Concise Encyclopedia of Robotics Other great robotics titles from TAB Electronics: Build Your Own Remote-Controlled Robot by David Shircliff Building Robot Drive Trains by Dennis Clarke and Michael Owings Combat Robots Complete by Chris Hannold Constructing Robot Bases by Gordon McComb Insectronics by Karl Williams Lego Mindstorms Interfacing by Don Wilcher Programming Robot Controllers by Myke Predko Robot Builder’s Bonanza by Gordon McComb Robot Builder’s Sourcebook by Gordon McComb Robots, Androids, and Animatrons by John Iovine Concise Encyclopedia of Robotics Stan Gibilisco McGraw-Hill New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-HIll Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. 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Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise. DOI: 10.1036/0071410104 Want to learn more? We hope you enjoy this McGraw-Hill eBook! , If you d like more information about this book, its author, or related books and websites, please click here. To Samuel, Tim, and Tony from Uncle Stan This page intentionally left blank. For more information about this title, click here. Contents Foreword ix Introduction xi Acknowledgments xiii Concise Encyclopedia of Robotics and AI 1 Suggested Additional References 351 Index 353 vii Copyright 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use. This page intentionally left blank. Foreword elcome to the high frontier of cognition and computation! W You are about to dig into a uniquely interesting and important book. This is not a highly technical or abstruse guide to this often complex and difficult-to-understand subject. Rather, the book provides short, clear def- initions and interpretations of the major concepts and rapidly emerging ideas in this dynamic field. The work includes numerous functional illus- trations that help the general reader “see” the abstract robotics notions presented. I envision this book as an important introductory overview for the general interested reader and artificial intelligence (AI) hobbyist, and as a valuable backup and refresher for professional workers in the area. Because this book is all about terms, let me frame the effort by saying that it addresses two major, universal needs: cognition and computation. Cognition (kog-NISH-un) is literally “the act of knowing or aware- ness.” As you refer to definitions in this book, you should steadily gain knowledge and awareness of the robotics/AI topics presented. Most interestingly, it is your own central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), functionally connected to your eyes, that is allowing your natural intelligence (NI) to study this material and build a relevant cognition (mental awareness) of key robotics concepts. A thorough cognition and comprehension of robotics/AI terminology and concepts is becoming absolutely critical to all intelligent lay people worldwide. ix Copyright 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use. Foreword “Can human consciousness be duplicated electronically?” Stan Gibilisco thoughtfully asks us. “Will robots and smart machines ever present a dan- ger to their makers? What can we reasonably expect from robotics and artificial intelligence in the next 10 years? In 50 years? In 100 years?” Such questions as these will be of ever-increasing importance for human cogni- tion (NI) as machine computation or artificial intelligence continues to evolve rapidly. Let us coin a new word, computhink: a contraction of “computer-like modes or ways of human thinking.”A comprehensive introductory refer- ence book such as this will help the NI of general readers to learn com- puthink. This will result in a better understanding and management of our powerful cousin, AI, for the greater benefit and education of all humankind. This book presents a thorough, basic, blissfully nonmathematical cov- erage of numerous electronic and mechanical concepts that is greatly needed worldwide. Stan has provided us with the essential vocabulary of machine computation for the twenty-first century, a vocabulary that many (not just a select few) people need to understand. THE HONORABLE DR.DALE PIERRE LAYMAN,PH.D. Founder and President, ROBOWATCH www.robowatch.org x Introduction his is an alphabetical reference about robotics and artificial intelligence T(AI) for hobbyists, students, and people who are just curious about these technologies. Computers and robots are here to stay. We depend on them every day. Often we don’t notice them until they break down. We will get more used to them, and more reliant on them, as the future unfolds. To find information on a subject, look for it as an article title. If your subject is not an article title, look for it in the index. This book is meant to be precise, but without too much math or jar- gon. It is written with one eye on today and the other eye on tomorrow. Illustrations are functional; they are drawn with the intention of show- ing, clearly and simply, how things work. Suggestions for future editions are welcome. STAN GIBILISCO Editor in Chief xi Copyright 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use. This page intentionally left blank. Acknowledgments llustrations in this book were generated with CorelDRAW. Some clip art Iis courtesy of Corel Corporation, 1600 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1Z 8R7. xiii Copyright 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use. This page intentionally left blank. A ACOUSTIC PROXIMITY SENSOR An acoustic proximity sensor can be used by a robot to detect the presence of, and determine the distance to, an object or barrier at close range. It works based on acoustic wave interference. The principle is similar to that of sonar; but rather than measuring the time delay between the transmis- sion of a pulse and its echo, the system analyzes the phase relationship between the transmitted wave and the reflected wave. When an acoustic signal having a single, well-defined, constant fre- quency (and therefore a single, well-defined, constant wavelength) reflects from a nearby object, the reflected wave combines with the incident wave to form alternating zones at which the acoustic energy adds and cancels in phase. If the robot and the object are both stationary, these zones remain fixed. Because of this, the zones are called standing waves. If the robot moves with respect to the object, the standing waves change position. Even a tiny shift in the relative position of the robot and the sensed object can produce a considerable change in the pattern of standing waves. This effect becomes more pronounced as the acoustic wave frequency increases, because the wavelength is inversely propor- tional to the frequency.