Which Electronic Components Are Contained in Robotic Systems?

Robots more or less use electricity for command, manipulation, and actuating. Propelling all the power around the robot is the role of the electronic parts. Robots contain inherent electronic parts as well as third-party parts.

Some of the parts that you will find under the hood of a power-driven robot include electric motors, actuators, power supply units, sensors, among other components. In addition, these electronic robotics parts comprise of other parts such as capacitors, resistors, and circuits.

All these parts need to function as a unit for the robot to perform its tasks well. Any malfunction means the robot cannot move as expected. In this article we will break down some of the parts contained in most electronic robots.

The Electronics Contained in Robots Include:

Power Supply

Similar to the human body, a robot requires energy to drive its processes. The human body is driven by food, water, and air, whereas robots are driven by electricity. Robots generally are built to function directly from a socket or rechargeable batteries.

Robots that have batteries are better because they can be moved from one point to the next. It goes without mentioning that the larger the battery, the longer the robot will function without needing a recharge.

This doesn’t mean that the battery should be infinitely large. Basically, the battery should be big enough to handle the tasks allocated to the robot for a specified period of time. On the other hand, the battery should not be so big that it limits the robot’s movement.

Sensors

Batteries are vital for a robot’s motion. But what good is the power supply unit without the rest of the other inherent electronic components? The human body has a sensory framework comprised of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin. So robots, too, have a sensory framework.

The system is not as advanced and autonomous as the human body, but recent tech advancements are bridging the gap between humans and machines.

A typical robot sensory framework consists of digital and analog sensors such as microphones for sound, camcorders for sight, tactile sensors to determine human feelings, and ultrasonic sensors for determining distance.

Actuators

Actuators are the power transformation units found in a robot. The main purpose of actuators is to transform power into motion.  Actuators come in three variants, namely, hydraulic, pneumatic, or electronic. Smaller robots usually are fitted with electric actuators because they are cheap, easy to manipulate, and are extensively available.

Controllers

A controller is a component of a robot that synchronizes all the movements of the mechanical framework. The controller receives inputs from the robot’s surroundings through the various sensors. Thus, the controller is the input and output device of the robot.

Processors

One of the most vital fragments of a robot is its brain. Similar to a human brain, the robot’s processors are liable for manipulating all the various movements of the robot. The brain of the robot comprises microprocessors and microcontrollers.

Microcontrollers are trivial chips that have thousands of transistors. Microcontrollers have configurable digital input-output pins known as general-purpose input-output pins. A microprocessor is liable for all repetitive tasks. They can be configured to execute a certain set of tasks, and they will execute these tasks one after the next and repeat the process if need be.

Microprocessors, however, are somewhat funkier in the sense that they don’t have inbuilt memory. You will need to attach an isolated memory device to them, and this should expand their processing power.

Motors

The basic notion behind an electric motor is straightforward. You channel an electric current into it in one end, and an axle revolves at the other end producing power to drive the robot. Thus, motors produce rotational motions in robots.

Final Thought

To sum it all up, robots require power as much as the human body requires food and water. In addition, as demonstrated above, a couple of components are needed for rotational movements in a mechanical robot to occur.

Magdalena Zlatica

“Lifelong entrepreneur. Total writer. Internet ninja. Analyst. Friendly music enthusiast.”