectors, each allowing them to perform some small range of tasks. Some have a fixed manipulator that cannot be replaced, while a few have one very general-purpose manipulator, for example,

3256-635: The growing requirements of a wide range of robot users, including system developers, end users and research scientists, and are better positioned to deliver the advanced robotic concepts related to Industry 4.0 . In addition to utilizing many established features of robot controllers, such as position, velocity and force control of end effectors, they also enable IoT interconnection and the implementation of more advanced sensor fusion and control techniques, including adaptive control, Fuzzy control and Artificial Neural Network (ANN)-based control. When implemented in real-time, such techniques can potentially improve

3330-479: The higher-level tasks into individual commands that drive the actuators, most often using kinematic and dynamic models of the mechanical structure. At longer time scales or with more sophisticated tasks, the robot may need to build and reason with a "cognitive" model. Cognitive models try to represent the robot, the world, and how the two interact. Pattern recognition and computer vision can be used to track objects. Mapping techniques can be used to build maps of

3404-431: The human hand. Recent research has developed a tactile sensor array that mimics the mechanical properties and touch receptors of human fingertips. The sensor array is constructed as a rigid core surrounded by conductive fluid contained by an elastomeric skin. Electrodes are mounted on the surface of the rigid core and are connected to an impedance-measuring device within the core. When the artificial skin touches an object

3478-493: The impact of landing, shock absorbers can be implemented along the wings. Alternatively, the BFR can pitch up and increase the amount of drag it experiences. By increasing the drag force, the BFR will decelerate and minimize the impact upon grounding. Different land gait patterns can also be implemented. Bird inspired BFRs can take inspiration from raptors, gulls, and everything in-between. Bird inspired BFRs can be feathered to increase

3552-449: The interaction of the central nervous system as well as by receiving innervation from peripheral plexus or endocrine (hormonal) activation. Striated or skeletal muscle only contracts voluntarily, upon the influence of the central nervous system. Reflexes are a form of non-conscious activation of skeletal muscles, but nonetheless arise through activation of the central nervous system, albeit not engaging cortical structures until after

3626-409: The methods which have been tried are: The zero moment point (ZMP) is the algorithm used by robots such as Honda 's ASIMO . The robot's onboard computer tries to keep the total inertial forces (the combination of Earth 's gravity and the acceleration and deceleration of walking), exactly opposed by the floor reaction force (the force of the floor pushing back on the robot's foot). In this way,

3700-430: The movement of actin against myosin to create contraction. In skeletal muscle, contraction is stimulated by electrical impulses transmitted by the motor nerves . Cardiac and smooth muscle contractions are stimulated by internal pacemaker cells which regularly contract, and propagate contractions to other muscle cells they are in contact with. All skeletal muscle and many smooth muscle contractions are facilitated by

3774-421: The natural compliance of soft suction end-effectors can enable a robot to be more robust in the presence of imperfect robotic perception. As an example: consider the case of a robot vision system that estimates the position of a water bottle but has 1 centimeter of error. While this may cause a rigid mechanical gripper to puncture the water bottle, the soft suction end-effector may just bend slightly and conform to

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3848-925: The need for a command from a human. Other flying robots include cruise missiles , the Entomopter , and the Epson micro helicopter robot . Robots such as the Air Penguin, Air Ray, and Air Jelly have lighter-than-air bodies, are propelled by paddles, and are guided by sonar. BFRs take inspiration from flying mammals, birds, or insects. BFRs can have flapping wings, which generate the lift and thrust, or they can be propeller actuated. BFRs with flapping wings have increased stroke efficiencies, increased maneuverability, and reduced energy consumption in comparison to propeller actuated BFRs. Mammal and bird inspired BFRs share similar flight characteristics and design considerations. For instance, both mammal and bird inspired BFRs minimize edge fluttering and pressure-induced wingtip curl by increasing

3922-448: The object in place, using less friction. Suction end-effectors, powered by vacuum generators, are very simple astrictive devices that can hold very large loads provided the prehension surface is smooth enough to ensure suction. Pick and place robots for electronic components and for large objects like car windscreens, often use very simple vacuum end-effectors. Suction is a highly used type of end-effector in industry, in part because

3996-660: The outer epicardium layer and the inner endocardium layer. Coordinated contractions of cardiac muscle cells in the heart propel blood out of the atria and ventricles to the blood vessels of the left/body/systemic and right/lungs/pulmonary circulatory systems . This complex mechanism illustrates systole of the heart. Cardiac muscle cells, unlike most other tissues in the body, rely on an available blood and electrical supply to deliver oxygen and nutrients and to remove waste products such as carbon dioxide . The coronary arteries help fulfill this function. All muscles are derived from paraxial mesoderm . The paraxial mesoderm

4070-438: The plane for each stage of the journey, including takeoff, normal flight, and even landing. Other flying robots are uninhabited and are known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). They can be smaller and lighter without a human pilot on board, and fly into dangerous territory for military surveillance missions. Some can even fire on targets under command. UAVs are also being developed which can fire on targets automatically, without

4144-499: The potential to function better than other robots in environments with people. Several attempts have been made in robots that are completely inside a spherical ball, either by spinning a weight inside the ball, or by rotating the outer shells of the sphere. These have also been referred to as an orb bot or a ball bot. Using six wheels instead of four wheels can give better traction or grip in outdoor terrain such as on rocky dirt or grass. Tracks provide even more traction than

4218-436: The predominant form of motion is rotational. Various types of linear actuators move in and out instead of by spinning, and often have quicker direction changes, particularly when very large forces are needed such as with industrial robotics. They are typically powered by compressed and oxidized air ( pneumatic actuator ) or an oil ( hydraulic actuator ) Linear actuators can also be powered by electricity which usually consists of

4292-410: The range, angle, or velocity of objects. Sonar uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect objects on or under the surface of the water. One of the most common types of end-effectors are "grippers". In its simplest manifestation, it consists of just two fingers that can open and close to pick up and let go of a range of small objects. Fingers can, for example, be made of a chain with

4366-428: The required torque/velocity of the shaft). Sensor fusion and internal models may first be used to estimate parameters of interest (e.g. the position of the robot's gripper) from noisy sensor data. An immediate task (such as moving the gripper in a certain direction until an object is detected with a proximity sensor) is sometimes inferred from these estimates. Techniques from control theory are generally used to convert

4440-640: The responsible muscles can also react to conscious control. The body mass of an average adult man is made up of 42% of skeletal muscle, and an average adult woman is made up of 36%. Cardiac muscle tissue is found only in the walls of the heart as myocardium , and it is an involuntary muscle controlled by the autonomic nervous system . Cardiac muscle tissue is striated like skeletal muscle, containing sarcomeres in highly regular arrangements of bundles. While skeletal muscles are arranged in regular, parallel bundles, cardiac muscle connects at branching, irregular angles known as intercalated discs . Smooth muscle tissue

4514-508: The rigidity of the wing edge and wingtips. Mammal and insect inspired BFRs can be impact resistant, making them useful in cluttered environments. Mammal inspired BFRs typically take inspiration from bats, but the flying squirrel has also inspired a prototype. Examples of bat inspired BFRs include Bat Bot and the DALER. Mammal inspired BFRs can be designed to be multi-modal; therefore, they're capable of both flight and terrestrial movement. To reduce

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4588-482: The robot i.e. the welding equipment along with other material handling facilities like turntables, etc. as an integrated unit. Such an integrated robotic system is called a "welding robot" even though its discrete manipulator unit could be adapted to a variety of tasks. Some robots are specifically designed for heavy load manipulation, and are labeled as "heavy-duty robots". Current and potential applications include: At present, mostly (lead–acid) batteries are used as

4662-404: The robot to a power supply would remove the power supply from the robot entirely. This has the advantage of saving weight and space by moving all power generation and storage components elsewhere. However, this design does come with the drawback of constantly having a cable connected to the robot, which can be difficult to manage. Potential power sources could be: Actuators are the " muscles " of

4736-616: The shape of the water bottle surface. Some advanced robots are beginning to use fully humanoid hands, like the Shadow Hand, MANUS, and the Schunk hand. They have powerful robot dexterity intelligence (RDI) , with as many as 20 degrees of freedom and hundreds of tactile sensors. The mechanical structure of a robot must be controlled to perform tasks. The control of a robot involves three distinct phases – perception , processing, and action ( robotic paradigms ). Sensors give information about

4810-524: The skeletal muscle of mice. Smooth muscle is involuntary and non-striated. It is divided into two subgroups: the single-unit (unitary) and multiunit smooth muscle . Within single-unit cells, the whole bundle or sheet contracts as a syncytium (i.e. a multinucleate mass of cytoplasm that is not separated into cells). Multiunit smooth muscle tissues innervate individual cells; as such, they allow for fine control and gradual responses, much like motor unit recruitment in skeletal muscle. Smooth muscle

4884-471: The stability and performance of robots operating in unknown or uncertain environments by enabling the control systems to learn and adapt to environmental changes. There are several examples of reference architectures for robot controllers, and also examples of successful implementations of actual robot controllers developed from them. One example of a generic reference architecture and associated interconnected, open-architecture robot and controller implementation

4958-440: The stringent limitations imposed on the controller which may trade-off performance. The reader is referred to the following survey which summarizes the common controller architectures for SEA along with the corresponding sufficient passivity conditions. One recent study has derived the necessary and sufficient passivity conditions for one of the most common impedance control architectures, namely velocity-sourced SEA. This work

5032-549: The surface to enhance lift based on the Coandă effect as well as to control vehicle attitude and direction. Waste gas from the propulsion system not only facilitates the blown wing aerodynamics, but also serves to create ultrasonic emissions like that of a Bat for obstacle avoidance. The Entomopter and other biologically-inspired robots leverage features of biological systems, but do not attempt to create mechanical analogs. Muscle Muscle tissue varies with function and location in

5106-450: The transmission and other mechanical components. This approach has successfully been employed in various robots, particularly advanced manufacturing robots and walking humanoid robots. The controller design of a series elastic actuator is most often performed within the passivity framework as it ensures the safety of interaction with unstructured environments. Despite its remarkable stability and robustness, this framework suffers from

5180-426: The transport of the chyme through wavelike contractions of the intestinal tube. Smooth muscle cells contract more slowly than skeletal muscle cells, but they are stronger, more sustained and require less energy. Smooth muscle is also involuntary, unlike skeletal muscle, which requires a stimulus. Cardiac muscle is the muscle of the heart. It is self-contracting, autonomically regulated and must continue to contract in

5254-449: The two forces cancel out, leaving no moment (force causing the robot to rotate and fall over). However, this is not exactly how a human walks, and the difference is obvious to human observers, some of whom have pointed out that ASIMO walks as if it needs the lavatory . ASIMO's walking algorithm is not static, and some dynamic balancing is used (see below). However, it still requires a smooth surface to walk on. Several robots, built in

5328-1072: The world. Finally, motion planning and other artificial intelligence techniques may be used to figure out how to act. For example, a planner may figure out how to achieve a task without hitting obstacles, falling over, etc. Modern commercial robotic control systems are highly complex, integrate multiple sensors and effectors, have many interacting degrees-of-freedom (DOF) and require operator interfaces, programming tools and real-time capabilities. They are oftentimes interconnected to wider communication networks and in many cases are now both IoT -enabled and mobile. Progress towards open architecture, layered, user-friendly and 'intelligent' sensor-based interconnected robots has emerged from earlier concepts related to Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS), and several 'open or 'hybrid' reference architectures exist which assist developers of robot control software and hardware to move beyond traditional, earlier notions of 'closed' robot control systems have been proposed. Open architecture controllers are said to be better able to meet

5402-542: Was demonstrated running and even performing somersaults . A quadruped was also demonstrated which could trot , run, pace , and bound. For a full list of these robots, see the MIT Leg Lab Robots page. A more advanced way for a robot to walk is by using a dynamic balancing algorithm, which is potentially more robust than the Zero Moment Point technique, as it constantly monitors the robot's motion, and places

5476-450: Was used in a number of research and development studies, including prototype implementation of novel advanced and intelligent control and environment mapping methods in real-time. A definition of robotic manipulation has been provided by Matt Mason as: "manipulation refers to an agent's control of its environment through selective contact". Robots need to manipulate objects; pick up, modify, destroy, move or otherwise have an effect. Thus

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