Automated and Emerging technologies Flashcards
What does an automated system usually have?
Comprises of sensors, microprocessors and actuators
What is the purpose of sensors in an automated system?
Takes measurements of their environment
What is the purpose of microprocessors in an automated system?
Processes the information and make decisions based on the readings from the sensor
What is the purpose of actuators in an automated system?
To make physical changes to the environment, like opening a door, shutting a valve or turning on an alarm
What are the advantages of automation?
Fewer people need to be employed
Repetitive tasks carried out with high accuracy and no breaks
Able to work in dangerous environments (industry)
More accurate simulation (gaming)
What are the disadvantages of automation?
People may lose their jobs / have fewer jobs to apply for
Automation can be very dangerous if something goes wrong
It is initially expensive to buy machinery
What are the characteristics of robots?
They have a mechanical structure
They have electrical components (e.g. sensors, microprocessors and actuators)
They are programmable
What is artificial intelligence (AI)?
A branch of computer science dealing with the simulation of intelligent behaviours by computers
What is robotics?
A branch of computer science that incorporates the design, construction and operation of robots
What are the two systems of AI?
Expert systems
Machine Learning
What are expert systems?
They have a knowledge base, a rule base, an inference engine and an interface
Explain how an expert system would work as a medical diagnoser.
The computer is ‘trained’ by being given the symptoms of hundreds of patients, and their diagnoses (knowledge base)
From this, a set of rules (rule base) can be formulated
A program (inference engine) is used to apply the rules to diagnose a new patient
The interface allows the doctor to interact with the expert system
What is machine learning?
ML is when a program has the ability to automatically adapt to its own processes and/or data
