Vision-Based Control – 17224 AME 60656

1. Vision-Based Control – 17224AME 60656 For course information click below.

2. “We don’t actually make robots; what we make are just ‘programmable machines’.”

3. “We don’t actually make robots; what we make are just ‘programmable machines’.” Startling words from a chief researcher at one of the largest “robot manufacturers” in the world.

4. “We don’t actually make robots; what we make are just ‘programmable machines’.” What does he mean?

5. “We don’t actually make robots; what we make are just ‘programmable machines’.” What does he mean? Are thesenot robots?

6. And what makes this a robot?

7. Are these robots?

8. How about this?

9. “We don’t actually make robots; what we make are just ‘programmable machines’.” Our research manager is not alone; consider this from the U.S. federal government:

10. Committee on the Assessment of Options for Extending the Life of the Hubble Space Telescope, National Research Council, Appendix D, State of the Art in Robotics -- 2005

11. “It is … difficult to … control a robotic arm with anything remotely approaching the capabilities of a human being.”

12. “Many robots are teleoperated. In teleoperation, a human operator controls the robot directly.“

13. (Why is this a robot, but not this?)

14. The meaning of “robot” has evolved inconsistently. But in any case, our manager was not thinking of the “human in the loop” forms.

15. “In spirit, [industrial] robots are closer to machines like programmablelooms or dishwashers than to Hollywood’s R2D2.”

16. Most industrial robots simply repeat previously taught joint motion.

17. Manager’s point is that teach/repeat systems don’t have the sensor-based responsiveness most people assume.

18. “But all that may change, radically, within a decade.”

19. “But all that may change, radically, within a decade.” If this kind of machine has been around for fifty years, why would the research manager say this?

20. “But all that may change, radically, within a decade.” What would change? Would the machines be different?

21. “But all that may change, radically, within a decade.” And what would make the prospect of such a change so exciting for a manufacturer of these machines?

22. “But all that may change, radically, within a decade.” It has more to do with the way these machines are used. The hardware need not change.

23. Consider the motion of this industrial robot.

24. Every part of this impressive motion is “taught” – every part except the loose-bag engagement.

25. With the exception of the bag-engage movement, which is visually guided, the action of this machine is successful only if everything in the environment remains in place.

26. With the exception of the bag-engage movement, which is visually guided, the action of this machine is successful only if everything in the environment remains in place.

27. With the exception of the bag-engage movement, which is visually guided, the action of this machine is successful only if everything in the environment remains in place.

28. With the exception of the bag-engage movement, which is visually guided, the action of this machine is successful only if everything in the environment remains in place.

29. But the six-degree-of-freedom mechanism is mechanically capable of responding to “as-located” elements anywhere within its workspace.

30. Therefore, if the system had the wherewithal to respond to “as-located”, the number of these same mechanisms that could be sold could grow by orders of magnitude.