Robotics (Week 3)

This week we had to build a robot with a fully functional ultrasonic, line, and touch sensor. We also have to find a way to build a way to test the robot's sensors.

Computer Engineering

Computer engineers analyze, design, and evaluate computer systems, both hardware and software. They might work on system such as a flexible manufacturing system or a "smart" device or instrument. Computer Engineers work on the interface between different pieces of hardware and strive to provide new capabilities to existing and new systems or products. They work on the design, planning, development, testing, and even the supervision of manufacturing of computer hardware -- including everything from chips to device controllers. Computer engineers are concerned with the design, development, and implementation of computer technology into a wide range of consumer, industrial, commercial, and military applications.

Computer Engineering Principles

• Robot - intelligent robot is a machine able to extract information from its environment and use knowledge about its world to move safely in a meaningful and purposeful manner. Consists of sensors, effectors, actuators, locomotion system, and an on-board computer system.
• Actuators - the actual mechanism that enables the effector to execute the action. Here are some examples of actuators:
  • Locomotion - an example of an actuator, it is the property of moving around or going places
  • Manipulation - an example of an actuator, it is the property of handling objects
• Effectors - any device that has an effect on the environment whether purposefully or consequentially.
• Behavior - result of the series of actions performed by a robot. It is also the observations of a person seeing what a robot is doing.
• Autonomy - the ability to make one's own decisions and act on them based on a given situation.
• Feedback - nonstop surveillance of sensors and their reactions to a shifting environment. Feedback control is the process of self regulation. There are 2 types of feedback:
  • Positive Feedback - acts to amplify the state/output of the system
  • Negative Feedback - acts to regulate the state/output of the system
• Degrees of Freedom - the different ways actuators can move like up-down, left-right.
• Sensors - constitute the perceptual system of the robot and are physical devices that measure physical quantities.

Sources used in this website are from Professor Gray's Robotics Powerpoint, Sloan Career Cornerstone Center, and Scratch,