Page 47 - Robot Builder's Bonanza

16 ANATOMY OF A ROBOT

sional instructions from its master to set it
about its various tasks. A self- contained
robot has its own power system, brain,
wheels (or legs or tracks), and manipulat-
ing devices such as claws or hands. This
robot does not depend on any other
mechanism or system to perform its
tasks. It’s complete in and of itself.
The other side says that a robot is any-
thing that moves under its own motor
power for the purpose of performing
tasks that appear to involve intelligence
or intent. The mechanism that does the
actual task is the robot itself; the support
electronics or components may be sepa-
rate. The link between the robot and its
control components might be a wire, a
beam of infrared light, or a radio signal.
In the experimental robot from 1969
shown in Figure 2-4, for example, a man
sat inside the mechanism and operated it,
almost as if driv ing a car. The purpose of
the four- legged “lorry” was not to create a
self- contained robot but to further the
Figure 2-4 This quadruped from General Electric was
controlled by a human operator who sat inside it. The robot development of cybernetic anthropomor-
was developed in the late 1960s under a contract with the phous machines. These were otherwise
U.S. government. (Photo courtesy General Electric.) known as cyborgs, a concept further pop-
ularized by writer Martin Caidin in his
1972 novel Cyborg (which served as the inspiration for the ’70s television series The Six
Million Dollar Man).

So, What’s a Robot, Anyway?

I’m not going to argue robot semantics here— this book is a treasure map after all, not a
textbook on theory. But it’s still necessary to establish some of the basic characteristics of
robots.
What makes a robot a robot and not just another machine? For the purposes of this book,
let’s consider a robot as any device that— in one way or another— mimics human or animal
functions. The way the robot does this is of no concern; the fact that it does it at all is enough.
The functions that are of interest to us as robot builders run the gamut: from listening to
sounds and acting on them, to talking and walking or moving across the floor, to picking up
objects and sensing special conditions such as heat, flames, or light. So, when we talk about
a robot, it could very well be—
• A self- contained automaton that takes care of itself, perhaps even programming its own
brain and learning from its surroundings and environment.

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