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ROBOTS: FORM OR
FUNCTION?
by Tom Carroll
There were some interesting comments on the various threads of the Seattle Robotics Society’s
server in early April about what was more important: how a robot looked or how well it performed.
Interestingly, both of these attributes are subject to personal preferences, especially the aesthetics of a
particular robot. Most of us are quite content to build a robot that looks as good as we can make it,
and have all of the physical and programmed functions work how we want them to work. At some
point — as we scavenge or craft all of the parts of the robot that we can — we settle on the robot’s
final appearance. The robot’s physical look is quite often either the result of a lot of time-consuming
machining, carving, and polishing, or it is the outcome of what nice looking ‘things’ we can find to put
on our creation. We can add circuits, sensors, motors, wheels, arms, claws, batteries, and even
external lights that we buy or find somewhere within our stock of saved parts.
As far as function goes, we can test the many lines of code that we spent hours trying out on the bench, debugging, deleting, adding new code, and finally, loading it
into our microcontroller. We can sit down with a CAD
program and lay out the chassis and add the many motors,
sensors, appendages, drive wheels, and external shell to
approximate our final design. Most of the time, we have to
measure the sizes of larger components such
as motors, batteries, and drive systems that
we have already located or purchased, and
figure out where we need to place and
mount them to have them function as we
planned. Without going into complex
differential equations, we can use finite
element analysis programs to hone
kinematics and the robot’s operations over
different terrains to determine motor and
gearbox sizes and configurations in the
design process. Of course, robot design is
certainly more complex than the few steps I
just mentioned.
at a particular robot and feel that it is truly a work of art.
They can view sleek lines, hidden motors, wires, and
circuitry, and see a magnificent robot. Many builders
have tried and succeeded to build a copy of the Johnny
Five robot from the film, “Short Circuit,” shown in
Figure 1. In that movie, there were no wires snaking up
the arms of the robot and all of the articulated joints hid
the internal components.
Many people have told me that they
feel the Johnny Five robot was one of
the most beautiful of all movie robots for
that reason. Yes, it was a studio action
prop, remotely-controlled by multiple
special-effects operators on the sidelines,
but the electronics and mechanics made
Johnny Five one of the most complex action
props ever used. These days, studios find it
cheaper to construct computer-generated
robots, such as the NS-5s from the Will
Smith film, i-Robot — especially when the
script called for a thousand robots as in
Figure 2.
In a way, we can view function in the
same light. People who have no idea just
how hard it is to build a complex robot may
laugh if they happen to see a bipedal
humanoid take a few wobbly steps and then
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FIGURE 1. Johnny Five from
the film ‘Short Circuit.’
Robot Beauty
and Function
It has been said that “beauty is in the
eye of the beholder.” Some people may look