What is robotics?

When I talk with parents about high school, robotics clubs are mentioned more than anything else. Robotics clubs often focus on entering their robots into competitions. But what is robotics, and are competitive clubs the only way for kids to get involved?

What is robotics?

Robotics is about more than just human-looking robots.  A Roomba is a robotic vacuum cleaner and it looks nothing like a human or a vacuum cleaner. Robots can operate on their own like a Roomba,  but there are also remote-controlled robot that require some human interaction. Drones are an example of a remote-controlled robot. There are robots that just perform repetitive tasks. like assembly-line robots. There are big robots that put fenders on cars and tiny robot that can be injected into the bloodstream.

Robotics is a big area but all robots have the same three basic elements that make them robots: circuits,  sensors, and action. Here’s what description of each of these:

Sensors

Sensors are the things that read the environment. Some examples of sensors are thermometers to read the temperature, compasses to read direction, and microphones to read sound. Robots might also need to know things like pressure, distance, or humidity to do their jobs.

Action

The action is the robot’s response to input from the sensors. Some robots move around in response. They may turn to avoid a wall, reach an arm to get a box with a particular barcode, or steer through someone’s blood vessels looking for signs of infection. Not all actions are physical motions though. Robots may also do things like set off an alarm, light up a room, or send a text message.

Circuits

Circuits provide the link between the sensors and the actions. Circuits need electricity to operate. They can be simple, like one that runs a light. Lights just have a connection to the power source (battery or electrical outlet), a light bulb or LED, and an on/off switch.  Robots require a more complex circuit so they can receive information from sensors and assign actions to other parts of the robot. The part of the robotic circuit that does all of this work is called the controller, or microcontroller, and is the brains of the robot. People create the ability for the controller to work by writing computer programs and loading them into the controller’s memory. When the circuit is on, the controller uses the computer code to do its work