Page 156 - Concise Encyclopedia of Robotics

Home Position
Holding can be a part of the programmed movement sequence for
a robot arm and end effector. A good example is a situation in which a
gantry robot is used to position a component for drop delivery.
See also DROP DELIVERY, GANTRY ROBOT, HYDRAULIC DRIVE, and STEPPER MOTOR.
HOME POSITION
In a robot manipulator, the home position is a point at which the end
effector normally comes to rest. When the robot is shut down, or when it
must be reset, the machine reverts to its home position.
When a coordinate system is used to define the location of the end
effector, the home position is often assigned to the origin point. Thus, for
example, in a robot arm and end effector using two-dimensional (2-D)
Cartesian coordinate geometry, the home position can be assigned the
value (x, y) = (0, 0).
HOUSEHOLD ROBOT
See PERSONAL ROBOT.
HUMAN ENGINEERING
Human engineering refers to the art of making machines, especially com-
puters and robots,easy to use.This is sometimes also called user-friendliness.
A user-friendly computer program allows the machine to be operated
by someone who knows nothing about computers. Bank automatic-teller
machines (ATMs) are a good example of devices that employ user-
friendly programming. Increasingly, libraries are computerizing their
card catalogs, and it is important that the programs be user-friendly so
that people can find the books they want. There are many other examples.
A user-friendly robot can carry out orders efficiently, reliably, and
reasonably fast. Ideally, a human operator can say something like, “Go
to the kitchen and get me an apple,” and (assuming there are any apples
in the kitchen) the robot will return in a minute or two, holding an
apple. A seemingly simple task like this is difficult to program into a
machine,as researchers have found out.Even the most basic tasks are com-
plex in terms of the number and combination of digital logic operations.
One of the most important considerations in human engineering is
artificial intelligence (AI). It is much easier to communicate with a machine
that is “smart,” compared with one that is “stupid.” It is especially enjoy-
able if the machine can learn from its mistakes, or show ability to reason.
Speech recognition and speech synthesis also help make computers and
robots user-friendly.
See also HEURISTIC KNOWLEDGE, SPEECH RECOGNITION, and SPEECH SYNTHESIS.

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