Oral practice tasks

I. Complete the sentences with the facts from the text:

1. The Robotic Industries Association developed … .

2. An industrial robot is designed to … .

3. The technology of robotics is concerned with … .

4. The mechanical manipulator is made up of … .

5. The links are … .

6. The joints are … .

7. The types of the joints are … .

8. The two sections of the manipulator are … .

9. The functions of the manipulator sections are … .

10. The work envelope is … .

II. Put the points of the plan in the corresponding order:

1. The combinations of links and joints.

2. The definition of an industrial robot.

3. The two sections of the manipulator.

4. The technology of robotics.

III. Answer the questions:

1. What is an industrial robot?

2. What is its function?

3. What is the technology of robotics concerned with?

4. What is the mechanical manipulator made up of?

5. What do the links and the joints represent?

6. What are the types of mechanical joints?

7. What is the difference between linear and rotary joints?

8. What sections can the manipulator be divided into?

9. What is the function of every section?

10. What does every section provide?

IV. Do the tasks below:

1. Look through the scheme.

2. Using the scheme put some questions concerning the construction and the functions of the robot manipulator.

3. Comment on the scheme.

V. Make a short report on the construction and the functions of the robot manipulator.

Text 11b

Translate the text in written from using a dictionary:

Industrial Robots

In the context of general robotics, most types of industrial robots would fall into the category of robot arms (inherent in the use of the word “manipulator” in the above-mentioned ISO¹ standard).

Industrial robots exhibit varying degrees of autonomy. Robots are programmed to faithfully carry out specific actions over and over again without variation and with a high degree of accuracy. These actions are determined by programmed routines that specify the direction, acceleration, velocity, deceleration, and distance of a series of coordinated motions.

Other industrial robots are much more flexible as to the orientation of the object on which they are operating or even the task that has to be performed on the object itself, which the robot may even need to identify. For example, for more precise guidance, robots often contain machine vision sub-systems acting as their "eyes", linked to powerful computers or controllers. Artificial intelligence, or what passes for it, is becoming an increasingly important factor in the modern industrial robot.

Note:

¹ ISO – International Standards Organization – Международная организация по стандартизации

Text 11c

Look through the text and do the tasks below:

Robots

Man has always been interested in devices that would do things for him. Scientists and engineers have always tried to build machines which could perform different kinds of jobs themselves. Many automatic devices were invented during the industrial development of the world. But it was not until electronic computer gave machines a "brain" and a "memory", that true robots began to appear. Electronic computer could instruct them what to do under varying conditions.

A robot is believed to be a device that can make certain decision for itself without the presence of a human being; of course, a man still has to set automatic controls, otherwise the machine will not be able to make those decisions. The basic principle of all robots is that of finding a solution, trying it, rejecting it if it does not work, and trying another one. This is called the principle of "feedback".

Feedback is the process with the help of which a machine gives information to the device controlling it. This information causes the control mechanism to make a change in the operation of the machine. The machine then gives more information to the control mechanism, telling it about the effect of the change. The controller then may order another change. It is a continuous process. Every time the controller tells the machine to do something, the machine sends back information on what is happening. Unless the device has a feedback mechanism, it is not a robot.

1. Translate the title of the text.

2. Formulate the main idea of the text.

3. Choose the main information from every paragraph.

4. Make up the plan of the text.

5. Write down the annotation of the text in Russian.

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