At Root Strap, we often argue for AI’s incredible potential to benefit us all. Nowadays, we have already integrated AI into many facets of our everyday lives. We can unlock our phones with our faces, using AI.
When scrolling through Facebook or Instagram, we see interesting content recommendations, thanks to AI. And we find the best route anywhere we want to go with AI pathfinding algorithms on Google Maps and Waze.
Unsurprisingly, many robotic applications also rely on AI to perform complicated and intricate tasks. Not only is AI expanding the uses for robotics, but a recent Stanford report has show how AI is reducing the cost of robotic arm production.
As robotics become more affordable and more capable, many major corporations, such as Amazon, have begun investing heavily in robotic technology.
In this article, we will cover in detail how robotic arms work and how engineers combine them with artificial intelligence to create many useful devices for manufacturing, healthcare, and the common household.
What is robotics?
Robotics is a branch of technology that deals with physical robots. Robots are programmable machines that are usually able to carry out a series of actions autonomously, or semi-autonomously.
In my opinion, there are three important factors which constitute a robot:
Robots interact with the physical world via sensors and actuators.
Robots are programmable.
Robots are usually autonomous or semi-autonomous.
I say that robots are "usually" autonomous because some robots aren't. Telerobots, for example, are entirely controlled by a human operator but telerobotics is still classed as a branch of robotics. This is one example where the definition of robotics is not very clear.
It is surprisingly difficult to get experts to agree on exactly what constitutes a "robot." Some people say that a robot must be able to "think" and make decisions. However, there is no standard definition of "robot thinking." Requiring a robot to "think" suggests that it has some level of artificial intelligence but the many non-intelligent robots that exist show that thinking cannot be a requirement for a robot.
However you choose to define a robot, robotics involves designing, building and programming physical robots which are able to interact with the physical world. Only a small part of robotics involves artificial intelligence.
Example of a robot: Basic cobot
A simple collaborative robot (cobot) is a perfect example of a non-intelligent robot.
For example, you can easily program a cobot to pick up an object and place it elsewhere. The cobot will then continue to pick and place objects in exactly the same way until you turn it off. This is an autonomous function because the robot does not require any human input after it has been programmed. The task does not require any intelligence because the cobot will never change what it is doing.
Most industrial robots are non-intelligent.
What is artificial intelligence?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science. It involves developing computer programs to complete tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence. AI algorithms can tackle learning, perception, problem-solving, language-understanding and/or logical reasoning.
AI is used in many ways within the modern world. For example, AI algorithms are used in Google searches, Amazon's recommendation engine, and GPS route finders. Most AI programs are not used to control robots.
Even when AI is used to control robots, the AI algorithms are only part of the larger robotic system, which also includes sensors, actuators, and non-AI programming.
Often — but not always — AI involves some level of machine learning, where an algorithm is "trained" to respond to a particular input in a certain way by using known inputs and outputs. We discuss machine learning in our article Robot Vision vs Computer Vision: What's the Difference?
The key aspect that differentiates AI from more conventional programming is the word "intelligence." Non-AI programs simply carry out a defined sequence of instructions. AI programs mimic some level of human intelligence.
Example of a pure AI: AlphaGo
One of the most common examples of pure AI can be found in games. The classic example of this is chess, where the AI Deep Blue beat world champion, Gary Kasparov, in 1997.
A more recent example is AlphaGo, an AI which beat Lee Sedol the world champion Go player, in 2016. There were no robotic elements to AlphaGo. The playing pieces were moved by a human who watched the robot's moves on a screen.
What are Artificially Intelligent Robots?
Artificially intelligent robots are the bridge between robotics and AI. These are robots that are controlled by AI programs.
Most robots are not artificially intelligent. Up until quite recently, all industrial robots could only be programmed to carry out a repetitive series of movements which, as we have discussed, do not require artificial intelligence. However, non-intelligent robots are quite limited in their functionality.
AI algorithms are necessary when you want to allow the robot to perform more complex tasks.
A warehousing robot might use a path-finding algorithm to navigate around the warehouse. A drone might use autonomous navigation to return home when it is about to run out of battery. A self-driving car might use a combination of AI algorithms to detect and avoid potential hazards on the road. These are all examples of artificially intelligent robots.
Example: Artificially intelligent cobot
You could extend the capabilities of a collaborative robot by using AI.
Imagine you wanted to add a camera to your cobot. Robot vision comes under the category of "perception" and usually requires AI algorithms.
Say that you wanted the cobot to detect the object it was picking up and place it in a different location depending on the type of object. This would involve training a specialized vision program to recognize the different types of objects. One way to do this is by using an AI algorithm called Template Matching, which we discuss in our article How Template Matching Works in Robot Vision.
In general, most artificially intelligent robots only use AI in one particular aspect of their operation. In our example, AI is only used in object detection. The robot's movements are not really controlled by AI (though the output of the object detector does influence its movements).
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