What is robotics? – Types and parts of robots.

Robotics is the branch of engineering that deals with the conception, design, manufacture, operation, and functioning of robots. Robotics is the study of mechanical devices that are capable of sensing their environment and manipulating objects Robots helps people in a different way. They involve in every field of life.

Robots

Robots are machines that perform tasks automatically without any human interference. These robots have been around since ancient times, but they were not used much until the industrial revolution.

Before then, people had to do everything manually, including farming. Farming was a lot of work and required many people to do it. When the industrial revolution came about, automation became widely used in factories.

People started using robots to help them make things faster and easier. In agriculture, robots are now used to spray crops, pick fruit, and harvest crops.

Now robots are even used in every field of life like medicine, homes, offices, etc.

Different types of Robots

There are different types of robots according to their functionality:

Pre-programmed Robots

Pre-programmed robots are robots that have been designed according to the coding. Mean they behave as they are programmed, they cannot change their behavior. These robots are often cheaper than their autonomous counterparts, but require someone to program them beforehand.

Humanoid Robots

Humanoid robots are robots that look similar to humans. They are able to move around using their own legs and arms. They do work like a human using their arm and legs. The design is the same as the human body.

Autonomous Robots

Autonomous robots are robots that can operate independently. They work by observing the environment without human interaction.

Examples of autonomous robots would be self-driving cars, autonomous cleaning robots, medical delivery robots, and many more robots that move around a physical space without any control by humans. They work automatically.

Machine Learning

Machine learning is the use of computers to learn without being accurately programmed. A machine learns by analyzing data and making predictions based on what it’s learned. In robotics, machine learning is used to teach a robot how to perform tasks autonomously.

Different components of Robots

Robots have different components without those robots cannot work properly:

Sensors

Sensors are devices that detect specific environmental conditions and convert them into electrical signals. There are many different types of sensors out there, but they can be broken down into two categories:

Analog Sensor: Analog sensors use physical changes in voltage or current to measure the environment around them.

Digital Sensor: Digital sensors use binary code to represent information. They work according to the given program.

Examples of sensors are:

Light sensor

Sound sensor

Temperature sensor

Contact sensor

Contact sensor

Motors

Motors are used to move the robots. If robots were to suddenly stop moving, we could assume that their motors had stopped working. In order to make our robots move, we need motors.

DC motors: DC motors run at a steady speed regardless of how much power is applied to them.

AC motors: AC motors change their speeds depending on how much power is being applied to them. When we say “AC motor,” we mean that it runs off alternating current, which means that it gets its power from a direct current battery.

Power Supply System

Power supply systems consist of batteries, transformers, and capacitors that help store and handle the power of the robots. Batteries can store electricity, which is great for powering small robots since they only require a minimum amount of power.

The benefit of a battery is that it is used without the power supply because batteries save the power to run the robot.

Transformers allow us to take the direct current from the battery and convert it to alternating current, which is necessary for running AC motors and charging circuits.

Capacitors are essentially condensers that help smooth out the flow of electricity throughout a circuit. Since they do not conduct electricity, they help regulate the flow of electrons in our circuits.

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