Lecture 1

Introduction to Robotics
Faculty of Artificial Intelligence

Prepared by
Dr.\ Emad A. Elsheikh
Faculty of Electronic Engineering,
Menoufia University.
 Robot Hardware
What makes a robot
Any robot is made from a collection of various hardware
components:-
• Locomotion – how the robot moves within the environment.
E.g. Wheels or Legs.
• Sensing – how the robot obtains information about itself and the
current state of the environment. E.g. Camera or Ultra-Sonic
Range Finder.
• Reasoning – how the robot utilizes the information obtained
from its sensors to form decisions and actions. E.g. Reactive
Controller or Computer running an AI program.
• Communication – how the robot communicates to a human or
machine operator and vice versa. E.g. Remote Control, Text
Interface, or Video Link.
 Environment and Task Driven Constraints

Different Locomotion Strategies must be chosen

according to the task the robot has to perform and
the particular environment the task must be
performed.
• How fast must the robot be able to move?
• Is the terrain rough or is it smooth like a floor?
• Is the environment unstructured or is it well-known and
mapped?
 Types of Control

• Teleoperation – the robot is effectively remote controlled

with images from a camera mounted on the robot being
relayed back to the operator. e.g. Underwater ROVs,
Bomb disposal robots.
• Semi-Autonomous – some decisions are made
automatically by the robot but the overall behaviour is
dictated remotely, such as interesting targets to explore.
e.g. Mars Rover.
• Autonomous – all decisions are made by the robot itself.
e.g. Dwarf Robot.
 Locomotion
Power of motion from place to place

For a robot to be able to interact with its environment it

must be able to:-
• Move within the environment in some manner
• Sense the environment it moves through

Kinematics:-
• The study of motion ignores the forces that generate that
motion.
What is Forward Kinematics?
Forward Kinematics is the calculation of the position and
orientation of an end effector using the variables of the
joints and linkages connecting to the end effector.
Given the current positions, angles, and orientation of the
joints and linkages, forward kinematics can be used to
calculate the position and orientation of the end effector.

What is Inverse Kinematics?

Inverse Kinematics is the calculation of the variables of the
set of joints and linkages connected to an end effector.
Given the position and orientation of the end effector, inverse
kinematics can be used to calculate the variables regarding
those joints and linkages including position, angle, and
orientation.
Forward kinematics uses the joint parameters to compute the
configuration of the chain, and

inverse kinematics reverses this calculation to determine the

joint parameters that achieve a desired configuration.
 Robot Motion
The motion of the robot will depend on the
mechanism through which the motion is generated
and supported
• Wheeled
• Legged
• Aquatic
• Flying
• Rocket Propelled
Let us consider, as an example, a description of these
tasks for wheeled robots
Wheeled Mobile Robots
 Wheeled Mobile Robots

• Wheels utilize friction

and ground contact to
enable motion

• Let’s consider the case of

an ideal wheel pictured
on the right.
 The Ideal Wheel

Consider an Ideal Wheel

• Wheel rotates about the x-axis.

• Motion is solely in the y-direction.
• Measurement of wheel motion (odometry) from e.g. a
wheel encoder is perfectly accurate.

- A distance of 2.π.r in the y-direction is covered for

every rotation of the wheel.
Standard Wheels
–2 DOF
•Rotation around the wheel axis
•Rotation around the contact point with
the ground.

–Can be steered/fixed

Castor Wheels (e.g. office chair)

–3DOF
•Rotation around the wheel axis
•Rotation around the contact point
•Rotation around castor axle
Swedish Wheel
– 3 DOF
• Rotation around the wheel axis
• Rotation around the contact point
• Rotation around the roller

Spherical Wheels
– 3 DOF
• Rotation in any direction
• Rotation around the contact point
An actual wheel is considerably more complicated than the
ideal:-

• May be lateral slip if there is insufficient traction

• Rough terrain and bumps, compression, and cohesion
between the wheel and ground surfaces often leads to a loss
in accuracy

• Some of the resultant motion will be in the z-direction

Consequently, Odometry will be inaccurate:-

• Driven wheels are more prone to error due to the forces

acting on the wheel

• One technique – for measurement - is to use an additional

non-driven, non-load bearing, light wheel to more
accurately recover the motion of the robot – in terms of both
distances covered and in direction if the light wheel has a
castor. This can be used as a good approximation for low-
velocity motion.
 Pose of a Robot and Frames of Reference

• Vehicleon a plane has three degrees of

freedom:-
• two in translation (x, y)
• Based on a fixed frame of reference, a {W} or World
frame
• one in orientation 
•  = 0 is defined to point along the W direction
• positive rotations are counter-clockwise
• triplet (x, y, ) is defined as the pose of the robot
 Types of Robot Motion
• Holonomic Systems
–The robot is able to move instantaneously in any direction in
the space of its degree of freedom
–Omnidirectional robot, office chair with castor wheels
• Non-holonomic Systems
–The robot is not able to move instantaneously in any direction
in the space of its degree of freedom
–Differential drive robot, car

Non-Holonomic Holonomic
 Types of Robot Motion

• Holonomic Robots – can move in any direction

instantaneously. This is clearly impossible as any real
robot will have mass.
 Types of Robot Motion
• Omni-Directional Robots – can in practice move in
any direction but takes time as the robot has mass.
• Such robots are, in general, treated as being Holonomic.
• E.g. Differential Drive with a castor wheel – dwarf robots.
 Types of Robot Motion
• Non-Holonomic Robots – this type of robot is limited
in the way it can move e.g. Car Parking.
• Normally limited by dynamic or kinematic restraints – e.g.
limited turning ability
If a robot is holonomic with respect to N dimensions, it's capable
of moving in any direction in any of those N physical
dimensions available to it. If it's nonholonomic, it's restricted in
which directions it can move in.

Holonomic drive, refers to the ability to move in all directions

and rotate independently. For example, a tank that has to rotate
before it can move in a different direction would not be holonomic.
The Instantaneous Centre of Curvature
[ICC]
 The Instantaneous Center of Curvature
[ICC]
• Consider the case where several wheels are in contact
with the surface – see the previous slide.
• If all wheels in contact with the surface are to roll –
then the axes of each wheel must intersect through a
single center of rotation – the ICC (case a).
• If no consistent ICC exists then the wheels cannot roll
(case b).
• Not only must the ICC exist but each wheel’s velocity
must be consistent with a rigid rotation about the ICC.
E.g. If a set of three wheels were equidistant from the
ICC they would all have to move at the same velocity.
Pose of an ideal “holonomic”
differential drive robot.
 Pose of an ideal “holonomic”
differential drive robot.
• Consider the differential drive robot shown in the previous Slide.
This is an ideal differential drive robot (with a supporting castor
wheel ignored for the purpose of simplicity)

• Inter-wheel spacing is D or L.
• Orientation of the robot is θ w.r.t. world coordinate{W} or {X-
axis}.

• Position of the robot is (x,y) w.r.t. {W}.

• Where will the ICC be located?
 Where is the ICC?
• The ICC will be located at some point along the axis of the wheels.
• If Vleft=Vright
• Robot will move in a straight line forward/backward – no change
in orientation i.e. ω=0.
• The ICC is effectively at ∞ therefore the radius of curvature is
also ∞ (i.e. a straight line!).
• If Vleft= -Vright
• The robot will turn on the spot – no translation purely a change in
orientation.
• The ICC is in the center of the wheels and the radius of curvature
is 0 (i.e. it rotates!).
• If │Vleft│≠│Vright│
• The robot will both turn and move (i.e. both translation and rotation).
 Where is the ICC?

• We can start by writing some equations using the

relationship between Angular and Linear Velocity.
 Where is the ICC?

• So for each wheel on the robot

VLeft = ( R − D 2)
VRight = ( R + D 2)

• Assuming we know VLeft and VRight (i.e. we can control the

speed of the wheels!)

• We can then solve the simultaneous equations for ω and R.

 Solving for R:

• From [1]  = VLeft

and from [2] =
VRight
R−D 2 R+D 2

• So: VLeft
R−D 2
=
VRight
R+D 2 VLeft ( R + D 2) = VRight ( R − D 2)

VLeft .R + VLeft . D 2 = VRight.R − VRight. D 2 VLeft . D 2 + VRight. D 2 = VRight.R − VLeft .R

D
(VLeft + VRight ) = R.(VRight − VLeft )
2
• Therefore:
D(VLeft + VRight )
R=
2(VRight − VLeft )
 Solving for ω:

• From [1] from [2]

VLeft VRight
+D 2= R −D 2= R
 

VLeft VRight VLeft VRight

+D 2= −D 2 +D=
   

VLeft + .D = VRight .D = VRight − VLeft

• Therefore:-
(VRight − VLeft )
=
D