NThC attends ACM seminar on Robotics and Autonomous Systems

The NThC attended the second day of the ACM Distinguished Lecture series, "Robotics and Autonomous Systems", given by Michael Jenkin, PhD of York University, Canada. This was held at the Engineering Theater at UP Diliman last February 17.

During the course of the lecture, Dr Jenkin identified three major problems in creating robots, namely:

1. locomotion (how the robot moves)
2. sensing (how the robot measures properties of its environment)
3. reasoning (how the robot transduces measurements into actions)
   

He also identified solutions on the locomotion problem:
* use of wheels
- maximum stair height to be able to climb: less than the radius of the wheel
- ineffective on planet surfaces, especially sand
* use of treads
- involves wheels bound by a belt (much like a construction vehicle)
- can climb and move into tight spaces
* use of legs, fins, or other similar methods
- legged robots are power inefficient and harder to program, but provide dynamic control

He noted that for 'sensing', it is "easy" to collect data, but understanding the data is extremely difficult.

For reasoning, he gave three critical issues:

1. situational reasoning
2. reactivity [speed of response]
3. reasoning about space
   

He also gave some characteristics modern robot applications:

• high cost
• dangerous
• remote
  

Otherwise, hiring people is more efficient to do the work. He gave space exploration as an ideal application for robotics. One example of a space exploration robot is the Russian Lunokhod, which was teleoperated (operated on the earth while the robot is in space). The Lunokhod was intended to operate for 3 months but went on to about 11 months (Dr Jenkin told the audience that the operators got bored, so they tried to make it jump of the cliff, effectively destroying it).

Another application for robots is telemining, used in Canada. This greatly reduces the transport cost of personnel from the ground to the mine area meters below and kilometers [horizontally] from the shaft/opening.

One application related to health includes elder care. He noted that nurses often suffer from work-related injuries, mainly caused by wrong posture while trying to lift a patient. However, robots will have to look harmless, otherwise patients will be scared. Also, there are also robots that emit soft, cuddly noises.