-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
Robots in Our Life
Prof. LI You Fu (Coordinator)
Prof. HO Kin Lim John (Lab)
Dr. LAI Wai Chiu King (Lab)
Dr. SHEN Yajing (Lecture)
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GE2320
‐‐How Applications of Robots Affect Our Life and Society‐‐
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
Review
Mid‐term Project: 20 % Open Project: 40 %
1 2 3 4 5 6
LEGO assembly Programming Contest Open project Open project Demonstration
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• You are encouraged to built the team by yourselves. (6 students/group)
• Each team should prepare one computer.
Goal
Robot
Road
Team performance:
• First: 20
• Second: 17
• Third: 15
• Achieve the Goal: 10
• Get lost: 7
• Dead: <5
Team performance: 30
• Creativity
• Sensor usage
• Intelligent
• Etc.
Self‐evaluation: 10
• Your contribution
to your team
Group1: 38 (6 team)
Gruop2: 27 (5 team)
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
Review
The universe is an undifferentiated whole. So
does Robot! It’s an integration of different
techniques.
Nothing is easy. Leaning is like mountain
climbing. Stay hungry, stay foolish, try your
best.
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-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering- 4
Robot example - My Spoon
www.helmic.dk/velteknyt http://www.secom.co.jp/
My Spoon feeding robot, which helps elderly
or disabled people eat with a spoon‐ and fork‐
fitted swiveling arm.
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
Timeline of Robot
Legend or Myth
It may be a dream.
Automata
Automatic machine, but not programmable
Programmable machine
To some extent, it’s programmable.
Robot
The word “Robot”, since 1921
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-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
Ancient beginnings
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Western
(2000 BC?) Legends of Cadmus, who sowed dragon teeth that
turned into soldiers; and the Myth of Pygmalion, whose statue of
Galatea came to life.
(???) Others: Clay life: Golem in Jewish lore, Mistcalf in the
Younger Edda, Norse mythology.
(4th century BC) “The Pigeon”, a mechanical bird which was
propelled by steam, in Greece.
(4th century BC) Clepsydra, as a stop-watch for imposing a time
limit on clients' visits in Athenian brothels in Greco-Roman world.
(250 BC) Clepsydra, by Ctesibius of Alexandria, a physicist and
inventor from Ptolemaic Egypt.
(10–70 AD) Heron's engine, a rocket-like reaction engine and the
first-recorded steam engine by Hero of Alexandria, who had made
numerous innovations in the field of automata, including one that
allegedly could speak.
Clepsydra
Heron's engine
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
Ancient beginnings
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China
(1023–957 BC) Automatic Figure, by Yan Shi. “It
walked with rapid strides, moving its head up and
down…….all the internal organs complete—liver,
gall, heart, lungs, spleen, kidneys, stomach and
intestines...... The king (Emperor Mu of Zhou) took
away the heart, and found that the mouth could no
longer speak; he took away the liver and the eyes
could no longer see; took away the kidneys and the
legs lost their power of locomotion. ”---from Lie Zi
Tang Wen
(507-440 BC) --- Bird, by Lu Ban. “Gongshuzi [Lu
Ban] constructed a bird from bamboo and wood and
when it was completed he flew it. It stayed up [in the
air] for three days.”---from Mo Zi Lu Wen
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
Ancient beginnings
Aristotle speculated in his Politics (ca. 322 BC, book 1, part
4) that automatons could someday bring about human
equality by making possible the abolition of slavery:
“There is only one condition in which we can imagine
managers not needing subordinates, and masters not needing
slaves. This condition would be that each instrument could do
its own work, at the word of command or by intelligent
anticipation...”---from Homer’s Iliad
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Aristotle
I love my teacher Plato greatly , but I love truth more
Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas
Friend Plato, but more friend truth
One dream in mind:
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
Medieval Times
(8th century) Automatic device, like wind
powered statues, artificial snakes, scorpions,
were built in Baghdad.
(1088) Clock Tower. Designed by Su Song
in Kaifeng, China. A 10-metre-high
mechanical equipment that chimed the hours,
ringing gongs or bells among other devices.
(1136–1206) Al-Jazari, an Arab Muslim
inventor during the Artuqid dynasty,
designed and constructed a number of
complex programmable Automatic
machines.
(Around the same age) Pope Silvester II,
Roger Bacon, Villard de Honnecourt, Robert
II, etc.
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Jazari's humanoid robot
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
Renaissance and early modern period
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(1495) Knight, One of the first recorded designs of a
humanoid robot was made by Leonardo da Vinci. It contain
detailed drawings, which was able to sit up, wave its arms and
move its head and jaw.
(1642) Mechanical Calculator, invented by Blaise Pascal
[Pa], which could be the first digital calculator in the world.
He was followed by Giovanni Poleni, who built the second
functional mechanical calculator in 1709.
(1662) Butai Karukuri, the first Japanese Automata by
clockmaker Takeda Omi.
(1737) Digesting Duck, one of the most famous works created
by Jacques de Vaucanson.
(In the 18th century) Miniature automatons became popular as
toys for the very rich. They were made to look and move like
humans or small animals.
Knight model
Pascal's calculator
Duck
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
Renaissance and early modern period
“Automata” --- a machine or control mechanism designed to
follow automatically a predetermined sequence of operations or
respond to encoded instructions.
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Karakuri, JapanIn Swiss Museum
Tippoo's Tiger, India
Silver Swan, in Bowes Museum
Automatic, but unprogrammable
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
Modern period
(1801) Jacquard Loom. Joseph-Marie Jacquard invented a
machine (essentially a loom) that could be programmed to
create designs that could be printed onto cloth or tissue.
(1830) Cam-operated Lathe. Christopher Spencer designs a
cam-operated lathe. It is a form of metalworking lathe that is
used for repetitive production of duplicate parts.
(1898) Nikola Tesla publicly demonstrated a radio-controlled
(teleoperated) boat.
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Jacquard’s Loom
Cam‐operated Lathe
Radio‐controlled (teleoperated) boat
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
1920s
(1921) The word “robot” was first used by the Czech author Karel
Čapek in his play R.U.R. Coined by Karel’s brother Josef, the
term "robot" is derived from the Czech word “robata”, meaning
“serf”, "forced labor" or “drudgery”.
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The plot was about a man who makes a robot then the robot kills the man.
“Robots are not people. They are mechanically more
perfect than we are, they have an astounding intellectual
capacity, but they have no soul”
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
1930s
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(1937) ELEKTRO, Westinghouse creates a human-
like robot that could walk, talk, and smoke.
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
1940s
(1941) In his story “Liar!”, Isaac Asimov first used the word “robotics” to
describe the science of robots and predicted the boost of a robot industry.
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(1942) Asimov wrote “Runaround”, a story about robots which included the
“Three Laws of Robotics”
A robot may not injure a human, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to
harm.
A robot must obey the orders it by human beings except where such orders would
conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict
withe the First or Second Law.
Picture from Si‐MOCs
Amazing! Do you trust the robot?
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
1940s
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John Parsons conceptualizes a method
of controlling machines with numbers,
eventually leading to CNC.
1942 1948
Claude Shannon turned the world on its head by
developing Information Theory, which blazed a trail
toward digital communication. MIT
MIT math prodigy Norbert
Wiener coins the term
cybernetics to define the
study of how information,
control, and feedback
operated in both machines
and living creatures.
1948 John Bardeen invented
transistor, the transistor
revolutionized the field
of electronics, and paved
the way for smaller and
cheaper radios,
calculators, and
computers, among other
things.
1947
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
1950s
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1950
PC ?
OR
Not?
Alan Turing, arguably the father of
computer science and artificial
intelligence(AI). Proposes his now
famous Turing Test, which become one
of the standards used to determine
whether a machine is intelligent or not.
The first programmable robot “Universal
Automation” is designed by George Devol
(right) in 1954; Devol and engineer Joseph
Engelberger (left) form the world's first
robot company, Unimation in 1956.
1954‐1956
Astro Boy
1952
Robby
1956
Robot theory
Computer science
Manufacturing ability
Industry requirement
Peoples’ interest
Etc…
The robot time is really coming!
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
1960s
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1961 Unimate, the first
industrial robot was in
a General Motors
automobile factory in
New Jersey.
1963
Rancho Arm, the first
artificial robotic arm
controlled by a
computer.
1965
GE Walking Truck,
The first manually
controlled walking
truck, it could
walk up to four miles
an hour.
Shakey, the first general‐
purpose mobile robot, it
can recognize an object,
find its way to the object
and perform some
action, by Stanford
University
1966‐1972
Stanford's Arm, the first
successful electrically powered,
computer‐controlled robot arm.
1969
WAP‐1, the first biped
robot was designed in
Waseda university, Japan.
Air bags connected to the
frame were used to
stimulate artificial muscles
1969
1966
Phoney
Poney, the
first computer
controlled
walking
machine. USA
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
1970s
19
Lunokhod 1, the first roving
remote‐controlled robot to
land on another celestial
body, launched on November
10, 1970, Russia
1970
• With stereo vision.(a tv
camera)
• Take pictures from several
different angles
• The computer gauged the
distance between the cart
and obstacles in its path
1960‐1979
The Standford Cart
1973
WABOT‐1, the first full‐scale
anthropomorphic robot built in the
world. It consisted of a limb
control system, a vision system,
and a conversation system.
• Communication
• Measure distance and direction
• Grip and transport objects
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
1970s
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Famulus, the first with six
electric motor‐driven
axes, Kuka company.
1973
1977
C‐3PO
R2‐D2
Star Wars I
A number of six‐egged walking machines were built
The first P.U.M.A. Robot was
developed by Unimation for
General Motors.
1976
Many companies came to robotic field as the
robot technique matures.
A long time ago, in a
galaxy far, far away...
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
1980s
1980 - A new robot company enters the market every month!
1981 - IBM enters the robotics field with its 7535 and 7565 Manufacturing Systems.
1983 - Westinghouse Electric Corporation bought Unimation, Inc., later sold Unimation to Staubli of
Switzerland.
Robots with complex actions were appeared more and more due to the fast
development of control theory and computer technology.
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Quasi‐dynamic walking, JP
WL‐9DR
1980 1985
RB5X
A programmable robot
equipped with infrared sensors,
remote audio/video
transmission, bump sensors,
and a voice synthesizer. It had
software that could enable it to
learn about its environment.
Robots in multi‐mediaGenghis
1989 A robot that walks;
emergent behaviors
from a carefully
evolved network, MIT
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
1980s
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Short circuit
Star trek Robocop
How to get along well with Mr. Robot?
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
1990s
1990 - iRobot Corporation was founded by Rodney Brooks, Colin
Angle and Helen Greiner and produced domestic and military robots.
1997- Deep Blue, IBM’s chess-playing computer won the second
six-game match against world champion Garry Kasparov for the first
time.
1997 - NASA’s Path Finder lands on Mars and the Sojourner
Rover robot captures images of the planet.
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WIN
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
1990s
1998- Edinburgh Modular Arm System, the first prosthetic arm that used
robotics. Others types of robots: like Kismet (97), LEGO, Furby, etc
1999- Sony Dog, Robot fish, Cye robot, etc
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Kismet, robot can be sociable
LEGO
Edinburgh Modular Arm System
Furby
Cye Robot
Sony Dog
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering-
2000-now
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The number of robots worldwide
continued to grow rapidly and is now
on course to reach 100 million by 2020.
-Dept. of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering- 26
Thank you!
yajishen@cityu.edu.hk
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