Applied areas

This section describes some of the main areas of application for robotic technology.

Industry and agriculture . Robots have long been intended for use in areas where hard work is required, but work processes are sufficiently structured to allow for robotic automation. The most successful example is the assembly line, on which the manipulators have long performed tasks such as assembly, installation of parts, delivery of materials, welding and painting. In dealing with many of these tasks, robots have proven to be more cost effective than human workers.

For use in open areas, the design in the form of robots was obtained by many of the heavy machines, which are used for harvesting, underground mining or digging of pits. For example, a project was recently completed at Carnegie — Mellon University, which showed that robots can be used to clean old vessels of large vessels, and they perform this operation 50 times faster than humans, and have a much lower environmental impact.

In addition, it was shown that the prototypes of autonomous robots-penetrators work faster and more accurately than people, when performing tasks on the transportation of ore in underground mines. Robots were used to map abandoned mines and sewer systems with high accuracy. Although the projects of many of these systems are still at the stage of developing their prototypes, the onset of the era when robots will take over the bulk of semi-mechanical work that people are currently doing is only a matter of time.

Transportation The areas of application of robotic transportation systems are very diverse, ranging from autonomous helicopters that deliver objects to places that are difficult to access in other ways, and ending with automatic wheelchairs that transport people who cannot control these wheelchairs, or autonomous gantry loaders which surpass the most experienced crane operators in the accuracy of shipping containers from ships to cars at cargo docks.

One of the most illustrative examples of successfully operating transport robots designed to work indoors, also called gophers (gofer — errand boy), is Helpmate. Such robots are used in dozens of hospitals to transport food and other medical materials. Researchers have developed robotic systems that resemble cars that are able to move autonomously on highways or off-road. In the conditions of industrial enterprises, autonomous vehicles have now become one of the usual means of delivering materials in warehouses and production lines.

For the operation of many of these robots, certain modifications are required in their environment. The most common modifications are localization tools such as inductive circuits in the floor, active beacons, barcode tags and GPS satellites. Therefore, an unsolved task in robotics is the design of robots capable of using not artificial devices for their navigation, but natural signs, especially in such conditions as long-distance ocean navigation where the GPS system is not available.

Work in a hazardous environment . Robots helped people clean up nuclear waste. Among the most prominent examples is the elimination of the consequences of the accident in Chernobyl and on Trimail Island. The robots were used to clear the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York and were sent to areas that were considered too dangerous for search and rescue teams.

In some countries, robots are used to transport explosives and deactivate bombs; As is known, these works are characterized by increased danger. At present, many research projects are developing prototype robots for the disposal of minefields on land and at sea. Most of the existing robots for such tasks operate in the telecontrol mode - they are controlled by the operator using the means of remote control. The next important step is to give such robots autonomy.

Exploration . Robots got to places where no one has ever been, including the surface of Mars. With the help of robotic manipulators, astronauts put into orbit and remove satellites from orbit, as well as build the International Space Station. In addition, robots help conduct underwater research. For example, with the use of robots, many maps of the location of sunken ships have already been drawn up. A robot mapping an abandoned coal mine is shown, along with a three-dimensional map model generated using distance sensors.

In 1996, a team of researchers released a walking robot into the crater of an active volcano to collect data important for climate research. Autonomous aerial vehicles known as unmanned aircraft are widely used in military operations. Robots are becoming very effective means of gathering information in areas that are difficult (or dangerous) for people to access.

Health care . Robots are increasingly being used as surgeons' assistants when performing operations on such important organs as the brain, eyes and the heart. Due to their high precision, robots have become an indispensable tool for performing certain types of hip joint arthroplasty operations.

In experimental studies, it was found that robotic devices reduce the risk of damage when performing colonoscopy. Outside of the operating room, researchers began to develop tools for robotic care for the elderly and people with disabilities, such as intelligent automated walking machines and intelligent toys that are reminiscent of the onset of medication time.

Personal services. A promising area of ​​application of robotics is the provision of services. Assistant robots help people do everyday tasks. Commercially available home helpers include standalone vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers and golf club carriers. All these robots are able to move independently and perform their tasks without the help of people. Some service robots operate in public places; Such examples include robotic help desks deployed in large supermarkets and at trade fairs, or automated tour guides in museums. Successful maintenance tasks require interaction with people and the ability to reliably respond to unpredictable and dynamic changes in the environment.

Entertainment Robots began to conquer the gaming and entertainment industry. We have already discussed Sony's AIBO robot; This dog-like toy robot is used as a research platform in artificial intelligence labs around the world. One of the most interesting tasks of artificial intelligence, which are studied using this platform, is robotic football - a competitive game, very reminiscent of the football that people play, but conducted with the participation of autonomous mobile robots.

Robotic football offers great opportunities for research on artificial intelligence, since it puts on the agenda a number of tasks that can serve as prototypes for many other, more serious robotic applications. Annual robotic football competitions attract the interest of many researchers in artificial intelligence and bring many pleasant moments to this area of ​​robotics.

Addition of opportunities for people . The latest applied field of robotic technology is the addition of human capabilities. For example, researchers have developed walking machines for walking, which can be used by people to move instead of wheelchairs. In addition, in some studies, the main efforts are currently focused on developing devices that make it easier for people to walk or move their arms by applying additional efforts through devices attached outside the skeleton.

If the attachments of such devices are installed on an ongoing basis, then they can be considered as artificial robotic limbs. Another form of supplementing people's capabilities is robotic remote operations, or the so-called telepresence. Remote execution of operations is the implementation of work tasks over long distances using robotic devices. When performing robotic remote operations, a configuration such as “master-slave” is widely used, in which the robot arm repeats the movements of a person operating at a distance, which are transmitted through a tactile interface.

All these systems complement the ability of a person to interact with his environment. Some projects go so far that they attempt to create a kind of person, at least at a very superficial level. For example, at present, some Japanese companies carry out commercial deliveries of humanoid robots.