A Problem Statement Of Robotics Technologies Information Technology Essay

Part A

Robotics technology

Introduction

Robotics is the field of engineering and computer science with creating robots, the device which can move and react to sensory input. Robotics is the branch of artificial intelligence. Robotics is the use of use of robots in doing various different tasks with the application of engineering and computer science. The structure of robot is mostly mechanical and operates automatically or with a help of a remote control. Robots are used in factories to great extend these days to perform high – precision jobs such as riveting and welding. They are also used in situations like defusing bombs and clearing of toxic wastes. Robot has already become a part of our lives like in manufacturing the industrial robots are widely used. Police and military organizations use robots in the assistance of dangerous situations and, it also has a significant role in the field of medicine. The robots amounts more than “half” of the labor in the auto industry. The use of robotics in various fields have been increasing as it reduces the work load and is able to carry higher degree of work compared to human beings. This paper includes the twenty year domain of Robotic technology. The future forecasts of the robotic technology are executed with the help of forecasting methods such as environmental scanning and the survey methods. In spite of the few issues proclaimed to the advancement of robotic technology, this technology is yet to capture new more areas of its operation and will be very beneficial in its progress to the society as well. So, it is necessary to put an insight to the robotic technology as it has the huge applications

Deb, http://books.google.co.in/books, retrieved from: Robotics technology and flexible automation.

and welfare is yet to be applied and explored fully. The purpose of this overview is to provide the present and future trends of robotics.

Problem Statement and why society should care for robotics-

Despite of the attempts and the research work by the robot researchers to emulate human intelligence and appearance, the result is not achieved. Most robots still cannot see and are not versatile object is not properly recognized by it. For the effective and proper mechanism of robotics technology it is important to prioritize the inefficiency associated in it. Though the wide use of robotics technology will take away many jobs of human being and it will create unemployment in the society. The use of robots in performing various jobs will lead in the reduction of jobs of the human being so the initiation should be done systematically. The developments of robots will lessen many high end precision jobs and will help in various sectors like agriculture, military, health and so on. This will lead to robots as a helper in the workplace with some degree of balance between the actual requirement and the greed. The society should support and care for the developments in the robotics technology as this will be beneficial for the people and the various sectors of an economy. Many tasks which are beyond the human ability can be performed with the help of robotics and robotics in the war will be very helpful in its operation. The advancement of robot technology will be amazing and today, robots can be seen virtually in all the fields from transport to health, and recreations to industries. The use of this technology will get proclamations from the society for taking away the jobs of ordinary man. But to solve the issues related to this the usage of robots should be applied to selected tasks and mostly be used in the areas where human cannot reach or is not capable of performing.

There should be proper research and developments in this sector and the various implications should be met up to effectively use the robot technology.

Assumptions

Robotics is the branch of artificial intelligence.

Robotic technology is the field of science and technology

There is no change in jobs of an ordinary man

There is no harm to the society due to the advancement of robotic technology.

Robotic technology is the use of robots and it is operated automatically or using remote control.

Methods selected in forecasting

Environmental scanning-

Environmental scanning is the board exploration of all major trends, issues, advancements, news and ideas in the various ranges of activities. In environmental scanning all the

information’s are collected from the various different sources like magazines, newspapers, internet, television, science fiction books and repots. Environmental scanning helps to provide the information about a product or any technology in the external environment which acts a guide in the anticipation of future trend, changes and demand of the product

Jim Pinto, http://www.jimpinto.com/writings/robotics.html, retrieved from : robotics technology trends

or the technology. The scanning of the external environments with the help of various source of medium provides the changes in the environment and the existing scenario of the subject to be forecasted. The following are the benefits of environmental scanning as a forecasting method-

It provides the information for the strategic planning. The environmental scanning provides the information about a product or a technology which can be used as a guide to strategic direction.

It helps in the detections of new opportunities and forecast of new demands.

It helps in monitoring the market trends.

It provides the information about the exiting scenario of the product in the market and the shortcomings it is facing in its advancements.

It shows the scope for growth and developments by forecasting in the need and the supply in the external environment of a particular product or technology.

It looks in the social and technological issues of the use of the concern product.

The scanning of environment in the external environment will bring into notice the threads and new other issues which may arise.

It will help in searching out the future needs of the areas where is in not yet entered.

It helps in anticipating the problems associated to a technology or a product, if its increases its usages in other different fields of operations.

Environmental scanning will provide the necessary and useful picture of the important factors which will be taken place due to the advancement of a technology.

Survey

Survey as a forecasting technique is one of the important technique for gathering the information on a particular segment of technology or a product. Surveys can be done on the basis of few selected questions which will help in providing valuable information about a products or an area of technology. A survey can be anything from a short paper and pencil feedback to a one to one in depth interview. It is one the primary source of forecasting techniques. Surveys are broadly divided into questionnaire and interview. It helps in supplying the information about the use a particular technology and the view of people for the advancement of the concerned technology. It will render the ideas and other productive use of a particular technology in various other areas which can is not is applied yet. Survey brings into notice various issues arising or connected to a particular technology in the external environment. The surveys can be conducted in various sectors and general public for their opinion on the technology and how more effectively it can be used in other different areas.

The following are the benefits of Surveys as one of the techniques of forecasting-

Survey method is relatively inexpensive especially self administrated surveys.

It is useful in explaining and describing the idea or the views of a large population.

Surveys can be administrated from remote areas using mails or telephone

In survey methods many questions can be asked about a given topics to get better picture of it.

In the survey, there is flexibility in the creation of the source as the questions are to be carried out: interviews, face to face interviews, by telephonic interview, group administered oral surveys etc.

Standardized questions ensure similar data can be collected from the group.

High reliability can be obtained.

Survey methods will help to

The standardization of the questions in the survey method makes the measurement of the results more precise.

Surveys method of research used in forecasting helps in furnishing the information and the various other areas of using the technology in the subject of forecast.

Process of the assessment

The use of robotic technology can be seen many areas such as health, transportation, industrial and manufacturing units, and different other sectors. The forecasting of robotics for next twenty years was undertaken with the help of the forecasting methods i.e. Environmental scanning and Surveys.

Environmental scanning was carried out by skimming the internet, articles and reports on robotics. The extracted information’s are then studied and analyzed to check on the future requirements of robotics technology.

The STEEP analysis was undertaken to determine the Factors affecting and supporting robotics technology. The STEEP analysis includes – Social, Technological, Economic, ecological and political trends of the Robotics technology.

The STEEP analysis of Robotics Technology is as follows-

Socials trends

Wider use of Robotics technology may take over the jobs of an ordinary person.

Low skilled labor will experience the side effects of having their jobs replaced by machines.

Jim Pinto, http://www.jimpinto.com/writings/robotics.html, retrieved from : robotics technology trends

The robotics technology will make many tasks easier for the society with the help of social robots to do the tasks in homecare, mobility etc.

The jobs which are beyond the capability of human being can be performed by the robots.

Technological trends-

The changes and the dynamic environment of the external environment is on a great demand for robotic technology.

NASA is presently developing the Robonaut, a humanoid robotic astronaut about the size of a human astronaut.

Robotics engineers are working on a personal satellite assistant with the applications of robots.

Economical trends

Pallet-handling equipment users reported a 2.17 %decrease in the number of workplace accidents, while non-users reported a 0.82 %increase in the number of workplace accidents.

Higher cost of manufacturing and maintenance.

The robotic technology will develop the economy to a large extend.

General Motors, with some 40-50,000 robots is planning to continue the utilization and develop new approaches.

Delbert Tesar, http://www.robotics.utexas.edu/rrg/docs/pubs/publications/ThirtyYear.pdf, the concept of fifth generation robotics, retrieved from: completed business source.

Ecological trends

The robotic technology can be used to curb the pollution related issues.

The robotics is totally engineering and computer operated machined which will not harm the environment.

Political issues

The beating and hitting of robots may cause ethical issues.

Taking away the jobs of ordinary man may create chaos in the society.

The accidents in robotics due to mishandling and internal problems in the robots may create troubles in the advancement of the robotics technology.

The survey report and the environmental scanning assessment showed that robotics technology has a made a widespread contribution to the industrial robots to perform the tasks like material handling painting, and welding etc. The principal attribution in today’s robots in the long lasting stands which will require high reliability forcing the designers to be more conservative in its integration. It was found industrial robots are too heavy and requires expensive supportive equipments. The concept of fifth generation robots is suggested which will be functioning to all the applications and sufficiently support all the diverse rewarding applications.

The components of robotic system-

The studies found the current robotics techniques, which are as follows-

Computer control systems- The computers works to balance and coordinate all the functional activities of a robot. These functions are nondeterministic and may represent greatly varying choices to meet up with the task requirement. Computer software’s and the hardware’s are the heart of operations for the robotics technology.

Hierarchical control systems- Due to the various layers of the functional activities like sensors, end effectors, actuators, sensor data integration etc, it becomes essential to formalize the decision making and control which done through hierarchical control systems.

Rodney Brooks ,http://www.jimpinto.com/reading.html#ROBOT, retrieved from :Flesh and Machines -How robots will change us

Object oriented – Object oriented system is the first step to provide the flexibility as the traditional software, the system programs are active but the software itself is passive.

Intelligence data system- The main objective of intelligence data system is to document all essential characteristics of the operating environment of the robot.

Software – Software is the basis of decision making within the structure of a robot.

Sensory perception – The sensory system helps in monitoring the robots and providing feedback on the state of information and for the robot itself.

The present use of robotics

Robotics is the art and science of robots which includes designing, manufacturing, application, and practical use. Robots will soon be everywhere from our home to work. Robots are used for handling dangerous materials, assembling products, cutting and polishing, spray-painting, inspection of products. The robots are used in diverse tasks such as detecting the bombs, cleaning of sewers, and use in intricate surgery is increasing steadily, and will continue to rise in coming years. The rapidly rising power of the artificial intelligence techniques and microprocessor, robots have dramatically raised their potential as flexible automation tools. The new upsurge of robotics is in applications is demanding advanced intelligence. Robotic technology is meeting with a wide variety of complementary technologies – force sensing (touch), machine vision, speech recognition and advanced mechanics. The introduction of robots with the structured touch and vision has dramatically changed the speed and the efficiency of the delivery system and the new productions. Robots are becoming so accurate that they can be applied in which the manual operations are not a valid option anymore. The manufacture of Semiconductors is one example, where high level of quantity cannot be achieved with simple mechanization and human. Significant benefits are achieved by enabling rapid changeover of product and evolutions which cannot be compared with the schematic hard tooling.

Critical drivers, blockages and uncertainties of the robotics technology

Uncertainties –

The robotic technology though growing at a fast pace would face opposition from many quarters especially from the angle of employment. It’s like a situation in which there are both advantages and disadvantages related to the field. In one hand, it is created scope for research or development in sectors that were previously lagging behind because of labor

Marshall Brain, http://marshallbrain.com/robotic-nation.htm , retrieved from: Robotic Nation, Robots in 2015

issues and on the other hand it is also taking away jobs which provide mass employment to the people.

It is to be noted that lack of employment opportunities can affect any countries economy, be it a developed country or the developing one. Developed countries like U.S, Japan are already facing the heat of the employment crunch created by the introduction of robotic technology into almost all facets of manufacturing and industrialization.

The burden that it would create for recently developed and developing countries like India and others countries around the world, is definitely a matter of grave concern. In countries where employment generation is a huge challenge, the robotic drive will definitely pose a lot many issues in the years to come.

Critical Drivers –

Though the Robotic sector is making development at a great pace, there is still a lot to do. One of the most important factors is that the Robots do not have one unique operating system. This question was recently raised by Bill Gates in his article on development of robotic technology. Gates stressed on the point that non-uniformity of an operating system leads to irregular development and later it will hamper the stability in the functioning as well as performance of the robots. It is to be noted that without a uniform operating system the robotic technology will face obstacles in the future.

The other critical drivers would be lack of important functions in the robotic industry that will enhance the growth. The factors are namely voice and visual recognition, distributed computing and wireless broadband connectivity.

Other important factors would be non-existence of standardized hardware and robotic processors and the rigidness of the fact that programming for one robot cannot be used upon another one. This means like if anyone built a robot and wants to build another one, he or she has to start from scratch. It’s obviously noted that such a process would be time consuming, tedious as well as would cost a colossal expenditure fixture to the economy. This would lead to repercussions in many ancillary sectors as well.

Blockages-

The problems faced by robotic technology are that of lack of infrastructure and stagnation in the generation of new programming that will surge the sector ahead. The introduction of robots has made many difficult jobs easier but there is a concern of the rigidity in the programming of a robot and its functioning. Like for example, the U.S.D.A (United States Department of Agriculture), uses robots for various purposes. But the problem it faces is the fact that the functionality of the robots do not change with the change in commodity. The moment the commodity changes the robot stops functioning, rendering it to be futile.

This shows that there is a complete lack of adaptability and dexterity in the robots, that is turning it to be a rather expensive venture lead by the developed countries hoping that this will reduce costs and would be recognized as a path breaking success in the lines of computers.

Larry Dignan,http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/bill-gates-stumps-for-robotic-future/4171, Retrieved from : Complete business source

It is to be realized that the dream of the robot being a household name as the computers will need time, perseverance as well as more efforts from the pioneers and their successors. The research in this sector is quite expensive, so the factor of investment is also one of the driving forces behind the blockages.

Nevertheless, there is research still going on and every day the technicians and scientists are unraveling something new about this unique prodigies of science. It is to be noted that the robot is the most ambitious dream ever realized by the man and it’s a fact the larger the dream is, more difficult will be the path to its complete realization.

Analysis:

From the forecasting methods and the following analysis are interpreted:-

The major hardware committed to the hierarchical control structure of the robotics will become standardized in the next twenty years. In the next decade, interactive software will be available to form a parametric structure in all levels to meet the specific task requirement.

Parallel architecture will make a new paradigm for making the software developments feasible.

The sensor will be implemented at the microchip level with on-board integration of amplification, analog to digital conversion, data reductions, and linearization and so on. The goal is to make sensor inexpensive and light weighted like computer chips by 2020.

In between the year 2015to 2020, the robots would be seen in every South Korean and many European households.

Aggressive image analysis technology will be required if significant progress in the next decade is to occur.

It is targeted to produce intelligent robots that can make decisions, able to sense the environment and learn will be used 30% households and organizations by 2022.

By the year 2030, the robots would be capable of performing at most manual jobs at the human level.

By the year 2015, one third of US military fighting force will be composed of robots.

In the year 2035, the first completely independent robots will solders will be in operations.

By the year 2013 – 2014, agricultural robots will be developed.

The medical robots will be performing small incursive surgery by 2017.

In the year 2017-2022, household robots will be in full use.

By the year 2021, the Nanorobots will be introduced.

It is assumed that there is possibility of developing first generation universal force reflecting manual controller in the period of next five years. The desired attributes of manual controller are – lightweight, compact, portable, adaptable, minimum mass, transparency of forced feedback signal.

Conclusions

Robotics develops man made mechanical devices that can be moved automatically or with help of remote controls. Robotics technology is already in use in various different sectors like industrial, transportation, healthcare etc. The goal of robotic technology is to broaden the use and the effectiveness of the robots in various different fields. Robots are developed to perform multifarious activities for the welfare of the human being in the most integrated and planned manner by enhancing productivity and quality. Despite of the shortcomings and the problems faced, the robotics technology is yet to set a new era in the next decade and the tasks easier and smoother.