Robotics And Its Applications 351x31

INTRODUCTION

Robots have always had a fascination in our mind. With their various applications in various fields, they have become a common part in our daily life. They are meant to ease our work and increase our comfort of living.

The term ‘robot’ got prominence way back in the 1950s when Karl Capek in his play Rossum’s Universal Robots denoted the birth of a superior race that had intelligence similar to that of humans.

As Robots come in various forms and have application in various fields defining a Robot becomes that much difficult. There are various definitions for the term Robot. Some of them are:

“Force through intelligence”. “An automatic device that performs functions normally ascribed to humans or a machine in the form of a human”. The most accepted definition of a Robot provided by the Robotics Institute of America in 1979 is that: “A robot is a reprogrammable multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, Parts, tools or specialized devices through variable programmed motions for the Performance of a variety of tasks”.

Robotics is that branch which involves with the study and applications of Robots. The goal of Robotics is to mimic natural world as closely as possible. Robotics is a relatively new field of engineering (about approximately 50 years old) and is finding many applications in different areas.

With growing developments in the field of mechatronics and mathematic modeling, Robotics has come a long way. From an iron piece that could move only a few inches, there are now machines capable of jumping from high rise buildings, detecting landmines, performing complicated operations, and troubleshooting.

HISTORY OF ROBOTICS Robotics compared to other branches is a relatively new field of engineering. It is a multi disciplinary field. The various branches involved in the development of Robotics are:  Mechanical Engineering: Deals with the mechanisms of Robots and their structure.  Electrical Engineering: Deals with the sensing and controlling of Robots.  Computer Engineering: Deals with the motion planning and perception of Robots.

Though the branch of Robotics is new the development of Robots started in the year 1250 when the first Robot was developed. In the period from 1250 to 1950 the Robots were developed for fun rather than for applications.

Brief developments of Robots from the year 1250: In the year 1250 a Robot was developed that could serve the guests with food. In the year 1738 a Robotic duck was developed which had 4000 parts. It could, quack, bathe, drink water, eat grain, digest it and void it.

Fig 1: Robotic Duck

In the year 1738 a Robotic duck was developed which had 4000 parts. It could, quack, bathe, drink water, eat grain, digest it and void it.

From the year 1950, due to the development of computers and semiconductor technology Robots found their applications in Industries. This was called the golden era of Robots.

In 1960’s electrical Robots were developed that could walk. This was done by the General Motors.

After 1970 there were some trends that were observed in Robotics. During those periods the robots which were produced where classified into:



Model Based Robots: These are Robots that use exact models for the work they are entitled to do. They are not provided with any sensors. Hence they are not required to act on external stimuli. E.g.: A Robot which used for lifting heavy loads are model based as there will always be a maximum load specified and the robot need not sense the load also there is no other course of action.



Sensor Based Robots: These are Robots that are provided with sensors that have to change the course of action based on the stimuli it receives. These Robots are generally used for lower level works. E.g.: A Robot which is used for maintenance of a furnace depending upon its temperature. In the above case there are various courses of action for the Robot and the Robot has to choose a course of action depending upon the input stimuli received.

The trends in Robotics are:

Fig 2 Trends in Robotics

The present scenario of Robotics is unimaginable from just some stipulated motions to performing various complex operations and space visits, Robots have found their application in all fields.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF ROBOTS Robots are classified depending upon the circuitry of the Robots and the ranges of application. The classifications of Robots are into three types: a. Simple level Robots b. Middle level Robots c. Complex level Robots

Simple Level Robots: They are automatic machines that extend human potential. They cannot be programmed and does not contain a complex circuitry. E.g.: The best example of a simple level Robot is a semi automatic washing machine.

Middle Level Robots: They are those Robots which can be programmed but cannot be reprogrammed. They are multi purpose devices. They have sensor based circuitry and can do work which humans do. E.g.: The best example of a middle level Robot is the fully automatic washing machine. Complex Level Robots: They are those Robots which can be programmed and also reprogrammed. They are reprogrammable, multifunctional, manipulators. They contain a model based circuitry and are very complex. E.g.: The best example of a complex level Robot is the personal computer.

ANATOMY OF A ROBOT The basic components of a robot system are: 1. The mechanical linkage 2. Actuators and transmissions 3. Sensors 4. Controllers 5. interface 6. Power conversion unit

The mechanical linkage The manipulator consists of a set of rigid links connected by ts. The ts are typically rotary or sliding. The last link or the most distal link is called the end effectors because it is this link to which a gripper or a tool is attached. Sometimes one distinguishes between this last link and the end effectors that are mounted to this link at the tool mounting plate or the tool flange.

Fig Manipulator linkage

The manipulator can generally be divided into a regional structure and an orientation structure. The regional structure generally consists of the ts (and the links between them) whose main function is the positioning of the manipulator end effectors. These are generally the proximal ts. The remaining distal ts are mainly responsible for orienting the end effectors.

The different ways a manipulator linkage can move is called its degrees of freedom.

Actuators and Transmissions: An Actuator is a device that makes freedom possible. The basic form of actuator is an electric motor. The various electric motors used are: 1. Stepper Motors: They are used to control the arms of robots. 2. Servo Motors: They are used to control the wheels of Robots. They use PWM technique for speed control. The actuators are typically linear or rotary actuators. Also they may be electric, pneumatic or hydraulic. Typically, electric actuators or motors are better suited to high speed, low load applications while hydraulic actuators do better at low speed and high load applications. Pneumatic actuators are like hydraulic actuators except that they are generally not used for high payload.

Transmissions Transmissions are elements between the actuators and the ts of the mechanical linkage.

They are generally used for three reasons: 1. Often the actuator output is not directly suitable for driving the robot linkage. The high speed DC motor (running at say 3000 rpm) may not be suitable for running a robot at lower speeds. However, with appropriate gearing or transmission, the speed may be reduced to 30 rpm (1/2 rotation per second) which is reasonably fast. In addition, the rated torque at 3000 rpm is amplified by a factor of 100 (assuming a highly efficient gearbox). Two types of gear boxes are generally used in Robotics:

High Speed Gear Box

High Power Gear box

2. The output of the actuator may be kinematically different from the t motion. For example, the linear actuator is kinematically different from the elbow t it drives. Thus the linkage consisting of the three ive ts and the linear actuator may be viewed as a transmission that converts the linear motion of the actuator to the rotary motion of the elbow t. 3. The actuators are usually big and heavy and often it is not practical to locate the actuator at the t. First, big actuators have large inertias and they are harder to move around in space than the links that comprise the mechanical linkage. So it is desirable to locate them at a fixed base. Second, because of their size, they can

impede the motion of one or more links of the robot. Thus, it is not uncommon to find linkages or gear trains that transmit the power from the actuator over a large distance to the t.

Sensors The control of a manipulator or industrial robot is based on the correct interpretation of sensory information. This information can be obtained either internally to the robot (for example, t positions and motor torque) or externally using a wide range of sensors. The different types of sensors used are: 1.

Tactile Sensors

2.

Time flight sensors

3.

Comes

4.

Miscellaneous

Tactile sensors They tell us if the Robot has hit an object. It deals with collision detection. The switch closes if a hit has occurred and current flows by which we can detect a collision

Various types of Tactile Sensors are: •

Magnetic

•

Optical

•

Microwave

•

Ultrasonic

Tactile Sensors

Time of Flight Sensors They tell us how much a Robot is away from an object. The procedure adopted is quite simple 1. Send a signal and start at timer (t1=0 sec) 2. Wait for echo signal, and stop timer (t2 = 12 sec) 3. Calculate difference (t1 –t2 =12 sec) 4. Use time difference to calculate distance (distance = speed *time)

Comes: They tell us where the Robot is heading i.e., either North, South, West, East or by 0*

Comes Miscellaneous: Gyroscope:

Gyroscopes are used in robots that need to

maintain balance or are not inherently stable. Gyroscopes are often coupled with powerful robot controllers that have the processing power necessary calculate thousands of physical

Gyroscope

Simulations per second. There are also many other sensors used for temperature sensing, pressure sensing, motion detection, smoke detection.

Controllers: The controller provides the intelligence that is necessary to control the manipulator system. It looks at the sensory information and computes the control commands that must be sent to the actuators to carry out the specified task. Controller It generally includes • Memory to store the control program and the state of the robot system obtained from the sensors • A computational unit (U) that computes the control commands • The appropriate hardware to interface with the external world (sensors and actuators) • The hardware for a interface.

The interface This interface allows use a human operator to monitor or control the operation of the robot. It must have a display that shows the status of the system. It must also have an input device that allows the human to enter commands to the robot. The interface may be a personal computer with the appropriate software or a teach pendant.

The power conversion unit The power conversion unit takes the commands issued by the controller which may be low power and even digital signals and converts them into high power analog signals that can be used to drive the actuators. For example, for an electric actuator, this power conversion unit may consist of a digital to analog converter and an amplifier with

a power supply. For a pneumatic actuator, this may consist of a compressor, the appropriate servo valves for regulating the flow of air, an amplifier and a digital to analog converter. For a hydraulic robot, you will have a pump and a cooler instead of a compressor.

Basic Robot With all Components

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Artificial intelligence (AI) is arguably the most exciting field in robotics. It's certainly the most controversial: Everybody agrees that a robot can work in an assembly line, but there's no consensus on whether a robot can ever be intelligent.

Like the term "robot" itself, artificial intelligence is hard to define. Ultimate AI would be a recreation of the human thought process -- a man-made machine with our intellectual abilities. This would include the ability to learn just about anything, the ability to reason, the ability to use language and the ability to formulate original ideas. Robot cists are nowhere near achieving this level of artificial intelligence, but they have had made a lot of progress with more limited AI. Today's AI machines can replicate some specific elements of intellectual ability.

Computers can already solve problems in limited realms. The basic idea of AI problem-solving is very simple, though its execution is complicated. First, the AI robot or computer gathers facts about a situation through sensors or human input. The computer compares this information to stored data and decides what the information signifies. The computer runs through various possible actions and predicts which action will be most successful based on the collected information. Of course, the computer can only solve problems it's programmed to solve -- it doesn't have any generalized analytical ability.

Some modern robots also have the ability to learn in a limited capacity. Learning robots recognize if a certain action achieved a desired result. The robot stores

this information and attempts the successful action the next time it encounters the same situation. Again, modern computers can only do this in very limited situations. They can't absorb any sort of information like a human can. Some robots can learn by mimicking human actions. In Japan, robot cists have taught a robot to dance by demonstrating the moves themselves. Some robots can interact socially. Kismet, a robot at M.I.T's Artificial Intelligence Lab, recognizes human body language and voice inflection and responds appropriately. Kismet's creators are interested in how humans and babies interact, based only on tone of speech and visual cue. This low-level interaction could be the foundation of a human-like learning system. Kismet and other humanoid robots at the M.I.T. AI Lab operate using an unconventional control structure. Instead of directing every action using a central computer, the robots control lower-level actions with lower-level computers. We do most things automatically; we don't decide to do them at the highest level of consciousness. The real challenge of AI is to understand how natural intelligence works. Developing AI isn't like building an artificial heart -- scientists don't have a simple, concrete model to work from. We do know that the brain contains billions and billions of neurons, and that we think and learn by establishing electrical connections between different neurons. But we don't know exactly how all of these connections add up to higher reasoning, or even low-level operations. The complex circuitry seems incomprehensible.

Because of this, AI research is largely theoretical. Scientists hypothesize on how and why we learn and think, and they experiment with their ideas using robots. It also makes it easier for people to interact with the robots, which potentially makes it easier for the robot to learn. Just as physical robotic design is a handy tool for understanding animal and human anatomy, AI research is useful for understanding how natural intelligence works. For some robot cists, this insight is the ultimate goal of deg robots. Others envision a world where we live side by side with intelligent machines and use a variety of lesser robots for manual labor, health care and communication. A number of robotics experts predict that robotic evolution will ultimately turn us into cyborgs -- humans integrated with machines. Conceivably, people in the future could load their minds into a sturdy robot and live for thousands of years!

ADVANTAGES OF ROBOTS •

Robotics and automation can, in many situation, increase productivity, safety, efficiency, quality, and consistency of products

•

Robots can work in hazardous environments

•

Robots need no environmental comfort

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Robots work continuously without any humanity needs and illnesses

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Robots have repeatable precision at all times

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Robots can be much more accurate than humans; they may have mili or micro inch accuracy.

•

Robots and their sensors can have capabilities beyond that of humans

•

Robots can process multiple stimuli or tasks simultaneously, humans can only one.

•

Robots replace human workers who can create economic problems

DISADVANTAGES OF ROBOTS

• Robots lack capability to respond in emergencies, this can cause: – Inappropriate and wrong responses – A lack of decision-making power – A loss of power – Damage to the robot and other devices –

Human injuries

• Robots may have limited capabilities in –

Degrees of Freedom

–

Dexterity

–

Sensors

–

Vision systems

–

Real-time Response

• Robots are costly, due to – Initial cost of equipment – Installation Costs – Need for peripherals – Need for training – Need for Programming

APPLICATIONS OF ROBOTS



Automotive industry



Assembly



Medical laboratories



Medicine



Nuclear energy



Agriculture



Spatial exploration s



Underwater inspection



Customer service



Arts and entertainment

Automotive Industry Automotive industry is one of the most important partners in the development of robotic technologies. In automotive industry the Robots are used for:

1. Welding of various parts 2. Robustness and precision of the assembly of pieces 3. Manipulate very heavy loads 4. Found in painting rooms for spray painting.

Robot in Automotive

Industry 5. Used for places that is hard to reach.

Assembly Another strong partners is the assembly of manufactured products 1. Execute repetitive sequence of movement, boring, demotivating and dangerous tasks at constant performance. 2. Many tools are attached at the extremity of a manipulator 3. Use the optimal sequence of operations. 4. Can monitor the quality assembly line with adapted enhance sensor technologies

Medical Medical laboratories are another place where repetitive tasks must be made. 1. Handling a large quantity of samples 2. Execution of analyses 3. Automatic systems with measurement apparatus. 4. Small mobile units can also take charge of moving the samples between different parts of the room or services, thus eliminating the need for the technician to continuously have to walk. Nuclear energy Nuclear generator installations are places where we can find a large number of robotic applications.

•

Used for maintenance of nuclear reactors.

•

Used for the replacement of radioactive fuel tubes.

•

Seal off radioactive leakages in contaminated zones.

•

Cleaning and decontaminating radioactive areas without compromising the health of workers was also necessary.

Agriculture Robots have also found some applications in agriculture. 1. In Australia a robotic system has been developed sheep shearing 2. Robots for field sowing 3. Raisin and apple gathering

for

Spatial exploration Spatial probes sent for many years to explore and discover our universe 1. Like the Viking I and II probes sent to explore Mars in 1976, 2. Telemanipulator used to collect samples of soil 3. The famous Canadian spatial manipulator Canada arm mounted on American spaceships and the new space station remote manipulator system (SSRMS) that is used to assemble the international space station. 4. Mars Rover in 1998 explored the neighbor planet while being teleguided from the Earth. 5. Provided an incredible amount of new information about this unknown environment.

Underwater inspection: Robots are used for under water inspection where human bodies cannot survive 1. Submersible robots have been used for many years to explore sea beds. 2. Rescuing ship-wrecked persons 3. Retrieving black boxes of crashed planes. 4. Exploring deep sea and old wrecks in order to find their secrets. 5. Inspection of the flooded side of dams to detect the cracks 6. Inspect and maintain oil digging platforms

Customer Service Various machines have been developing to serve customers in a semiautomatic or fully automatic way.

• Automatic banking • Automatic Refueling station.

Arts and Entertainment It is “ playing” with sophisticated toys dedicated for funny applications. 1. Robots that are supposed to do house cleaning 2. AIBO, built by Sony, that have all the nice characteristics of a real dog but Without its obvious disadvantages. 3. Remotely controlled robots used to do fun painting 4. Considered as a very positive and innovative way of evolution in robotics. 5. HONDAS ASIMO is a dancing robot which can interact with humans.

ROBOTIC TELE SURGERY Medical robotics is an active area of research on the application of computers and robotic technology to surgery, in planning and execution of surgical operations and in training of surgeons. Robotic Telesurgery is a promising application of robotics to medicine, aiming to enhance the dexterity and sensation of regular and minimally invasive surgery through using millimeter-scale robotic manipulators under control of the surgeon. The first generation of surgical robots is already being installed in a number of operating rooms around the world. These aren't true autonomous robots that can perform surgical tasks on their own, but they are lending a mechanical helping hand to surgeons. Robotics is being introduced to medicine because they allow for unprecedented control and precision of surgical instruments in minimally invasive procedures. These machines still require a human surgeon to operate them and input instructions. Remote control and voice activation are the methods by which these surgical robots are controlled. Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is a revolutionary surgical technique. It is minimally invasive in the sense that the surgery is performed with instruments and viewing equipment inserted through small incisions rather than by making a large incision to expose and provide access to the operation site. The main advantage of this technique is the reduced trauma to healthy tissue, which is a leading cause for patients' postoperative pain and long hospital stay. The hospital stay and rest periods, and therefore the procedure costs, can be significantly reduced with MIS, but MIS procedures are more

demanding

on

the

surgeon,

requiring

more

difficult

surgical

techniques.

Telesurgical tasks require high dexterity and fidelity during manipulation since most of the manipulation is delicate. Therefore, the design requirements for the teleoperation controllers are significantly different from classical teleoperation applications. An important component of the teleoperator design is the quantization of the human operator sensitivity and performance. This is necessary for providing the specifications of the controller as well as measures to evaluate designs. It is also important to have a control design methodology which systematically includes these control design.

Here are three surgical robots that have been recently developed: •

da Vinci Surgical System

•

ZEUS Robotic Surgical System

•

AESOP Robotic System

da Vinci system consists of two primary components: •

A viewing and control console

•

A surgical arm unit In using da Vinci for gallbladder surgery, three incisions -- no larger than the

diameter of a pencil -- are made in the patient's abdomen, which allows for three stainless-steel rods to be inserted. The rods are held in place by three robotic arms. One of the rods is equipped with a camera, while the other two are fitted with surgical

instruments that are able to dissect and suture the tissue of the gallbladder. Unlike in conventional surgery, these instruments are not directly touched by the doctor's hands.

Surgeon's view when using the da Vinci Surgical System Sitting at the control console, a few feet from the operating table, the surgeon looks into a viewfinder to examine the 3-D images being sent by the camera inside the patient. The images show the surgical site and the two surgical instruments mounted on the tips of two of the rods. Joystick-like controls, located just underneath the screen, are used by the surgeon to manipulate the surgical instruments. Each time one of the joysticks is moved, a computer sends an electronic signal to one of the instruments, which moves in sync with the movements of the surgeon's hands. It is important to mention at this point that there are other successful medical applications of robotics. These include the ROBODOC system for orthopedic surgery, which is an autonomous robotic system to perform total hip replacement surgery; the image guided robotic system for micro-surgery and stereo tactic neurosurgery. Advantages of Robotic Surgery In today's operating rooms, you'll find two or three surgeons, an anesthesiologist and several nurses, all needed for even the simplest of surgeries. Most surgeries require

nearly a dozen people in the room. As with all automation, surgical robots will eventually eliminate the need for some of those personnel. Taking a glimpse into the future, surgery may require only one surgeon, an anesthesiologist and one or two nurses. In this nearly empty operating room, the doctor will sit at a computer console, either in or outside the operating room, using the surgical robot to accomplish what it once took a crowd of people to perform.

The use of a computer console to perform operations from a distance opens up the idea of tele-surgery, which would involve a doctor performing delicate surgery miles away from the patient. If the doctor doesn't have to stand over the patient to perform the surgery, and can remotely control the robotic arms at a computer station a few feet from the patient, the next step would be performing surgery from locations that are even farther away. If it were possible to use the computer console to move the robotic arms in real-time, then it would be possible for a doctor in California to operate on a patient in New York. A major obstacle in tele-surgery has been the time delay between the doctors moving his or her hands to the robotic arms responding to those

movements. Currently, the doctor must be in the room with the patient for robotic systems to react instantly to the doctor's hand movements. Having fewer personnel in the operating room and allowing doctors the ability to operate on a patient long-distance could lower the cost of health care. In addition to cost efficiency, robotic surgery has several other advantages over conventional surgery, including enhanced precision and reduced trauma to the patient. For instance, heart by surgery now requires that the patient's chest be "cracked" open by way of a 1foot (30.48-cm) long incision. However, with the da Vinci or ZEUS systems, it is possible to operate on the heart by making three small incisions in the chest, each only about 1 centimeter in diameter. Because the surgeon would make these smaller incisions instead of one long one down the length of the chest, the patient would experience less pain and less bleeding, which means a faster recovery. Robotics also decreases the fatigue that doctors experience during surgeries that can last several hours. Surgeons can become exhausted during those long surgeries, and can experience hand tremors as a result. Even the steadiest of human hands cannot match those of a surgical robot. The da Vinci system has been programmed to compensate for tremors, so if the doctor's hand shakes the computer ignores it and keeps the mechanical arm steady. While surgical robots offer some advantages over the human hand, we are still a long way from the day when autonomous robots will operate on people without human interaction. But, with advances in computer power and artificial intelligence, it could be that in this century a robot will be designed that can locate abnormalities in the human body, analyze them and operate to correct those abnormalities without any human guidance.

ROBONAUTS One of the most interesting things about space travel is the drama. Human beings place themselves into amazing vehicles and travel into a completely hostile environment that is almost beyond imagination, and then describe their experiences for us in words and pictures. Landing on the moon would not have been quite the same without the astronauts providing us with words to go along with grainy black and white pictures of the lunar landscape. However, the problem with human space exploration is that the human body is too fragile for the harsh conditions of space. We have learned that space travel can take its toll on astronauts. Temperatures in space can swing from 248 degrees Fahrenheit (120 degrees Celsius) to -148 F (-100 C). There also isn't the Earth's atmosphere to shield us from the sun's radiation. In order to survive, astronauts must wear bulky space suits that cost about $12 million each. Space suits are not practical for an emergency situation. NASA has recognized the frailty of our bodies and is preparing a new breed of astronauts to perform some of the more difficult tasks in space. These new space explorers won't need space suits or oxygen to survive outside of spacecraft. These Astronauts are called Robonauts which will assist humans in future space applications.

Robonauts Body

The individual parts of a Robonaut are: 1. Head 2. Torso 3. Legs 4. Arms 5. Hands •

Head -- Two small color video cameras are mounted in the headpiece that delivers stereo vision to the astronaut operating the Robonaut. Stereo lithography was used to make an epoxy-resin helmet to cover and protect the headpiece. The neck is ted to allow the head to turn side to side and up and down.

Robonaut's head

•

Torso -- The torso provides a central unit for connecting the peripheral arm, head and leg attachments. It also houses the control system, which is described in the next section.

•

Leg -- The one part of the Robonauts design that deviates from the humanoid look is that it has only one leg. The leg's only function is to provide when the hands are unable to.

•

Arms -- Just like its human counterparts, the Robonaut will have two arms that can move in many directions and have a greater range than our own arms. The arms will be equipped with more than 150 sensors each and will be densely packed with ts. Space-rated motors, harmonic drives and fail-safe brakes will be integrated into each arm.

•

Hands -- Perhaps the most impressive parts of the Robonaut are its hands. Its hands are the closest to the size and ability of human hands inside a space suit. The ted hand may even exceed the movements of a suited human hand. Fourteen brushless motors to power each hand are inside the eight-inch-long forearm. The hand has four fingers and an opposable thumb. The hand was designed with five digits so that it would be compatible with tools designed for humans.

Explo ded diagram of a Robotic arm

The primary purpose of Robonaut is to do what humans can't -- make a quick escape from a spacecraft to an environment with no oxygen. It can depart the spacecraft in the fraction of the time that a human astronaut can. In an emergency situation, when timing is crucial to survival, the Robonaut could save lives of future space voyagers. Robonaut won't be limited to use in space. It could also be used to go into hazardous locations on Earth in place of humans, like volcanoes and nuclear plants. Robonaut will be powered by PowerPC processors, which has been used in other space applications. The processors will run the VxWorks real-time operating system. NASA says that this combination offers flexible computing and could varied development activities. The system's software is written in C and C++. ControlShell software is used to aid the development process and provides a graphical development environment, which enhances researchers understanding of the system and code.

ROBOTS REALIZED IN MATLAB The

stability,

response

of

robots

can

be

easily

tested

by

using

MATLAB.MATLAB has a built in tool box called the Robotics tool box. By using in concurrency Robotics tool box and Simulink we can easily draw the block diagram of a Robot and observe its stability graphically. The Robotics Toolbox provides many functions that are useful in robotics such as kinematics, dynamics, and trajectory generation. The Toolbox is useful for simulation as well as analyzing results from experiments with real robots.

The Toolbox is based on a very general method of representing the kinematics and dynamics of serial-link manipulators and models are provided. Advantages of the toolbox are that •

The code is quite mature and provides a point of comparison for other implementations of the same algorithms,

•

Since source code is available there is a benefit for understanding and teaching.

The toolbox provides functions for manipulating datatypes such as vectors, homogeneous transformations and unit-quaternion which are necessary to represent 3dimensional position and orientation. It also has facilities to graphically display the pose of any robot,

FUTURE OF ROBOTICS The future developments of Robots can be found in various places. The major among them is in the field of: Medicine: New techniques for Tele surgery will be developed in future for Remote operations and also for complex operations like cardiac surgery. Spatial Exploration: With the development of computers the power of Robonauts will increase by which spatial exploration can develop. Robots are already sent into space like the Voyager to Mars and Cassini to Saturn. Development is going in the field of artificial intelligence. This will invoke thinking in Robots which in future will help Man kind in problem solving. Development is going on in the field of nano system which deals with implanting of small chips into human body for early detection of diseases. This can also help in locating a person by GPS technology.

CONCLUSION

Robots are going to play a very significant part in our daily life. Like computers in the 20 th century Robots are going to be common house hold items in future. With the development of computers, semiconductor technology Robotics will grow in leaps and bounds. They will find applications in almost all areas and become universal. There are expected times when Robots will over power mankind in future. The ethnicity of providing intelligence to robots is questioned but future is the answer to this question. It is for us to wait and see whether the creators or the creation will rule the world.

REFERENCE

• http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/robot.htm • www.seas.upenn.edu/~meam100/handouts/robotics.pdf • http://engineering-ed.org/Robotics/documents • www.site.uottawa.ca/~rabielmo/miniCourse