Comp.robotics FAQ. August 2001 (first posting)
Charles Merriam
1 About this FAQ
1.1. Purpose
1.2. All the fun legal stuff: copyright, usage, history,
and disclaimers.
1.3. Additions, submissions, and questions
1.4. Thanks and special thanks.
2 Introductions and vocabulary: What are robots?
2.1 So, what is a robot? robotics? roboticist? Does anyone
know what they are talking about?
2.2 Origin of the word: Rossum’s Universal Robots
2.3 How many robot critters of each type are out there
anyway?
3 A vocabulary for describing robots: gizbots and simbots
and flightbots, oh my!
3.1 Summary and usage
3.2 How Modular Is Your 'bot: Gizbots versus Modbots
versus Unibots Construction
3.3 Where does your 'bot live? Stationbot, Floorbot,
Terrainbot, Airbot, Seabot, and Spacebot Environments.
3.4 How big is your 'bot: Tinybot, Midbot, and Bigbot
Sizes
3.5 How real is your 'bot: Simbot, Thoughtbot, Tinkerbot,
and Filmbot Development Phases
3.6 How controlled is your 'bot: Autobot, Taskbot, RCbot,
and Telebot Controls
4 Getting started
4.1 Watching the art: surveying robotics
4.2 A most enjoyable hobby: building your own robots
4.3 Studying for a living: universities and research
4.4 Working for a living: the robotics industry
5 What is BEAM? Are BEAM robots real robots?
6 Robots thinking, learning, and dreaming
1 About this FAQ
1.1. Purpose
Every Frequently Asked Questions document (FAQ) hopes
to answer some of the frequently asked questions and to
provide some framework of knowledge to people new in
the field. The hope is that the FAQ will have enough
new information to justify your taking the time to read
it. Also, it may provide a framework and initial
pointer for you to start finding the details through
research, reading, and experience.
1.2. All the fun legal stuff: copyright, usage, history,
and disclaimers.
This document copyright 2001 by Charles Merriam. This
FAQ was written from scratch in 2001 and hopes to be
updated every one to three months. You may mirror this
document for noncommercial use. If you are reading
this copy on a CD-ROM, then it is probably out of date.
You can find a copy of the current FAQ at
http://www.truegift.com/robots. If you are at all
confused about using or distributing the FAQ, just
contact Charles at rob...@truegift.com. This document
is unrelated to an older comp.robotics FAQ maintained
until 1996 by Kevin Dowling, then of Carnegie Mellon
University.
The information in this FAQ is generally, but not
guaranteed to be, accurate. Use at your own risk and
watch for the occasional bad pun.
1.3. Additions, submissions, and questions
Both the questions and the answers in this FAQ will
change over time. I will have made mistakes and
omissions, and the field of robotics will continue to
mature. I appreciate your help in identifying errors I
made in this FAQ and for bringing up new information.
Please send all comments, submissions and glamorous
resources to Charles at rob...@truegift.com, and please
put the section number in the header line. I'll try to
integrate in all corrections, some new resources, and
additional details into each new version, but please
don't be insulted if your comment doesn't make it into
the next draft. Also, if you are willing to be on the
'proof-reading' list, let me know.
Finally, some writers of FAQs dedicate time to answer
every question emailed to them. I ask that questions
be posted the comp.robotics.misc and
comp.robotics.research newsgroup for answering, as they
were before the FAQ. In order to be equal and fair to
everyone, I will not respond to technical questions
emailed to me.
1.4. Thanks and special thanks.
Many people will be open and helpful in improving this
FAQ, and I hope to give credit to as many as possible.
For now, let me give a special thanks to my wife,
Judith, for the ideas, proof reading, and patience that
allowed me to write this document.
2 Introductions and vocabulary: What are robots?
2.1 So, what is a robot? robotics? roboticist? Does anyone
know what they are talking about?
There are many definitions of robots, meaning there is
none.
Webster's defines a robot as a machine that looks like
a human and performs various complex tasks.
Alternatively, Webster's also defines a robot as a
device that automatically performs complicated, often
repetitive tasks. Various robotics books define robots
as machines that move, respond to stimuli, run
programs, or mimic life. Some computer books define
robots as computer programs that simulate a human using
other programs. Finally, some people with thick Boston
accents define robots as oar driven water vehicles.
Almost every book feels it important to spend a couple
of pages defining an exact meaning for the term robot
in the context of the book. Some define robots by
required components; e.g., moving parts and
computation. Some define by function or philosophy,
e.g., a machine that aspires to intelligence. This lets
you know there isn't a single definition. You can
start long arguments about the 'robot-ness' of 2001's
HAL, Stiquito, BattleBots, BEAM robots, automobiles,
humans, and garage door openers. You will find people
who challenge your definitions and understanding in
these discussions, and people who try to convince you
by bellowing. When in doubt, it is easiest to agree
that everything is a robot and recognize that you,
personally, are only interested in some robots.
Robotics is the study of robots and a roboticist is
someone who builds or studies robots. Next time you
meet a roboticist, ask if he or she has built twenty
robots. The result may surprise you.
2.2 Origin of the word: Rossum’s Universal Robots
In 1920, a Czech playright named Karel Capek wrote a
play named "Rossum's Universal Robots". His
manufactured factory workers were biological drones,
called 'robots'. The Czech term 'robot' means slave or
drone. The robots in the story, of course, try to
rebel and extinguish the human race. 'Robots' sounds
better than 'automations', 'automitons' or 'androids'
so the name stuck. You can read more about the play at
Dr. Dennis Jerz's site,
http://www.uwec.edu/academic/curric/jerzdg/RUR/.
The concept of robots as self-motivated creatures
endured from this story. People generally assign
robots names and genders and there is a rush to ascribe
algorithms, glitches and unexpected behaviors as the
emotions of some new life come alive. It's a powerful
tendency.
The image of metal mechanical men came later; it is
easy on the special effects budgets of movies to put
someone in a shiny metal suit with flashing lights.
Fictional robots are often workers gone amok and are
always more capable than what's available; it's the
nature of fiction.
2.3 How many robot critters of each type are out there
anyway?
It would be especially interesting to see how the mix
of varieties change over time, and to see a formal
robot census. The trend, from informal sources,
appears that every year there will be one third more
robots and roboticists than the previous year.
3 A vocabulary for describing robots: gizbots and
simbots and flightbots, oh my!
3.1 Summary and usage
A vocabulary is the starting point for any discussion,
and its an easy place to get bogged down in any
discussion of robots. For the purposes of this FAQ,
I'll make up some words to quickly describe a robot and
to introduce many of the basic design choices. There
will always be corner cases, and not every robot will
fit cleanly into categories. Still, it's a pretty good
way to list the key characteristics of a robot in one
sentence.
Each of these terms describes a design choice. In a
quick phrase, you can describe a robot's construction,
environment, size, control system, and current phase of
construction. For example, you may be tinkering with
a tiny, terrain traveling, autonomous, modular robot.
In print, you might list all the characteristic words,
e.g., (tinkerbot, tinybot, terrainbot, autobot,
modbot). Alternately, you can use the prefix for the
quality of the robot that you consider most important,
and add any other modifiers as separate words. In this
example, your robot would be a tiny, autonomous,
modular, tinkering, terrainbot if you felt the most
important feature is its ability to travel over uneven
ground.
3.2 How Modular Is Your 'bot: Gizbots versus Modbots
versus Unibots Construction
A gizbot is a robot assembled completely from modules.
Gizbots snap together, or use screws, or other
temporary fasteners. The same parts can usually be
taken apart and assembled into new robots by a
competent roboticist or innovative six-year-old. Lego
Mindstorms is a good example of a gizbot building kit,
and allows you to build robots from gizmos including
bricks, motors, wheels, and belts. See
http://mindstorms.lego.com for more information on Lego
Mindstorms.
Modbots are modular robots that reassemble themselves
while they work. These robots are cool to watch, and
are generally still in research laboratories. The
control systems for modbots are interesting. See Xerox
PARC's Modular Reconfiguarble Robots page,
http://www.parc.xerox.com/spl/projects/modrobots/ for
some examples.
Unibots are put together to stay, more or less, as a
unitary machine. Glue, welded metal, soldered wires
hold together the motors, sensors, wheels, and chips
into a single machine. Most robots are unibots; a
robot is probably a unibot unless someone calls it a
gizbot or modbot.
3.3 Where does your 'bot live? Stationbot, Floorbot,
Terrainbot, Airbot, Seabot, and Spacebot Environments.
Stationbots live in one place. They stay at their
station, and don't wander down the halls. Stationbots
generally have a solid base with some moving parts on
top. For example, industrial arm robots can reach out
and work with manufactured goods, but require some sort
of conveyor to bring the work to them.
Floorbots wander down the halls. They have wheels or
legs or treads to wander around linoleum or carpet and
usually have sensors to keep them from running into
walls and obstacles. Floorbots aren't built to handle
the rigors of outdoor life; they are built for flat,
regular surfaces. For example, Honda's humanoid robot
at http://world.honda.com/robot/ can walk down stairs,
but not over rough terrain.
Terrainbots wander over rough terrain. They are
designed for outdoor use and hostile environments. The
Nomad in the Antarctic is an example of a big,
autonomous terrainbot; see
http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/projects/meteorobot2000/.
Airbots fly in the air. They resemble airplanes,
helicopters, and flying balloons. For example, robotic
fighter planes are currently tinkerbots, see
http://www.janes.com/aerospace/military/news/idr/idr010
504_1_n.shtml.
Seabots swim in the water. Seabots include traditional
style of robot, such as RobHaz's tinkerbot seabot at
http://www.gibo.demon.co.uk/robhaz/need.html. Seabots
also include artificial fish such as Aquaroid's zoo at
http://www.marine-
monsters.com/front/products/aquaroid.html.
Finally, a Spacebot is a robot built for use in outer
space. Robots built for outer space usually have high
reliability requirements and are subject to extremely
harsh environments: radical temperature fluctuations,
radiation hazards, high gee landings, vibration, etc.
The term spacebot is an additional environment
description. For example, the Sojourner on Mars,
http://mars.sdsc.edu/rovercom/rovcom.html, is a
terrainbot spacebot.
3.4 How big is your 'bot: Tinybot, Midbot, and Bigbot
Sizes
Robots come in every size from smaller than eye can see
to large enough to crush your minivan. The way a robot
is designed and constructed changes significantly if it
is smaller than your fingernail or larger than one
person can carry. Joining two pieces on a microscopic
robot uses different tools than joining two pieces on
huge mining robot. Three terms for size are sufficient
to scope a discussion, though a detailed description of
a robot might give the exact weight and dimensions.
Tinybots are smaller than a cubic inch. This term
includes Sandia's tinybots,
http://www.sandia.gov/media/NewsRel/NR2001/minirobot.ht
m, as well as Sweden's microscopic robots,
http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/072600/Microrobots_072600
.html. Tinybots are still new, and most are still
thoughtbots.
Bigbots are larger than can easily be handled by one
person. They are heavier than 65 pounds (about 50
kilograms) or longer than a yard (about a meter) in any
direction. Bigbots typically need more than one person
and some sort of vehicle to carry them from place to
place. They range from larger hobbyist robots to
monstrosities like the Robosaurus,
http://www.robosaurus.com/.
Midbots are everything else. It's a robot that is
between an inch and yard in it's longest dimension,
with its arms folded. Midbots can usually be worked on
by one person with hand tools. You can carry a midbot.
3.5 How real is your 'bot: Simbot, Thoughtbot, Tinkerbot,
and Filmbot Development Phases
Simbots are robots that exist in simulation
environments that provide a graphical, simulated view
of the robot interacting with its environment.
Simulations are useful for testing new programs for
later use with physical robot. Simulation environments
also allow research on reasoning, complex interaction
of multiple robots, testing designs, and creating
innovative software. See Essex University's list of
simulators at
http://cswww.essex.ac.uk/Research/tuuv/simulators.html.
Thoughtbots are robots that haven't been built yet.
These are robots people thought about, wrote papers
about, or designed, but have not started building.
It's polite to mention that your new creation is a
thoughtbot if you haven't built it yet.
Tinkerbots are robots that mostly work, but are still
in the pre-demo stage. Like a thoughtbot, it's not
done. Unlike a thoughtbot, a tinkerbot is an attempt
is in progress.
Finally, a filmbot is a robot that exists only in films
or other fiction and is never planned to be
implemented. Robots in movies and anime are filmbots.
This is a fun hobby area for lot of people. See
http://www.btinternet.com/~reg.joy/AtoZ.htm for
examples of many filmbots mixed in with real robots,
and http://www.robotech.com for robots from the
Japanese animation series Robotech.
3.6 How controlled is your 'bot: Autobot, Taskbot, RCbot,
and Telebot Controls
Autobots or fully autonomous robots, are robots that
are let loose to run without any further control by a
human or remote computer. They respond to stimuli,
such as chasing after light or looking for dirty spots
on the window. They can run complex programs, e.g.,
finding a soccer ball and moving it into a goal. An
autobot is generally turned on and let go, without
having any special communications gear to talk with an
off-board computer. Many hobbyist robots and robots
using the BEAM philosophy are autobots.
Taskbots, or task-oriented robots, perform some steps
on their own and pass messages back and forth with a
remote computer or human for more directions. Most
industrial robots are taskbots, and rely on a remote,
central computer to tell them when to run tasks. For
example, an assembly line computer might command a
welding taskbot to "run welding program 9; trust me
that there is a widget in front of you." The taskbot
has some of its own capabilities, but cannot function
without direction from outside itself.
RCbots, or remote controlled robots, are the opposite
of autobots because they have no onboard decision
processing. Some sort of remote control, usually
controlled by a human, triggers the machinery to move.
All Radio Controlled (RC) vehicles are RCbots because a
human controls them via a radio controller, e.g., the
robots in BattleBots at
http://www.battlebots.com/meet_robot_stats.asp.
Telebots, or teleoperated robots, are versions of
taskbots or RCbots that try to extend a human
operator's perception and capabilities. The operator
can see from cameras located on the robot, and many
telebots have manipulators on the robot that mimic the
operator's hand movements. Telebots are often used in
hazardous areas, such as Robominer's mining robots,
http://www.robominer.com. They are also used in
difficult to reach areas, such as inside the human
body. See an article of robotics surgery at
http://www.technologyreview.com/magazine/nov00/ditlea.a
sp. A robot is probably a telebot if it transmits real-
time video.
Other control system designs also exist, and the
distinctions among control systems can blur. Some
robots might fit in multiple categories and may be hard
to classify. For example, a telebot might have autobot
software to take over if communications are lost, or
RCbots might have programmed, automatic, safety
responses. Also, there are collaborative robots that
share sensor data and processing tasks with each other.
See Oakridge National Laboratory's CESAR system at
http://www.epm.ornl.gov/cap.html. As the field of
robotics advances, the control system distinctions will
continue to blur and new control strategies will arise
until we need a new vocabulary.
4 Getting started
First, congratulations on entering an amazing quest.
Good luck; may it be fascinating, fun, educational, and
profitable for you.
The most common question in any newsgroup is "I'm new;
how do I get started?". There are different ways of
getting started depending on your background and your
interests: you may start as an observer, reading about
and watching robots; you might start as a hobbyist,
building robots for fun; you may want to study and
research robots in academia; or you may want to join
the robotics industry in hopes of making some money.
Wherever you start, robotics is a rich and fascinating
field.
4.1 Watching the art: surveying robotics
You many want to start with a survey of robotics to
find out what is being done with robotics. You can
find out what's real and what's only in the movies.
This can be fascinating and give you enough background
in case you want to become more involved.
If you want to start with a book, I recommend "Robo
sapiens: Evolution of a New Species". This is a
coffee table book, but includes plenty of text in
addition to some amazing pictures. It came out in
early 2000 and surveys people, institutions, and
robots. It is a good way to see what's out there and
what is in the laboratories. See
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262133822.
On the web, check out NASA's Cool Robot of the week
site at
http://ranier.oact.hq.nasa.gov/telerobotics_page/coolro
bots.html. This site features a cool new robot each
week, and has a history of cool robots since 1996.
Also, popular press coverage can be found from your
favorite news site, such as Yahoo's Robotics News Full
Coverage,
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/Tech/Robots_and_Robotics/
. Daily news can be found from RobotBooks at
http://www.robotbooks.com/robot-news.htm. For straight
entertainment, check out the Battlebots and RobotWars
television shows, or watch streaming video on their
sites at http://www.battlebots.com and
http://www.robotwars.com.
Finally, if you want to build or play with some robots,
you can buy robots from most toy stores and hobby
stores. The Robot Store has a particularly large
selection of kits and premade robots at
http://www.robotstore.com/.
4.2 A most enjoyable hobby: building your own robots
One way to enjoy robotics is to build robots. There
are many hobbyists, and it can be a social activity.
There are lots of clubs, web sites, and online
communities to help you build robots and let you help
others build robots. Most people play with different
types of hobby robots without specializing on a
particular type. Over time, most hobbyists learn a bit
about electrical engineering, mechanical engineering,
and computer programming.
You can start building gizbots to quickly test out
different types of designs. Two gizbot sets that I
like are the Lego Mindstorms kit and BOE (Board of
Education) BasicStamp kit. Each requires a personal
computer to program the robot, and each costs about
$200. Lego Mindstorms can be made into a wider variety
of shapes, but the BOE tends to give more practice with
a breadboard, wires, sensors, and the gritty details.
The BOE also comes with excellent manuals and
tutorials. Check out the Lego Mindstorms web-ring by
starting at http://www.workshop3d.com/rcx/ and the
Parallax site starting at
http://www.parallaxinc.com/html_files/products/StampsIC
/boe-bot_brief.asp.
Another route is building the traditional unibot. I
heartily recommend the book "Robot Builders Bonanza"
for an overview of the systems and tricks for building
unibots. This will give you basic information such as
finding wheels that work, using batteries with motors
and circuitry, programming microcontrollers, and
practical advice for putting all the parts together.
See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0071362967.
Finally, a third area to explore is building BEAM
robots, which are small, autonomous unibots. These
have the advantage of being inexpensive, usually under
$20, and do not require computer skills. See the
section below for more information on BEAM robots.
You will probably find it fun to meet people from a
local robotics club. There is a list of some robotics
clubs at
http://www.robotcafe.com/dir/Organizations/Hobby_Clubs/
. If you don't find one in your area, start one. You
can also meet people at the robotics competitions which
are fun to see and to participate in; see Steve
Rainwater's excellent FAQ at
http://robots.net/rcfaq.html for a list. You can also
meet people interested in robotics in online newsgroups
like comp.robotics.misc and Yahoo's Robotics Club
http://members.tripod.com/RoBoJRR/.
4.3 Studying for a living: universities and research
Robots are cool, and, well, you have to go to college
anyway. People commonly ask about finding the best
university to study robotics at the undergraduate,
graduate, and post-doc levels. The simple answer is
"it depends".
First, recognize that the study of robotics is at the
confluence of many different fields, each progressing
rapidly. Robotics is a new field, and people are still
learning what to emphasize to efficiently create people
skilled in researching and building robots. Every
department will be different, and will focus on the
large or small, practical or ambitious, with a hardware
focus or software focus. Many universities will have
robotics groups in within their Mechanical Engineering,
Electrical Engineering or Computer Science departments.
Most universities will have some post-docs studying
robotics in fields ranging from Environmental
Engineering to Behavioral Psychology.
The universities are all different, and you can learn a
lot from the college web pages. Robotics is coming to
age in a world with the Internet. If you can't get a
sense of the focus and direction of the research groups
from the web pages, then there is no focus or
direction. If the web pages have no gallery of
pictures or movies of previous robots than the
department probably hasn't built any. Count how many
students, professors, projects, and facilities are
mentioned to get an idea of the community. Try to get a
sense of how they teach about robots; figure out if
there are formal classes and at what level. When
counting up how many faculty, students, and facilities
are involved, be sure to check multiple departments at
the university. Finally, try to see if the graduates
work in robotics instead of programming computers for a
living.
If you are already at a university and are looking for
access to more resources, try reading the
news:comp.robotics.research newsgroup or joining the
IEEE Robotics and Automation Society at
http://www.ncsu.edu/IEEE-RAS. Calls for papers and
announcements of seminars are routinely posted to
news:comp.research. Plan on spending an hour or two
per day keeping up with popular press, reading mailing
lists, and communicating with others in your field.
4.4 Working for a living: the robotics industry
Capitalism is unforgiving: people don't want robots;
they just want the job done. Money is made when robots
deliver on promises and money is lost when companies
over-promise and fail. Because the robotics industry
has had periods of outrageous claims, some companies
will use terms such as industrial machinery, automated
machinery, or machine control systems to avoid the
taint of the term 'robot'. Avoiding the term 'robot'
usually speaks more about the customers of the firm
than the firm itself.
The billion dollars per year in the U.S. robotics
industry is divided among manufacturing robotics, clean
room robotics for computer chip fabrication, and a
number of less mature fields. Because firms in each
field sell to different customers, they usually read
different magazines, attend different tradeshows, and
have different priorities.
Manufacturing robotics is a mature field selling a
variety of robots for welding, painting, assembling,
and conveying goods. Most of these robots are
stationary unibots, and almost all are taskbots. High
throughput, low cost, and high reliability are primary
goals. A good place to start exploring this segment of
the industry is through the Robotics Industry
Association (RIA) at http://www.robotics.org and
through the Society of Manufacturing Engineers at
http://www.sme.org/ri. Also, look at some larger
industrial robotics companies, such as FANUC at
http://www.fanuc.com.
The clean room robotics field makes machines used in
computer chip fabrication facilities (fabs). These
include floorbots moving wafers around the fab, and the
machines that manipulate wafers in controlled
environments. Extreme reliability, consistency, and
precision manipulation are primary goals. This field
makes fewer, but more expensive robots than
manufacturing robotics. A good place to start
exploring this field would be SEMI's resource page at
http://www.semi.org/web/wsemi.nsf/url/resources.
Finally, there are a number of new companies that are
at the forefront of new fields. As these companies
generate more technology and profits, they will be
followed by more competitors until a full industry
emerges. The risks are higher in an emerging field,
but so are the rewards. In any case, you can expect
your career to be interesting and dynamic.
5 What is BEAM? Are BEAM robots real robots?
BEAM is a design philosophy for robots started by Mark
Tilden in the 1990's. Robots using this design
philosophy tend to use a minimal number of components,
often soldering power sources to motors without any
centralized control system. BEAM robots are usually
unitary, hand-held, autonomous, terrainbots. The lack
of centralized control systems, or the use of analog
circuits for control systems, allows complex behavior
in a small number of parts, and also makes programming
difficult. While BEAM is an exciting technology easily
in reach of the hobbyist, there is no known large-scale
commercial use of BEAM robotics yet. Some advantages
of BEAM include the rapid advancement of the field,
robots that cost under $100 to build, easy entry for
hobbyists, high survivability, and BEAM robots are
cute. For more information, check out Brian Bush's
excellent BEAM FAQ at
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/bushbo/beam/FAQ.html, or
start at Ivor Thorson's site at
http://members.nbci.com/robots and browse the web-ring.
6 Robots thinking, learning, and dreaming
"Are robots intelligent?" is a common question that
comes up on the newsgroup. There are 2,000 year old
questions about the nature of intelligence, the context
of thinking, and the limits of learning. These can be
long discussions that open up more discussions and
bringing up one of these questions can be an enjoyable
way to kill an evening. For good ammunition for this
type of discussions, you may like to read Ray
Kurtzweil's book, Age of Spiritual Machines. See
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140282025.
For a discussion in newsgroups, these 2,000 year old
questions are better addressed in the comp.ai
newsgroup, or one of its many subgroups. It is polite
to move the discussions into an area like-minded people
can explore.
Charles Merriam
to contact the author of the 1996 FAQ to no avail. Also, I
had posted here a few months back that I would write a new
FAQ.
Please send any comments on the new FAQ to rob...@truegift.com
Cheers,
Charles Merriam