Remote operation of a robot.

Remote operation of a robot.
Sometimes, it is too difficult or too dangerous to be in direct control of a robot. In such cases, we can set the robot up for remote control. Many of you are already familiar with this concept – Remote controlled toy cars work on this concept, but in short range. Sometimes we need to operate a robot from perhaps thousands of kilometres away.

Robots controlled this way are connected to the information superhighway – the internet. It is possible to control the robot using only a keyboard and mouse. The instructions you send it are translated by a machine to tell the robot what to do. It is more effective to have one or more webcam trained on the robot or robot arm to see what is happening.

Robotics - offsite monitoring

Off site monitoring

There are two ways to check a site’s robot/s remotely. The first, and easiest way is by webcam. Setting up a webcam and a webpage to match requires a little knowledge of HTML, PHP, or some other internet scripting technique. A live webcam feed allows you to see the robot’s progress and any potential external errors.

The second, and most common, way to check a robot is to use sensors. There are all sorts of sensors for all sort of applications – distance (or length), weight, arm angle, motion, etc. depending on how the robot is configured, and what needs to be checked. A lot of sensors can be wired up to a main computer.

A sensor should only trigger an alarm if something is wrong, and it should alert the problem to the relevant person. The sensor should also give an indication of its status within set bounds, so any potential problem can be seen early and fixed before any potential problem becomes a disaster.