Acknowledgement
I hereby take this opportunity to thank all those who helped me carry out the project successfully. First is to my supervisor Dr. John Readle who advised and directed me in choosing the appropriate project that suited my course. I also wish to thank Mr. Mistry the head of the robotic lab for providing lab facilities that I used in my project. My gratitude goes to Mr. Leach who assisted me in manufacturing the P.B.C that I had designed for the project.
And last but not least to Mr. Ahmed the head of the mechanical workshop for his support in the provincial of mechanical equipment for working in the workshop to the success of my project. My greatest support goes to my family and friends who stood by me throughout till I fished the project. I wish to sincerely thank my parents for funding the project and issuing me with words of encouragement.
Introduction
Reference from (Dudek, G. and Jenkin, M) states that autonomous mobile robotics is a subject that emerged from the interaction in the fields of science and engineering. Scientists and engineers have combined minds to construct these gadgets to work in place of humans especially where excess energy is required. These autonomous mobile robots are machine-oriented and therefore have the capacity of performing complex and repetitive tasks due to their high speed[1].
Apart from these qualities, these autonomous mobile robots do not require any operations from humans since they are electric, electronics, and computer operated. Special switches are kept in place and programmed by time and type of work; they operate immediately after being switched on because if they are not programmed they can perform the same task repeatedly even if the task is already done[2]. Therefore special people are always chosen and employed to keep watch over the machines as they perform either in a central position.
However, in recent years scientists & Engineers have tried to construct special autonomous robots that can perform without human supervision or even under minimum supervision. In this case, special microprocessors were designed to act as memories to the robots i.e. by providing better and extensive ideas. Nonetheless, to manipulate these robots it is important to realize and learn how to manipulate them and learn their moves.
Autonomous robots can be used to perform many activities in the day to day life, for example, they can be used in water for moving marines, in industries, homes, and on the air for example as air hostesses, and also by astronauts for scientific discovery. Robots are also widely used in the field of the military whereby militants use gargets known as compasses to detect and observe dangers such as terrorism and to check planted bombs, they also use them to specify locations and retrieve data.
Companies and developed cities such as California & USA have borrowed these technologies of autonomous robots to act as surveillance to check and maintain security in the buildings and important areas[3]. Capital cities and statehouses have developed special robots so that they can maintain security and prevent situations like bombing and attacks. Furthermore, in the field of agriculture robots have been used by those developed countries such as China, Japan, and Germany to assist the farmers in planting, harvesting, and spraying crops. This has helped manpower and therefore made life easy since their effective speed of performance has reduced time and work.
Background information
According to findings, autonomous robots always navigate and perform in the essence of autonomy i.e. mapping and localization are the important aspects that are normally computed for autonomous robots to work simultaneously[4]. Also, the robots should have the ability to decide; construct, plan motion, and initiate motion provided that a special program is acted upon it. Although several challenges are faced during the construction and programming of the robots mathematical laws and computation of probabilities have been set in place so that interference while working is not faced[5].
Moreover, during the construction of these robots, some considerations are always put into consideration i.e. apart from incorporating electric, electronics, and computers it is also important to consider kinematics and dynamics since velocities determine the positions of robots. However, the movement that a robot makes helps it to explore the environment it is targeted to cover and its perceptions are meant for changing direction, whereas the communication provides an interface through which information is communicated between humans and robots.
Autonomous robots also sense the change of environment and the tasks that it is meant to undertake. For this case, therefore, an autonomous robot should have an accurate vision so that it can always respond by the memory that it has been fed. A form of light i.e. white called algorithm usually used to resolve the distance between the robot and the image should be of high sensitivity to depth variations[6].
Despite the best performance that an autonomous robot performs, it has some challenges that make it weak to perform. Such problems are as follows: An autonomous robot should be kept off from blurriness; therefore designers should deal with it from a more accurate perspective. The other challenge is that of perception whereby it has been had to program a robot path from the point of origin to the destination it is designed to perform.
Description of the nature and broad purpose of my study
This paper is designed to explain the construction and the performance of an autonomous robot in life. However, the study suggests that robots have been constructed to perform tasks that human being are able/unable to do or to ease functions that human are supposed to do.
Autonomous robots for instance are meant to perform complex and repetitive tasks through their high speed and precision[7]. However, several industries have employed use of robots to assist them in performing duties such as painting, grinding, and to perform tasks in those places where heat can be severe to human beings. Another area where these robots have been used intensively is the field of military whereby militants for instance have used to upgrade their techniques, i.e. in trying to curb terrorism and also through the satellites that are robot oriented. These satellites are programmed in a special way to check by means of a compass several areas of the world and those areas that are hostile to human nature.
Furthermore, the field of astrology and media has employed robots to provide information from places that are not of reach to human life, for instance a GPS receiver has been employed to identify the locations where robots are located and also to scan the landscape at the background[8]. Astronauts thus have relied upon the accuracy provided by GPS receiver to provide effective information; the media on the other hand have relied upon the robotic GPS receivers to receive information from all over the continent therefore making the process reliable and of great importance[9].
Apart from all these importance’s agricultural fields have adopted the use of autonomous robots since they provide work accurately and fast unlike the human nature. For this case therefore, robots such as for cultivating and harvesting have been employed to ease the work and spare energy.
Major findings
The basics of autonomous robots are the planning and navigation of these robots[10]. This case is manifested in order for a GPS receiver to function therefore, several instruments should be put in place for instance detectors and electronic compasses, these instruments help in locating the location of a robot so that information can be retrieved. However, apart from the good services that an autonomous robot provides such as performing actions that are complex to precise it is therefore, very costly to manage and set such autonomous robots[11]. However for a robot to function to its standards it is required that the integration ought to be modulated between virtual goals concepts and the virtual obstacles concepts that are necessary for it function.
References
Conrad, H. (2003) Application of evolutionary algorithm in autonomous mobile robots. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 82.
Dudek, G. and Jenkin, M. (2000) computational principles of mobile robotics: Cambridge University Press, New York, p.15.
Fahimi, F. (2009) Autonomous robots: modeling, path planning and control, volume 740. University of Alberta: Edmonton, p.163.
Homeler, R. (2001) Manipulation of Autonomous Mobile Robots. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, p.48.
Illah, R. (2003) Autonomous Robotics: Robotics Institute, School of Computer Science, at Carnegie Mellon University, p34.
Roland, S. (2008) Autonomous Systems and Product Design. Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems: ETH Zürich, pg 45.
Siegwart, L. (2005) Autonomous Mobile Robots: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts.