Classification of types of robot

One way of classifying robots is in terms of their similarity to humans. An
automaton is any machine capable of operating independently, such as a
clothes dryer. A flexible machine is a special case of an automaton with
different capabilities, that can be programmed as the need arises. An
5 example is a welding robot on the factory floor that can be programmed to
participate in other production operations. A mobile robot is a flexible
machine capable of moving freely in its own environment. It can partly
select its own goals and communicates with other agents, including
humans. An android or humanoid is a mobile robot whose structure
10 approximately resembles a human structure. Finally, a cyborg is a
humanoid with organic structures. Cyborgs have some physiological
structures similar to those of humans. *

1 D Mobile robot

Machine capable of independent operation following a predetermined series of behaviours, e.g. a cuckoo clock

Flexible machine capable of moving and communicating with humans, e.g. a sentry robot

Humanoid having both organ',-; and inorganic structures, with some physiological similarity to humans

Mobile robot of human proportions

Versatile, programmable automaton, e.g. an assembly robot

Now renumber the robot types, 1-5 (1 = the most similar to humans; 5 = the simplest).

Task 12

Reading

Using the diagram to help you, fill in the gaps in the text with the words given.

Co-ordination of control in robots

The diagram shows a__________ system for the force required to

_____________ an object. The desired level of force is fed into the control module,

which

it with the actual amount of force as indicated by the

feedback signal. The discrepancy enters the command generator, which

-

determines the!-------------- and extent of adjustment necessary. The

resulting command passes into an amplifier which produces power

—_--------- to the level of the input signal. The power drives a motor

!---- ——,---- to some linkage such as a set of gears.The mechanical linkage in

the robotic hand ultimately I------------------ the initial command signal into

displacement at the fingertips.

proportional compares

grasp direction

attached converts

closed-loop

Object

Task 13

Speaking

In pairs, design a simple robotic wrist and hand. Your device should have the three degrees of rotational freedom illustrated below and should be capable of grasping objects. Describe your invention to another pair.

Roll

yaw

pitch

Task 14

Writing

Label the parts of your robotic wrist with letters or numbers, then write a paragraph explaining how it works.

Word-play

Task 15 Look at the lists and circle the word that is different from the others. Then

explain why. The first one has been done for you.

1 mouse keyboard (pnnter^) OCR scanner
A printer is an output device.

2 palmtop notebook clipboard briefcase laptop

3 accumulator register

address

bus

monitor

4	drive	floppy	hard
	FORTRAN	COBOL	PASCAL
	ring	loop	bus switche

compact

ASSEMBLER

. star

7 cyborg

automaton sentry

android

8 virtual

internal external

conceptual

130

Language focus K

Compound nouns

The language of computing in English contains an ever-increasing number of compound nouns, that is, a group of two or more nouns which act as a single noun.

Examples:

memory capacity an address bus an arithmetic unit

information systems a bar code scanner

It is important to be able to recognize how such compounds are formed in order to understand what they mean.

The exact relationship between the words depends on the particular expression, but all these expressions have one thing in common: the last word in the chain says what the thing is, while the preceding word or group of words describes the thing. So when we read compound nouns, we have to start with the last word and work backwards.

Examples:

An address bus is a bus dedicated to address information.

The memory capacity of a computer is the capacity of its memory.

A large number of possible meanings can be expressed by compound nouns. For instance, the first noun or group of nouns can tell us what the second noun is made of, what it is for, or what it is part of.

1 Material: the first noun tells us what the second consists of.

Examples:

a silicon chip (a chip made of silicon) aferrite ring (a ring made of ferrite)

2 Function: the first noun tells us what the second noun is for.

Examples:

an address bus (a bus dedicated to address information)

an input device (a device for inputting)

an arithmetic unit (a unit which performs arithmetic functions)

3 Part: the second noun refers to a part of the first noun.

Examples:

a computer keyboard (the keyboard of a computer) a monitor screen (the screen of a monitor) a program feature (a feature of a program)

4 Activity or person: the second noun refers to an activity or person related to the
first noun.

Examples:

computer programming (the programming of computers) a computer programmer (a person who programs computers)

systems analysis (the analysis of organizational systems)

a systems analyst (a person who analyses organizational systems)

5 Multiple nouns: sometimes a compound noun will join together with one or
more other nouns to give an expression that has three or four words. In such
cases, it is important to examine the expression very carefully to break it into
its constituent parts. The secret, as always, is to read the expression from the
back towards the front.

Example:

4 3 2 1

a document-image-processing program (a program which processes images of documents)

Note: some expressions are written separately, while others are joined by hyphens. There are no clear rules for tliis. Sometimes you will see the same " expression written in different ways in different texts.

Example:

document-image-processing program
document image-processing program
document image processing program •

However, it is important to be consistent within a single text.

Exercise 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

A device that scans bar codes is called a bar code scanner. What name is given to:

a unit that gives a visual display of information on a screen?

a device that reads magnetic cards?

a device that plots graphs?

a device that prints using a laser as the light source?

a unit that holds magnetic disks?

a device that prints using a jet of ink?

the rate of transmission of data?

a package for making presentations using multimedia?

a program which processes data in batches?

the process for the conversion of disks for computers?

Exercise 2

1 2 3 4

Using the explanations in Exercise 1 as models, write short simple explanations of the following items:

an input device

an optical character reader

a graphics stylus

a document sorter

5 a fibre optics transmission system

6 a sequence control register

7 a liquid crystal display

8 network configuration information

9 a desktop document manager

10 a multimedia editing software package

Virtual reality

Task 1

Start-up

Virtual reality is still seen as a toy by most people. Can you think of any potential applications of VR other than in computer games? Make a list.

Reading

Task 2 El Read the text opposite. Note down any applications that are n< •'■ ii 'our list.

Fancy a fantasy spaceflight?

Computers are about to take people to places they have never been able to visit before, 45 including the surface of other planets. Such a trip will be an il­lusion, but one that comes closer to real life than anything on stage or screen. Artificial worlds 50 are being built up in a computer memory so that people can walk through at will, look around, and even touch objects.

The system is called virtual 55 reality, so called from the math­ematical concept of an image that has the virtues of a real object without the substance.

Virtual reality systems are 60
being developed throughout the
world for a range of uses includ­
ing enabling people to walk
'inside' nuclear power stations,
while controlling a robot that ac- 65
tually goes into an area in which
no human could live, and con­
ducting architects through a
computer-generated building
before it is constructed. 70

British scientists have a world lead in virtual reality, despite the fortunes being poured into research by Japanese and Amer­ican companies, which see it as a 75 technology for the next century.

In Britain, Robert Stone, of the National Advanced Robotics Research Centre at Manchester University, is developing sys- 80 terns that could put men on Mars without shooting them into space and could plunge divers under the North Sea without tak-

ing them out of the office.

The problem with guiding a robot by looking at a picture from a video camera mounted on it and twiddling the controls is that it is not a natural system, Mr Stone says. The operator spends all his time controlling the robot and none solving the problem. The time lag between seeing the image and sending a corrective control signal is another difficulty.

A virtual reality system con­sists of a helmet with a colour display in front of each eye, and wide-angle lenses to cover the entire field of view and give a stereoscopic effect. The helmet contains sensors, rather like electronic compasses, to record where it is pointing. A computer calculates what the wearer should be seeing in that direc­tion and displays it on the screen.

In more advanced systems, the operator wears an electronic glove that detects exactly what the fingers are doing and trans­mits the information to the com­puter. If the user tries to pick up something, the computer will make the object follow the hand to give the illusion of carrying it.

Pads in the latest type of gloves press into the insides of the fin­gers and palm when an object is encountered, to create the il­lusion of feeling it. Complete 'exoskeletons' covering the user and allowing the computer to

85 simulate almost anything poss­ible in real life are still in the lab­oratory.

A fire-fighter in a nuclear pow­er plant, for example, would

90 move through a computer model wearing an exoskeleton, while a robot would move through the real thing. The computer pro­gram will be derived from the

95 data used to design the plant in the first place.

Mr Stone has developed a data glove with air pockets that are inflated to give a sensation of

ioo touch in collaboration with Air-muscle, the supplier of the pneu­matic systems that made the Spitting Image puppets really spit.

105 The biggest initial market is likely to be for a new generation of video games. W Industries, of Leicester, recently launched a virtual reality system for video

HO arcades. The system, called Vir-tuality, consists of a cockpit in which a player sits, wearing the helmet, at a set of controls that can mimic a bobsleigh, a space-

115 ship or whatever the imagina­tion of the games programmer can devise.

The helmet has a pair of liquid-crystal displays with wide-angle

120 lenses giving a stereoscopic im­age, and a set of magnetic sen­sors to tell the computer what the helmet is looking at as it moves.

125 The first game is a fighter simulation. Another is based on a sequence in the film, Return of the Jedi, in which flying motor­cycles race through a forest. The

130 computer can link and control
several helmets at once for a
group game.
■•■(■■- * ■ •

Vocabulary

time lag (1. 52) - time delay

Spitting Image (1.103) - satirical British TV programme, using computer-controlled animated puppets

bobsleigh (1.114) -large vehicle, moving on strips of wood, for travelling fast over ice and snow

Task 3 Answer the following questions about the text:

1 Where does the term 'virtual reality' come from?

2 Which country leads the field in VR research?

3 Why are robots controlled via mounted video cameras less effective than the
VR solution?

4 How does Robert Stone's system allow the user to 'feel' objects?

5 What application of VR is expected to be the commonest to start with.

• Task 4 Using the line reference given, look back in the text and find the reference for

the words in italics.

1 one that comes closer to real life (line 6)

2 which see it as a technology for the next century (line 33)

3 without taking them out of the office (line 43)

4 it is not a natural system (line 48)

5 to record where it is pointing (line 64)

6 and displays it on the screen (line 67)

7 to give the illusion of carrying it (line 77)

8 while a robot would move through the real thing (line 92)

Task 5 Using the line references given, look back in the text and find words or phrases

meaning:

1 whenever and however they like (lines 10-15)

2 qualities (lines 15-20)

3 large amounts of money (lines 30-35)

4 immerse (lines 40-45)

5 twisting (lines 45-50)

6 small pockets filled with air (lines 75-80)

7 filled with air (lines 9 5-100)

8 released on to the market (lines 105-110)

9 imitate (lines 110-115)

10 war plane (lines 12 5-130)

Task 6 Choose the appropriate form of the word to fit the meaning of the sentence.

Make sure you understand the different forms of the word and their meanings. Use your dictionary to find this information. 1 correct, correctly, correction, corrective, correctness

a If an error occurs, it is important to take_____________ action immediately.

b The 'spell check' facility checks the.
c The data was entered_________

detect, detection, detectable, detective

a There were..... _______ traces of radiation in the water^: sample.

b The analyst could not________..... any errors in the system

c She tried to escape____________ by disguising herself.

sense, sensor, sensation, sensitive

a An infra-red..___________ detects the presence of intruders in the building.

b The probe is........................ to heat and light.

c The new system caused a_____________ when it was launched last month.

Writing

Task 7

V

These two paragraphs from the article contain similar information. Write one paragraph combining the information from them to give a short but complete description of the VR visual system.

A virtual reality system consists of a helmet with a colour display in front of each eye, and wide-angle lenses to cover the entire field of view and give a stereoscopic effect. The helmet contains sensors, rather like electronic compasses, to record where it is pointing. A computer calculates what the wearer should be seeing in that direction and displays it on the screen.

The helmet has a pair of liquid-crystal displays with wide-angle lenses giving a stereoscopic image, and a set of magnetic sensors to tell the computer what the helmet is looking at as it moves.

Task 8

Speaking

We asked a number of people to answer the following question:

Do you think the use of virtual reality in computer war games is going to affect young people's attitude to violence?

Here are some responses. Read them and decide which point of view (if any) most closely matches yours. Discuss your opinions.

Rita Harper

'Yes, I do. I think anything which portrays violence as fun is going to alter young people's perception of violence in a very dangerous way. Violent crime amongst young people is increasing. I think manufacturers of computer war games must take some of the responsibility.'

Susan Clark

'No, not really. Kids - particularly boys - have been playing with toy guns ever since guns were invented. Surely playing with toy guns in the real world is more dangerous than playing with imaginary guns in an imaginary world.'

Mark Watts

'It's difficult to say. Some of my friends get very aggressive when they play computer war games. But I don't really know if it makes them more violent when they're doing other things. I play a VR jet fighter game, and I don't think it has made me more violent.'

Task 9

Writing

Write a paragraph giving your answer to the question asked in Task 8.

Listening

Task 10 (Hi Listen to this interview with Michael Emsley, one of the exhibitors at an

exhibition of virtual reality at Olympia in London. As you listen, answer these questions about the interview.

1 Why do people expect far more from VR than it can give them?

2 How does Michael Emsley think VR should be seen?

3 Give two examples of the potential applications mentioned.

4 What problems will VR developers have if the technology does not produce
results, according to Emsley?

5 How does the best VR system compare with human vision?

6 Why are there three electromagnetic coils in the headset?

7 How long does it take the computer to calculate each new position of the
headset and update the display?

8 In order to make a 'reasonable' visual system, how powerful would the
computer have to be?

Task 11 E3 Read this extract from the tapescript and try to fill in the gaps. The first letter of

each missing word is given.

interviewer: How is the d... ________ ^created?

michael emsley: Most VR vision systems are h_________ ² that block out

everything except two I

screens, one for each eye. Using a technique learnt from a................

i.............. ' work on vision, the images on each screen are

d '^s and displaced, giving the illusion of a t

d__.._......... view.

interviewer: What happens when the person moves his head?

michael emsley: The movements are detected by three e.._

one coil for movements u...... ________ and d______.___ _.., one for

u

1........ _..... and r ___, and one for movements f... _.....

and b- '. This information is d_________... - and passed to the

computer, which then u....... __. the data it holds on the position of the

headset. Once the new. position of the headset has been c "". the

visual display is updated.
interviewer: It sounds like a long p______

Now listen again to the cassette and check your answers.

VR input devices

Task 12

Reading

Read quickly through the text below. Does the text contradict in any way what you already know about VR systems? If so, what is the contradiction and how can it be explained?

K)

Problems with hand-based input/output

The current hand input devices suffer from the same delays that plague the head mount display systems, but the user's over-compensation is even more noticeable. Because there is typically some interaction with the hand and other objects, absolute position control is much more important here than it would be with head positioning, where relative motion is usually sufficient.

These devices are also extremely limited in their ability to generate any
kind of tactile force or feedback to the user. Based on our research, even to
perform gross manipulation tasks with a DataGlove is extremely difficult
without some kind of sensory feedback. Any kind of fine manipulation is
impossible. Though tactile feedback of some kind may be possible, the
quality of this will very likely be extremely low and the cost extremely high
for the foreseeable future. ^.

-4 Perhaps the major failing of the glove-based system is that it requires the

15 user to keep the hand and arm unsupported. This requires the user to employ both the agonist and antagonist muscle sets of the arm working against each other in order to perform any kind of complex task. The user actually is working harder at this than he would at pushing a real object because, in the case of a real object, at least one muscle group is at rest.

20 Further, because there is no true stable surface for the arm to rest against, any kind of control requires even more force between the muscle groups. Our experience demonstrated that a user of such a system when faced with any kind of gross manipulation tasks, could only be expected to use the system for five-minute periods with a large degree of exertion. Any

25 kind of extended activity was precluded.

As a consequence of these drawbacks, it is our expectation that the DataGlove and other similar interface devices will be replaced by more useful devices in the future. ■

► Vocabulary

agonist and antagonist muscle sets (1. 16) - two muscle groups which normally act in opposition to each other

Task 13

1 2 3

Read the text again and complete the table in note form.
Problem of hand input device Consequences

Task 14

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

The following pairs of words are taken from the text. In each case, say whether their meanings are similar (S) or opposite (0).

suffer from (1. 1) plague (1. 1) absolute (1. 4) true (1. 20) tactile (1. 8) sensory (1. 10) force (1. 8) exertion (1. 24) gross (I. 9) fine (1. 10) impossible (I. 11) precluded (1. 25) failing (1. 14) drawback (I. 26) wnrkine H. 1 81 at. rest (1.191

Language focus L

Classifying

The term 'classifying' means arranging objects in classes or groups according to shared characteristics. For example, the class of'animals' includes all living things that can feel and move about, such as fish and birds. Each of these subgroups is also a class in its own right, having shared characteristics.

Classifying, then, is a process of bringing order out of confusion by organizing information in a logical fashion. There are often several ways of classifying the same information.

1 From general to specific: focusing on the large or high-level category and

talking about its parts, that is from general to specific, the following expressions can be used:

A general-to-specific classification will usually have singular main verbs, unless two or more things are being analysed simultaneously.

Examples:

1 The CPU is divided into three parts: the control unit, the arithmetic-logic
unit, and memory.

2 The CPU has three parts: the control unit, the arithmetic-logic unit, and
memory.

3 The CPU is made up of three parts: the control unit, the arithmetic-logic
unit, and memory.

4 The CPU is composed of three parts: the control unit, the arithmetic-logic
unit, and memory.

5 The CPU consists of three parts: the control unit, the arithmetic-logic unit,
and memory.

2 From specific to general: what the smaller (or lower-level) components make when they are put together. This kind of classification uses the following expressions:

make up

form

constitute

maybe

can be

are classified as

142

Exercise 1

A specific-to-general classification will have plural verbs, because two or more lower-level categories are the focus of classification.

Examples:

1 [lie control unit, the arithmetic-logic unit, and memory are the three parts
that make up the CPU.

2 The control unit, the arithmetic-logic unit, and memory arc the three parts
that form the CPU.

Using the diagram below, complete the paragraph on the following page.

A Computer system

A computer, has four basic components: input, processor, memory, and

output. The CPU consists of two parts: the 1__________, which directs

and controls the signals and commands inside the processor, and the

I_____________ unit, which does the arithmetic operations and the

decision-making operations. While the------------------- is made up of a

4 5 6 ]

____________, a______________, and a

. is composed of -

In a computer, internal memory or_

locations inside the computer, whereas

- refers to the storage
___ refers to the storage

embodied in the peripherals.

- may be divided into

_)and

,18

_).The.

. devices can be either a

-, a.

_,or a.

These devices enter information into the computer. After the processor has

. devices display the results of the

computations on either a

them on tape or disk for future use.

Exercise 2

Refer back to the text on C language (Unit 4, page 46) and complete the diagram.

144

Machine translation

Start-up

Task 1 Decide whether the following sentences are true (T) or false (F):

1 D Some machine translation (MT) systems produce good translations.

2 Q It is difficult to compare different MT systems.

3 Q The easiest way to evaluate any machine translation of a given text is to

compare it to a human translation of the same text.

Task 2

Reading

Read the text on the following page and check your answers to Task 1.

Lost in the machine translation

ou can go out right now and buy a machine translation system for anything between £100 and £100,000. But how do you know if it's going to be any good? The big problem with MT systems is that they don't actually translate: they merely help translators to translate. Yes, if you get something like Metal (very expensive) or GTS (quite cheap) to work on your latest brochure, they will churn out something in French or whatever, but it will be pretty laughable stuff.

All machine-translated texts have to be extensively post-edited (and often pre-edited) by experienced translators. To offer a useful saving, the machine must make the time the translator spends significantly less than he or she would have taken by hand.

Inevitably, the MT manufacturers' glossies talk blithely of 'a 100 per cent increase in throughput', but scepticism remains. Potential users want to make their own evaluation, and that can tie up key members of the corporate language centre for months.

A few weeks ago, translators, system developers, academics, and others from Europe, the US, Canada, China, and Japan met for the first time in a Swiss hotel to mull over MT matters. A surprisingly large number of European governmental and corporate organizations are conducting expensive and elaborate evaluations of MT, but they may not produce 'buy or don't buy' results.

Take error analysis, a fancy name for counting the various types of errors the MT system produces. You might spend five months working out a suitable scoring scheme - is correct gender agreement more important than correct number?-and totting up figures for a suitably large sample of text, but what do those figures mean? If one system produces vastly more errors than another, it is curiously inferior. But suppose they produce different types of error in the same overall numbers: which type of error is worse? Some errors are bound to cost translators more effort to correct, but jt requires a lot more work to find out which.

And bugs are still common. Using a 7 'test suite' of sentences designed to see linguistic weaknesses, researches in Stuttgart found that although one large system could cope happily with various complex verb-translation problems in a relative clause, it fell apart when trying to do exactly the same thing ' in a main clause. Developers are looking for bigger, better test suites to hop to keep such bugs under control.

Good human translators produce good translations; all MT systems produce bad translations. But just what is c< good translation? One traditional assessment technique involves a bunch of people scoring translations on various scales for ^/intelligibility ('Does this translation into English make sense as a piece of English?'); accuracy ('Does this piece of English give the same information as the French original?'); style, and so on. However, such assessment is expensive, and designing the scales is something of a black art.

Properly designed and integrated MT systems really ought to enhance the translator's life, but few take this on trust. Of course, they do things differently in Japan. While Europeans are dabbling their toes and most Americans deal only in English, the Japanese have gone in at the deep end. The Tokyo area already sports two or three independent MT training schools where, as the eminent Professor Nagao casually noted in his presentation, activities are functioning with the efficiency of the Toyota production line. We're lucky they're only doing it in Japanese.

146

K3

Each of the sentences below (except one) summarizes an individual paragraph of the text. Order the sentences so that they form a summary of the text. One of the sentences contains information which is not in the text. Which one?

1 LJ The developers ofMT systems have also had problems evaluating their

systems.

2 LJ Many European organizations are evaluating MT, but the results may not

be conclusive.

3 LJ Assessing machine translations as good or bad is very difficult because

such judgements cannot be made scientifically.

4 ED It is time-consuming for potential users to test the MT manufacturers'

claims that their products double productivity.

5 LJ Better tests are needed to monitor linguistic weaknesses in MT systems.

6 ED All machine translations need to be edited by a human translator.

7 EH A reliable MT system is unlikely to be available this century.

8 LJ The price of MT systems varies greatly and none actually translates.

9 LJ The Japanese have a few independent MT training schools, which are

said to be very efficient.

10 LJ Analysing the errors made by MT systems is inconclusive because it may only show that different systems produce similar numbers of different error types.

sk4

2 3 4 5 6

Match each of the following verbs from the text with the expression that has a similar meaning:

churn out (para. 1) tie up (para. 3) mull over (para. 4) tot up (para. 5) cope with (para. 7) fall apart (para. 7)

sk5

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Using the paragraph reference given, find words or phrases in the text which have a similar meaning to:

ridiculous (para. 1) colour brochures (para. 3) casually (para. 3) sure to (para. 5) group (para. 8) mysterious ability (para. 8) experimenting in a small way (para. 9) invested heavily (para. 9)

Isk6

Speaking

Look at these sentences. Discuss why a machine might find them difficult to translate.

I bought a set of six chairs.

He set a book on the table.

She had her hair set for the party.

Can you think of other examples where this kind of problem occurs?

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