2009 Rolls Royce Phantom

MSRP Range: $380,000 - $450,000 | More Details
Value Rating:
Fuel Economy: 13 MPG city / 19 MPG highway
Bodystyles: Sedan, Convertible
Engines: 6.7L V12

exus

MSRP Range: $34,470 | More Details
Value Rating: Excellent
Fuel Economy: 19 MPG city / 27 MPG highway
Bodystyles: Sedan
Engines: 3.5L V6

What will "luxury car" mean in 2030

It's virtually tradition in the automotive industry that the features that will be found on the economy cars of tomorrow first appear on the luxury cars of today. To get a peek at what lies in store for the average driver, one merely needs to do a little window shopping at a high-end car dealership.


2009 Volvo C70
Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images
Today's luxury cars, like the 2009 Volvo C70, shown in New Delhi, India, in January 2008, boast features that will be found on most cars in the future.



Although this custom may offend one's egalitarian sensibility, it makes sense from an economic perspective. Emergent technology is usually created on a limited scale, not in mass production. So it follows that because this technology is rare, it should be more expensive. Once it's found on widely produced automobiles, the cost for high-end technology will decrease.


­But for a luxury car to be a luxury car, its features have to stay ahead of the innovative curve. So to get an idea of what lays in store for luxury cars, we have to gaze into the crystal ball that is the concept car. A concept car is one that's not yet in production -- and may never make it there. Instead, concept cars often represent the cutting edge of technology and design. In many cases, the technology found aboard concept cars will be stripped for parts. Some aspects will be discarded; some will be used in mass-produced automobiles. If the concept cars emerging from designers' minds these days are any indication of what "luxury" will mean in 2030, then future car buyers have a lot to look forward to.

Control

The mechanical structure of a robot must be controlled to perform tasks. The control of a robot involves three distinct phases - perception, processing, and action (robotic paradigms). Sensors give information about the environment or the robot itself (e.g. the position of its joints or its end effector). This information is then processed to calculate the appropriate signals to the actuators (motors) which move the mechanical.

The processing phase can range in complexity. At a reactive level, it may translate raw sensor information directly into actuator commands. Sensor fusion may first be used to estimate parameters of interest (e.g. the position of the robot's gripper) from noisy sensor data. An immediate task (such as moving the gripper in a certain direction) is inferred from these estimates. Techniques from control theory convert the task into commands that drive the actuators.

At longer time scales or with more sophisticated tasks, the robot may need to build and reason with a "cognitive" model. Cognitive models try to represent the robot, the world, and how they interact. Pattern recognition and computer vision can be used to track objects. Mapping techniques can be used to build maps of the world. Finally, motion planning and other artificial intelligence techniques may be used to figure out how to act. For example, a planner may figure out how to achieve a task without hitting obstacles, falling over, etc.

Control systems may also have varying levels of autonomy. Direct interaction is used for haptic or tele-operated devices, and the human has nearly complete control over the robot's motion. Operator-assist modes have the operator commanding medium-to-high-level tasks, with the robot automatically figuring out how to achieve them. An autonomous robot may go for extended periods of time without human interaction. Higher levels of autonomy do not necessarily require more complex cognitive capabilities. For example, robots in assembly plants are completely autonomous, but operate in a fixed pattern.

Human interaction

If robots are to work effectively in homes and other non-industrial environments, the way they are instructed to perform their jobs, and especially how they will be told to stop will be of critical importance. The people who interact with them may have little or no training in robotics, and so any interface will need to be extremely intuitive. Science fiction authors also typically assume that robots will eventually be capable of communicating with humans through speech, gestures, and facial expressions, rather than a command-line interface. Although speech would be the most natural way for the human to communicate, it is quite unnatural for the robot. It will be quite a while before robots interact as naturally as the fictional C-3PO.

Environmental interaction and navigation

Robots also require navigation hardware and software in order to anticipate on their environment. In particular unforeseen events (eg people and other obstacles that are not stationary) can cause problems or collisions. Some highly advanced robots as ASIMO, EveR-1, Meinü robot have particular good robot navigation hardware and software. Also, self-controlled car, Ernst Dickmanns' driverless car and the entries in the DARPA Grand Challenge are capable of sensing the environment well and make navigation decisions based on this information. Most of the robots include regular a GPS navigation device with waypoints, along with radar, sometimes combined with other sensor data such as LIDAR, video cameras, and inertial guidance systems for better navigation in between waypoints.

Rolling robots

For simplicity, most mobile robots have four wheels. However, some researchers have tried to create more complex wheeled robots, with only one or two wheels.

* Two-wheeled balancing: While the Segway is not commonly thought of as a robot, it can be thought of as a component of a robot. Several real robots do use a similar dynamic balancing algorithm, and NASA's Robonaut has been mounted on a Segway.[27]
* Ballbot: Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed a new type of mobile robot that balances on a ball instead of legs or wheels. "Ballbot" is a self-contained, battery-operated, omnidirectional robot that balances dynamically on a single urethane-coated metal sphere. It weighs 95 pounds and is the approximate height and width of a person. Because of its long, thin shape and ability to maneuver in tight spaces, it has the potential to function better than current robots can in environments with people.[28]
* Track Robot: Another type of rolling robot is one that has tracks, like NASA's Urban Robot, Urbie.[29]

[edit] Walking robots
iCub robot, designed by the RobotCub Consortium

Walking is a difficult and dynamic problem to solve. Several robots have been made which can walk reliably on two legs, however none have yet been made which are as robust as a human. Many robots have also been build that walk on more than 2 legs; these robots being significantly more easy to construct. Hybrids too have been proposed in movies as iRobot, where they walk on 2 legs and switch to 4 (arms+legs) when going to a sprint. Typically, robots on 2 legs can walk well on flat floors, and can occasionally walk up stairs. None can walk over rocky, uneven terrain. Some of the methods which have been tried are:

* ZMP Technique: The Zero Moment Point (ZMP) is the algorithm used by robots such as Honda's ASIMO. The robot's onboard computer tries to keep the total inertial forces (the combination of earth's gravity and the acceleration and deceleration of walking), exactly opposed by the floor reaction force (the force of the floor pushing back on the robot's foot). In this way, the two forces cancel out, leaving no moment (force causing the robot to rotate and fall over).[30] However, this is not exactly how a human walks, and the difference is quite apparent to human observers, some of whom have pointed out that ASIMO walks as if it needs the lavatory.[31][32][33] ASIMO's walking algorithm is not static, and some dynamic balancing is used (See below). However, it still requires a smooth surface to walk on.
* Hopping: Several robots, built in the 1980s by Marc Raibert at the MIT Leg Laboratory, successfully demonstrated very dynamic walking. Initially, a robot with only one leg, and a very small foot, could stay upright simply by hopping. The movement is the same as that of a person on a pogo stick. As the robot falls to one side, it would jump slightly in that direction, in order to catch itself.[34] Soon, the algorithm was generalised to two and four legs. A bipedal robot was demonstrated running and even performing somersaults.[35] A quadruped was also demonstrated which could trot, run, pace, and bound.[36] For a full list of these robots, see the MIT Leg Lab Robots page.
* Dynamic Balancing or controlled falling:A more advanced way for a robot to walk is by using a dynamic balancing algorithm, which is potentially more robust than the Zero Moment Point technique, as it constantly monitors the robot's motion, and places the feet in order to maintain stability.[37] This technique was recently demonstrated by Anybots' Dexter Robot,[38] which is so stable, it can even jump.[39] Another example is the TU Delft Flame.
* Passive Dynamics: Perhaps the most promising approach utilizes passive dynamics where the momentum of swinging limbs is used for greater efficiency. It has been shown that totally unpowered humanoid mechanisms can walk down a gentle slope, using only gravity to propel themselves. Using this technique, a robot need only supply a small amount of motor power to walk along a flat surface or a little more to walk up a hill. This technique promises to make walking robots at least ten times more efficient than ZMP walkers, like ASIMO.

Manipulation

Robots which must work in the real world require some way to manipulate objects; pick up, modify, destroy, or otherwise have an effect. Thus the 'hands' of a robot are often referred to as end effectors,[21] while the arm is referred to as a manipulator.[22] Most robot arms have replaceable effectors, each allowing them to perform some small range of tasks. Some have a fixed manipulator which cannot be replaced, while a few have one very general purpose manipulator, for example a humanoid hand.

* Mechanical Grippers: One of the most common effectors is the gripper. In its simplest manifestation it consists of just two fingers which can open and close to pick up and let go of a range of small objects. See end effectors.
* Vacuum Grippers: Pick and place robots for electronic components and for large objects like car windscreens, will often use very simple vacuum grippers. These are very simple astrictive [23] devices, but can hold very large loads provided the prehension surface is smooth enough to ensure suction.
* General purpose effectors: Some advanced robots are beginning to use fully humanoid hands, like the Shadow Hand and the Schunk hand.[24] These highly dexterous manipulators, with as many as 20 degrees of freedom and hundreds of tactile sensors[25]

For the definitive guide to all forms of robot endeffectors, their design, and usage consult the book "Robot Grippers".

Touch

Current robotic and prosthetic hands receive far less tactile information than the human hand. Recent research has developed a tactile sensor array that mimics the mechanical properties and touch receptors of human fingertips.[20] The sensor array is constructed as a rigid core surrounded by conductive fluid contained by an elastomeric skin. Electrodes are mounted on the surface of the rigid core and are connected to an impedance-measuring device within the core. When the artificial skin touches an object the fluid path around the electrodes is deformed, producing impedance changes that map the forces received from the object. The researchers expect that an important function of such artificial fingertips will be adjusting robotic grip on held objects.

Actuation

Actuators are the "muscles" of a robot, the parts which convert stored energy into movement. By far the most popular actuators are electric motors, but there are many others, powered by electricity, chemicals, and compressed air.

* Motors: The vast majority of robots use electric motors, including brushed and brushless DC motors.
* Stepper motors: As the name suggests, stepper motors do not spin freely like DC motors; they rotate in discrete steps, under the command of a controller. This makes them easier to control, as the controller knows exactly how far they have rotated, without having to use a sensor. Therefore, they are used on many robots and CNC machines.
* Piezo motors: A recent alternative to DC motors are piezo motors or ultrasonic motors. These work on a fundamentally different principle, whereby tiny piezoceramic elements, vibrating many thousands of times per second, cause linear or rotary motion. There are different mechanisms of operation; one type uses the vibration of the piezo elements to walk the motor in a circle or a straight line.[10] Another type uses the piezo elements to cause a nut to vibrate and drive a screw. The advantages of these motors are nanometer resolution, speed, and available force for their size.[11] These motors are already available commercially, and being used on some robots.[12][13]
* Air muscles: The air muscle is a simple yet powerful device for providing a pulling force. When inflated with compressed air, it contracts by up to 40% of its original length. The key to its behavior is the braiding visible around the outside, which forces the muscle to be either long and thin, or short and fat. Since it behaves in a very similar way to a biological muscle, it can be used to construct robots with a similar muscle/skeleton system to an animal.[14] For example, the Shadow robot hand uses 40 air muscles to power its 24 joints.

Power source

At present; mostly (lead-acid) batteries are used, but potential powersources could be:

* compressed air canisters (see air car)
* flywheel energy storage
* organic garbages (trough anaerobic digestion)
* feces (human, animal); may be interesting in a military context as feces of small combat groups may be reused for the energy requirements of the robot assistant (see DEKA's project Slingshot stirling engine on how the system would operate)
* still untested energy sources (eg Joe Cell, ...)
* radioactive source (such as with the proposed Ford car of the '50); too proposed in movies as

Structure of robot

The structure of a robot is usually mostly mechanical and can be called a kinematic chain (its functionality being similar to the skeleton of the human body). The chain is formed of links (its bones), actuators (its muscles), and joints which can allow one or more degrees of freedom. Most contemporary robots use open serial chains in which each link connects the one before to the one after it. These robots are called serial robots and often resemble the human arm. Some robots, such as the Stewart platform, use a closed parallel kinematical chain. Other structures, such as those that mimic the mechanical structure of humans, various animals, and insects, are comparatively rare. However, the development and use of such structures in robots is an active area of research (e.g. biomechanics). Robots used as manipulators have an end effector mounted on the last link. This end effector can be anything from a welding device to a mechanical hand used to manipulate the environment.

Origins

Stories of artificial helpers and companions and attempts to create them have a long history, but fully autonomous machines only appeared in the 20th century. The first digitally operated and programmable robot, the Unimate, was installed in 1961 to lift hot pieces of metal from a die casting machine and stack them. Today, commercial and industrial robots are in widespread use performing jobs more cheaply or with greater accuracy and reliability than humans. They are also employed for jobs which are too dirty, dangerous, or dull to be suitable for humans. Robots are widely used in manufacturing, assembly and packing, transport, earth and space exploration, surgery, weaponry, laboratory research, safety, and mass production of consumer and industrial goods

Wall-Climbing Robot

Researchers have created a robot that can run up a wall as smooth as glass and onto the ceiling at a rate of six centimeters a second. The robot currently uses a dry elastomer adhesive, but the research group is testing a new geckolike, ultrasticky fiber on its feet that should make it up to five times stickier.

It's not the first robot to use fiberlike dry adhesives to stick to surfaces, says Metin Sitti, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, who led the research at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), in Pittsburgh. But this robot should prove to have far greater sticking power, thanks to fibers that are twice as adhesive as those used by geckos.

Such robots could, among other applications, be used to inspect the hulls of spacecraft for damage, their stickiness ensuring that they would stay attached.

In addition to its sticky feet, the robot uses two triangular wheel-like legs, each with three foot pads, and a tail to enable it to move with considerable agility compared with other robots, says Sitti. Not only can it turn very sharply, but its novel design allows it to transfer from floor to wall and wall to ceiling with great ease.

"It is very compact and has great maneuverability," says Mark Cutkosky, a professor of mechanical engineering and codirector of the Center for Design Research at California's Stanford University. "It is a practical solution for climbing."

Geckos are able to stick to surfaces thanks to very fine hairlike structures on their feet called setae. These angled fibers split into even finer fibers toward their tips, giving the gecko's foot a spatula-like appearance. These end fibers have incredibly weak intermolecular forces to thank for their adhesiveness: the attractive forces act between the fiber tips and the surface they are sticking to. Individually, the forces are negligible, but because the setae form such high areas of contact with surfaces, the forces add up.

In the past few years, a number of research groups have fabricated fiber structures designed to emulate setae. But Sitti's group has tried to improve upon the gecko's design. Using microfabrication techniques, Sitti and his colleagues created fibers just four micrometers in diameter--two orders of magnitude smaller than those used in any other robots. "This size difference makes a significant difference," says Sitti. This is because scaling down the fibers increases their surface contact and hence enhances adhesion.

Using the commercial elastomer adhesives, the robot can already climb far more nimbly than any other robot. But the fibers should make it possible for the robot to climb even rough surfaces, says Sitti. However, having only just integrated them into the robot, the researchers have yet to demonstrate this.

New Solar Underwater Robot Technology

A new solar-powered underwater robot technology developed for undersea observation and water monitoring will be showcased at a Sept. 16 workshop on leading-edge robotics to be held at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Arlington, Va.