Glossary A-M Flashcards
Achievement Goal
A state the system tries to reach, such as the end of a maze.
Actuator
The mechanism that enables an effector to execute an action or movement.
Actuator uncertainty
Not being able to know the exact outcome of an action ahead of time, even for a simple action such as “go forward three feet”.
Amplifying
Something that causes an increase in size, volume, or significance.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
The field that studies how intelligent machines (should) think. AI was officially “born” in 1956 at a conference held at Dartmouth University, in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Assistive robotics
Robot systems capable of helping people with special needs, such as individuals covalescing from an illness, rehabilitating from an accident or trauma, learning or training in a special setting, or aging at home or in a managed care facility.
Autonomy
The ability to make one’s own decisions and act on them.
Behavioral coordination
Deciding what behavior or set of behaviors should be executed at a given time.
Bit
The fundamental unit of information, which has two possible values: the binary digits 0 and 1; the word come from “binary digit”.
Bottom-up
Progression from the simpler to the more complex.
Broadcast communication
Sending a message to everyone on the communication channel.
Calibration
The process of adjusting a mechanism to maximize its performance (accuracy, range, etc.)
Cartesian robots
Robots that are similar in principle to cartesian plotter printer, and are usually used for high-precision assembly tasks.
Command arbitration
The process of selecting one action or behavior from multiple possibilities.
Continuous state
State that is expressed as a continuous function (50 km/h)
Control architecture
A set of guiding principles and constraints for organizing a robot’s control system.
Cooperation
Joint action with a mutual benefit.
Coordination
Arranging things in some kind of order (ord and ordin mean order in Latin).
Cybernetics
A field of study that was inspired by biological systems, from the level of neurons (nerve cells) to the level of behavior, and tried to implement similar principles in simple robots, using methods from control theory.
- > A study and comparison of communication and control processes in biological and artificial systems.
- > Machines use similar steersman to produce sophisticated behavior similar to nature
- > lead to the Walter’s tortoises
Damping
The process of systematically decreasing oscillations.
Data association problem
The problem of uniquely associating the sensed data with absolute ground truth.
Degrees of freedom
The dimensions in which a manipulator can move.
Deliberative control
Type of control that looks into the future, so it works on a long time-scale.
Demodulator
A mechanism that is tuned to the particular frequency of the modulation, so it can be decoded.
Desired state + synonym
The state the system wants to be in also called the goal state.
Detector
A mechanism that perceives (detects) a property to be measured.