How to Command a Robot What to Do?

Today, advancements and innovation have reached the next level where everything is automated and is done automatically. This new breakthrough has driven the world to a new scenario where humans and robots can work together. For now, most autonomous systems or robots seem to work with driving vehicles, vacuuming home floors or turning lights on and off, caring elderly, gardening crops and picking fruits, and much more. These machinery systems are getting good enough as they are able to work alongside the human workforce in a shared space as teammates. Just like smartphones and social media that provide connectivity beyond our imagination, robots  have started to offer physical and cognitive abilities to humans they never expected before. These technologies together could be delivered as an assistance in solving significant challenges like ageing societies, environmental threats and global conflict. From industry perspective, the modern production floor is increasingly changing as robotics, artificial intelligence, and automation are coming together to bolster productivity in the manufacturing domain. Unimate was the first industrial robot, which relied on hydraulic actuators for control. This robot was used by General Motors in its New Jersey plant in 1961. Afterward, Victor Scheinman, an American robotics designer, in 1969, invented the Stanford arm at Stanford University. This was an all-electric 6-axis articulated robot. This new technology paved ways for manufacturers to make use of robots in assembly and welding tasks.  

Human-Robot Interaction

Over the past few years, human-robot interaction has evolved at a rapid pace. In this way, communication between a human and a robot may take several forms, however, these forms are majorly driven by whether the human and the robot are in close proximity to each other. The purpose behind this interaction is to enable robots with various competencies that will facilitate their interaction with humans. Already, there are some early instances where robots and humans work collaboratively. A recent example is the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in military missions where soldiers use drones for surveillance as well as ground robots for bomb disposal. Apart from this, the human-robot collaboration is also expected to soon start working in fields across diverse sectors, such as healthcare, agriculture, transportation, manufacturing and space exploration. With this transition, the jobs of humans will certainly change, however, some jobs will not exist anymore and new jobs will emerge in that place. The significance of human-robot interaction has increased as robots are becoming more common. Moreover, specialized robots under human teleoperation have proven successful and effective in perilous environments and medical applications. Researches and experiments in areas of autonomous driving cars reflect the human-robot collaboration in manipulation tasks, human control of humanoid robots for unsafe environments, and social interaction with robots. All these are at its initial stages. Meanwhile, the efficiency of humanoid general-purpose robots has yet to be proven.  

Controlling Robots Using Innovative Modules

In today’s digital age, people increasingly rely on technology that may poise to destroy privacy or may make brain-hacking consequences with the rise of autonomous machines or robots. A graphic user interface (GUI) in this scenario can enable a user to control the robot using pictures or images displayed on the screen of the device. A camera mounted on a robot can capture images and then transmit to users. GUI devices are constructive in enabling human-robot interaction as they provide data from sensors which is crucial for decision-making. These devices also confine users’ input to valid ranges or units that improves accuracy in execution. Moreover, the speech recognition module also can help control robots as it is one of the most common forms of communication for humans. This technique is highly advanced as it relies on the context, the person, the moment, among others. The automatic speech recognition module allows expedient control of industrial robots using voice by making the conversion of speech into text. Voice control leverages GUI with a microphone to transmit commands and a display to view feedback.