Past Present Future

Robots have been around for quite a while now. From their first appearances, to where they stand now, they have come a long way through technical developments. And, we are already getting used to the idea of them helping us. But to what extent? At what point can we see a robot in every household, not only helping us with day to day tasks, but also with more sophisticated issues. In many different companies, they are already dependent on robots. This is due to their newly found mobility. Just think of Amazon’s latest delivery, hovering robot and you will know what we are talking about.

From Nanobots to da Vinci surgical robots, each offers different and important business values that can be seen in logistics, the medical sector, space and the U.S. army. We have seen how robots are able to improve the driving abilities of the Bugatti Veyron or to drive a car completely on its own, thanks so artificial intelligence. The da Vinci surgical robot represents a new era in medical technology, as it helps to eliminate human error. The robots that have been developed by NASA have done a lot of research for us, which we could never have done on our own. And just as well, the U.S. army is helped by robots in places where no human being can go.

Humanoids are the group of robots that represent the most tangible and most typical human-machine interaction. Think back to R2D2 and then take a look at Asimo. The features of robots today are much more humanlike, as their faces resemble a human's. Their intelligence is so advanced that we are really starting to feel and treat them as human beings. The way they are able to recognize objects and persons, to react in different situations without any intervention, creates the opportunity to employ them in a wide range of activities: from serving a dinner in a restaurant to doing dangerous rescues in a nuclear plant. Together, we are approaching a new age of robot-human collaboration.

But of course we still have a long way to go. As many of the advanced robots are still in the beginning stages of development, small productions often come with big costs. Every new invention, every new step towards artificial intelligence presents new problems. Robots are dependent on the way we create and program them; that means that they are a product of the human mind, and therefore bound to human errors. Their mobility has already come a long way: Asimo can run up and down stairs and the Packbot can pick itself up. But still, they are a long way away from the movements and the mobility of a human being. Another constraint, that we as human beings also lack, is power. We need food and sleep, just as robots need to recharge their batteries.  Hopefully over time, these limitations will be eliminated one by one. But, we are going to have to wait a little longer before we can send a robot to get our groceries, or let a robot bring goods from a distributor to a retail centre.

PackBot

The PackBot is another invention that is highly valued by the U.S. army. It was introduced in Afghanistan in 2002. Since then there have been many new models. The one characteristic that stays constant is a special propulsion system, with aiding flippers that enables the robot to reach speeds up to 14 km/h (5.8 mph) and makes sure that it can make its way over rough terrain. Thanks to the flippers, that can move around 360 degrees it can even move itself in different positions. For example let’s say it has accidentally landed on its back, no problem, it can right itself. The flippers also make it possible to climb up a hill up to 60 degrees. Or what do you think about taking a ‘swim’ through water up to two meters deep or survive a fall from two meters height.

So basically the idea is that soldiers can toss the thing in a building and explore it, without risk. Besides its durability it is also very easy to transport, as it fits in a backpack and is quickly deployable. Everything about this robot is designed for easy use. That’s why it is so popular. It has been used in different locations and is for example the first robot that entered the Fukushima nuclear plant. Thanks to its GPS receiver, electronic compass, orientation and temperature sensors it can go to locations where it is deemed very dangerous for human beings.

There are four basic models, aimed at specific situations. First there is the PackBot Scout, the most basic configuration that is used for operations where lightweight and low-profile are required. Second version is the PackBot explorer, it carries an integrated payload which can be elevated and is equipped with cameras, a laser pointer, sensor and even a microphone. It works more or less like a head, so even though its small sizes, with this feature it is able peek over obstacles. The PackBot EOD gets its coolness from an OmniReach manipulator system. A what? It’s some sort of arm with a gripping hand that extends over two meters and is able to reach out for dangerous explosives. With its audio and visual sensors, combined with its low profile it is able to search under vehicles or for example inside sewers.

The latest PackBot 510 is everything combined, but even faster and it can drag larger objects, lifts more weights and is much stronger. It’s a real toy, as you are stearing it with a game-like controller, for faster training: you know how these guys are with video-games. Together with a 2-D or 3-D image of the robot available on the control unit it makes for easier operation in the field.  The latest version is a real multi-tasker, it can do almost anything you can think of. It’s a soldier’s best friend, to name some features: explosives detection, emergency first response, building and route clearance. And the list goes on and on as you can customize it however you want. Do you want one for your home already?

For more specs take a look at iRobot's website

Cheetah-Bot

All right, the cheetah-bot might not be as fast as the real life animal, nor does it look as gracious. But, it is the fastest legged robot in the world, surpassing an impressive 29 mph (46 km/h). Can you run at that speed? I didn't think so. Although it will take us much longer to imitate animal species like the cheetah, they are the inspiration for a lot of research and developmental robots.

Just as the cheetah has a flexible back when running, the cheetah bot does as well. Because the whole body moves fluidly when running, it is able to reach incredible speeds. The only limitation is that it is still attached to a hydraulic arm to keep balance. It cannot yet run independently and, as you can see in the movie, the robot really struggles with its balance. Unfortunately it is hard to get any more technical information on the cheetah bot, but actually that comes as no surprise is that the U.S. government is very interested in these types of innovations. Why? To obtain world dominance, prepare for an alien invasion, military advantage, who knows?

As the cheetah is so much faster than any human being, it presents a lot of possible applications in the field of war. It can outrun enemies and tackle them without any difficulty, just like an attack dog. But, dogs can be easily defended when they eventually catch up to you. With these robots you stand no chance. Running more than 29 mph? Snapping a robots neck? Enemy forces will have to find a whole new way to fight the U.S. army when similar robots come into play. That’s why these new robots are so valuable. And, as we know, many innovations in business originate from inventions used in the army, so maybe in the future we will be seeing more from the cheetah bot.

Drones

" The evil eyes in the sky "

They are everywhere if you consider your privacy, they can see it all? What are they? Why are they up in the skies like UFO's? Who controls them?

These are some of the few questions that pop up in our mind every time we hear about drone strikes somewhere in the world. They are actually unmanned flying machines controlled remotely at a military base, mostly thousand of miles away. They are equipped for tactile missions and have equipments such as hi-resolution cameras and even missiles at times. They are a new breed of warriors employed in the battlefields today, actually almost all of the news agencies are mapped with news about some or the other drone strikes somewhere in the world.

But are these mean machine so really mean? Can they just be used as weapons of mass destruction?

The answer to the above questions is NO.Drones are capable of much much more. They can be used in various circumstances where human intervention on board an aircraft is actually dangerous or tedious. Such situations can be weather observation, surveillance for pattern recognition in agricultural fields, or perhaps even traffic monitoring to understand several factors for different studies.

They are much much more than Killers they were designed to be much more. It's their use that makes them deadly yet the power behind the technology is immense. They are the frontrunners of unmanned aircrafts which perhaps in the future could also be extended to totally autonomous machines to do things even out of the earths atmosphere...

 

Nanobots

The next generation bots are coming... You can't see them, touch them or feel them around you but they would do things that would entirely change the course of perception of the human race. Imagine a chronic tumour in the human body in a place inaccessible even to the best of the medical terms. What is the cure?

Pop a pill containing these miracle workers which would be electronically programmed to target the tumour in a manner as quick as one can think without any risky procedures or long waits in the hospital. This is the future with bots being made at the nanoscale i.e. a nanometer scale which is equal to 19^-9 metres. So small as to be not even seen by the human eye yet so powerful to accomplish tasks through coordinated swarms.

Thought the creation of these minuscule is not very easy because of the fact of creation of motors, sensors and the matrix board for the controller, the size of lesser than even a nanometer and this is possible but not so very in the current period. These wonders have the power to work in a coordinated manner as a swarm to accomplish tasks not only in the medical field as mentioned above but they could be also used in emergency situations such as a war or on aircrafts to control in many real time features of the rudders for example.

These bots would enable us in the future to perform functions which today owing to the inability to create objects on such a scale factor are impossible. 

The various approaches of formulation of these organisms are as follows:

1. Biochip

2. Nubots

3. Positional Nanoassembly

4. Bacteria Based

5. Open Technology

6. Nanorobot Race

These bots if implemented on this scale have tremendous potentials. They can even help us to decode the human genome on a much better scale as the DNA molecules are also at the same factor level. Though evidently they are of primary importance and are needed as soon as possible yet there is a lot to be learnt on the way before putting them into actual usage or over the production facility.

Aishwarya Tiwari

And they shall rise to protect the Human Race...

Robots are able to traverse where humans dare not, into disaster areas, both natural and man-made. Governments, universities, and corporations across the globe have been investing significant resources in developing robots to deal with the repercussions of floods, mining collapses, oil spills, nuclear outbrakes, and other industrial and natural disasters since the 90's.

Robots, in essence, have no need of environmental comfort. Their chassis unite forged metallic alloys with synthesized polcarbonates that empower them to resist tremendous physical exposure to heat or steam (no air circulation), direct force or high frequency radiation, while being flexible enough to move around conveniently.

The limit of TID (total ionizing dose - deterioration of electric/electronic equipments because of temporally accumulated amount of radioactive exposure - absorbed dose [Gy]) for human workers is legally defined as 100 - 250 Milli-Sievert [mSv]. If the safety factor is set to 0.1 Gy, 50 [Gy] and 20 [Gy] (the admissible limit of a robot) are 20-50 times and 8-20 times larger the admissible limit of human workers respectively.

Robotic devices have been employed in response to multiple Radioactive disasters: Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and recently in Fukushima, Japan. In Fukushima, Packbots were used to measure radiation levels and take pictures safely (see video below). As for chemical and oil refinement disasters, robots have been vital in managing environmental damages. Clean-up robots, with huge, deployable arms, are able to analyze and collect chemical leakages within disaster areas.

Robots entering Fukushima Reactor Building for the very first time:

In the medical field, robots have been developed to identify, analyze, and combat terminal diseases, such as cancer. Nano-robots, robots scaled to 10^-9 meters, are being developed to access and cure malignant cells through magnetic field targeting. A big advantage of this robotic technology is that it targets only the infected cells, without damaging healthy tissue (like chemotherapy).

Robots are morevover used to explore active volcanos, which is just another example of how robots have extended humanity's learning horizons.

Robots exploring a Volcano: 

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nbcnews.com/49552226#49552226

Below (left), a Hurt Locker-like bomb-disabling robot is pictured. Another example of how robotics has extended humanity's practical reach without endangering human lives. All of these robots have broken down environmental barriers, allowing humans to access realms previously inaccessible. Now just imagine what barriers robots will be able to overcome in the future.

This tactical hazardous operations robot, also know as THOR, is considered to be the robotic disaster response challenge (DRC) robot, par excellence. It not only facilitates the accomplishment of certain milestones in the prevention of disasters, but also pushes the entire field of robotic technology to its utter limits. At the end of the challenge, THOR should be able to perform the following tasks:

• Get into and drive a utility vehicle
• Walk across a rubble field
• Clear rubble blocking an entry
• Open doors and enter a building
• Climb a ship’s ladder
• Manipulate a power tool to break through a wall
• Locate and close a valve
• Carry and connect a fire hose

The business value of this technology manifests in the increasingly growing market and research & development found in this area. It seem that this technology not only provides a pruduct with respect to social responsibility or business ethics, but also from a pure return on investment point of view it seems to be beneficial.