Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
Navigation sponsors an annual Autonomous Lawnmower competition,
to encourage universities and colleges to design lawnmowers using the
art and science of navigation. The robots' skills in rapidly and accurately
mowing a field of grass are measured very simply—the lawnmower that
completes a mowing task in the shortest time is the winner.
Bonding with Your Robot Servant
Some manufacturers of domestic robots have found that customers give
their robot vacuum cleaners names, talk to them and treat them in other
ways as though they are alive or at least semi-sentient. Some owners
even take their robot cleaners on vacation, unwilling to leave them at
home alone. Nancy Dussault, a spokesperson for iRobot Corporation,
describes how some of their customers “...actuallyconsider themtheir
companion, even though it's just vacuuming their floor. People get at-
tached to them and think of them as part of their family. It's almost a
pet. It makes them feel like they're not alone.” [4] And one Electrolux
customer, who had named her robot cleaner Matilda, even insisted that
Matilda be returned to her after repair, rather than a replacement ma-
chine.
Robots that Change Their Own Shape
We have a vision of the future: a modular robot that can assume a
snake shape to traverse a tunnel, reconfigure upon exiting as a six-
legged robot to traverse rough terrain, and change shape and gait
to climb stairs and enter a building. The key to such versatility is
self-reconfiguration . . .
...Forexample, the bad robot in the movie Terminator 2 is a true
self-configuring robot: it turned into a floor to camouflage its posi-
tion, grew a third arm to shoot a gun while flying a helicopter, and
frequently changed its hands into whatever tools it needed. [5]
The idea behind self-reconfigurable robots is that a robot designed for
one particular task might be totally unsuitable for another specific pur-
pose, and the reason may be a physical one—robots often need to be of
different shapes in order to perform different tasks. If it is impossible to
determine in advance of its deployment exactly what a robot will have
to do, it is useful instead to increase their versatility by employing robots
that can change shape, thereby making it more likely that they will be
able to accomplish the unexpected.
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