ThePlanofRenderingNewspaperArticle

1. The headline of the article is ... (The article is headlined ..., The headline of the article I've read is...)

2. The author of the article is...

3. The article is taken from the newspaper...

4. The central idea of the article is about... (The main idea of the article is... the article is devoted to... the article deals with... the article touches upon... the purpose of the article is to give the reader some information on... the aim of the article is to provide a reader with some material on...)

5. Give a summary of the article (no more than 10-20 sentences).

6. State the main problem discussed in the article and mark off the passages of the article that seem important to you.

7. Look for minor peculiarities of the article.

8. Point out the facts that turned out to be new for you.

9. Look through the text for figures, which are important for general understanding.

10. State what places of the article contradict your former views.

11. State the questions, which remained unanswered in the article and if it is possible add your tail to them.

12. Speak on the conclusion the author comes to.

13. Express your own point of view on the problem discussed.

Unit VI

Humanoid robots

Exercise 1

Read and translate the text.

A humanoid robot or an anthropomorphic robot is a robot with its overall appearance, based on that of the human body, allowing interaction with made-for-human tools or environments. A humanoid robot is an autonomous robot, because it can adapt to changes in its environment and continue to reach its goal. This is the main difference between humanoid and other kinds of robots. Some of the capacities of a humanoid robot may include self-maintenance (i.e. recharging itself), autonomous learning new capabilities without outside assistance, adjust strategies based on the surroundings and adapt to new situations, and safe interacting with human beings and the environment. Generally, humanoid robots are more complex than other kinds of robots.

Like other mechanical robots, humanoids refer to the following basic components: sensing, actuating and planning and control.

This complexity affects all robotic scales: mechanical, spatial, time, power density, system and computational complexity, but it is more noticeable on power density and system complexity scales. In the first place, most current humanoids aren’t strong enough even to jump and this happens because the power/weight ratio is not as good as in the human body. The dynamically balancing Dexter¹ can jump, but poorly so far. On the other hand, there are very good algorithms for the several areas of humanoid construction, but it is very difficult to merge all of them into one efficient system: the system complexity is very high. Scientists and specialists from many different fields including engineering, cognitive science, and linguistics combine their efforts to create a robot as human-like as possible. Their creators' goal is that one day a robot will understand human intelligence, reason and act like humans. If humanoids are able to do so, they could eventually work in cohesion with humans to create a more productive and higher quality future. Another important benefit of developing humanoids is to understand the human body's biological and mental processes, from the seemingly simple act of walking to the concepts of consciousness and spirituality. It has been suggested that very advanced robotics will facilitate the enhancement of ordinary humans.

Humanoid robots are being developed to perform human tasks like personal assistance, where they should be able to assist the sick and elderly, and dirty or dangerous jobs. Regular jobs like being a receptionist or a worker of an automotive manufacturing line are also suitable for humanoids. In essence, since they can use tools and operate equipment and vehicles designed for the human form, humanoids could theoretically perform any task a human being can, so long as they have the proper software. However, the complexity of doing so is deceptively great.

Humanoid robots, especially with artificial intelligence algorithms, could be useful for future dangerous or distant space exploration missions, without having the need to turn back around again and return to Earth once the mission is completed.

Proprioceptive sensors sense the position, the orientation and the speed of the humanoid's body and joints.

In human beings inner ears are used to maintain balance and orientation. Humanoid robots use accelerometers to measure the acceleration, from which velocity can be calculated by integration; tilt sensors to measure inclination; force sensors placed in robot's hands and feet to measure contact force with environment; position sensors, that indicate the actual position of the robot, or even speed sensors.

Humanoid robots use actuators that perform like muscles and joints, though with a different structure. To achieve the same effect as human motion, humanoid robots use mainly rotary actuators. They can be electric, pneumatic, hydraulic, piezoelectric or ultrasonic.

To maintain dynamic balance during the walk, a robot needs information about contact force and its current and desired motion. The solution to this problem relies on a major concept, the zero moment point.

Another characteristic of humanoid robots is that they move, gather information on the "real world" and interact with it. They don’t stay still like factory manipulators and other robots that work in highly structured environments. To allow humanoids to move in complex environments, planning and control must focus on self-collision detection, path planning and obstacle avoidance.

Humanoids don't yet have some features of the human body. They include structures with variable flexibility, which provide safety, and redundancy of movements, i.e. more degrees of freedom and therefore wide task availability. Although these characteristics are desirable to humanoid robots, they will bring more complexity and new problems to planning and control.