High-Tech Robotics Camps

The project captures the interest of middle and high school students by following the current trend of robotic applications used throughout the entertainment media. The curriculum is a mixture of Lego educational materials, STEM subjects and modern manufacturing information conducted in an environment of competitive problem solving. The campers develop a knowledge base of modern manufacturing, robotics design and programming while adding to team building experiences. For more information visit www.madeinflorida.org/camps-workshops, or www.fl-ate.org
Video Rating: 0 / 5

FLATE Robotics

Summer Robotic Camps The project captures the interest of middle and high school students by following the current trend of robotic applications used throughout the entertainment media. The curriculum is a mixture of Lego educational materials, STEM subjects and modern manufacturing information conducted in an environment of competitive problem solving. The campers develop a knowledge base of modern manufacturing, robotics design and programming while adding to team building experiences. madeinflorida.org
Video Rating: 0 / 5

Robotics in Everyday Life

Robotics in Everyday Life

Science fiction movies would have us believe that robotics will soon be dominating our lives. Recent movies like I, Robot and A.I. offer exciting glimpses into a potential future where humans and robots live, but we’re still decades away from that. While giant strides in computers and miniaturization have rooted robotics into mainstream manufacturing and delivery of industrial products, there’s still a lot to learn. We need at least another generation or two before robotic engineering can make robots as common as your PCs at home and in the office.

Simply put, robotics is an allied application of computer science that is more involved in getting programmed instructions to make electro-mechanical devices called robots perform specialized tasks and accomplish results. And achieving that can include using more complex thinking computers that can interact with the environment, people and can move about to make things happen depending on their purposes.

Early Robots

We don’t have to search far to describe an early robotic application. Some of you may remember the jukebox. This is an excellent specimen of crude robotics where you have a mechanical arm programmed to select from an array of 45rpm records the chosen record, get to play its content and then bring it back to where the arm picked it. At home, your record changer is another example and recently CD changers likewise perform the same automated task.

What we have today.

Most robotic applications we have today are found in the manufacture and assembly of automobiles. They take the place of assembly line factory workers who perform specialized tasks, like putting rivets, attaching heavy parts, body painting, etc. In computer manufacturing, robotics also figure a lot in soldering motherboards and other delicate assembly operations. CD and DVD stamping plants have them as well. Robots have been extensively deployed in many production processes considered tedious and repetitive or menial for humans to work in.

It can be said the robotics has its first and most useful application in space and military application. Unmanned spaceships that explored the Martian landscape and went beyond Jupiter are excellent Robotic examples. The same is true with unmanned military aircrafts that perform surveillance on enemy territory.

Even in city streets, surveillance robots have made their presence useful to check buildings and locations where hostile criminal elements are hiding to pinpoint exact location before an attack or arrest is made. Hostile environments like volcanoes have been explored using robots controlled remotely to gather environmental specimens of lava soils and magmatic materials. Robots are now extensively used to explore locations and situations considered risky for human involvement.

Some hospitals are known to deploy special rolling robots that distribute and deliver prescribed medication to patients with programmed location of floors and rooms. They can even be programmed to interface with intelligent hospital elevators to reach any floor and return to the hospital pharmacy for refilling.

What to Expect in the Future

There’s no where else to go but up, so to speak. Robotics will be leveraging on the technological developments in miniaturization and computers to bring robots to the level of interaction with the environment and people to near human cognitive qualities. This, coupled with commercialization to make robots of specific domestic household benefit more affordable, should eventually make it as common as any home appliance. GP

Automation and Industrial Robots

Automation and Industrial Robots

The importance of automation and robots in all manufacturing industries is growing. Industrial robots have replaced human beings in a wide variety of industries. Robots out perform humans in jobs that require precision, speed, endurance and reliability. Robots safely perform dirty and dangerous jobs. Traditional manufacturing robotic applications include material handling (pick and place), assembling, painting, welding, packaging, palletizing, product inspection and testing. Industrial robots are used in a diverse range of industries including automotive, electronics, medical, food production, biotech, pharmaceutical and machinery. The ISO definition of a manipulating industrial robot is “an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator”. According to the definition it can be fixed in place or mobile for use in industrial automation applications. These industrial robots are programmable in three or more axes. They are multi-functional pieces of equipment that can be custom-built and programmed to perform a variety of operations. The major advantages of industrial robots is that they can be programmed to suit industry specific requirements and can work continuously for years, consistently meeting high manufacturing quality standards. The economic life span of an industrial robot is approximately 12-16 years. Due to their persistent accuracy industrial robots have become an indispensable part of manufacturing. Industrial robots are classified into different categories based on their mechanical structure. The major categories of industrial robots are:

Gantry (Cartesian) Robot: They are stationary robots having three elements of motion. They work from an overhead grid with a rectangular work envelope. They are mainly used to perform ‘pick and place’ actions. Gantry robots have all their axes above the work making them also ideal for dispensing applications.
SCARA Robots: (Selectively Compliant Articulated Robot Arm) These robots have 4 axes of motion. They move within an x-y-z coordinated circular work envelope. They are used for factory automation requiring pick and place work, application and assembly operations and handling machine tools.
Articulated robots: An articulated robot has rotary joints. It can have from two to ten or more interactive joints. Articulated robots are well suited to welding, painting and assembly.

Basic industrial robot designs can be customized with the addition of different peripherals. End effectors, optical systems, and motion controllers are essential add-ons. End effectors are the end-of-arm-tooling (EOAT) attached to robotic arms. Grippers or wrenches that are used to move or assemble parts are examples of end effectors. End effectors are designed and used to sense and interact with the external environment. The end effectors’ design depends on the application requirements of the specific industry. Machine Vision systems are robotic optical systems. They are built-on digital input/output devices and computer networks used to control other manufacturing equipment such as robotic arms. Machine vision is used for the inspection of manufactured goods such as semiconductor chips. Motion controllers are used to move robots and position stages smoothly and accurately with sub-micron repeatability. Industrial robots fill the need for greater precision, reliability, flexibility and production output in the increasingly competitive and complex manufacturing industry environment.

More Manufacturing Robotics Articles

Automation and Industrial Robots

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Frank_Vanella