Wednesday, 8 September 2010, 02:41 AM
Site: Betts ComputersCourse: Robotics1 (Robotics1)
Glossary: Robotics Main Glossary
A
 | A/D Converter | |
| A/D converter stands for analogue to digital converter. This piece of equipment will take the analogue signal from a sensor and convert it to digital data for processing. | ||
| Actuator | |
| A device which performs the physical movement of a robot. 3 types electric hydraulic and pneumatic. | ||
| Adaptive Robots | |
Adaptive robots can make decisions based on changes in their environment picked up from sensors. http://www.bartneck.de/work/researchProjects/socialRobotics/roboclub/ear.html (emotional adaptive robots... interesting idea... check it out) | ||
| Analog | |
| the same thing as analogue just a different spelling (US spelling) | ||
| Analogue | |
| Data from the natural world which will have an infinite number of variables. For example sound from the natural world will have an infinite number of possible variations | ||
| Articulate | |
| having distinct or precise parts organized into a coherent whole. For instance semi trailers are articulated vehicles because the have several parts which work together. They will have a front cabin and a trailer at the back. Grippers are articulated because they will have several parts used to pick them up which will act together as parts of one component. | ||
| Artificial Intelligence | |
| A program which allows some ability to learn or to make intelligent choices as such it can be seen by a user to be the ability of a computer or other machine to perform those activities that mimic human ability to reason. | ||
| Autonomous | |
| Operating without pre-programmed behaviors and without supervision from humans. These robots will probably be programmed using languages like LISP or PROLOG | ||
B
| Batch System | |
| An automated manufacturing system that produces a specific quantity of a product. Most would be like this. There is little use in over producing so that the warehouses are full and there is too much product to sell. | ||
C
| Case-Based Reasoning | |
| Also known as nearest neighbour classification. For every input that it recieves, it will find the best matching "case" in a set and generate a reply based on the input that is given to it. | ||
| Closed Loop | |
| The closed loop system receives feedback from the system that it controls. In this process the robot or other instructional device will receive feedback from a sensory device which will then cause a response from the system allowing it to adjust to changed environmental conditions. In this example it might be a robot welder which is able to intelligently determine the position of the joint to weld even though it may not be in exactly the same position as the previous one. | ||
| Continuous System | |
| An automated manufacturing system which is likely or capable of operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A system like this would probably greatly benefit from industrial robots | ||
| Controller | |
| A controller receives information from an input device such as a sensor and adjusts the robots actions to respond to its environment. The output from a controller will go to an actuator. The controller maybe hardware or software. | ||
| Critical Damping | |
| Critical damping is the ability to dampen the feedback so that adjustments to the system can be achieved in the shortest possible time, without any overshooting of the target condition unlike the situation with overdamping and underdamping. | ||
| Cyborg | |
| a being that is part human and part machine | ||