Page 179 - Toucpad robotics C11

K

KINECT: A piece of sensor hardware from Microsoft made up of a color camera, an infrared depth sensor, a microphone
array, and software that can combine all these data to make 3D maps and track motion and gestures. Originally
developed for gaming, its high performance and low cost have led to rapid adoption by roboticists.
KINEMATICS: A series of equations that describe how objects move. Can be applied to just about anything, including
robotics. It doesn’t take into account forces causing the objects to move, because then it’s called dynamics.
L

LAPLACE TRANSFORMATION: A tool that transforms mathematical expressions based in the time domain into
expressions based in an abstract, esoteric domain with no direct relation to reality where—believe it or not—designing
a control system is easier.
LIDAR: Light detection and ranging. A LIDAR system (or laser range finder) sends out beams of light and measures
the time that the beam takes to bounce off of an object and return to the sensor. This gives the distance from the
sensor to the object. By sending out lots of beams very fast, some LIDARs can build highly accurate 3D maps of their
surroundings. A LIDAR is more expensive than a Kinect sensor, but it’s more accurate and can “see” much farther.
M

MANIPULATOR: A jointed arm equipped with an end-effector designed to perform tasks. See also “End-effector.”
MATLAB: A mathematical software package used for numerical computing and simulation of dynamic systems. Helps
transform ideas into real things; many robots wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for it.
MAV: Micro aerial vehicle. A MAV is a type of UAV that’s smaller than normal, whatever normal happens to be.
Generally, it’s probably safe to say that a MAV is a UAV that’s man-portable or smaller.
MCKIBBEN MUSCLE: A pneumatic artificial muscle that contracts when air fills a bladder and extends when air is
released. Named after Joseph L. McKibben, a physician who invented the device in the 1950s. In the 1980s, Japanese
engineers redesigned the McKibben muscle and came up with a new name for it: the Rubbertuator. It’s still known as
McKibben.
MECHATRONICS: A field that combines mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science to
design robots and other intelligent machines.
MOTION PLANNING: A technique that divides a desired movement into smaller, discrete motions. For a mobile robot,
a motion planning algorithm determines how to navigate a room from a starting to a finishing point. For a manipulator,
a motion planning algorithm determines how to move the joints to position the end-effector at a desired point.
N

NYQUIST PLOT: Control engineers use the Nyquist plot to determine whether the systems they are designing work (in
particular, whether they’re stable and won’t spiral out of control). The plot has an axis with imaginary numbers, but its
usefulness is very real indeed. See also “Control.”

O

OCU: Operator control unit. It can be a highly portable handheld device, a somewhat portable laptop-based controller,
or a completely non-portable refrigerator-sized system.

P

PARALLEL ROBOT: An industrial robot with three to four arms that converge on an end-effector. The robot typically
hangs above a working area and positions the end-effector along a plane parallel to the surface. It achieves high
speeds and is used for handling and packaging everything from metal widgets to chicken fillet.

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Glossary