1 - Introduction

Question 1

What is a robot for?

Answer 1

Help/replace humans in monotonous, boring, repetitive, dangerous, difficult tasks

Question 2

What are robots the intelligent connection of?

Answer 2

Perception and action

Question 3

What is the main challenge of mobility within robots?

Answer 3

Navigation

Question 4

What does mobility open possibilities for?

Answer 4

Transportation, surveillance, cleaning

Question 5

What are 3 parts of autonomy in robots?

Answer 5

Reasoning, making decisions, planning

Question 6

What are the 5 parts to the anatomy of robots?

Answer 6

Body, Actuators, Sensors, Processing Unit, Software Commands

Question 7

What are manipulators?

Answer 7

Big arms, precise strong fast, operate in controlled environments, limited sensory abilities

Question 8

Name some applications of robots?

Answer 8

Exploration, Surveillance, Security, Care Assistants, Agricultural Robots, Intelligent vehicles

Question 9

Name some effectors?

Answer 9

Hand, arm, gripper, wheels, legs, tracks, rotors

Question 10

Name some actuators?

Answer 10

Electric motors, pneumatic systems, hydraulic systems

Question 11

What are the two types of sensor?

Answer 11

Proprioceptive and Exteroceptive

Question 12

What are proprioceptive sensors?

Answer 12

Sense the internal state of the robot, self-awareness

Question 13

What are exteroceptive sensors?

Answer 13

Sense the state of the environment

Question 14

Name some examples of proprioceptive sensor?

Answer 14

Odometry, battery level, temperature

Question 15

Name some examples of exteroceptive sensor?

Answer 15

Light intensity, distance measurements

Question 16

What is the difference between passive and active sensors

Answer 16

Passive sensors measure the phenomena directly whereas active sensors emit something and measure the reflection

Question 17

What is dead reckoning?

Answer 17

Dead reckoning. Position based on the previous known position

Question 18

What is an odometry sensor?

Answer 18

Measures the speed of each wheel and then uses wheel geometry to calculate the velocity of a robot

Question 19

What are the two types of wheel speed estimation?

Answer 19

Nominal motor speed + gear ratio AND motor encoder

Question 20

What is a motor encoder?

Answer 20

Where a sensor is mounted on the wheel shaft that counts motor revolutions

Question 21

What are the limitations of odometry?

Answer 21

Wheel slippage, uneven friction and uneven wheel size

Question 22

How do passive light sensors work?

Answer 22

By measuring light intensity directly

Question 23

What can light be used for in navigation?

Answer 23

To mark importance places, i.e recharging stations and exits from rooms

Question 24

What is IR an example of?

Answer 24

An active light sensor

Question 25

What are time of flight sensors?

Answer 25

Active distance measurements that use reflected signal

Question 26

What is the formula for time of flight sensors?

Answer 26

d = (v*t) / 2

Question 27

What is a sonar sensor?

Answer 27

Uses ultrasonic signal where V is the speed of sound

Question 28

What are the disadvantages of sonar sensors?

Answer 28

Processing is slow and noisy

Question 29

What are the advantages of using sonar sensors?

Answer 29

Cheap and good for obstacle avoidance

Question 30

What are laser sensors?

Answer 30

Time of flight sensor using a pulsed laser and a rotating mirror

Question 31

What are the advantages of laser sensors?

Answer 31

High precision, long range, wide field of view and fast

Question 32

Name 4 types of vision sensor

Answer 32

Colour, thermal, omni-directional, stereo

Question 33

What do you need when emulating a laser scanner and merging readings?

Answer 33

Calibration of the two sensors (where one is in relation to the other)

Question 34

Name 7 other types of sensor?

Answer 34

Tactile, direction and orientation, global position, motion, temperate, sound, smell

Question 35

What is the hierarchy of sensor processing requirement?

Answer 35

Bump Sensors -> Odometry -> Sonar -> Speech -> Vision

Question 36

Discuss perception in sensors?

Answer 36

Sensors often do not provide direct measurements nor provide exact values Some sensors may provide rich information that needs to be reduced Some sensors provide sparse information that needs to be interpolated

Question 37

What are the 3 aspects that depend upon and influence each other?

Answer 37

Robot, Task, Environment