Robotics
Servo
Small device containing 2 DC motors a gear train and potentiometer, an integrated circuit and an output shaft. Used for precise control of angular or linear velocity or acceleration. As long as it maintains the same signal it will maintain its position until a new signal is sent.
allocentric
Spatial representation. Reference frame is based on the external environment and not on personal location. (how far away is each object from itself)
egocentric
Spatial represetentation with a reference frame of self (how far away am I from the environment.)
robot
Systems that sense their environment, decide what to do, and act on that environment.
Automation
Technology that performs a procedure, like production, with minimal human assistance.
IROS
The International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Academic conference covering advances in robotics.
Autonomy
The ability of an object to act alone or to make decisions without outside intervention.
tech incubator
A company that helps new startup companies to develop services by providing a training and in some cases basic resources to become established and come out of the incubator.
Single Board Computer
A complete computer built on a single circuit board (containing cpu, memory, and IO). Raspberry Pi is an example of an SBC.
Motor Encoder
A device used for speed and position control. Turns mechanical motion into electrical signal that is used by the control system to monitor specific parameters and adjustments necessary to keep the machine operating as desired.
open-loop control
A non-feedback system that where the output doesn't depend on the input
Big Dog
A quadruped robot created by Boston Dynamics for the US military with funding from DARPA
Davinci Surgical Systems
A robot-assisted surgical system. Created to perform minimally invasive surgery with advanced set of instruments and 3D view of the surgical area.
Point Cloud
A set of data points in 3D space. Generally used by 3D scanners which take many points off of external objects around them. Can be used for modleing and visualisation.
microcontroller
A small computer on a single integrated circuit chip. Contain cpu, memory and IO. Performs one task and executes one specific application.
Raspberry Pi
A small credit card size computer that runs Linux used to teach computer science to kids and adults alike. Developed by the Raspberry Pi foundation in UK
Boston Dynamics
American robotics company known for making robots like Big Dog (quadruped) designed for the US military with funding from DARPA. It also created ATLAS designed for various search and rescue tasks
Kalman Filter
An algorithm that uses multiple measurements over time to produce estimates of unknown variables that tend to be more accurate than those based on a single measurement alone.
iCub
An open source humanoid robotic platform for research into human cognition and artificial intelligence. It can see and hear and balance. Built by the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT).
Gazebo
An open-source 3D robotics simulator. We use it specifically for turtlebot simulations and mapping.
Atlas
Bipedal robot created by Boston Dynamics capable of demonstrating human level agility.
ClearPath Robotics
Canadian robotics company founded out of Waterloo University. They seek to automate the dullest, dirtiest, and deadliest jobs.
RGBD
Combination of RGB image and corresponding Depth image. Depth image: where each pixel maps to a distance between the image plane and the corresponding object in the RGB image
pose
Combination of position and orientation of the robot in space
cognitive robotics
Concerned with giving robotics intelligent behaviour by giving it a processing architecture capable of learning and reasoning.
Proportional Integral Derivative Controller
Control loop mechanism used in industrial control system and other systems requiring continuously modulated control. Calculates error values as the difference between the desired setpoint and measured process variable and applies a correction based on proportional, integral, and derivative terms.
Pulse-Width Modulation
Controls the amount of power going to an electrical device. By modulating the delivery of power by switching on and off we can have an average voltage delivery.
Odometry
Data collected from motion sensors to estimate change in position over time. Used for determining position relative to starting position.
DoF
Depth of Field relating to vision. It is the distance between the nearest object and the farthest object that are in acceptably sharp focus in an image.
4Front Robotics
Develops unmanned robots for civil applications. Based out of Calgary AB. Focus on Ground and aerial vehicles for complex environments.
closed-loop control
Feedback system where the output is dependent on the input.
GPIO
General Purpose Input/Output: a pin on an integrated circuit whose behaviour is dictated by the user at runtime.
Sampling Rate
How often a sample, a value at a single point int time, is read from a continuous signal. The higher the sampling rate the more the sampler is reading from the signal.
HRI
Human Robot Interaction: the study of how humans are to interface with robots. Employs fields from AI, robotics, language processing, design, the humanities, and social sciences.
Asimo
Humanoid robot designed by Honda. Was developed to research bipedal robots.
I2C
Inter-integrated Circuit protocol: allows multiple 'slave' digital chips to communicate with one or more 'master' chips. Intended for short distance communications within a single device. Used for interfacing with sensors, memory modules and LCD's. Much more robust than SPI.
ICRA
International Conference on Robotics and Automation: covers advances in robotics like IROS.
Lego Mindstorms
Lego hardware and software used for the development of programmable robots based on lego building blocks. Each kit comes with a core brick with a variety of other sensors.
Inertial Measurement Unit
Measures and reports orientation, velocity and gravitational forces. Uses accelerometers and gyroscopes. Used in navigation, measurement, testing, and mapping.
SPI
Serial Peripheral Interface: communication protocol for microcontrollers. Like I2C but faster. Uses a clock like I2C, for synchronizing the receiver and transmitter.
Aldebaran
Now SoftBank Robotics they create the Nao robot a 60 cm tall robot used in research and by companies and health care centres to entertain and inform visitors.
turtlebot
Personal robot kit with open-source software. Created by Willow garage in 2010. Capable of 3D vision, object avoidance and detection.
ROS
Robot Operating System: an open source operating system used to interact with robots.
Rethink Robotics
Robotics company that created the collaborative robot. A robot to work alongside a human and not replace him. They created the robot Sawyer for precision tasks.
Willow Garage
Robotics research and design company that develops hardware and software for personal robot applications. One of the founders of ROS.
SLAM
Simultaneous localization and mapping : create a Map and be able to figure out where it is in that map
value proposition
The promise of value to be delivered. If you plan on designing a robot that can make crop production increase by 50% then you have a high value proposition because farmers will pay to have that robot around so that they intern can sell more crop without using more land.
behaviour control
Using manipulation to change a current behaviour to the desired behaviour. In robots this can be achieved through machine learning and AI.
Use case
What application is the robot going to fulfil? What problem it will solve? The Use case answers these questions by outline its role and purpose with interacting with humans.