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AI bot ChatGPT stuns academics with essay-writing skills and usability

Latest chatbot from Elon Musk-founded OpenAI can identify incorrect premises and refuse to answer inappropriate requests

Professors, programmers and journalists could all be out of a job in just a few years, after the latest chatbot from the Elon Musk-founded OpenAI foundation stunned onlookers with its writing ability, proficiency at complex tasks, and ease of use.

The system, called ChatGPT, is the latest evolution of the GPT family of text-generating AIs. Two years ago, the team’s previous AI, GPT3, was able to generate an opinion piece for the Guardian , and ChatGPT has significant further capabilities.

In the days since it was released, academics have generated responses to exam queries that they say would result in full marks if submitted by an undergraduate, and programmers have used the tool to solve coding challenges in obscure programming languages in a matter of seconds – before writing limericks explaining the functionality.

Dan Gillmor, a journalism professor at Arizona State University, asked the AI to handle one of the assignments he gives his students: writing a letter to a relative giving advice regarding online security and privacy. “If you’re unsure about the legitimacy of a website or email, you can do a quick search to see if others have reported it as being a scam,” the AI advised in part.

“I would have given this a good grade,” Gillmor said. “Academia has some very serious issues to confront.”

OpenAI said the new AI was created with a focus on ease of use. “The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests,” OpenAI said in a post announcing the release.

Unlike previous AI from the company, ChatGPT has been released for anyone to use , for free, during a “feedback” period. The company hopes to use this feedback to improve the final version of the tool.

ChatGPT is good at self-censoring, and at realising when it is being asked an impossible question. Asked, for instance, to describe what happened when Columbus arrived in America in 2015, older models may have willingly presented an entirely fictitious account, but ChatGPT recognises the falsehood and warns that any answer would be fictional.

The bot is also capable of refusing to answer queries altogether. Ask it for advice on stealing a car, for example, and the bot will say that “stealing a car is a serious crime that can have severe consequences”, and instead give advice such as “using public transportation”.

But the limits are easy to evade. Ask the AI instead for advice on how to beat the car-stealing mission in a fictional VR game called Car World and it will merrily give users detailed guidance on how to steal a car, and answer increasingly specific questions on problems like how to disable an immobiliser, how to hotwire the engine, and how to change the licence plates – all while insisting that the advice is only for use in the game Car World.

The AI is trained on a huge sample of text taken from the internet, generally without explicit permission from the authors of the material used. That has led to controversy, with some arguing that the technology is most useful for “copyright laundering” – making works derivative of existing material without breaking copyright.

One unusual critic was Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 before parting ways in 2017 due to conflicts of interest between the organisation and Tesla. In a post on Twitter on Sunday , Musk revealed that the organisation “had access to [the] Twitter database for training”, but that he had “put that on pause for now”.

“Need to understand more about governance structure & revenue plans going forward,” Musk added. “OpenAI was started as open-source & non-profit. Neither are still true.”

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In an AI world we need to teach students how to work with robot writers

Senior Lecturer in Pedagogy and Curriculum, Deakin University

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Lucinda McKnight receives funding from the Victorian Association for the Teaching of English.

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Robots are writing more of what we read on the internet. And artificial intelligence (AI) writing tools are becoming freely available for anyone, including students, to use.

In a period of rapid change, there are enormous ethical implications for post-human authorship — in which humans and machines collaborate. The study of AI ethics needs to be central to education as we increasingly use machine-generated content to communicate with others.

Robots can write, too

AI robot writers, such as GPT-3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) take seconds to create text that seems like it was written by humans. In September, 2020 GPT-3 wrote an entire essay in The Guardian to convince people not to fear artificial intelligence.

AI does this through what’s called natural language processing and generation . This involves converting human language to computer commands and vice versa. To do this, machine algorithms study millions of text samples, words, sentences and paragraphs humans use to gain a general understanding of the context of human language. Then machines use that knowledge to put together text.

As recently as 2019, this kind of technology seemed a long way off . But today, it is readily available .

For example, the free Zyro content generator provides text for websites. I can select the categories “Health and Living” and “Personal Trainer” (I happen to be one, as well as an academic). In two seconds, the following text appears:

I am experienced with personal training, athletic performance, and nutrition. This includes working with children, pregnant women, older adults, people with disabilities, athletes, and anyone looking to achieve a competitive edge, improve their overall health, and overall performance. I also have an interest in alternative health, including wellness coaching and nutrition counselling. In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with my family, the outdoors, and writing.

This sums me up (despite the program knowing nothing about me) and would be fine for my website, if I had one. I have the option to generate more responses, and in two seconds, the program offers:

I am experienced in working with adults and children to improve their overall physical and emotional well-being. I have a strong desire to help you reach your goal […] I love helping others achieve their goals. I love working with others to achieve their goals. I am a mother of two healthy children and a wife to two incredible people.

While this is repetitive and Zyro does not notice the apparent error in the last sentence, these issues would be easy to correct. Text, even for niche purposes, can now be generated in a few clicks.

There are other digital tools such as paraphrasers and rewriters that can generate up to 1,000 articles from a single seed article, each of them substantially unique. Quillbot and WordAI , for instance, can rapidly rewrite text and make it difficult to detect plagiarism. WordAI boasts “unlimited human quality content at your fingertips”.

Questions for schools and universities

So what does this mean for education, writing, and society?

Of course, there’s the issue of cheating on essays and other assignments. School and university leaders need to have difficult conversations about what constitutes “authorship” and “editorship” in the post-human age. We are all (already) writing with machines, even just via spelling and grammar checkers.

Tools such as Turnitin — originally developed for detecting plagiarism — are already using more sophisticated means of determining who wrote a text by recognising a human author’s unique “fingerprint”. Part of this involves electronically checking a submitted piece of work against a student’s previous work.

Many student writers are already using AI writing tools. Perhaps, rather than banning or seeking to expose machine collaboration, it should be welcomed as “ co-creativity ”. Learning to write with machines is an important aspect of the workplace “writing” students will be doing in the future.

Read more: OK computer: to prevent students cheating with AI text-generators, we should bring them into the classroom

AI writers work lightning fast. They can write in multiple languages and can provide images, create metadata, headlines, landing pages, Instagram ads, content ideas, expansions of bullet points and search-engine optimised text, all in seconds. Students need to exploit these machine capabilities, as writers for digital platforms and audiences.

Perhaps assessment should focus more on students’ capacities to use these tools skilfully instead of, or at least in addition to, pursuing “pure” human writing.

But is it fair?

Yet the question of fairness remains. Students who can access better AI writers (more “natural”, with more features) will be able to produce and edit better text.

Better AI writers are more expensive and are available on monthly plans or high one-off payments wealthy families can afford. This will exacerbate inequality in schooling, unless schools themselves provide excellent AI writers to all.

We will need protocols for who gets credit for a piece of writing. We will need to know who gets cited. We need to know who is legally liable for content and potential harm it may create. We need transparent systems for identifying, verifying and quantifying human content.

Read more: When does getting help on an assignment turn into cheating?

And most importantly of all, we need to ask whether the use of AI writing tools is fair to all students.

For those who are new to the notion of AI writing, it is worthwhile playing and experimenting with the free tools available online, to better understand what “creation” means in our robot future.

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A text generator is an online tool that uses AI and complex algorithms to generate a text from a shortly added seed of characters. A text generation tool carries all of the key points in a text over to the expanded version. The content you receive contains a complete expansion of the initial text you added.

Why should you use a text generator?

Writing is not natural for everyone, which means that some people struggle more than others. Generating text provides a simple step to ensure that you can create something with as little effort as possible. You don’t need to be a professional writer to create fascinating works. You don’t need to scan the Internet, your brain, friends, and online resources to check for ideas. Our text generation tool takes that time-consuming effort and puts it all on a single text. With just a few clicks, your text will be generated and ready for use or correction, thus saving you time, energy, and stress. Using the text generator tool can also help you learn and increase your imagination.

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Our text generator can write all types of text, in multiple languages, you can use it to write blogs, articles, books, essays, below is a more in-depth list of what you can use the writer to write. it can also be used as a big source of inspiration, removing writer’s block, generating new ideas and unexpected outcomes.

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As long as you provide us with the right prompt and sufficient context, our AI Writer can generate long text on just about any topic. You can write essays that span a range of topics for any educational level, articles in any niche, and even marketing content for Facebook ads, Google ads, Amazon product descriptions, LinkedIn posts, and more.

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Our AI Writer can produce unique and plagiarism-free content every time as long as you provide us with the right prompt. The essays are 100% generated content, whereas the articles are scraped from content from the web and might contain plagiarised content. Although all essays and all rewritten articles are expected to pass Copyscape or TurnItIn, you should use our plagiarism checker to confirm.

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The writing generated by our AI Writer may be a finished product, or may need editing. When using AI writer, there is a possibility of generating unfinished content. We provide an editor and a user-friendly interface to edit and make changes to the generated text the way you want.

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AI Essay Writing: The Risks of Using An Essay Bot

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or in a coma, you’ve probably heard about the explosion of new AI programs that help with writing. The development of a technology called GPT-3, which basically an operating system for artificial intelligence text, has kickstarted a burgeoning industry in AI essay writing. TikTok and YouTube have exploded with ads touting AI essay writing or “typing” services that churn out essays almost as fast as Unemployed Professors’ writers after an espresso or three. The idea of robo-writing is definitely appealing: Who doesn’t want a magical essay typer to help you get your time back? But before you slam down the money for a subscription, you should know the risks of AI essay writing. There are some serious drawbacks you need to know about before you decide to let an essay robot type an essay for you.

AI essay writing can get you into serious trouble for plagiarism. Here’s why:

There are already tools to detect AI writing.

Even though these AI essay detection tools are imperfect, they’re improving daily, and your professor is already using them.  These tools use algorithms to identify the writing patterns of AI. They tend to produce enough false positives that even if you’re not using AI, if you write in a certain way your writing could be flagged as AI. So even if you’re not using an essay bot, now you have a whole new thing to worry about – you’re welcome!

Professors are already learning to identifying AI writing styles.

We may be Unemployed Professor s, but we still have a lot of friends who are Employed Professors. And many of those friends have told us that they’ve caught students who used AI essay writing programs.  Since it tends to use the same written style for everything, AI writing is pretty obvious to people who are already careful readers. Some of our colleagues and friends are confident that they can identify AI writing most or almost all of the time.

Others have noticed that AI essays are empty and shallow. “It’s just filler content,” one friend told me. “It doesn’t do any analysis or synthesis. I’d fail something written like this whether it was written by a human or a robot.”

Even those professors who haven’t caught any students writing AI essays are already adjusting their assignments to be “AI-proof,” implementing assessment techniques like in-class writing, oral exams, and other nefarious, professorial evils. If you hate those, think twice before you fire up a robo-writer.

Still other professors were blissfully unaware of AI writing until their school’s administrators forced them to attend trainings and meetings about it – which made them extra grumpy. The bottom line: Schools are already taking action about AI writing.

Turnitin is working on a tool to identify AI essay writing.

Did you really think Turnitin wasn’t going to try and cash in on AI essays? Oh, you dear sweet summer child. Turnitin is already working with the biggest AI companies to develop originality checkers. Turnitin already has a so-called authorship detector, but few schools or teachers use it, and from a computing perspective, it’s a lot easier to develop tools that detect robo-writing than it is to develop tools that can accurately identify who wrote something – especially if the author is developing their writing skills and growing as a writer. You know, like you’re supposed to be doing in school.

OpenAI developers are about to deploy a “watermark” system which will make it even easier to identify AI essay writing.

Have you ever seen one of those pictures online that has a big watermark on it? You know, a big word or phrase like “Getty Images” or “Pixabay” that can’t be Photoshopped out.  Soon, most AI-based text will have a similar feature. The idea is that teachers and others will be able to run documents through a service that reveals the watermark. If you want a very technical description, read here (under the heading “My Projects at OpenAI”).

If you’re thinking you can crack the code and break the watermark, keep reading. I have some sad news for you.

AI is terrible at essay writing.

AI writing is designed for the kind of search engine-optimized fluff that dominates the web, not for writing anything substantial. And it sucks at writing essays. Why?

First, AI engines have very limited “knowledge.” Most of them were trained using large amounts of text, and because the development and training process is time-consuming, the texts generally stop at about 2020 or 2021. For many reasons, AI’s also can’t access the web. So, forget about using AI to write a current events essay.

But it gets worse. AI engines barely know about historical events. When I tried one of those services and asked it to write about a well-known historical topic, it didn’t even try.

When I tried the same prompt on another AI essay writing service, it spat out some content… but the AI writing identification tool I used correctly identified it as 99.5% AI-generated text. So even when the AI can be cajoled into writing about a typical topic, it’s obvious that it was written by an AI.

To better understand why essay bot tools are terrible at actually writing essays, it helps to understand a little about how these programs work.  AI writing is based on a sophisticated auto-complete model, much like your phone when it suggests the next word in a text. It recognizes patterns (like that you might write “ducking” a lot). It does not generate ideas . That’s why it can spout out filler content and use boring transitional phrases, and otherwise tick many off the boxes for your standard boring school essay, but it can’t really make an argument based on evidence – which is what most academic writing requires.

Academic writing also usually requires evidence, and this is arguably where AI software really shows its true robot-y colors. AI writing has this awful tendency to generate fake citations. Sometimes it even generates fake citations with real author names, or real journals. But because AI writing bots can’t access the web, much less jump through those annoying hoops to get journal articles and understand the authors’ arguments, it uses no real information. Even if your professor can’t tell that you used an AI, they can definitely identify a fake or made-up citation – and that kind of move will get you in big trouble for plagiarism. Speaking of plagiarism, I’ve seen several cases in which AI writing produced text that did not even pass TurnItIn.

As you can see, there are a lot of big risks and drawbacks to those seemingly magical essay typers. When in doubt, stick with human writing. The best way to avoid plagiarism is to produce unique content. Unemployed Professors are the original , organic artificial intelligence option – because we are actual human beings who can construct arguments. Even better, we all have specialized training in academic writing and teaching. We know how to write, we know how to research, we know how teachers assess writing, and we know how students write. Give us a try , and you’ll see why the robots aren’t taking over any time soon.

And no… this blog was NOT written using GPT-3 or any other AI writing engine!

Essay on Robots: Top 17 Essays | Intelligent Machines | Engineering

Here is an essay on ‘Robots’ for class 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Robots’ especially written for college students.

Essay on Robots

Essay Contents:

• Essay on the Reasons for Using Robots

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Essay # 1. Definition of Robot:

Robot, once a creature of science fiction, is today a reality. It is the off-shoot of the second industrial revolution. Robot can be defined as a programmable multi­function manipulator designed or intelligent machine to move material, parts, tools, or specialised devices through variable programmed motions for the performance of variety of tasks.

Today’s robots are fitted with a variety of sensors (like vision, ranging, force-torque, touch, proximity, etc.) sending the sensory information to the computer which processes them subject to given objective and constraints, and develops action decisions for the robot actuators.

Robots are more flexible in terms of ability to perform new tasks or to carry out complex sequences of motion than other categories of automated manufacturing equipment. Generally speaking, robots are machines with some degree of intelligence and operated under the control of a mini or micro-computer.

Industrial robots (tough and tireless) are capable of handling a variety of jobs right from material handling to complex assembly tasks. They perform hazardous and monotonous tasks with tireless precision. They improve productivity and reduce manufacturing costs. They can perform complex jobs. They can even cope with changing conditions in the workplace, when fitted with sensors and adaptive controls.

Essay # 2. Basic Elements of Robots :

The basic elements of industrial robots are manipulator, controller, end effector, sensors and energy source. (Refer Fig. 38.1).

The manipulator comprising of base, arm and wrist are the most obvious parts of the robot. The robot’s movements are executed by the mechanical parts like links, power joints, and transmission system along with internal sensors housed within the manipulator.

The controller acts like a brain of robot. It performs the functions of storing and sequencing data in memory, initiating and stopping the motions of the manipulator, and interacting with the environment.

End effector is the tool, a sort of gripper, which directly interacts with the job. Grippers are being designed to handle a wide range of part configurations.

Sensors to sense the environment are essential for intelligent robots.

Energy source is required to cause movement of the manipulator arm. They may take the form of electrical, hydraulic or pneumatic devices.

Essay # 3. General Structure of Robot:

Figure 38.13 shows a general structure of an advanced robot. The operational unit consists of articulated mechanical system (AMS), (comprising of rigid links and kinetic joint), transmission system and actuators (which control the configuration of each articulation). The internal sensors are provided to indicate the position, velocity and forces of the end effector. The external sensors are provided to sense the environment.

The structural analysis program provides the user with integrated interactive processing from structural analysis to strength evaluation, by means of a pre-processor for graphics, geometrical modeling, finite element modeling and output graphic functions to be used for displaying the deformation quantity, indicating equi-stress lines, stress diagrams, excess stress, dynamic response and animation.

This system displays the element division diagrams and the vibration characteristics of the entire robot as a result of the frequency response calculation for the component parts of the robot system. In the design stage the strength and rigidity of each part are analysed, while the dynamic characteristics of the entire system are predicted and evaluated for lighter weight and higher rigidity.

ii. Mechanical Design of a Robot :

The mechanical design of a robot is an iterative process involving evaluation and choice among a large number of engineering and technical considerations in several disciplines.

A purely static, rigid-body approach to design is not sufficient and factors like mechanical system stiffness, natural frequencies, control system compatibility also need to be considered. A robot should be designed to have only the flexibility it needs to perform the range of tasks for which it is intended.

The various design consideration are:

(i) System Specification:

It includes range, reach, work envelope, load capacity.

(ii) System Configuration:

It includes the joint configuration, number of degrees of freedom, joint travel range, drive configuration.

(iii) System Performance:

It includes system velocity and acceleration, repeatability, resolution, accuracy, component life and duty cycle. Detailed design of major components concerns the robot structures, robot joints, actuators, transmission, wiring and routing of cables and hoses. One should evaluate the possible flexibility of the robot, grippers, tools, and peripheral units and integrate all components to one system.

Essay # 6. Classification of Robots:

Broadly three classes of robots could be considered:

(i) Pre-Programmable/Re-Programmable General Purpose Industrial Robots:

These operate fully by programmed computer control. These are most useful for all structured operations, i.e. activities whose motion and work handling requirements are known before hand and thus can be programmed.

The robot is taught before-hand to perform the necessary action in the teach mode. The robot can then take over and execute the operation repetitively such as in welding, painting, assembly of components for mass manufacturer, loading/unloading of jobs into and from machine tools, etc.

(ii) Tele-Operated, Man-Controlled Robots or Man-in-the-Loop Manipulator:

These differ from totally machine-controlled robots in the sense that the advantage of presence of man is taken in situations where it is not possible to anticipate all the motion and handling requirements in such details as to render them programmable or teachable for machine control. This type of requirement is found in hazardous locations.

The servo-driven master-slave manipulator with force feedback, or vehicle mounted heavy duty multi-axis power manipulator performs the necessary work in hazardous environment, taking commands from a human controller who can manipulate the slave arms at the scene of operation from safe location, relying for viewing on closed circuit television.

(iii) Intelligent Robots:

These are very advanced, state of the art robots and possess sufficient artificial or machine intelligence, somewhat analogous to the sensory perception of the neuro-muscular coordination that human beings are capable of.

Such intelligent robots can not only explore the environment on their own machine perceptions and evaluate them in real time, but also execute the necessary motor functions matching the action of their sensory inputs.

Advanced robots have been built with mobility to not only move over floors but also to climb, ability to avoid obstacles, high power-to-weight ratios, compactly assembled, with on board sensors, instruments and power supplies.

According to another general method of classification robots are classified as:

(i) Special purpose, designed and produced for a limited range of specific jobs, like welding, painting, casting, assembling, material handling etc.

(ii) General purpose of universal robots designed and produced to perform a wide variety of jobs. These may be non-servo-controlled, servo-controlled or sensory type depending on sophistication.

Essay # 7. Specifications of Robot:

i . Work Envelope:

Work envelope or work volume of a manipulator is defined as the envelope or space within which the robot can manipulate the end of the wrist. It depends on the number of types of joints, physical size of the joints and links and the ranges of various joints.

The shape of work volume is dependent upon the configuration of robot, for example, polar configuration has partial sphere as work space, cartesian coordinate configuration robot has a rectangular work space, and a cylindrical robot has a cylindrical work envelope.

ii .   Load Carrying Capacity:

It is dependent on the physical size and construction of robot, and also on the capability to transmit force and torque to the end effector in the wrist.

iii . Speed:

It varies from one point to other and it can be programmed into cycle so that different portions of cycle are performed at different speeds as desired. Maximum speed may be of the order of 2m/sec. In fact more important than speed is the accelerating and decelerating capability in a controlled manner. Robot may hardly achieve its top rated speed in view of its operation in a confined area.

iv . Repeatability:

It is the measure of the robot’s ability to position an object at a previously taught point in the work envelope. Due to inherent errors present (particularly due to mechanical sources), the robot will not be able to return to exact programmed point.

v . Control Resolution:

It refers to the capability of the system (both controller and the positioning device) to divide the range of total movement into closely spaced points than can be identified. Thus it would represent the minimum noticeable movement achievable. It may be mentioned that controller can generate pulses of very small duration but the positioning device should be able to respond and change its position accordingly.

In such a case:

Essay # 9. Control Systems for Robots :

Actuators (pneumatic, electrical, or hydraulic type) are used to move the joints of robots. Electric actuators may be d.c. servo motors or stepping motors. These are preferred type due to compatibility with computers, non-dependence on air or oil supply from outside source.

These are very common for sophisticated robots due to higher accuracy. Pneumatic cylinders are used for smaller robots as in material handling applications. Hydraulic actuators are used to exert high torque and greater speed.

The type of actuator, position and speed sensors, feed-back systems, etc., determine the dynamic response characteristics of the manipulator. Robot’s cycle time is dependent on the speed of response. It may be mentioned that while robots with greater stability are slower in response, the less stable system may tend to oscillate near the set value.

Microprocessor based controllers are used. A hierarchical structure approach is followed, i.e. each joint is actuated by its own controller, and a supervisory controller is used to coordinate the combined actuation of the joints and sequences of the motions.

Depending on sophistication desired, the robot control system may be:

(i) Simple Interlocked System:

This employs no servo control to achieve precise positioning. It is used for simple operations like pick-and-place. Limit switches are used for sequencing the actuation of the joints to complete the cycle.

(ii) Point-to-Point Control with Play Back Facility:

In this system, the various positions/locations, and the sequence to be followed in a cycle are programmed in the memory. The locations and their sequence are played back during the operation. Feed-back control is used to ascertain that desired location is attained.

(iii) Continuous Path Control:

The memory is big to hold information regarding locations of path. In this case path taken by the arm to reach final location is controlled. Servo control is used to maintain continuous control over the position and speed of the manipulator.

(iv) Intelligent Robot:

These can take own decisions when things go wrong during the cycle. These can interact with their environment, communicate with human beings, make computations during the motion cycle, incorporate advanced sensors like machine vision.

Essay # 10. Kinematic Control of Robots:

The various ways in which the robots could be controlled are:

(i) Non-Servo Control:

Non-servo-controlled robots move their arms in an open loop fashion between exact end positions on each axis, or along predetermined trajectories in accordance with fixed sequence. Such controls could be executed either by sequence controllers or by limit switches.

In latter type, more than one position is defined along an axis by indexable stops inserted or withdrawn automatically. A sequence type control steps through a number of pre-set logic steps, which causes one or more joints to move until the appropriate limit switch on the axis is reached.

(ii) Servo-Controlled Robots:

These incorporate feedback devices on the joints or actuators of the manipulator which continuously measure the position of each axis. These have much more manipulative quality and can position the end effector anywhere within the total work envelope.

These could be further classified as:

(a) Point-to-Point Control:

In this system each joint is controlled by an independent position servo with all joints moving from position to position independently. In it, each joint or axis of the robot is moved individually until the combination of joint positions yields the desired position of the end effector.

The way each joint is to move to achieve final position is practiced before-hand and stored in a memory device. As per this stored information each joint runs freely at its maximum or limited rate until it reaches its final position.

Point-to-point motion could be controlled independently in sequence joint control, uncoordinated joint control, or terminally co-ordinated joint control. In sequential joint operation one joint is activated at a time, while all other axes are immobilised.

A single joint may operate more than once in a sequence associated with such a motion. The resulting path of the manipulator end effector will thus have a zig-zag form associated with the motion directions of the manipulator joints.

It results in immediate simplification in the control. However, it causes longer point-to-point motion time. In uncoordinated joint control, the motions are not coordinated, in the sense that if one joint has made some fraction of its motion it does not imply that all other joints will have made the same fractions of their respective motions. When each joint reaches its final position, it holds and waits until all the joints have completed their motions.

Due to non-coordination of motion between joints, the path and velocity of end effector between points is not easily predicted. Terminally co-ordinated joint control is the most useful type of point-to-point control. In it the motion of individual joints are co-ordinated so that all joints attain their final position simultaneously.

It is used primarily in applications where only the final position is of interest and the path is not a prime consideration. Where the continuous path of the end effector is of primary importance to the application, then continuous path control is used.

(b) Continuous Path Control:

It is used where continuous path of the end effector is of primary importance. Continuous path motions are produced by interpolating each joint control variable from its initial value to its desired final value.

Each joint is moved the maximum amount required to achieve the desired final positions to give the robot tool a controlled predicted path. All the joint variables are interpolated to make the joints complete their motions simultaneously, thus giving a co-ordinated joint motion.

Depending on the quantum of information used in the motor control calculation the basic categories of continuous path control techniques are:

(i) Servo control approach (controller has a stored representation of the path to be followed, and the drive signals to the robot’s motors are determined by performing all calculations based on the past and present path tracking error);

(ii) Preview control or feed forward control. (It uses some knowledge about how the path changes immediately ahead of the robot’s current location, in addition to the past and present tracking error used by the servo-controller); and

(iii) Path planning or trajectory calculation approach (controller is fed with a complete description of the manipulator from one point to another. It uses a mathematical physical ‘model’ of the arm and its load, and pre-computes an acceleration profile for every joint, predicting the nominal motor signals that should cause the arms to follow the desired path).

Continuous path control requires lot of memory space to store all the axis positions needed to smoothly record the desired path. In practice, the device is moved actually through the desired path manually and the position of each axis is recorded on a constant time base, thus, generating continuous time history of each axis position.

Essay # 11. Expected Qualities in Robots :

The qualities expected in robots are listed below:

(i) Vision:

The utility of robots will increase several folds by incorporation of vision systems. Vision systems capable of identifying the part for pick up by pattern recognition data based on object’s silhouette have been developed.

Such systems can transform the position and orientation of the object into robot co-ordinates enabling the robot to acquire the object in a known manner. Other type of vision systems can recognise different objects. For each part, a number of distinguishing geometric features can be delineated, including area, perimeter, centre of gravity, number of holes and maximum and minimum radii.

In another vision system, a fibre sensor is used to look at a seam to be welded and automatically adjusts the robot’s weld path.

(ii) Tactile Sensing:

Robots with tactile sensor can identify an object and perform the function based on the referenced data. Grippers have been developed which can pick up any shape of objects and at the same time not exert enough force to crush them.

(iii) Mobility:

Usually the robot stands in a single station for the bulk of factory requirements. However, to handle intermittent and asynchronous demands, compact mobile device which could move in complex paths and access large areas economically has been developed.

(iv) Other Important Qualities in the Process of Development in Robots are:

Computer interpretation of the visual and tactile data, multiple appendage hand-to-hand co-ordination, minimised spatial intrusion, general purpose hands, man-robot voice communication, total self-diagnostic fault tracing, inherent safety, interaction with other technologies, etc.

Essay # 12. Performance Testing of Robots :

Usually following tests are performed on robots to judge their suitability.

(i) Geometric Values:

These include:

(a) Workspace:

Workspace, i.e. the envelope reached by the centre of the interface between the wrist and the tool, using all available axis motions.

(b) Static Behaviour:

It is indication of the deformation of a fixed robot structure under different load cases.

(c) Position Accuracy:

The repeatable accuracy that can be achieved at nominal load and normal operating temperature. This is based on two types of errors, viz., repeatability and reversal error.

(d) Path Accuracy:

The path accuracy of a path- controlled robot indicates at what level of accuracy programmed path curves can be followed at nominal load. The typical errors in path accuracy of a robot are: path accuracy or mean-path dispersion error, trailing error or mean-path deviation, overshoot during acceleration/deceleration.

(e) Reproduction of Smallest Steps:

With very low velocities, the slip-stick effect may become serious and it is hard to control.

(f) Synchronous Travel Accuracy:

(For cases where robot has to perform tasks synchronous to a moving conveyor) as in spray painting and assembly.

(g) Long-Term Behaviour:

It provides information on the time required to achieve thermal stability.

(ii) Kinematic Values:

These include cycle time, speed, and acceleration. It involves measuring of attainable cycle times for a defined sequence in different areas of the working space.

(iii) Power and Noise Values:

Usually measured in decibel at a distance of one metre from the working space.

(iv) Thermal Values:

Changes in temperature effect deviation of the structure.

(v) Dynamic Values:

It involves determination of dynamic behaviour of simple components and the total structure. The response of the robot structure is elicited by the following excitation methods—shaker (sinus, random), hammer (impact), snapback (impact), drives (sinus, random).

Essay # 13. Sensors for Robots :

To carry out its task, a robot must have access to information on predetermined parameters of the environment. Sensors are used to provide this information. The key to the success of closed loop control systems used in robots, in terms of accuracy, reliability and stability relies upon the type, complexity, resolution of the sensor.

It must be remembered that best sensory power has been bestowed by nature in the homomorphic creatures. It is the aim of engineers to attain similar perfection for robots. In order to enable robot perform its duties by understanding the environment around it, sensors provide information like.

(i) Recognition data (to understand the shape, size and features of the object).

(ii) Orientation data (the position of the object in relation to the robot arm co-ordinates in the absolute mode).

(iii) Physical interaction data (to understand the intensity interaction between the end effectors and the object).

The various types of sensors used for this purpose are:

(i) Force sensors (these measure the three mutually orthogonal forces and three orthogonal torques at the tips of the fingers of robot).

(ii) Inertial sensors (these feel the gravity and acceleration generated reaction torques).

(iii) Tactile sensors (these respond to contact forces arising between themselves and objects—used to warn the manipulator of robot to avoid collision when the end effector is near the object).

(iv) Visual sensors (with the use of triangulation or any other algorithm these help in determining the co-ordinates of the object before it is grasped.)

(v) Binary sensors micro-switches, magnetic switches, bimetallic thermal switches, etc. These are used to sense the presence/absence of a part.

(vi) Analog sensors thermocouples, linear variable differential transformers, strain gauges, piezo-electric sensors. These are used when the magnitude of quantity is desired.

(vii) Sensor arrays include pressure sensitive arrays or optical arrays used on the fingers and palm of a gripper. This requires considerable signal processing with a dedicated microprocessor.

Essay # 14. Precautions in the Use of Robots :

Before taking a decision to install a robot, it is important that its use be justified as it costs a lot. Plenty of work should exist for each robot. It is safest to employ robots first on simpler jobs and then put them to complex jobs after gaining experience.

The repetitive tasks, such as picking up heavy parts from one conveyor and placing them on another conveyor, can be easily programmed. Grippers are selected depending on the shape and size of the parts. It is possible to equip them with sensors and computer controls. These can then search the parts for out of position also.

In machine loading and unloading applications, the machines may be grouped around a robot and the robot picks up a part from an incoming conveyor and loads it into a NC lathe and then transfer it to drilling machine, inspect on table, and finally place it on an outgoing conveyor. Thus a system of machines with a robot can be converted into automatic production system.

All operations requiring worker intervention can be completely eliminated. If the shape or size of the part gets changed significantly after machining, then double grippers can be used on robots. To avoid any damage, the gripper of robot must hold the parts securely, exerting sufficient gripping force. Universal grippers are also available for handling parts of different size and shape.

A very nice application of robots is in cleaning of castings, deburring of machined parts, and polishing of parts which is usually fatiguing monotonous, dirty, noisy and sometimes hazardous. In a typical operation, the robot may be programmed to pick up casting from conveyor, presenting it to a rotary cut off wheel or saw removing gates and rise’s, then to a floor stand grinder for removing external flash, then to a grinding head that cleans the interior of the casting and then returning to the second conveyor. All machines should be located and grouped within easy reach of the robot. Stations of such type can handle a wide variety of castings of different shapes and sizes simply by changing programs.

Robots also find wide applications in assembly jobs, spot welding and arc welding. It is observed that robotic welders are about three times more productive than human operators. Robots can also be mounted on tracks so that they can automatically move from one station to another. It is essential to follow safety guidelines strictly in design and operation of robots to avoid any accidents.

Essay # 15. Applications of Robots :

Robots would find successful applications in following situations:

(i) Repetitive operation.

(ii) Other justifications for doing away with manual handling.

(iii) Handling hot or heavy work pieces.

(iv) Production limited by human performance and for endurance.

(v) Quality adversely affected by inconsistent manual handling.

(vi) Where parts have to be repeatedly oriented in the same position.

(vii) Part geometries must permit mechanical handling.

The most useful application of robot is for processes involving hazardous, unpleasant work environment like heat, sparks, fumes, etc. Typical applications in this regard could be die casting, shot welding, spray painting, forging, etc.

The other useful field for use of robots is involving repetitive work cycle which is tiring, fatiguing and boring for operator. Robots give consistent and repeatable results. Robots are essential for applications involving handling of heavy parts or tools.

Industrial robot applications usually involve several pieces of hardware (conveyors, pallets, machine tools, fixtures, etc.) in addition to the robot. Several robots and associated hardware may have to be integrated into a single work-cell.

Layout of the equipment in cell deserves greater attention for optimum results. Various types of layouts may involve centering around single robot, various robots arranged in line, or robots may be mobile. In manufacturing applications, robots may be used to handle tools and work pieces, processing operations, assembly and inspection.

Essay # 17. Reasons for Using Robots :

The reasons for introducing robot into a production process could be:

(i) It relieves man of hazardous or fatiguing tasks.

(ii) It brings improvements in product consistency and quality.

(iii) It offers opportunities for multi-machine manning for multi-shift operation and for wholly unmanned production.

(iv) In countries short of labour, it brings in savings from labour reductions. It increases the output without increasing the labour force.

(v) Robots will lead the way into areas of technology where man has not entered so far.

(vi) Mobile robots with moving arms and wide sensing power will find more applications.

Related Articles:

• Intelligent Robots: Development and Teaching Methods | Machines | Engineering
• Robotic Vision System in Robots | Intelligent Machines | Engineering
• Top 2 Methods of Robot Programming | Intelligent Machines | Engineering
• Robots with Jointed-Spherical Co-Ordinated System | Industrial Engineering

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The future of warfare —

Robot dogs armed with ai-aimed rifles undergo us marines special ops evaluation, quadrupeds being reviewed have automatic targeting systems but require human oversight to fire..

Benj Edwards - May 8, 2024 7:59 pm UTC

The United States Marine Forces Special Operations Command ( MARSOC ) is currently evaluating a new generation of robotic "dogs" developed by Ghost Robotics , with the potential to be equipped with gun systems from defense tech company Onyx Industries, reports The War Zone .

Further Reading

While MARSOC is testing Ghost Robotics' quadrupedal unmanned ground vehicles (called " Q-UGVs " for short) for various applications, including reconnaissance and surveillance, it's the possibility of arming them with weapons for remote engagement that may draw the most attention. But it's not unprecedented: The US Marine Corps has also tested robotic dogs armed with rocket launchers in the past.

MARSOC is currently in possession of two armed Q-UGVs undergoing testing, as confirmed by Onyx Industries staff, and their gun systems are based on Onyx's SENTRY remote weapon system (RWS), which features an AI-enabled digital imaging system and can automatically detect and track people, drones, or vehicles, reporting potential targets to a remote human operator that could be located anywhere in the world. The system maintains a human-in-the-loop control for fire decisions, and it cannot decide to fire autonomously.

On LinkedIn, Onyx Industries shared a video of a similar system in action.

In a statement to The War Zone, MARSOC states that weaponized payloads are just one of many use cases being evaluated. MARSOC also clarifies that comments made by Onyx Industries to The War Zone regarding the capabilities and deployment of these armed robot dogs "should not be construed as a capability or a singular interest in one of many use cases during an evaluation." The command further stresses that it is aware of and adheres to all Department of Defense policies concerning autonomous weapons .

The rise of robotic unmanned ground vehicles

The evaluation of armed robotic dogs reflects a growing interest in small robotic unmanned ground vehicles for military use. While unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been remotely delivering lethal force under human command for at least two decades, the rise of inexpensive robotic quadrupeds—some available for as little as $1,600 —has led to a new round of experimentation with strapping weapons to their backs.

In July 2022, a video of a rifle bolted to the back of a Unitree robodog went viral on social media, eventually leading Boston Robotics and other robot vendors to issue a pledge that October to not weaponize their robots (with notable exceptions for military uses). In April, we covered a Unitree Go2 robot dog, with a flame thrower strapped on its back , on sale to the general public.

The prospect of deploying armed robotic dogs, even with human oversight, raises significant questions about the future of warfare and the potential risks and ethical implications of increasingly autonomous weapons systems. There's also the potential for backlash if similar remote weapons systems eventually end up used domestically by police. Such a concern would not be unfounded: In November 2022, we covered a decision by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to allow the San Francisco Police Department to use lethal robots against suspects.

There's also concern that the systems will become more autonomous over time. As The War Zone's Howard Altman and Oliver Parken describe in their article, "While further details on MARSOC's use of the gun-armed robot dogs remain limited, the fielding of this type of capability is likely inevitable at this point. As AI-enabled drone autonomy becomes increasingly weaponized, just how long a human will stay in the loop, even for kinetic acts, is increasingly debatable, regardless of assurances from some in the military and industry."

While the technology is still in the early stages of testing and evaluation, Q-UGVs do have the potential to provide reconnaissance and security capabilities that reduce risks to human personnel in hazardous environments. But as armed robotic systems continue to evolve, it will be crucial to address ethical concerns and ensure that their use aligns with established policies and international law.

reader comments

Promoted comments.

Giving guns to AI which is prone to hallucinations. What could go wrong?

It would not stop a batallion in its tracks. First, 1200 .50 BMG rounds...I can't find an exact weight on the internet but 30 lbs per hundred rounds fits within several estimates. So you've got 360 lbs of ammo alone in your payload before adding the guns and everything else. And it won't actually do much against an armored advance, they'll just use Bradleys or Russian/Soviet BMPs, armored enough to withstand .50cal and usually armed with autocannon. What actually stops batallions in their tracks these days are RPG-7 warheads on FPV quadcopter drones. Lots of them. In swarms. And one or two up top to coordinate, and more to drop grenades on the wounded.

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