Comprehensive Guide to Robotics: Uses, Characteristics, and Impact

welcome back to video two this time we're looking at robotics as part of topic six automated and emerging

technologies from the igcse computer science new syllabus we've covered automated systems we're now going to

move on to robotics we need to understand three things what is meant by robotics the characteristics of a robot

and understand the role that robots can perform and describe the advantages and disadvantages of their use okay so

understand what is meant by robotics robotics is a branch of computer science that incorporates the design the

construction and the operation of robots examples might include factory equipment domestic robots and drones okay so where

can we find robots well in factories they're used for welding parts together spray painting panels on a car fitting

windscreens to a car cutting out metal parts to a high precision bottling and labeling plants

um and in warehouses such as the amazon warehouse that can be found in the home more and more they're appearing in the

home such as automated floor sweepers vacuum cleaners automated lawn mowers

robots that can iron pool cleaning robots for those who've got swimming pools

um automatic window cleaners and entertainment robots friends companions drones unmanned aerial

vehicle uavs unmanned aerial vehicles uavs are drones that are either remotely controlled or totally autonomous using

embedded systems programmed before they've been launched they can be used in reconnaissance for

example taking aerial photographs and they can be used to make parcel deliveries for example amazon okay so

what's the characteristics of a robot to correctly call a robot they need to have the following characteristics

so here's our robot what does it need it needs to have the ability to sense its surroundings okay so we've put it

inside a room and this is done by sensors which you've covered before light sensors pressure

sensors temperature acoustic and so on many many different sensors sensors allow a robot to recognize its

immediate environment and give it the ability to determine things like size shape or weight of an object detect if

something is auto cold and so on all sensor data is sent to a microprocessor converted using an adc

um or a collector on the computer okay if you've used lego mindstorm that's a great starting point for using

lots and lots of sensors and building your own robots number two have to have a degree of movement

they can they can use wheels and gears to carry out functions such as turning and moving backwards

forwards and gripping and lifting they are mechanical structures made of many parts for example motors hydraulics

pipes and actuators and circuit boards they contain electronic components to allow

them to function and can make use of end effectors different attachments you can put onto

your robot to allow them to carry out specific tasks and finally number three they are programmable they have a brain

and which is known as the controller this determines the action to be taken to perform a certain task for example

the controller relies on data sent from sensors or from cameras input devices these controllers are programmable to

allow the robots to do specific tasks okay so important facts to remember in this topic and we've not covered it yet

this is going to be video three we're going to be looking at artificial intelligence ai but ai has very little

to do with robots most robots don't possess artificial intelligence ai and they're not expected to think and learn

for themselves this is because they tend to do repetitive tasks rather than requiring adaptive human characteristics

it's also important not to confuse physical robots with software robots and you may have seen some of these when we

did talk about software search engine bots or web crawlers these robots roam the internet scanning

websites categorizing them for search purposes and you may have also seen chat bots

these little programs that pop up used at the bottom of the screen on websites that appear to start a

conversation with the user with the person on that website usually for help reasons so

two different types of physical robots these being independent robots or dependent robots now independent robots

have no direct human control they said to be autonomous for example the miles rover nobody's

been walked on mars but they have sent equipment up there

this thing is called the mars rover for exploring the surface of mars they can replace the human activity totally no

human interaction is required for the robot to function fully and then we have dependent robots and

these have a human who is interfacing directly with the robot the human interface may be

a computer or a control panel they can supplement rather than totally replace the human activity for example

at the back at the tesla plant in a car assembly plant both humans and robots work together to produce and

build a car so as before we have a series of things where we might find a robot including industry in the home

transport in agriculture in medicine science and also for entertainment purposes and we're going to look at a

few of these in the next few slides so first of all robots in industry and we've got a few examples here robots

are using many industrial fields including heavy lifting work through to delicate procedures

obviously spraying we've mentioned spraying car bodies welding

car bodies and different metal parts together manufacturer of microchips

manufacturing electrical goods and also automation within a warehouse these are the little robots on in the amazon

warehouse for moving products around to different locations the control of robots is either through embedded

built-in microprocessors as you can see here inside the robot

or it is directly linked to a computer system connected now the programming of a robot to do its

required task is generally done in two ways the robot could be programmed with a sequence of instructions which allow

it to carry out a series of tasks an example might include spraying a car body i've used that example a lot

alternatively a human operator manually carries out a series of tasks and the robot learns where and how to do these

specific tasks okay simply by watching and learning robots are equipped with

sensors so they can gather important information about their surroundings and also preventing them from doing stupid

things for example stopping a robot spraying a car if no car is present or stop the spraying operation if the

supply of paint has run out a little bit like um the printer and so on robots are very good at repetitive tasks

however if there are any specialist tasks that require thinking to cope with various circumstances for example making

specialist glassware for some scientific work then it is often better

to still use human operators just to finish off this section on industry robots in industry and the

advantages robots are capable of working in conditions that are more hazardous to humans

um anything which involves a nuclear power or or lost lots of chemicals that are dangerous

or temperatures working at um working in different places around the world robots can work 24 7 365 days without

the need for stopping no toilet breaks no going for lunch no needing to sleep robots are more productive than humans

therefore robots are less expensive in the long run since there's no salaries to pay

robots are better suited to boring repetitive tasks than humans therefore less likely to make mistakes

there will be less cost in heating and lighting robots do not need to keep warm generally and they don't need

a specific lighting disadvantages robots can find it difficult to do non-standard tasks for example the windscreen being

fitted to the car is correct robots can lead to higher unemployment among manual labour tasks

there is a risk of de-skilling when robots take over certain tasks for example welding and painting might no

longer be needed factories can now be moved to anywhere in the world where operation costs are lower robots are

expensive to buy and set up in the first place okay moving on to robots in medicine

robots are used in surgical procedures which makes the operation safer and also makes the procedure quicker and less

costly robots can be used for monitoring patients to doing actual minor surgeries and the disinfecting of rooms the

operating theaters can all be done by autonomous robots robots can tablet samples from patients

this is less painful to patients or usually since the robot is better at determining where they might find a good

vein safer to doctors and nurses if the patient has an infectious disease

times have covered obviously and doctors and nurses can be freed up to do more skilled work also

microbots can be used in target therapy these are microscopic mechanical components including microprocessors to

localize a drug or other therapy to target a specific site causing less damage to surrounding tissue

also prosthetic limbs are now mini robots in their own right bionic skin and neutral implants that interface with

the human nervous system or a damaged limb giving feedback to allow for better control of the prosthetic limb

again sensors and actuators are used to give human-like responses such as gripping

okay robots in the house domestic robots robots used around the house around the

home vary from devices to carry out household chores through the devices used to entertain people for example

i've got a picture here of an autonomous vacuum cleaner you may have one these use proximity sensors and cameras

to avoid bumping into obstacles and allowing them to cover the whole room automatically

these robots have a microprocessor to control the overall operation of the device

this also allows the user to program the device actuators are used to control the motors

which which allow movement forward and backwards and from side to side rotating

the robot around so it can turn and cover the entire room we also have autonomous grass cutters mowers these

are used in the same way as a vacuum cleaner but this time rather than having some kind of suction it has a blades in

order to cut the lawn outside and finally we have personal assistance and the example here vector

a little robot that is controlled by a microprocessor and also uses cloud connectivity to

connect to the internet you can ask him questions um using voice commands and he will be able to answer them a little bit

like siri a little bit like um alexa but this little robot can move around

and recognize people's faces and navigate the room using actuators proximity sensors and so

on and so forth so can basically go and fetch you things and do things for you i'm going to finish off with robots in

transportation now there's several companies out there making driverless vehicles

and this is increasing um every year these robots are very complex but the big problem is not really the

technology since problems will be ironed out over time it is people's perception it will take a great a large leap of

faith for humans to ride in driveless cars or an airplane with no pilot we already use autonomous trains in many

cities throughout the world but the systems have been accepted probably because trains don't overtake other

trains and have a very specific track to follow autonomous cars and buses autonomous cars use sensors cameras

actuators and microprocessors together with very complex programming to carry out their actions safely

sensors could include radars and ultrasonics and cameras allow the control systems in cars to perform

critical functions such as braking if there's something in the way a person steps out into the road

they act as the eyes and the ears of the car microprocessors process the data

received from cameras and sensors and send signals to actuators to perform physical actions such as changing gear

applying the brakes and turning the steering wheel cameras catch visual data from the surroundings we can sort of see

here and they can pick up using radar ultrasonics and see what is in the road

what are the hazards what are the potential dangers suppose an autonomous car is approaching

a set of traffic lights that are showing red the first thing is a control system in

the car needs to recognize that particular road signal and then check its database to see what actions need to

be taken since the traffic light shows red the microprocessor must send signals to the

actuators to apply the brakes and put the gear into a parked position constant monitoring must take place

until the light changes to green when this happens the microprocessor will again instruct the actuators to put the

car into first gear release the brakes and the car can set off by means of pressing the accelerator

so here are the advantages and disadvantages to robots in transport it looks like there's more disadvantages

and maybe there are at this moment in time the advantage is it is safer since human error is removed leading to fewer

accidents it's better for the environment since vehicles will operate more efficiently it reduces or it should

reduce traffic congestion it increases lane capacity especially on motorways and highways it

reduces travel times and there's stress-free parking for motorists the car will find a parking

space on its own and then it will self-pack the vehicle disadvantages it is a very very

expensive system to set up in the first place the fear of hacking into the vehicle's

control system is also paramount and could be a problem security and safety issues software

glitches could be catastrophic the need to make sure the system is well maintained at all times obviously the

cameras need to be clean any snow or any rain or dirt getting onto those cameras could be a problematic driver and

passenger reluctance to use a new technology still a disadvantage a reduction in the need for taxes could

lead again to unemployment that is it for this video i hope you've gained something from it

if you have please subscribe please hit notifications and i will see you next time thank you very much dude for

watching bye for now