What is the function of a robot?

Born in science fiction, people are full of illusions about robots. Perhaps it is precisely because of the vague definition of robot that people are given full imagination and creative space. Operating robot: it can be automatically controlled, repeatedly programmed, multifunctional, multi-degree-of-freedom, fixed or movable, and used in automation systems. Program-controlled robot: control the mechanical actions of the robot in turn according to the pre-required order and conditions. Teaching a reproducible robot: by guiding or other means, first teach the robot to act, input the working program, and the robot will automatically repeat the operation. Numerical control robot: Teach the robot by numerical value and language. Without moving the robot, the robot works according to the taught information. Sensory control robot: uses the information obtained by sensors to control the action of the robot. Adaptive control robot: the robot can adapt to the change of environment and control its own actions. Learning-controlled robot: the robot can "experience" the work experience, has certain learning function, and applies the "learned" experience to the work. Intelligent robot: a person who uses artificial intelligence to decide his own actions. According to the application environment, China robotics experts divide robots into two categories, namely industrial robots and special robots. The so-called industrial robot is a multi-joint manipulator or multi-degree-of-freedom robot facing the industrial field. Special robots are all kinds of advanced robots except industrial robots, which are used in non-manufacturing industries and serve human beings, including service robots, underwater robots, entertainment robots, military robots, agricultural robots, robot machines and so on. Among special robots, some branches develop rapidly and tend to be independent systems, such as service robots, underwater robots, military robots and micro-manipulation robots. At present, international robotics scholars divide robots into two categories from the application environment: industrial robots in manufacturing environment and service environment and humanoid robots in non-manufacturing environment, which is consistent with the classification in China. Aerial robots are also called unmanned aerial vehicles. In recent years, in the military robot family, UAV is the field with the most active scientific research activities, the greatest technological progress, the largest investment in research and procurement, and the richest practical experience. For more than 80 years, the development of UAVs in the world is basically based on the United States, which ranks first in the world in terms of technical level, types and quantity. Throughout the history of UAV development, it can be said that modern warfare is the driving force to promote the development of UAV. The influence of drones on modern warfare is also growing. During World War I and World War II, although drones appeared and were used, they did not play a significant role because of their low technical level. During the Korean War, the United States used unmanned reconnaissance planes and attack planes, but the number was limited. In the subsequent Vietnam War and Middle East War, UAV became an indispensable weapon system. In the Gulf War, the Bosnia-Herzegovina War and the Kosovo War, drones have become the main reconnaissance planes. During the Vietnam War, the US Air Force suffered heavy losses, 2,500 planes were shot down and more than 5,000 pilots were killed, causing public outcry in the United States. For this reason, the US Air Force uses more drones. For example, the "Bison Hunter" drone has carried out more than 2,500 missions over North Vietnam, taking pictures at ultra-low altitude, and the damage rate is only 4%. The AQM-34Q 147 Firebee UAV has flown more than 500 times, performing tasks such as electronic eavesdropping, radio interference, throwing metal chaff, and opening channels for manned aircraft. High altitude unmanned reconnaissance aircraft

1982 the battle of the bekaa valley was discovered by the Israeli army through aerial reconnaissance. Syria has assembled a large number of troops in the Bekaa Valley. On June 9, the Israeli army dispatched the American E-2C Hawkeye Early Warning Aircraft to monitor the Syrian army. At the same time, more than 70 drones, including scouts and fierce dogs, were dispatched every day to conduct repeated reconnaissance on the Syrian air defense positions and airports, and the captured images were transmitted to the early warning aircraft and the ground command. In this way, the Israeli army accurately found out the position of the Syrian radar, and then launched the "Wolf" anti-radar missile, which destroyed many Syrian radars, missiles and self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, forcing the Syrian radar to fail to open, creating conditions for military manned aircraft to attack targets. 199 1 When the Gulf War broke out in, one of the first problems faced by the US military was to find Iraq's hidden Scud missile launcher in the vast sand sea. If a manned reconnaissance plane is used, it must fly back and forth over the desert, and it is extremely dangerous to be exposed to Iraqi anti-aircraft fire for a long time. To this end, drones have become the main force of US air reconnaissance. In the whole Gulf War, Pioneer UAV was the most used UAV by the US military. The U.S. military deployed six pioneer UAV companies in the Gulf region, with a total of 522 sorties, with a flight time of 1640 hours. At that time, no matter day or night, there was always a pioneer drone flying over the bay every day.

In order to destroy the strong fortifications built by the Iraqi army along the coast, on February 4, the battleship Missouri sailed offshore by night. Pioneer UAV takes off from its deck, shoots ground targets with infrared reconnaissance instrument and sends them to the command center. A few minutes later, the 406 mm naval gun on the warship began to bombard the target, and the drone constantly calibrated the naval gun. After that, the USS Wisconsin replaced the USS Missouri, and the artillery positions, radar network and command and communication hub of the Iraqi army were completely destroyed by this three-day shelling. During the Gulf War, only two battleships took off 1 and 5 1, flying for more than 530 hours, and completed the tasks of target search, battlefield alert, maritime interception and naval artillery support.

Launch Breville UAV.

In the Gulf War, Pioneer UAV became the pioneer of the US Army. It conducted aerial reconnaissance for the Army's Seventh Army, photographed a large number of Iraqi tanks, command centers and missile launching positions, and sent them to helicopter units. Then the US military dispatched Apache attack helicopters to attack the target, and when necessary, called artillery units for fire support. Pioneer has strong viability. Flight 365,438+09 was hit only once and crashed 4 ~ 5 times due to electromagnetic interference. In addition to the US military, Britain, France and Canada have also launched drones. For example, the French "Young Deer" division was equipped with a "Mart" drone platoon. When the French army went deep into Iraq, it first sent drones to spy on the enemy. According to reconnaissance, the French army escaped from Iraqi tanks and artillery positions. 1995 during the bosnian war, predator drones were quickly transported to the front because of the urgent need of troops. Marauders played an important role in NATO air strikes on supply lines, ammunition depots and command centers of Serbian forces. It conducts reconnaissance first, guides man-machine attack after finding the target, and then evaluates the result. It also provides the United Nations peacekeeping forces with information about the movement of military vehicles on major roads in Bosnia and Herzegovina to judge whether the parties have complied with the peace agreement. Therefore, the US military called the Predator "a low-altitude satellite on the battlefield". In fact, satellites can only provide instantaneous images of the battlefield, while drones can hover over the battlefield for a long time, thus providing continuous real-time images of the battlefield. Drones are much cheaper than satellites. 1On March 24th, 1999, under the guise of "defending human rights", NATO led by the United States began to bombard Yugoslavia, and the "Kosovo War" broke out, which shocked the world. In the 78-day bombing, NATO * * * dispatched 32,000 sorties, invested more than 40 ships and dropped10.3 million tons of bombs, which caused unprecedented havoc in Europe since World War II. The mountainous and forested terrain and rainy weather conditions in Yugoslavia have greatly affected the reconnaissance effect of NATO reconnaissance satellites and high-altitude reconnaissance planes. Serbia's air defense firepower is fierce, and some reconnaissance planes dare not fly at low altitude, which makes NATO Air Force unable to identify and attack targets under clouds. In order to reduce casualties, NATO used a large number of drones. The Kosovo War is the largest number and the most important war among local wars in the world. Although the UAV flies slowly and at low altitude, it is small in size, low in radar and infrared characteristics, good in concealment, not easy to be hit, suitable for low-altitude reconnaissance, and can see the targets that satellites and manned reconnaissance planes can't see clearly. During the Kosovo War, the United States, Germany, France and Britain dispatched about 200 drones of six different types, including: Predator of the US Air Force, Hunter and Pioneer of the Army; Naval; CL-289； From Germany; France's "Crecerelles" and "Hunter", as well as Britain's "Phoenix" and other drones. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) mainly completed the following tasks in the Kosovo war: low-altitude reconnaissance and battlefield surveillance, electronic jamming, result evaluation, target location, meteorological data collection, leaflets distribution and pilot rescue. The Kosovo war not only greatly improved the status of drones in the war, but also attracted the attention of governments around the world. The US Senate Armed Services Committee requires that the military should prepare a sufficient number of unmanned systems within 10 years, so that one third of the low-altitude attack aircraft will be drones; 15 years, one third of the ground vehicles should be unmanned systems. This is not to replace pilots and manned aircraft with unmanned systems, but to supplement the capabilities of manned aircraft so as to use pilots as little as possible in high-risk missions. The development of UAV will certainly promote the development of modern war theory and unmanned combat system.

Robot police

The so-called ground military robot refers to the robot system used on the ground. They can not only help the police dismantle bombs and complete security tasks in peacetime, but also replace soldiers in mine clearance, reconnaissance, attack and other tasks in wartime. Today, the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Japan and other countries have developed various types of ground military robots.

British "trolley" robot

In western countries, terrorist activities have always been a headache for the authorities. Due to racial conflicts, Britain was threatened by explosives, so as early as the 1960s, it successfully developed EOD robots. More than 800 sets of tracked "trolley" and "super trolley" EOD robots developed in Britain have been sold to military and police agencies in more than 50 countries. Recently, Britain has optimized the trolley robot, and developed two kinds of remote-controlled electric explosion disposal robots, the groundhog and the bison, for the Royal British Corps of Engineers to detect and dispose of explosives in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. The woodchuck weighs 35 kilograms and has two cameras on the mast. Bison weighs 2 10 kg and can carry 100 kg. Both of them adopt radio control system, and the remote control distance is about 1 km.

"Groundhog" and "Bison" EOD robots

In addition to the bombs planted by terrorists, unexploded ordnance can be found everywhere in many war-torn countries in the world. For example, Kuwait after the Gulf War is like an ammunition depot that may explode at any time. 16 countries produced 250,000 mines and 850,000 shells, and the multinational forces dropped 25 million mines and submunitions, of which at least 20% did not explode. And until now, many countries still have unexploded bombs and mines from World War I and World War II. Therefore, there is a great demand for EOD robots.

Wheeled and tracked robots are used to remove explosives. They are generally small in size, flexible in steering and easy to work in narrow places. Operators can control their activities from hundreds of meters to several kilometers by radio or optical cable. Robots are generally equipped with multi-color CCD cameras to observe explosives; Multi-degree-of-freedom manipulator, which can unscrew the fuse or detonator of explosives with claws or clips and transport the explosives away; The car is also equipped with a shotgun, which can destroy the timing device and detonating device of explosives after aiming with a laser pen; Some robots are also equipped with high-pressure water guns that can cut explosives.

German EOD robot

In France, the air force, army and police departments all bought TRS200 medium EOD robot developed by cybernetics company. RM35 robot developed by DM company was also selected by Paris Airport Authority. German peacekeeping forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina are equipped with Telerob's MV4 series robots. The PXJ-2 robot developed by Shenyang Institute of Automation, China has also joined the police force.

Andros series robots of American Remotec Company are welcomed by military and police departments in various countries, and the police stations of the White House and the Capitol have purchased such robots. Before the presidential election in South Africa, the police purchased four AndrosVIA robots, which performed more than 100 missions during the election. Andros robots can be used to deal with small random explosives. It is the only robot used by the US Air Force in passenger planes and buses. After the Gulf War, the US Navy also used this robot to clear mines and unexploded ordnance at air bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The US Air Force also sent five Andros robots to Kosovo to clean up explosives and submunitions. Every EOD team and air force aviation rescue center in active service is equipped with an Andros VI.

Exploding robot developed by China.

EOD robot can not only dismantle bombs, but also monitor criminals' activities with its reconnaissance sensors. Surveillance personnel can observe criminals day and night in the distance, listen to their conversations and get a good understanding of the situation without exposing themselves.

1at the beginning of 993, the teaching case of Waco manor occurred in the United States. In order to find out the activities of believers, the FBI used two kinds of robots. One is AndrosVA and Andros MarkVIA robots from Remotec company, and the other is STV robot developed by RST company. STV is a 6-wheel remote control vehicle, which uses radio and optical cable for communication. The car has a bracket that can rise to 4.5 meters, and is equipped with a color stereo camera, a daytime sight, a low-light night vision device, a binaural audio detector, a chemical detector, a satellite positioning system, a forward-looking infrared sensor for target tracking, etc. The car only needs one operator, and the remote control distance is 10 km. In this operation, * * * sent three STVs. The operator remotely stops the robot at a distance of 548 meters from the manor, lifts the bracket on the car, uses the camera and infrared detector to spy on the window, and FBI officials observe the image sent back by the sensor around the fluorescent screen, so that they can clearly see the activities in the house.

Robot command

It's not that people don't want to give a complete definition to robots. Since the birth of robots, people have been trying to explain what robots are. However, with the rapid development of robotics and the arrival of the information age, the content covered by robots is getting richer and richer, and the definition of robots is also constantly enriched and innovated.

1886, the French writer Lill Adam named this humanoid machine "Android" in his novel Future Eve, which consists of four parts:

1, life system (balance, walking, vocalization, body swing, feeling, expression, regulating movement, etc. );

2. Modeling scheme (metal cover with freely movable joints, a kind of armor);

3, artificial muscles (the above armor has various forms of the body, veins, sex and so on);

4, artificial skin (including skin color, mechanism, contour, hair, vision, teeth, claws, etc. ).

1920, Czech writer Karel Capec published the sci-fi script "Universal Robot of Rosam". In the script, Capec wrote the Czech word "Robota" as "Robota", which means slave. The drama predicted the tragic impact of the development of robots on human society, which attracted widespread attention and was regarded as the origin of the word robot. In the play, the robot works silently according to the master's orders, without feelings and affection, doing heavy work flatly. Later, Rosam succeeded, which made robots have feelings, leading to a rapid increase in the application departments of robots. Robots have become an indispensable part of factories and housework. The robot found that human beings were very selfish and unfair and finally rebelled. Robots are excellent in physical quality and intelligence, thus destroying human beings.

But the robot didn't know how to make itself, thinking that it was going to be extinct soon, so it began to look for human survivors, but there was no result. Finally, a pair of male and female robots with superior perception fell in love. At this time, robots evolved into humans and the world came back to life.

Capec puts forward the problems of safety, perception and self-reproduction of robots. The progress of science and technology is likely to cause problems that human beings do not want to appear. Although the science fiction world is just an imagination, human society is likely to face this reality.

In order to prevent robots from harming human beings, science fiction writer Asimov put forward the "Three Principles of Robots" in 1940:

1, robots should not harm humans;

2. Robots should obey human orders, except those that violate Article 1;

Robots should be able to protect themselves, except those that conflict with the first one.

This is an ethical program for robots. Robotics academic circles have always regarded these three principles as the guiding principles for the development of robots.

Two representative definitions were put forward at the first academic conference on robotics held in Japan from 65438 to 0967. First of all, Sen Zheng Hong and Zhou Ping of Hotan put forward that "the robot is a flexible machine with seven characteristics, such as mobility, individuality, intelligence, universality, semi-mechanical, semi-human, automation and slavery". Starting from this definition, Sen Zheng Hong put forward 10 features to represent the image of robots, such as automaticity, intelligence, individuality, semi-mechanization, semi-humanization, operability, universality, information, flexibility, finiteness and mobility. The other is proposed by Ichiro Kato. A machine with the following three conditions is called a robot:

1, an individual with brains, hands and feet;

2. There are non-contact sensors (eyes and ears receive remote information) and contact sensors;

3. Sensors with sense of balance and inherent sense.

Etiquette robot

This definition emphasizes that robots should be humanoid, that is, they work with their hands, move with their feet, and their brains complete unified command. Non-contact sensors and contact sensors are equivalent to human's five senses, which enable the robot to identify the external environment, while the sense of balance and inherent sense are indispensable sensors for the robot to perceive its own state. What is described here is not an industrial robot, but an autonomous robot.

The definition of robot is varied, because it has certain fuzziness. Animals generally have these elements, so when we understand robots as humanoid machines, we can also broadly understand robots as animal-like machines.

In 1988, Espiau defines robot as: "Robotics refers to designing an operating system that can be planned in advance according to sensor information, and taking the use of this system as the research object".

1987 international organization for standardization defines industrial robot as: "industrial robot is a programmable manipulator with automatic control operation and motion function, which can complete various operations."

Scientists in China define a robot as: "The robot is an automated machine, but the difference is that it has some intelligent abilities similar to those of humans or creatures, such as perception, planning, action and coordination, and it is a highly flexible automated machine". In the process of researching and developing robots working in unknown and uncertain environments, people gradually realize that the essence of robot technology is the combination of perception, decision-making, action and interaction technology. With the deepening of people's understanding of the intelligent nature of robot technology, robot technology has begun to penetrate into all fields of human activities. Combined with the application characteristics of these fields, people have developed various special robots and intelligent machines with the ability of perception, decision-making, action and interaction, such as mobile robots, micro-robots, underwater robots, medical robots, military robots, air space robots, entertainment robots and so on. Adaptability to different tasks and special environments is also an important difference between robots and general automation equipment. These robots have been far away from the original humanoid robots and industrial robots in appearance, which are more in line with the special requirements of various application fields, and their functions and intelligence are greatly enhanced, opening up a broader development space for robotics.

Song Jian, president of China Academy of Engineering, pointed out: "The progress and application of robot technology is the most convincing achievement of automatic control in the 20th century, and it is the automation in the highest sense in the contemporary era". Robot technology integrates the development achievements of many disciplines and represents the frontier of high-tech development. Its continuous expansion in the application field of human life is causing a new understanding of the role and influence of robots around the world.

According to the application environment, China robotics experts divide robots into two categories, namely industrial robots and special robots. The so-called industrial robot is a multi-joint manipulator or multi-degree-of-freedom robot facing the industrial field. Special robots are all kinds of advanced robots except industrial robots, which are used in non-manufacturing industries and serve human beings, including service robots, underwater robots, entertainment robots, military robots, agricultural robots, robot machines and so on. Among special robots, some branches develop rapidly and tend to be independent systems, such as service robots, underwater robots, military robots and micro-manipulation robots. At present, international robotics scholars divide robots into two categories from the application environment: industrial robots in manufacturing environment and service environment and humanoid robots in non-manufacturing environment, which is consistent with the classification in China.

Ancient robot

The emergence of the word robot and the world's first industrial robot are both things in recent decades. However, people's fantasy and pursuit of robots has a history of more than 3000 years. Man hopes to make a machine like man to do all kinds of work instead of man.

Machine bracket

During the Western Zhou Dynasty, Yan, a skilled craftsman in China, developed a performer who could sing and dance, which was the earliest recorded robot in China.

At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Luban, a famous carpenter in China, was also a mechanical inventor. The Mohist book says that he once made a wooden bird, which could fly in the air for "three days", reflecting the wisdom of our working people.

In the 2nd century BC, the ancient Greeks invented the most primitive robot-automatic robot in Alexandria. This is a moving statue driven by water, air and steam pressure. It can open the door by itself and sing with the help of steam.

1800 years ago in the Han Dynasty, Zhang Heng, a great scientist, not only invented the seismograph, but also invented the drum car in Miri. In the plan, the drum car is one mile per line, and the car Woodenhead drums, and the clock strikes ten miles per line.

During the post-Han Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang, the prime minister of Shu, successfully created the "wooden ox and flowing horse" and used it to transport rations to support the war ahead.

1662, takeda kone invented the automatic robot doll by using the clock technology, and performed it in Dotonbori, Osaka.

1738, a talented French technician, Jack Day Waxon, invented a robot duck, which quacks, swims, drinks, eats and excretes. Watson's original intention was to mechanize the function of living things and carry out medical analysis.

Writing robot

Among the automatic dolls at that time, the most outstanding ones were Swiss watchmaker Jack dolores and his son Leigh Louis dolores. From 65438 to 0773, they successively introduced automatic writing dolls and automatic playing dolls. The automatic dolls they created were made by using the principle of gears and clockwork. Some of them draw with brushes and colors, while others write with goose feathers dipped in ink. They are exquisite in structure and gorgeous in clothing, which are popular in Europe. Due to the limitation of technical conditions at that time, these dolls were actually giant toys with a height of one meter. The earliest preserved robot is the girl doll in the Swiss Nu Shatir History Museum. It was made 200 years ago. Ten fingers of two hands can press the keys of the organ to play music, and now it is played regularly for tourists to enjoy, showing the wisdom of the ancients.

/kloc-In the mid-9th century, automatic dolls were divided into two schools: science fiction school and mechanical production school, each of which found its own position in literature, art and modern science and technology. 183 1 year, Goethe published Faust, and created the artificial man "Helmon Cruz"; 1870, Hoffman published gabriela, a work featuring automatic dolls; Collodi's Pinocchio 1883; Eve in the Future was published in 1886. In the manufacture of mechanical objects, in 1893, Moore created the "Steam Man", who moved his legs in circles by steam.

Since the 20th century, more and more people have paid attention to and supported the research and development of robots, and some applicable robots have come out one after another. 1927, Winzley, an engineer from Westinghouse, made the first robot "telegraph box" and exhibited it at the World Expo in new york. It is an electric robot with a radio transmitter. It can answer some questions, but the robot can't walk. 1959 the first industrial robot (programmable, circular coordinates) was born in the United States, which opened a new era of robot development.