Robotics Assignment NAME:

1. Where did the word robot come from?

2. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, who was the first person to use the word robotics in print?

3. Match the following components with the correct description:

Air muscles, Muscle wire, Electroactive polymers, Piezo motors, Elastic nanotubes

a. ___________________ a new plastic material that can contract substantially (up to 380%) from electricity, and have been used in facial muscles and arms of humanoid robots, and to allow new robots to float, fly, swim or walk.

b. ________________ Pneumatic artificial muscles, are special tubes that contract (typically up to 40%) when air is forced inside them.

c. ___________________ a promising artificial muscle technology in early-stage experimental development. The absence of defects enables these filaments to deform elastically by several percent, with energy storage levels of perhaps 10 J/cm³. Human biceps could be replaced with an 8 mm diameter wire of this material.

d. ___________________ also known as shape memory alloy, Nitinol® or Flexinol® wire, is a material that contracts slightly (typically under 5%) when electricity runs through it.

e. ___________________ Recent alternatives to DC motors. These work on a fundamentally different principle, whereby tiny elements, vibrating many thousands of times per second, cause linear or rotary motion.

4. Which hands receive more tactile information, human or robot?

5. Which two forms of electromagnetic radiation do the image sensors of computer vision systems detect?

6. Robots need to manipulate objects; pick up, modify, destroy, or otherwise have an effect. The "arm" is referred to as a manipulator while the "hands" of a robot are often referred to as ___________________ .

7. For simplicity most mobile robots have four wheels or a number of continuous tracks. Why have some researchers tried to create more complex wheeled robots with only one or two wheels?

8. ZMP Technique, Dynamic balancing and Passive dynamics are all methods that have been applied to what problem in robotics?

9. Flying, Snaking, Skating, Climbing, Swimming and Sailing are all various methods of robot _____________________ .

10. What are some of the navigational hardware items employed by robots that operate autonomously in dynamic environments?

11. What makes speech recognition in real-time so difficult for computers?