Wednesday, January 14, 2009

What Defines a Robot?

A robot is a artifically created, programmed object that can take in information about the outside world, move and usually immitate human behavior. In todays lesson, I learned how to use sensors, motors, attach wheels to the motor, how to turn on the nxt, and how to run programs on the nxt. My first robot was one that changed motor speed by sound. The louder the sound, the faster the wheels moved. I look forward to seeing what else these robots can do

2 comments:

  1. I think what you say about a robot is exactly right. It is artifically created (which means that with techonology and all other stuff by human), and is programmed. If a robot is not programmed, then it would not know what to do, and would never start working.

    A robot is not only limited immitate human behavior. There are some robots in the world, which has independency and does special work, which is not like human, and which is not able to be done by human. It has an independency, so it does not need human to control, and do all works by itself.

    The activity you did, and the answer you got from the activity is exactly same as mine. It moved faster, when the sound was louder.

    Finally, I encourage you to look forward to you to see what else the robots can do.

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  2. I too, like your reference to the fact that robots are "artificially" created... it really makes me think about whether you can consider something 'naturally' created to be a robot- I guess not!

    Be sure to explain in your blog what "S.P.A." refers to...
    Most people think of robots in humanlike terms —communicating and doing things like people would. But this specific subset of robots is actually not very common. A robot can be defined as a mechanical device that is capable of performing a variety of tasks on command or according to instructions programmed in advance. Engineers design robots to perform complex tasks more easily and with greater accuracy.

    There a numerous definitions for what a robot is. One common definition is a human-shaped mechanical device that mimics human actions. Another definition is an electronic machine that functions independently, without human control. And of course, there are many more. There truly doesn’t seem to be one official definition.

    For the most part, in this class, we will define a robot as a device that is build to independently perform actions and interact with its surroundings. Robots have the ability to Sense. Plan. Act.

    In a nutshell, a robot should be able to move and react all on its own. If you are controlling its actions, it’s just a remote-control toy, right? But if your device can do things like examine its surroundings, respond to obstacles such as chairs or walls, or use its sensors in other ways to react to its surroundings without help from its human creator, then you’ve got a robot.

    As you will see, you can build a robot using all the great Lego Robotics Kit components. Your robot can have claws or hands. It can have “ears” to hear and “eyes” to see. It can walk on legs or roll on wheels or treads. But in order for a robot to be able to do all these things on its own, you must provide it with one additional thing… a program! (Stay tuned… we will begin writing our first basic program this week!)

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