A. BURT’s Gotchas
actuator The motors or devices that power the moving parts of the robot; an actuator could be electric, battery powered, hydraulic, or pneumatic.
agent An entity that can sense or perceive the environment and interact or change the environment in some way. In this book a robot is an agent.
agent-oriented programming The process of composing a list of instructions suitable to be executed by an agent. Robot programming is a form of agent-oriented programming.
android An autonomous robot with a human appearance that has an artificial intelligence–driven controller.
Arduino An open source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for anyone making interactive projects.
ARM Advanced RISC Machine. One of a family of CPUs based on the RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architecture.
ARM9 A substantial improvement over the ARM7 processor. It has higher throughput, decreased heat production, and larger cache.
assertion A declarative statement that is purportedly true.
asynchronous Serial data arranged in such a way that timing information is contained within each character rather than being obtained from a master reference. Communication in which timing information is derived from the transmitted information rather than from the terminals or serial lines.
AUAV Autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle.
autonomous In this book, a robot is autonomous when it is not under remote control and its behavior is a consequence of its programming and sensory input.
AUV Autonomous underwater vehicle.
biped A robot that has only two legs.
blocking Waiting for some event to complete before proceeding.
Bluetooth A global wireless communication standard that connects devices over a certain distance. A Bluetooth connection uses radio waves instead of wires or cables to connect to a device.
BRON Bluetooth Robot-Oriented Network.
A small team of connected robots that communicate through Bluetooth wireless protocols and the Internet.
BURT Basic Universal Robotic Translator. Presents code snippets, commands, and robot programs in this book in plain English first.
capability matrix A table, chart, or spreadsheet that lists the capabilities of a robot in column, row format.
color sensor A sensor that can measure different electromagnetic wavelengths.
DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
dead reckoning In this book it is a method of estimating the position of a robot based on its previous position and its course and speed over a known interval of time.
DOF Degrees of Freedom. The number of different ways in which the joints of a robot are free to move.
EEPROM Electronic erasable programmable read-only memory.
end-effector The device on the end of a robot arm that interacts with or manipulates objects in the robot’s environment. The end-effector could take the form of a hand, but it could also take other forms such as drills, wrenches, lasers, clamps, and so on.
episode In this book, an episode describes a set of stereotyped sequence of events that are part of a commonly known, well-understood narrative (for example, a birthday party has an episode where attendees eat cake, sing songs, give presents, etc.). Episodes, scenarios, and situations are all meant to describe the context where the robot is executing some tasks.
EV3 Microcontroller based on the ARM9 microprocessor from the LEGO Mindstorms line of robotic controllers. It has embedded Linux.
flash RAM A special type of EEPROM that retains information even when power is turned off.
GNU Linux A Unix-like computer operating system.
GOTCHAS Glossary of Technical Concepts and Helpful Acronyms.
gripper A robot end-effector used for grasping.
heat or temperature sensor A device that gathers data concerning temperature.
infrared sensor A light sensor that measures electromagnetic wavelengths longer than 700 nanometers.
interrupt A break in the normal flow of a system or routine, such that the flow can be resumed from that point at a later time. An interrupt is usually caused by a signal from an external source.
invariant In programming, an invariant is a condition that can be relied upon to be true during execution of a program, procedure, function, or routine or during some portion of it. It is an assertion that is held to always be true during a certain phase of execution.
leJOS A tiny Java virtual machine ported to the LEGO NXT microcontroller in 2006. leJOS now has a fully documented robotic API and accompanying set of class libraries.
light sensor A mechanical or electronic device that measures electromagnetic wavelengths and detects light.
MAC OSX A Unix-based computer operating system.
microcontroller A microcomputer on a single integrated circuit used in a control operation or to make changes in a process or operation. All the microcontrollers discussed in this book have sensor capability.
NREF National Robotics Education Foundation is an informational clearinghouse that identifies the most accessible and affordable curricula, products, and learning resources for robotics education to be used by educators, students, the industry, and the community.
NXT Microcontroller based on the ARM7 microprocessor from the LEGO Mindstorms line of robotic controllers. It has embedded Linux.
ontology Definition of types, attributes, characteristics, properties, and relationships of the things and actions for a particular domain of discourse.
OSRF Open Source Robotics Foundation is an independent non-profit R&D company that supports the development, distribution, and adoption of open source software for use in robotics research, education, and product development.
PASS Proposition and sensory states. A technique used to verify the execution assumptions of a robot.
pixy (CMUcam5) Vision sensor A sensor that can be used as part of a vision system for a robot. It was developed as a partnership of Carnegie Mellon and Charmed Labs. Pixy can track objects and connects directly to Arduino and other controllers.
postcondition A condition, assertion, or proposition about a sequence of logic or value of a variable that must be true immediately after the execution of another piece of code.
precondition A condition, assertion, or proposition about a sequence of logic or value of a variable that must be true prior to the execution of another piece of code.
quadruped A robot that has four legs.
READ set Robot Environmental Attribute Description set. The list of objects that the robot will encounter and interact with in its environment.
reflection Occurs when light, heat, or sound is bounced off the surface of an object without absorbing it. A reflective sensor can detect and measure the energy that is bounced off the object.
REQUIRE Robot Effectiveness Quotient Used in Real Environments. Used as an initial litmus test in determining what a robot can and cannot do.
RFID sensor Radio Frequency IDentification sensor. Used to scan and identify RFID tags, labels, and other devices that store RFID-based information.
robot A machine that meets the following seven criteria:
1. It must be capable of sensing its external and internal environments in one or more ways through the use of its programming.
2. Its reprogrammable behavior, actions, and control are the result of executing a programmed set of instructions.
3. It must be capable of affecting, interacting with, or operating on its external environment in one or more ways through its programming.
4. It must have its own power source.
5. It must have a language that is suitable for the representation of discrete instructions and data as well as support for programming.
6. Once initiated it must be capable of executing its programming without the need for external intervention (controversial).
7. It must be a nonliving machine.
ROLL model Robot Ontology Language Level model (see Figure 8.1).
ROV Remotely Operated Vehicle.
RPA Remotely Piloted Aircraft.
RS Media A bipedal biomorphic robot produced by WowWee that has an ARM9 microcontroller and embedded Linux for an operating system; RS Robosapien.
RSVP Robot Scenario Visual Planning are visuals used to help develop the plan of instructions for what the robot will do. It is composed of a floorplan of the physical environment of the scenario, a statechart of the robot and object’s states, and flowcharts of the instructions for the tasks.
SARAA Safe Autonomous Robot Application Architecture is composed of seven techniques used to program a robot to execute tasks autonomously. These techniques are SOFTBOT Frames, ROLL MODELS, REQUIRE, RSVP, SPACES, STORIES, and PASS.
scenario A description of a possible course of action within a particular context usually with an expectation of what events should take place, what objects will be encountered, and what the environment will be. Episodes, scenarios, and situations are all meant to describe the context where the robot will be executing some task.
sensor A device that detects, gathers data, or senses attributes, characteristics, or properties of an internal or external environment.
servo motor An electric motor combined with an angular position sensor; the length of the control signal sent to the motor determines the angular position of the motor shaft.
situations All the facts, objects, conditions, and events that affect someone or something within a specified context and environment.
softbot In this book a software counterpart and softbot representation of the robot implemented as a collection of object-oriented classes.
SPACES Sensor Precondition/Postcondition Assertion Check of Environmental Situations; used to verify whether it is okay for the robot to carry out its current and next task.
STORIES Scenarios Translated into Ontologies Reasoning Intentions and Epistemological Situations; the end result of converting a scenario into components that can be represented by object-oriented languages and then uploaded into a robot.
synchronous A term applied to robots or computers in which the performance of a sequence of operations is controlled by equally spaced clock signals or pulses. Also used to refer to serial data arranged in such a way that timing information is obtained from a master reference rather than for each character.
teleoperation The operation of a machine by remote control at a distance.
telerobot A robot controlled by remote control or at a distance.
titanium plated hydraulic powered battle chassis A frame for an advanced military robot.
torque The measure of how much a force action on an object causes that object to rotate.
ultrasonic sensor Device that measures distance by using a kind of echolocation using sonar—that is, bouncing sound waves off objects.