Page 190 - Modern Robotics Building Versatile Macines

170 Modern Robotics

automated guided vehicle a robot cart or truck that operates by
itself but follows rails or a guide wire and has only limited navi-
gational capabilities
automaton a mechanism that can automatically perform a series
of actions under the control of cams, gears, and other devices.
Unlike a true robot, an automaton does not change its behavior
in response to the environment
autonomous robot a robot that contains its own computer system,
is mobile, and carries out its functions without direct human
supervision
behavior in robots, the determination of actions based upon sen-
sor data from the environment or internal states maintained in
the robot’s memory. Simple behaviors are equivalent to reflexes
in living things, while complex behaviors can emerge from the
interaction of many programs
bipedal robot a robot that walks on two legs like a human
bot popular colloquial term for “robot”
Cog robot built by Rodney Brooks at MIT in the early 1990s.
Consisting only of a torso and head, the robot interacts mainly
through eye movement, facial expressions, and vocalizations
cognitive science the study of information processing or thought
in humans, machines, or animals. It is an interdisciplinary field
that draws upon computer science, neurology, psychology, and
other fields
collision avoidance systems designed to prevent a robot from
bumping into obstacles such as furniture, rocks, or people. When
a visual or sonar sensor detects a nearby object, robots of vary-
ing degrees of sophistication may go into reverse, turn, or plot a
precise course around the object
cybernetics term coined by mathematician Norbert Wiener for the
science of machine control and regulation; from a Greek word
meaning “steersman” or “governor”
cyborg a “cybernetic organism” consisting of both artificial and
biological components. In a sense, a person with a computer-
controlled artificial arm would be a sort of cyborg. See also
ANDROID
degrees of freedom the number of different ways in which some-
thing (such as a robot arm) can move. Robot arms normally have