A robot can be defined as a system with manipulators, software, sensors, control systems, and power supplies that perform tasks simultaneously. Robots are products of mathematics, physics, structural engineering, mechanical engineering, and computing. All these aspects collaborate for designing, building, programming, and testing robots.
Robots Characteristics
· Sense
Robots have to have surrounding sensors. Fitting robots with sensors need someone with a high-level knowledge of coding and programming. Some of the critical sensors include Touch and pressure (hands), Light (eyes), hearing (ears), taste (tongue), and chemical (nose) sensors. These sensors allow the robot to have a higher productivity level and environmental awareness.
· Movement
A robot needs to have the ability to move around by either walking on legs, propelling via thrusters, or rolling on wheels.
· Energy
A robot should be able to self-power. How a robot energizes itself determines the necessary action. The robot might be solar, battery, or electrically powered, determining its applications and functioning.
· Intelligence
The robots need to be smart to receive instructions and carry them out. The programmers program the robot so that it can accept the program and perform the task at hand.
Types of Robotic Languages
To completely understand Robotics, one needs to specialize in various engineering and scientific domains and programming languages. There are more than 1500 programming languages, which makes it impossible to master all of them. The use of a language depends on the type of robot.
1. C/C++
C/C++ are crucial programming languages in 2020 as they are mature languages. They allow low-level hardware ease of interaction. When the robot does not have enough memory, the C language is preferable. C++ is easy to use and can call the API of the OS directly.
2. Python
Python is easy to use and needs less time. When you compare it with other object-oriented languages such as Java or C/C++, Python needs less coding time. Being an interpreted language, it can become complicated for large projects because they cannot spot mistakes.
3. Java
Java is a programming language that provides numerous high-level features that are needed in programming robots. During code run time, the Java Virtual Machine interprets the instructions. It is a fast, secure, and reliable language that gives robots special features to perform human-like chores. Java Media Framework and Speech API are used for receiving and processing visual images.
4. Basic and Pascal
Basic and Pascal provide the integral scripts for various robotic languages. They are almost outdated but are useful for beginners for getting an idea of functionalities and technicalities.
5. MATLAB
MATLAB is a technical computing language that involves Programming, Visualization, and Computation. Problems and solutions are displayed using mathematical notations. It analyzes data and builds control systems. In MATLAB, simulation and modeling are not complicated and remove elimination errors via identifying problems in the prototyping phase rather than during the production stage.
6. Lisp
Lisp is among the first programming languages that were initially created for applied mathematical notations for computer programs. Most significant parts of the Robot Operating System (ROS) are in Lisp, a crucial Artificial Intelligence (AI) language.
Lisp has additional features like automatic storage management, tree data structures, self-hosting compilers, dynamic typing, recursion, conditionals, elevated-order functions. Read-eval-print loop, etc.
Hardware Description Languages (HDL)
This language programs digital and electronic logic circuits. HDL specifies the gates and chips and simulations of the resulting chip specification behavior via a hardware simulator. HDL has dulled the distinction between robot software and hardware development using design tools, which allows the development of real-time imaging hardware.
Conclusion
Robotics is a growing field that continues to rake in billions. What we see today is just a slice of the bigger picture, which is yet to come. As we embrace the future, learning programming languages is crucial for anyone aspiring to work in the robotics industry.
Since there are too many programming languages, learning the most important is the way to go, although the languages depending on the type of robot being programmed.
Danis Woods in Businessman, investment banker and stock exchange traders. On the same time he loves writing financial blogs to shed lights on different aspects that new and existing businessman are not aware of.
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