Mobile robot

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search
"Mobot" redirects here. For the victory pose of distance runner Mo Farah, see Mo Farah
§ Trademark.
A mobile robot is a robot that is capable of locomotion. Mobile robotics is usually considered to be a
subfield of robotics and information engineering.[1]

A spying robot is an example of a mobile robot capable of movement in a given environment.[2]

Mobile robots have the capability to move around in their environment and are not fixed to one
physical location. Mobile robots can be "autonomous" (AMR - autonomous mobile robot) which
means they are capable of navigating an uncontrolled environment without the need for physical or
electro-mechanical guidance devices. Alternatively, mobile robots can rely on guidance devices that
allow them to travel a pre-defined navigation route in relatively controlled space (AGV - autonomous
guided vehicle). By contrast, industrial robots are usually more-or-less stationary, consisting of
a jointed arm (multi-linked manipulator) and gripper assembly (or end effector), attached to a fixed
surface.
Mobile robots have become more commonplace in commercial and industrial settings. Hospitals
have been using autonomous mobile robots to move materials for many years. Warehouses have
installed mobile robotic systems to efficiently move materials from stocking shelves to order
fulfillment zones. Mobile robots are also a major focus of current research and almost every major
university has one or more labs that focus on mobile robot research.[3] Mobile robots are also found
in industrial, military and security settings. Domestic robots are consumer products,
including entertainment robots and those that perform certain household tasks such as vacuuming or
gardening.
The components of a mobile robot are a controller, control software, sensors and actuators. The
controller is generally a microprocessor, embedded microcontroller or a personal computer (PC).
Mobile control software can be either assembly level language or high-level languages such as C,
C++, Pascal, Fortran or special real-time software. The sensors used are dependent upon the
requirements of the robot. The requirements could be dead reckoning, tactile and proximity sensing,
triangulation ranging, collision avoidance, position location and other specific applications.[4]

Contents

 1Classification
 2Mobile robot navigation
o 2.1Manual remote or tele-op
 o 2.2Guarded tele-op
o 2.3Line-following Car
o 2.4Autonomously randomized robot
o 2.5Autonomously guided robot
o 2.6Sliding autonomy
 3History
 4See also
 5References
 6External links

Classification[edit]
Mobile robots may be classified by:

 The environment in which they travel:

 Land or home robots are usually referred to as Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs). They
are most commonly wheeled or tracked, but also include legged robots with two or more
legs (humanoid, or resembling animals or insects).
 Delivery & Transportation robots can move materials and supplies through a work
environment
 Aerial robots are usually referred to as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
 Underwater robots are usually called autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs)
 Polar robots, designed to navigate icy, crevasse filled environments
 The device they use to move, mainly:
 Legged robot : human-like legs (i.e. an android) or animal-like legs.
 Wheeled robot.
 Tracks.[5]

Mobile robot navigation[edit]

There are many types of mobile robot navigation:
Manual remote or tele-op[edit]
A manually teleoperated robot is totally under control of a driver with a joystick or other control
device. The device may be plugged directly into the robot, may be a wireless joystick, or may be an
accessory to a wireless computer or other controller. A tele-op'd robot is typically used to keep the
operator out of harm's way. Examples of manual remote robots include Robotics
Design's ANATROLLER ARI-100 and ARI-50, Foster-Miller's Talon, iRobot's PackBot, and
KumoTek's MK-705 Roosterbot.
Guarded tele-op[edit]
A guarded tele-op robot has the ability to sense and avoid obstacles but will otherwise navigate as
driven, like a robot under manual tele-op. Few if any mobile robots offer only guarded tele-op. (See
Sliding Autonomy below.)
Line-following Car[edit]
Some of the earliest Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) were line following mobile robots. They
might follow a visual line painted or embedded in the floor or ceiling or an electrical wire in the floor.
Most of these robots operated a simple "keep the line in the center sensor" algorithm. They could not
circumnavigate obstacles; they just stopped and waited when something blocked their path. Many
examples of such vehicles are still sold, by Transbotics, FMC, Egemin, HK Systems and many other
companies. These types of robots are still widely popular in well known Robotic societies as a first
step towards learning nooks and corners of robotics.
Autonomously randomized robot[edit]
Autonomous robots with random motion basically bounce off walls, whether those walls are sensed
Autonomously guided robot[edit]

Robot developers use ready-made autonomous bases and software to design robot applications quickly. Shells
shaped like people or cartoon characters may cover the base to disguise it.[6] Courtesy of MobileRobots Inc

An autonomously guided robot knows at least some information about where it is and how to reach
various goals and or waypoints along the way. "Localization" or knowledge of its current location, is
calculated by one or more means, using sensors such motor encoders, vision, Stereopsis, lasers
and global positioning systems. Positioning systems often use triangulation, relative position and/or
Monte-Carlo/Markov localization to determine the location and orientation of the platform, from which
it can plan a path to its next waypoint or goal. It can gather sensor readings that are time- and
location-stamped. Such robots are often part of the wireless enterprise network, interfaced with other
sensing and control systems in the building. For instance, the PatrolBot security robot responds to
alarms, operates elevators and notifies the command center when an incident arises. Other
autonomously guided robots include the SpeciMinder and the TUG delivery robots for the hospital. In
2013, autonomous robots capable of finding sunlight and water for potted plants were created by
artist Elizabeth Demaray in collaboration with engineer Dr. Qingze Zou, biologist Dr. Simeon
Kotchomi, and computer scientist Dr. Ahmed Elgammal.[7]
Sliding autonomy[edit]
Main article: Robotic mapping
See also: Autonomous robot
More capable robots combine multiple levels of navigation under a system called sliding autonomy.
Most autonomously guided robots, such as the HelpMate hospital robot, also offer a manual mode.
The Motivity autonomous robot operating system, which is used in the ADAM, PatrolBot,
SpeciMinder, MapperBot and a number of other robots, offers full sliding autonomy, from manual to
guarded to autonomous modes.

History[edit]

Date Developm
 During World War II the first mobile robots emerged as a result of technical advances on a number of relatively ne
1939–1945 bombs that only detonate within a certain range of the target, the use of guiding systems and radar control. The V1
modern cruise missiles.

W. Grey Walter builds Elmer and Elsie, two autonomous robots called Machina Speculatrix because these robots l
1948–1949 light source they would move towards it, avoiding or moving obstacles on their way. These robots demonstrated th
cells.[8]

1961–1963 The Johns Hopkins University develops 'Beast'. Beast used a sonar to move around. When its batteries ran low it w

1969 Mowbot was the very first robot that would automatically mow the lawn.[9]

The Stanford Cart line follower was a mobile robot that was able to follow a white line, using a camera to see. It w
At about the same time (1966–1972) the Stanford Research Institute is building and doing research on Shakey the
1970
link. Shakey was the first robot that could reason about its actions. This means that Shakey could be given very ge
The Soviet Union explores the surface of the Moon with Lunokhod 1, a lunar rover.

1976 In its Viking program the NASA sends two unmanned spacecraft to Mars.

The interest of the public in robots rises, resulting in robots that could be purchased for home use. These robots se
1980 the HERO series.
The Stanford Cart is now able to navigate its way through obstacle courses and make maps of its environment.

Early 1980s The team of Ernst Dickmanns at Bundeswehr University Munich builds the first robot cars, driving up to 55 mph o

1983 Stevo Bozinovski and Mihail Sestakov control a mobile robot by parallel programming, using multitasking system

1986 Stevo Bozinovski and Gjorgi Gruevski control a wheeled robot using speech commands.[12]

1987 Hughes Research Laboratories demonstrates the first cross-country map and sensor-based autonomous operation o

1988 Stevo Bozinovski, Mihail Sestakov, and Liljana Bozinovska control a mobile robot using EEG signals.[14][15]
1989 Stevo Bozinovski and his team control a mobile robot using EOG signals.[15]

1989 Mark Tilden invents BEAM robotics.

Joseph Engelberger, father of the industrial robotic arm, works with colleagues to design the first commercially av
1990s
MDARS-I project, based on the Cybermotion indoor security robot.

1991 Edo. Franzi, André Guignard and Francesco Mondada developed Khepera, an autonomous small mobile robot inte

1993–1994 Dante I [16] and Dante II [17] were developed by Carnegie Mellon University. Both were walking robots used to expl

With guests on board, the twin robot vehicles VaMP and VITA-2 of Daimler-Benz and Ernst Dickmanns of UniBw
1994
up to 130 km/h. They demonstrate autonomous driving in free lanes, convoy driving, and lane changes left and rig

1995 Semi-autonomous ALVINN steered a car coast-to-coast under computer control for all but about 50 of the 2850 m

In the same year, one of Ernst Dickmanns' robot cars (with robot-controlled throttle and brakes) drove more than 1
1995
maneuvers to pass other cars (only in a few critical situations a safety driver took over). Active vision was used to

The Pioneer programmable mobile robot becomes commercially available at an affordable price, enabling a wides
1995
standard part of the university curriculum.

1996 Cyberclean Systems [4] develops the first fully autonomous vacuum cleaning robot that self-charged, operated ele

NASA sends the Mars Pathfinder with its rover Sojourner to Mars. The rover explores the surface, commanded fro
1996–1997
find its way through unknown martian terrain.

1999 Sony introduces Aibo, a robotic dog capable of seeing, walking and interacting with its environment. The PackBo

2001 Start of the Swarm-bots project. Swarm bots resemble insect colonies. Typically they consist of a large number of

2002 Roomba appears, a domestic autonomous mobile robot that cleans the floor.
 Axxon Robotics purchases Intellibot, manufacturer of a line of commercial robots that scrub, vacuum, and sweep
2003
LLC operate completely autonomously, mapping their environment and using an array of sensors for navigation an

Robosapien, a biomorphic toy robot designed by Mark Tilden is commercially available.

2004 In 'The Centibots Project' 100 autonomous robots work together to make a map of an unknown environment and s
In the first DARPA Grand Challenge competition, fully autonomous vehicles compete against each other on a des

2005 Boston Dynamics creates a quadruped robot intended to carry heavy loads across terrain too rough for vehicles.

Sony stops making Aibo and HelpMate halts production, but a lower-cost PatrolBot customizable autonomous ser
2006 The US Department of Defense drops the MDARS-I project, but funds MDARS-E, an autonomous field robot. TA
options, is released.[19] Honda's Asimo learns to run and climb stairs.

In the DARPA Urban Grand Challenge, six vehicles autonomously complete a complex course involving manned
units sort themselves according to the popularity of their contents. The Tug becomes a popular means for hospitals
2007
blood and other patient samples from nurses' stations to various labs. Seekur, the first widely available, non-milita
learning how to navigate itself outside. Meanwhile, PatrolBot learns to follow people and detect doors that are ajar

2008 Boston Dynamics released video footage of a new generation BigDog able to walk on icy terrain and recover its ba

2010 The Multi Autonomous Ground-robotic International Challenge has teams of autonomous vehicles map a large dy

The Multi-Function Agile Remote-Controlled Robot (MARCbot) is for the first time used by US police to kill a sn
2016 and robots by police as instruments of lethal force against a perpetrator.

During the NASA Sample Return Robot Centennial Challenge, a rover, named Cataglyphis, successfully demonst

2017 Within the ARGOS Challenge robots are developed to work under extreme conditions on offshore oil and gas inst

See also[edit]

 Robotics portal

 Ant robot
 Autonomous robot
 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
 DARPA LAGR Program
 Domestic robot
 Humanoid robot
 Hexapod robot
 Industrial robot
 Justin (robot)
 Lists of types of robots
 Mobile industrial robots
 Mobile manipulator
 Mobile wireless sensor network
 Personal robot
 Robot
 Robot kit
 Robotic arm
 Robotic mapping
 Robot kinematics
 Rover (space exploration)
 Transport robot
 Ubiquitous robot
 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
 Wi-fi