CHAP AUTOMATED AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

Automated Systems:
Automated systems are technological setups that perform tasks or processes with minimal
human intervention. These systems are designed to operate independently, following
predefined instructions or algorithms. They can range from simple mechanisms like automatic
doors or vending machines to complex setups such as robotic assembly lines or automated
industrial control systems.
Sensors, microprocessors and actuators:
It was extensively detailed how sensors, microprocessors, and actuator’s function.
Before reading this chapter, the reader might find it worthwhile to go back and review this
section of the book. Keep in mind that:
 Based on programming, the microprocessor will process the data and perform the
required action.
 Sensors are input devices that convey data to a computer or microprocessor by taking
readings from their environment. An analogue-digital converter (ADC) is used to first
transform analog data into a digital representation.
 This will require an output of some kind, most commonly in the form of signals to
actuators for the control of wheels, motors, solenoids, and other devices.

Advantages and disadvantages of automated systems:

Automated systems offer several advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages:

1. Improved Accuracy: With precise programming and sensors, automated systems can
minimize errors, reducing waste and rework.
2. Increased Efficiency: Automated systems can perform tasks faster and more consistently
than humans, leading to higher productivity and throughput.
3. Cost Savings: Over time, automated systems can lower operating costs by reducing the
need for manual labor, decreasing errors, and optimizing resource utilization.
4. Enhanced Safety: By taking over hazardous or repetitive tasks, automated systems can
reduce the risk of accidents and injuries to human workers.
5. 24/7 Operation: Automated systems can operate continuously without fatigue or the
need for breaks, allowing for round-the-clock production or service availability.

Disadvantages:
1. Complexity: Automated systems can be complex to design, implement, and maintain,
requiring specialized expertise and resources.
2. Job Displacement: There may be job losses or changes in employment prospects as
human workers are replaced by automated systems in some tasks, which could pose
social and economic issues.

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3. Initial Cost: Implementing automated systems can require significant upfront investment
in equipment, software, and infrastructure.
4. Vulnerability to Failure: Automated systems are susceptible to technical glitches,
malfunctions, or cyberattacks, which can disrupt operations and compromise safety and
security.
5. Reduced Flexibility: Some automated systems may lack the adaptability and problem-
solving skills of humans, limiting their ability to handle unexpected situations or changes
in requirements.

Robotics:
Robotics is a multidisciplinary field that involves the design, construction, operation, and use of
robots. Robots are programmable machines that can carry out tasks autonomously or semi-
autonomously, often in place of or in conjunction with human operators. Science fiction
authors have been fascinated by the idea of robots for a very long time. Isaac Asimov even
developed his three rules of robotics:

 A robot is required to follow human commands unless it violates law 1.

 A robot cannot, either by acting or by not acting, harm a human.
 A robot has an obligation to defend itself, unless it violates legislation 1.

What then does a real-world robot mean? A subfield of (computer) science called robotics
combines the study of robot design, manufacture, and operation. Robots are present in: \

Robot welder Robot carpet sweeper

Characteristics of a robot:

Robots typically possess several key characteristics:

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Programmability:

Since robots are programmable machines, software may be used to control and modify their
behavior. Simple action sequences or complex algorithms for perception, navigation, and
decision-making can all be included in this programming.

Possess some movement:

 They are multi-part mechanical structures composed of circuit boards, actuators,
hydraulic pipelines, and motors, among other components.
 For them to operate, a large number of electrical components are present.
 They can perform actions like twisting, turning, moving backwards and forwards,
gripping, and lifting by using wheels, cogs, pistons, gears, and other mechanisms.

Sensitivity to their environment:

 sensors (such as light, pressure, temperature, sound, and so on) are used to perform
this.
 A microprocessor or computer receives all sensor data, which enables a robot to
recognize its immediate surroundings and perform tasks like determining an object's
size, shape, or weight or determining whether it is hot or cold.

It's critical to understand that artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are essentially two very
separate fields:

TWO IMPORTANT NOTES:

 Since many robots do repetitive tasks instead of needing adaptive human traits, they
lack artificial intelligence (AI).
 It's critical to distinguish between software and physical robots, such as:
Web crawlers, often known as search engine bots, are "robots" that scour the
internet and classify websites for search engines.
chat bots are programs that appear on websites and appear to start a
conversation with the user.

The role of robots:

Robots play various roles across different domains and industries, and their significance
continues to grow as technology advances. Some of the key roles of robots include:

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Automation:
Automating dangerous or repetitive tasks that are labor-intensive or dangerous for humans is
one of the main functions of robots. Robots are widely employed in manufacturing and other
related industries to do operations like welding, packing, assembly, and painting. This increases
industrial processes' efficiency, consistency, and safety.

Exploration and Inspection:

Robots are used in locations that are dangerous or difficult for people to enter for the purposes
of exploration and inspection. For instance, drones are used for aerial surveys, monitoring, and
inspection of infrastructure such as bridges, pipelines, and power lines; robotic rovers are
utilized for planetary exploration; and underwater robots are employed for marine study and
exploration.

Surgery and Healthcare:

Robots are used in the healthcare industry for patient care, rehabilitation, and surgical
operations. With the use of surgical robots, physicians may carry out minimally invasive
treatments with more control and precision, which results in less trauma, quicker recovery
periods, and better patient outcomes.

Agriculture:
Robots are employed in agriculture to do duties like planting, harvesting, weeding, and crop
health monitoring. Precision agriculture practices are made possible by agricultural robots,
which also help to minimize environmental effect, lower labor costs, and boost efficiency.

Logistics and Warehousing:

In order to expedite tasks like picking, packing, sorting, and shipping items, robots are being
used more and more in logistics and warehouse operations. Automated guided vehicles (AGVs)
and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) maneuver across warehouse environments to enhance
fulfillment and inventory management processes.

Education and Research:

Robots are useful instruments for research and education because they offer platforms for the
study of engineering principles, robotics, and programming. In academic and industrial
contexts, research robots are employed to explore novel algorithms, technologies, and
applications in domains like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and human-robot
interaction.

Entertainment and Leisure:

Robots are also employed in theme parks, interactive exhibits, and robotic toys and hobbyist
kits for leisure and enjoyment. These robots demonstrate the potential and capabilities of
robotics technology while amusing, involving, and educating people of all ages.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of role of robotics:

The role of robotics offers several advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages Disadvantages
Cost Reduction: By lowering labor costs, Initial Cost: The upfront costs associated with
decreasing errors, and improving resource buying and deploying robotic systems can be
use, automation through robotics can result high and include infrastructure, software,
in cost savings. hardware, and training.
Increased Efficiency: Robots can perform Job Displacement: Automation and robotics
tasks with high speed, precision, and can lead to job displacement for workers
consistency, leading to increased productivity whose tasks are automated, potentially
and efficiency in various industries. causing unemployment and economic
disruption in certain industries.
Improved Safety: Robots can undertake Skills Gap: The deployment of robotics may
hazardous tasks in environments such as require specialized skills and expertise for
manufacturing plants, construction sites, and design, programming, maintenance, and
disaster zones, protecting human workers operation, creating a skills gap in the
from potential dangers. workforce.
Enhanced Quality: The precision and Dependency on Technology: Reliance on
repeatability of robotic operations contribute robotic systems introduces vulnerabilities to
to improved product quality and reliability, technical failures, software glitches,
reducing defects and rework. cybersecurity threats, and system
malfunctions, which can disrupt operations
and pose safety risks.
24/7 Operations: Robots can operate Ethical and Social Implications: Robotics
continuously without the need for breaks or raises ethical questions regarding issues such
rest, enabling around-the-clock production as privacy, autonomy, accountability, and the
and service delivery. impact on human relationships and society.
Access to Inaccessible Environments: Robotic Limited Adaptability: Some robots may lack
systems can access environments that are the flexibility and adaptability to handle
difficult or dangerous for humans to enter, unforeseen situations, changes in tasks, or
such as deep-sea exploration, outer space, or variations in the environment, requiring
hazardous industrial sites. human intervention or reprogramming.
Innovation and Advancements: Robotics Environmental Concerns: The production,
drives technological innovation and operation, and disposal of robotic systems
advancements in fields such as artificial may have environmental impacts, including
intelligence, machine learning, sensor energy consumption, resource depletion, and
technology, and materials science, leading to electronic waste generation.
new capabilities and applications.

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Artificial intelligence (AI):

The term artificial intelligence (AI) describes how computers, especially computer systems,
may simulate human intelligence processes. These include reasoning (using rules to arrive at
approximations or conclusions), self-correction, and learning (the acquisition of information
and rules for applying that information).

Characteristics of AI:
AI is essentially just a set of facts and rules with the capacity to reason, learn, and adjust to
outside stimuli. There are three categories into which AI falls:
 General artificial intelligence (AI) is the state in which a machine can perform a task
more like a human would, rather than better.
 Narrow artificial intelligence is the state in which a machine outperforms a human at a
single task.
 Strong AI is the state in which a machine outperforms a human in numerous tasks.

Examples of AI include:
 creation of news using real-time news streams
 Smart home appliances (like Google Now, Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, and Microsoft
Cortana):
The AI device recognizes spoken commands to communicate with a human.
It gains knowledge from its surroundings and the information it gets.
The gadget responds with progressively more complex patterns, demonstrating
the application of automatic repeating learning.

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 usage of AI to respond to voice or text messages from chatbots that converse via instant
messaging, emulating human interaction patterns; The chatbot uses the knowledge
available at the moment to answer questions:

 autonomous cars
 facial expression recognition
Key facial landmarks like the corners of the lips and eyebrows are recognized by
algorithms.
It is possible to map emotions (such as wrath, fear, joy, and surprise) using a mix
of these landmarks.

AI systems:
Two categories of AI systems are covered in this section:
 Expert systems are computer programs that emulate human decision-making. They
employ artificial intelligence (AI) to model the decisions and actions of people or
organizations with specialized expertise and experience.
 The science of teaching computers with sample data to make predictions about new,
unseen data without having to explicitly program them for the new data is known as
machine learning.

Expert systems:
Expert systems are a type of artificial intelligence (AI) technology that emulates the decision-
making ability of a human expert in a particular field or domain. They are designed to solve

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complex problems by reasoning through a set of rules or knowledge representations derived

from human expertise.
Assume, for instance, if the user was looking at a patient's range of symptoms. The expert
system would pose a series of queries, and its diagnosis would be derived from the responses.
The user might then delve deeper if needed. The expert system would provide an explanation
of its reasoning, such as "the patient used to work in a paint factory and has impaired vision,
lack of coordination, weak muscles, and slurred speech. The diagnosis is mercury poisoning."

Expert systems are used in many different contexts:

 the disease of a patient's diagnosis
 tax and financial calculations
 oil and mineral prospecting
 fault diagnostics in mechanical and electronic equipment
 logistics (efficient routing of parcel deliveries)
 strategy games, such as chess
 identification of plants, animals and chemical/biological compounds.

Expert systems have many advantages:

 They provide a high caliber of proficiency.
 The outcomes are reliable.
 They provide excellent precision.
 They are able to provide diagnostics and traceable, rational solutions.
 They have the capacity to store enormous volumes of information.
 They can respond far more quickly than a human specialist.
 An expert system can possess more than one area of competence.
 they indicate the probability of any suggested solution being correct.

Expert systems also have disadvantages:

 The setup and upkeep expenses are extremely significant.
 To guarantee the expert system is being used appropriately, users must receive
extensive training on its use.
 they are only as reliable as the data and facts that were input into the system.
 They frequently respond in a very "cold" manner, which might not be suitable in some
medical circumstances.
 Users occasionally assume a very risky assumption that they are perfect.

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What then constitutes an expert system? An expert system's typical structure is depicted in
Figure:

Machine learning:
Remember the AI "family" depicted in Figure

Machine learning is a subfield of artificial intelligence (AI) that focuses on the development of
algorithms and models that enable computers to learn from and make predictions or decisions
based on data. Unlike traditional programming, where explicit instructions are provided to
solve a problem, in machine learning, algorithms learn patterns and relationships directly from
data, allowing them to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed for
every scenario. One example that uses machine learning are the most sophisticated search
engines:

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Difference between AI and machine learning:

AI Machine Learning
The goal is to create machines that are able The goal is to create machines that can solve
to think like people. new issues by learning through data
collecting.
Represents artificial intelligence in machines This is the process of teaching machines to
make choices on their own, devoid of
programming.

Example of machine learning: Detection of fraudulent activity

 Surveys and web scraping are used to collect data; for instance, to identify credit card
fraud, consumer information is obtained about their purchasing patterns, personal
information, and the kinds of transactions they make (e.g., do they purchase designer
clothing?).
 Then, redundant data is eliminated; this process must be done properly to eliminate the
chance of making incorrect predictions.
 The most crucial phase in machine learning is this one: actual consumer purchase
behavior samples are used to train the algorithm.
 The machine learning algorithm is now able to detect fraud (for instance, if a consumer
spends an unusual amount on a piece of jewelry, there is a strong possibility that
fraudulent behavior has occurred). The model is constructed based on learning from the
training data.

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 After then, the machine learning model is thoroughly tested using data that is known to
produce results, and if the system doesn't meet its criteria for identifying fraudulent
activity, it is adjusted.

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