INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ROORKEE

Introduction to Robotics
By
Dr Pushparaj Mani Pathak
Professor, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Department,
I.I.T. Roorkee
Definition

• The Word Robot has its root in the Slavic languages and
means worker, compulsory work, or drudgery.

• It was popularized as a word for intelligent machines by the

Czechoslovakian playwright Karel Kapek in Rossum’s
Universal Robot 1921

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Definitions

• Robot: Many Definitions

• American Heritage Dictionary: ro·bot (rbt, -bt) n.
 A mechanical device that sometimes resembles a
human being and is capable of performing a variety
of often complex human tasks on command or by
being programmed in advance.
 A machine or device that operates automatically or
by remote control.
 A person who works mechanically without original
thought, especially one who responds automatically
to the commands of others.

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• Robot Institute of America (RIA) defines a robot as: "A
programmable multi-function manipulator designed to move
material, parts, or specialized devices through variable
programmed motion for the performance of a variety of
tasks" (RIA)
• McKerrow, in 1986 used "A robot is a machine which can be
programmed to do a variety of tasks in the same way a
computer is an electronic circuit which can be programmed
to do a variety of tasks”

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• Broad definition
– A device that operates with some degree of autonomy,
usually under computer control.
• Other dictionary definitions
– An efficient, insensitive person
– A person who works mechanically without original
thought, especially one who responds automatically to the
commands of others.
– A machine that looks like a human being

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OK so what is a robot?

• A robot is an integration of mechanical, electrical and

software components that can be reprogrammed to perform
a variety of tasks both with and without human intervention.
• Robotics: The study of robots design, programming and
control.

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First Robot

• First Commercial Robot (1962): Unimation Inc., USA,

founded by Joseph F. Engelberger (Father of Robotics) in
1950

• Installed in General Motors plant

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 Unimate robot
[http://www.robothalloffame.org/inductees/
03inductees/unimate.html] 8
Sketch of a Unimate robot (Critchlow, 1985)
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• UNIMATION?
The word UNIMATION - UNIversal and autoMATION,
because of the belief that the robot is a universal tool that
can be used for many kinds of tasks.

• Most industrial robots of today are designed to work in

environments which are not safe and very difficult for
human workers.

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Vocabulary

• DOF: Degree of Freedom: no of independent position

variables which would have to be specified in order to locate
all parts of the mechanism.
• A manipulator is a open kinematic chain, and each joint
position is defined with a single variable, the number of joints
equals number of degree of freedom.
• Free space has 6, a plane 3 ,
• Joint: Same as a human joint.
– Revolute: Rotational Joint similar to elbow or wrist. 1DOF
– Prismatic: Like an elevator 1DOF
– Knuckle: Universal Joint 2DOF
– Spherical: Ball and Socket 3DOF Not Common.

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• Kinematics: The relationship between the positions,
and the positions derivatives of the robot and its
links. Kinematics is motion without forces or mass.
• Forward (direct) Kinematics: Given the joint
trajectories find the link’s or end-effector’s position
and orientation.
• Inverse Kinematics: Given a path calculate the
motion of the joints. Because kinematic equations
are non linear their solution is not always easy or
even possible in closed form. Question of existence
of a solution and multiple solution arise.

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• Kinetics: Relates motion and forces
• Statics: Study of forces without motion
• Dynamics: Study of motion and forces contain both
kinetics and kinematics. Still have inverse and
forward.
• Force or Torque: Four Types
– Coriolis: Coupling between Axes
– Centripetal: Like a ball on a string.
– Inertial: Due to acceleration or deceleration of a mass.
– Gyroscopic: Changing the angle of a quickly spinning mass.

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• Manipulator: A robot arm.
• Manipulation: The act of grasping and or moving an
object.
• Gripper: Attaches to a robot to allow an object to be
picked up.
• End-Effector: Part of robot that affects the world.
This can be a gripper, a welding torch, a light, or a
sensor.
• Cartesian Coordinates: X Y Z
• Right Hand Rule: Standard for defining coordinate
frames and positive motion.
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• Reference Frame: Coordinate system.
• Can be stationary or in motion.
– Tool: Coordinate system that is attached to the tool or
end-effector.
– World: Coordinate system that the robot is relative to.
– Global: Coordinate system that is stationary.
• DH Parameters: Denavit-Hartenberg Parameters.
• Robot parameters obtained by a convention for defining the
coordinate frames of a robot.

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Evolution of Robotics

Reference: Bruno Siciliano lecture at IMACA

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Types of Robots

• Mobility
– Main goal is transport
• Manipulation
– Main goal is to perform an action on the environment.

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Mobile Robot Examples

• Search and Rescue

• Remote-controlled
• Robust, Tethered
• Walking and running robots
(one or more legs)
– Purpose: ROBOTINO
• Handle uneven terrain
• Help us understand biological
locomotion

BIGDOG

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Manipulator Examples

• Medical robots Da Vinci

(teleoperated)

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20
Manipulator Examples

 Space shuttle arm

(teleoperated)

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Dextre

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Curiosity Rover

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Sea Eye- Underwater Robot

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• Painting robots
– Interesting issues in coverage, KUKA- KR5
path planning
• Industrial robots (teleoperated
& autonomous)

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Dakshya- Defence (DRDO)

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DRDO-Netra (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle)

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Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

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Other Classification of Robots

• Fixed or mobile.
• Serial or parallel.
• According to degree of freedom (DOF).
• Rigid or flexible.
• Control — Point-to-point, autonomy and “intelligence”.
• Most older industrial robots — Fixed base and consisting of
links connected by actuated joints.
• Many modern robots can move on factory floors, uneven
terrains or even walk, swim and fly.

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Serial or parallel

• Serial robot — A fixed base, links and joints connected

sequentially and ending in a end-effector
• Parallel robot — More than one loop, no natural end-effector
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Degree-of-Freedom (DOF)

• Degree of freedom (DOF) determines capability of a robot

and number of actuated joints
• 6 (DOF) required for arbitrary task in 3D.
• Painting and welding can be done by 5 DOF robot.
• Electronics assembly usually done by 4 DOF SCARA
robot.
• For extra flexibility/working volume, 5 or 6 DOF robot
mounted on 2 or 3 DOF gantry or wheeled mobile robot.
• Redundant robot with more than 6 DOF for avoiding
obstacles, more flexibility etc.

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• Arrangement of first three joints (in fixed serial robots) are
classified as:
• Cartesian, spherical and cylindrical — Motion described
by Cartesian, spherical or cylindrical coordinates.
• Anthropomorphic — Human arm like.
• SCARA or Selective Compliance Adaptive Robot Arm —
Extensively used in electronic assembly.
• Last three joints form a wrist — Orients the end-effector.

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RIGID VS. FLEXIBLE

• Most industrial robots are built heavy and rigid for required
accuracy.
• Minimising weight for space applications — Links and joints
are flexible!

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Control and Mode of Operation

• Most older industrial robots were teach and playback

• Robot is taken (manually) through the tasks and positions
recorded.
• During actual operation, the robot plays back the taught
sequence.
• Very time consuming to teach and robot cannot react to
any changes in the environment.
• Computer controlled — Inputs are given from a computer
often after being tried out in an off-line programming system.
• Sensor driven — Sensors are used to avoid obstacles and
take decisions.
• Intelligent — Robot can ‘learn’ about the environment using
artificial intelligence (AI) and perform efficiently.
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Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics

• In a 1940s short story, he decided that:

1. Robots must never harm human beings.
2. Robots must follow instructions from humans without
violating rule 1.
3. Robots must protect themselves without violating the other
rules.

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Applications of industrial robots during 2010-12

[http://www.ifr.org/industrial-robots/statistics/]
S K Saha: Introduction to Robotics
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Estimated populations of industrial robots

[Courtesy: http://www.ifr.org/industrial-robots/statistics]
S K Saha: Introduction to Robotics

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Number of service robots sold in 2011
and 2012

[Courtesy: http://www.ifr.org/statistics/keyData2005.htm]
S K Saha: Introduction to Robotics

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Estimated stock of industrial robots during 2011-12 and
forecast for 2013 and 2016

S K Saha: Introduction to Robotics

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The Mechanics & Control of
Mechanical Manipulators
• In robotics one is concerned about
location of the object in three Description of position and
dimensional space orientation
• The objects can be described by two
attributes: their position & orientation.
• In order to describe the position and
orientation of a body in space we
always attach a coordinate system or
frame rigidly to the object.
• Any frame can serve as a reference
system within which to express the
position and orientation of a body,
• So transforming or changing the
description of these attributes of a body
from one frame to another needed.
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Forward Kinematics of Manipulators

• Kinematics is the science of motion that treats motion

without regard to the forces which cause it.
• Within the science of kinematics, one studies position,
velocity, acceleration, and all higher order derivatives of the
position variables (with respect to time or any other
variable(s)).
• Hence, the study of the kinematics of manipulators refers to
all the geometrical and time-based properties of the motion.
• Manipulators consist of nearly rigid links, which are
connected by joints that allow relative motion of neighboring
links.

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• These joints are usually
instrumented with position
sensors, which allow the relative
position of neighboring links to be
measured.
• In the case of rotary or revolute
joints, these displacements are
called joint angles.
• Some manipulators contain sliding
(or prismatic) joints, in which the
relative displacement between
links is a translation, sometimes
called the joint offset.

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Forward Kinematics of Manipulators
• For a given set of joint
angles, forward kinematic
problem is to compute the
position and orientation of
the tool frame relative to base
frame
• or represent manipulator
position from joint space
description to Cartesian
space description.

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Inverse Kinematics of Manipulators
• For given position and orientation of the
end effector of the manipulator, in inverse
kinematics we calculate all possible set of
joint angles which could be used to attain
the given position and orientation.
• Since the kinematic equations are
nonlinear their solution is not always easy
or even possible in closed form
• Question of existence of a solution and of
multiple solution arise.
• The existence or nonexistence of a
kinematic solution defines the workspace
of a given manipulator.
• The lack of a solution means that the
manipulator cannot attain the desired
position and orientation because it lies
outside of the manipulator's workspace.
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Jacobian of Manipulator

• Jacobian: It specifies a mapping

from velocities in joint space to
velocities in Cartesian space.
• Also given a desired contact
force and moments what set of
joint torques are required to
generate them here also
Jacobian appears.
• At certain points, called
singularities, this mapping is not
invertible.
• An understanding of the
phenomenon is important to
designers and users of
manipulators.
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Dynamics

• Dynamics devoted to studying the forces required to cause

motion.
• In order to accelerate a manipulator from rest, glide at a
constant end-effector velocity, and finally decelerate to a
stop, a complex set of torque functions must be applied by
the joint actuators.
• The exact form of the required functions of actuator torque
depend on the spatial and temporal attributes of the path
taken by the end-effector and on the mass properties of the
links and payload, friction in the joints, and so on.
• One method of controlling a manipulator to follow a desired
path involves calculating these actuator torque functions by
using the dynamic equations of motion of the manipulator.

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• Dynamics studies the
forces required to cause
motion.
• Dynamic equation of
motion is used to
• (i) calculate the torque
required for desired
motion-inverse problem
• (ii) in simulation i.e. find
acceleration in terms of
torque and then
calculate displacement-
Direct problem
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Trajectory Generation

• In order to move end-effector

through space from point A to
point B, one must compute a
trajectory each joint to follow.
• Commonly each joint starts
and ends its motion at the
same time, so that manipulator
motion appears coordinated.
• Often, a path is described not
only by a desired destination
but also by some intermediate
locations, or via points, through
which the manipulator must
pass en route to the
destination.
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Manipulator Design and Sensors

• Economics governs it.

• Factors such as size, speed, load capability, no. of
joints and their geometric arrangements are
considered.
• These considerations impact upon the manipulator
workspace size, stiffness of manipulator structure.
• Other issues are location of actuators, transmission
system, internal position and force sensor

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• The design of a mechanical
manipulator must address issues
of actuator choice, location,
transmission system, structural
stiffness, sensor location, and
more.
• The more joints a robot arm
contains, the more dextrous and
capable it will be.
• Of course, it wili also be harder to
build and more expensive

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• To make a useful robot, that can take two approaches: build
a specialized robot for a specific task, or build a universal
robot that would able to perform a wide variety of tasks.
• In the case of a specialized robot, some careful thinking will
yield a solution for number of joints needed.
• For example, a specialized robot designed solely to place
electronic components on a flat circuit board does not need
to have more than four joints.
• Three joints allow the position of the hand to attain any
position in 3D space, with a fourth joint added to allow the
hand to rotate the grasped component about a vertical axis.
• For universal robot, fundamental properties of the physical
world we live in dictate the "correct" minimum number of
joints—that minimum number is six.
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Linear Position Control

• Some manipulators are equipped with stepper motors or

other actuators that can execute a desired trajectory directly
• However, most of manipulators are driven by actuators which
supply a force/torque which will cause the desired motion.
• In this case, an algorithm is needed to compute torques that
will cause the desired motion.
• The problem of dynamics is central to the design of such
algorithms, but does not in itself constitute a solution.
• A primary concern of the position control system is to
automatically compensate for errors in knowledge of the
parameters of the system and to suppress the disturbances
which try to perturb the system from the desired trajectory.

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• To accomplish this position and
velocity sensors are monitored by
the control algorithm which computes
the torque commands for the
actuators.
• Control algorithms synthesis may be
based on linear approximation of the
dynamics of a manipulator.
• In order to cause the manipulator to
follow the desired trajectory, a
position-control system must be
implemented.
• Such a system uses feedback from
joint sensors to keep the manipulator
on course.
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Non Linear Position Control

• Control systems based on approximate linear models are

popular in current industrial robots.
• Non linear dynamics of manipulator if considered during
control synthesis it gives better performance.

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Force Control

• Aim of the force control is to control forces when the

manipulator touches parts, tools, or work surfaces.
• Force control is complementary to position control.
• When moving in free space-position control
• When coming in contact- force control.
• Since manipulator is rarely constrained to move in
all the directions simultaneously we have hybrid
control problem with some directions controlled by a
position-control law and remaining directions
controlled by a force-control law.

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• In order for a manipulator to
slide across a surface while
applying a constant force, a
hybrid position—force
control system must be
used.
• A robot should be instructed
to wash a window by
maintaining a certain force in
the direction perpendicular to
the plane of the glass, while
following a motion trajectory
in directions tangent to the
plane.
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Programming robots

• A robot programming language serves as interface

between the human user and the industrial robot.
• Robot manipulators differentiate from fixed
automation by being flexible which means
programmable.
• An off line programming system is a robot
programming environment which has been
sufficiently extended by means of computer
graphics by which the development of robot
programmes can take place without access to robot
itself.

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• A common argument raised in their favor is that an off-line
programming system will not cause production equipment
(i.e., the robot) to be tied up when it needs to be
reprogrammed.
• Hence, automated factories can stay in production mode a
greater percentage of the time.
• They also serve as a natural vehicle to tie computer-aided
design (CAD) data bases used in the design phase of a
product to the actual manufacturing of the product.
• In some cases, this direct use of CAD data can dramatically
reduce the programming time required for the manufacturing
process.

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• Desired motions of
the manipulator and
end-effector, desired
contact forces, and
complex
manipulation
strategies can be
described in a robot
prograrnming
language.

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• Off-line programming
systems, generally
providing a computer
graphics interface, allow
robots to be
programmed without
access to the robot itself
during programming.

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Our book

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