Beginners Guide To Robotics- III (Types of Robots - Land)

Building a Robot - Types of Robots

part 3(Go to part 2, Index page)
To build the robot we need to find what is the major task we want it to achieve. Like in my example-The major task of the saucer is to fly/hover. This is where the types and categories of Robots come in. Robots can be broadly classified into various categories based on their tasks and functionality:

“There's a free2win game called 'Robocraft' where you build and fight robots which beautifully illustrates this section. Being one of my favorites I highly recommend it for beginners and children.”

Based on Mobility: 

1) LAND:

1. Wheeled Robots: 

 

Omni-directional  Wheeled Robot 
By Gwpcmu, Licensed under CC BY 3.0

US Navy Tracked wheel bot

Wheeled robots are one of the most popular robots. The basic ones have two wheel with caster wheel (2 wheel drive),or a four wheel drive. The two wheels drive system is used only on flat and smooth surfaces(usually indoors) whereas the four wheel drive can be also used on a plain ground surface or even a surface with slopes and terrain (depending on the wheels, motors and mechanical aspects). They can also come with tracks for higher grip but only in case of 4 wheel drives. 

My First Wheeled Bot

The more complex ones come with omini-directinal wheels i.e. wheels that are free to move in different directions simultaneously.  They can be both manual or autonomous. Manual ones are popularly used in RC racing and, dirt and track racing. They are also used in surveillance, survey, object transport, machine repair and maintenance. The autonomous robots are used with various sensors or cameras for movement. The basic autonomous ones are the typical line follower robots and object avoiding robots. Further basic being the transistor beam bot. The most advanced robots in this category include the rovers on mars(spirit, opportunity and curiosity) which are both manually and autonomously controlled. Thus this is one of the best choices for beginner robotics.

2. Walkers/legs: 

Dog Robots 
By Boston Dynamics

Bipedal Humanoid Robot
By Boston Dynamics

Although not so common, walkers are robots which use movable mechanical extensions for adjusting its surface position or for linear motion. The robots which use center of mass adjustment for movement can also be called walkers to an extent. They can have minimum of 2-3 legs and are usually slower than the wheeled bots. They use various kinds of motors like servos or even the normal DC motors but with a different mechanical attachment and capability. This field of robotics requires a higher level of mechanical skills and can get unnecessarily complicated(if it can be achieved using wheeled robots). But walkers could be the future as these can be designed to overcome all kinds of mechanical terrains and mimic human like capabilities.

Continue to part 4

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