4 4) Military ApplicationsDefense is the key element for running a nation and therefore any nation invests much more in their defense system. So, robots can play a major role in making defense systems [26] more effective and secure. Lots of research is going on to make advanced robotic systems for the army and defense. One such pioneering robot developed was the Predator drone with unmanned aerial vehicles that can take photographs with greater accuracy and can launch missiles accurately to the target without any pilot.Some key points of why robots can be used in military applications are:They can’t get tiredThey don’t know what fear isThey can open their eyes day and nightThey don’t hideThey don’t talk while on dutyThey can perform their duty in any weatherThey don’t have health risksThe above points are enough to describe why robots can be beneficial for military purposes.
5 5) Other ApplicationsOther applications include:Smart home systems that intelligently monitor home security, manage energy usage, maintain proper temperature, clean houses, and provide proper lighting and airconditioning based on requirementsSmart traffic systemIn making real-life gamesRobotic police/copsDriving assistant, etc.
Figure 2.9 below depicts various applications of robots in our day-to-day lives.
Figure 2.9 Applications of Robotics.
2.9 Case Studies
2.9.1 Sophia
Sophia, a robot that became the world’s first robot citizen [28], is also the first robot that can express feelings. It is a humanoid robot that is the brain-child of the American company Hanson Robotics and was developed in Hong Kong by the head creator David Hanson. The main quality of Sophia is that it understands and learns from human behavior by interacting with people. It looks just like humans, with a face which was designed to look similar to Audrey Hepburn, a British actress. It is her amazing qualities that led the Saudi government to honor her with the first robot citizen of the country at the Future Investment Summit held in Riyadh on October 25, 2017 [29]. Sophia has an attractive female face and her eyes are the camera that can recognize the person and say hello to them by their name [30]. Sophia can make about 62 facial expressions and also has a sense of humor. She keeps on learning and is getting better every day. The gap between humans and robots is decreasing day by day. Sophia is a state-of-the-art humanoid that has changed the robotic world and the day is not far off when there will be no difference between the thoughts of machines and humans.
2.9.2 ASIMO
Honda’s ASIMO is a four feet tall humanoid robot that can work as a perfect companion in our homes. It was developed by scientists at Honda technologies. The design of its body is human-like, and it can talk and can recognize and interact with people. It can play with children by tossing a coin and also can serve cold drinks by opening the bottle with his own hands. It has a great working capability and can be used in stores for customer service. ASIMO can also run like humans with a speed of 3.5 mph.
However, it is not yet available for the proposed purpose and Honda [27] is continuously working to perform some advanced upgrades to make it more human-like.
2.9.3 Cheetah Robot
The Cheetah robot created at MIT [31] was the first robot capable of doing a backflip. It is a lightweight and springy robot that can perform a range of motions such as walking right-side up or upside down. Apart from that, it can walk two times faster than a normal human being on uneven terrain. The robot has four legs, with each leg consisting of three low-cost motors that can be easily replaced, and gives a wide range of motion with low inertia and high torque design. It can recover from an unexpected force. Also, its balancing capability is far better than other robots and can easily and instantly balance itself. So, one can say that it is the only state-of-the-art balancing and backflipping robot present till now [32].
2.9.4 IBM Watson
IBM Watson is the smart question-answering system that can answer any question that has been asked in natural language. It was named after Thomas J. Watson, IBM’s founder and first CEO. Initially, It was built for serving the purpose of QA(question answering) and it uses machine learning and cognitive thinking to perform the QA, but recently the capabilities of Watson have been increased [33]. Now, it’s not only a QA system but also has the capability to talk, hear, see, learn, interpret, and perform as a recommendation system.
2.10 Conclusion
In this chapter, we have discussed various robotics techniques that are used for automation via two of the most in-demand and trending tech systems of the industry—AI and the IoT. Based on their capabilities they are used for automation in a wide range of robotic applications, including healthcare, manufacturing, defense, space exploration, restaurants, agriculture, houses, etc. Looking at the requirements we have defined the roles of various robots and diagrammatically described each role. Apart from that, we have also discussed some of the algorithms that are used in robotics and how they can be used to derive other algorithms based on requirements. Defining the application we have discussed various case studies of some of the most popular and astonishing accomplishments of various institutions or companies with a description of their inventions and the innovative changes they have brought to our modern world which have helped in making it a better place to live.
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