Course Title: Mobile Robotics

Course Code: MCE 525; Course Unit: 2

Venue: Automation Lab

Date / Time: Tuesday; 11am – 1pm

Intended Audience: 5level MCE students

Semester/Session: 1st semester, 2024/20245 session

Lecturers: Prof. Osueke and Mrs Oluwasade

Course overview: This course presents an overview of robotics in practice and research with

topics including vision, motion planning, mobile mechanisms, kinematics, inverse kinematics,

and sensors.

In course projects, students construct a robot, reinforcing the basic principles developed in

lectures.

This course will also expose students to some of the contemporary happenings in robotics,

including current robotics research and applications.

Course Modules:

1. Robotics,

2. Societal Impact of AI and Robotics.

3. Relationship AI to Software Engineering and Database Methodology.

4. Basic Problem-Solving Techniques,

5. Knowledge-Based and Expert Systems

6. Applications of Identification Trees,

8. Knowledge Acquisition and Representation; Artificial Intelligent Language (Lisp And

Prolog).

9. Machine Learning,

10. Genetics Algorithms and Other Learning Paradigms.

11. Natural Language Understanding,

12. Machine Vision and Pattern Recognition.

13. Neural Nets,

14. Computer Vision

15. Computer Interface

Module 1: Robotics

Module introduction: To expose students to the concept of robotics

Learning objectives: Students will be introduced to what robotics is and its types. They will learn

its laws and what makes up a robot.

Learning outcome: on the successful completion of this module, students will be able to

understand the types of robotics and know the parts of a robot.

Notes:

What is Robotics?

Robotics involves the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is

to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robots can take any form, but some are
made to resemble humans in appearance. Certain robots require user input to operate, while other

robots function autonomously.

Robotics is a field of science working with machines that perform tasks based on predetermined

and adaptive programs and algorithms in an automatic or semi-automatic way.

Rules of the robots

Also known as The Three Laws or Asimov’s Laws, created and named after the author Isaac

Asimov. The three laws are:

 A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come

to harm.

 A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would

conflict with the First Law.

 A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with

the First and Second Law.

(Asimov 1950)

Kinds of Robots

1. Pre-Programmed Robots

Pre-programmed robots operate in a simple, controlled environment so that they do not require a

great deal in the way of intelligent control systems ("aritificial intelligence") to operate

successfully.

2. Autonomous robots
Autonomous robots operate independently of human operators in environments that are not as

tightly controlled as pre-programmed robots. They have "autonomy" because it is ultimately the

machine's responsibility to detect changes in the environment and to adapt to it. When operating

properly it is not necessary for humans to constantly monitor and manipulate the environment to

accommodate limitations in the robot's ability to cope.

3. Teleoperated robots

Teleoperated robots are controlled remotely by a human being. The robotic arm on the Space

Shuttle is an example.

4. Augmenting robots

Augmenting robots generally enhance capabilities that a person already has or replace

capabilities that a person has lost.

Parts of a Robot

Sensors

Sensors are what allow a robot to gather information about its environment. This information can

be used to guide the robot's behavior. E.g cameras, mirophones, thermometer, barometer,

magnetometer, accelerometer, etc.

Effectors

The effectors are the parts of the robot that actually do the work. Effectors can be any sort of tool

that you can mount on your robot and control with the robot's computer. Most of the time, the

effectors are specific to the tasks that you want your robot to do: end-effectors, motors and

speakers.
Control Systems (the ‘brains’)

A robot's "control system" determines the robot's behavior.

A. Pre-Programmed Robots

The very simplest pre-programmed robot merely repeats the same operations over and over.

Such a robot is either insensitive to changes in its environment or it can detect on very limited

information about very limited parts of the environment. Such a robot will require little in the

way of "controls" but it will perform properly only if the environment behaves in accord with the

robot's pre-programmed actions.

B. Autonomous Robots

More complex robots are able to respond appropriately in environments that are much more

complicated. Such a robot will have sensory apparatus that allow it to detect changing features of

the environment and a range of behaviors that will allow it to respond to those changes.

Whatever features of the robot enable it to adapt its behavior to its environment we will call the

"control system."

There are many different kinds of control systems used in robots. In this module, we will focus

most of our attention on robots that have one of two different kinds of control systems

(sometimes called "robotic architectures"):

Top-Down: Build the brain first! Then hook up the sensors and the effectors. If the brain is built

properly, it will take the input data from the sensors and be "smart enough" to behave

intelligently in response to it. You build a brain, by writing an artificial intelligence (AI)
computer program. There are two main kinds of AI programs: Classical AI & Connectionist

Networks. We will explore them both in this module.

Bottom-Up: Don't bother with a brain! Hook each sensor directly to an effector -- call this a

"behavior." Then rank each of the behaviors (the sensor-effector pairs) in order of priority, to

determine which one "wins out" and controls the robot if more than one is activated. Call this

ranking a "hierarchy." Most hierarchies produce stupid robots; but just the right hierarchy can

produce remarkably "intelligent" behavior. (These are also called "behavior-based" robots.)

Questions:

1. Purpose, classification, and design features of industrial, collaborative, service, wearable, and

rehabilitation robotic systems and devices.

2. Structural analysis of robotic systems. Classification of joints. Degree of freedom.

3. Mechanisms for robotic systems. Robots’ classification with respect to kinematic structures.

4. Kinematic analysis of multi-link robots of open and closed kinematics. Direct and inverse kinematics.

5. Generalized coordinates and configuration spaces. Choice of local coordinate systems. Rotation

matrices and homogeneous transformation matrices, their purposes, and main properties.

6. Holonomic and nonholonomic constraints

Module introduction:

Learning objectives: Students will be introduced the impact of AI and robotics on the society.

They will learn its ethics

Learning outcome: on the successful completion of this module, students will be able to

understand the ethics, positive and negative impact of AI and robotics on the society.

Notes:

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology in which a computer or a computer-controlled robot

has the ability to perform tasks usually done by humans, as it requires human intelligence and

reasoning.

Artificial intelligence affects society in many ways, it has positive and negative effects on

society. AI brings many benefits to society, the first of which is to increase productivity and

efficiency by automating the easy workforce of artificial intelligence, reducing human error, and

improving resource utilization. The second is the benefit of generating income in the technology

market. With the widespread use of artificial intelligence technology, the income of companies

with artificial intelligence technology that invest in and research this subject will increase. Third,

we can talk about its positive effects on the labor market. With the increase in the usage areas of

artificial intelligence, machines start to do some or even all the workload of employees.

Although this brings with it the concern that people will be removed from their job potential,

artificial intelligence has potential, such as creating new job roles, direct innovation, and

increasing human skills. Finally, artificial intelligence provides a safer experience by reducing

human-induced errors. We can give road safety as an example of this experience. Artificial
intelligence contributes to increasing transportation safety by improving road safety with

optional solutions. Despite its positive aspects, AI also presents challenges and downsides.

First, we can talk about layoffs and disruption of the labor market. Second, privacy is an

element that artificial intelligence can negatively affect. Privacy is one of the basic human rights.

To respect the dignity and personality, their privacy must be respected. During the development

and implementation of artificial intelligence applications, fundamental rights and freedoms of

individuals should be respected and their rights should not be violated. With the development of

artificial intelligence technologies, the rate of use of personal information is increasing. During a

transaction, information, transaction data, documents, etc. belongs to the parties performing this

transaction.