Types Of Robots Based On Applications

Robot is a modern invention that is sturdily constructed with mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance that human can perform, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Different types of robots are designed to perform different tasks in various fields. Besides, tasks delegated to robots have grown swiftly. The robots categorized as per their application are as follows: -

Mobile Robots:

Mobile robots have the capability to move around in their environment. An example of a mobile robot is the Mars Explorer, specifically designed to roam the mars surface. Mobile robots are used for task where people cannot go. Also the automated guided vehicle  . An AGV is a mobile robot that follows markers or wires in the floor, or uses vision or lasers. that are primarily used for the work of material transportation in large workplaces such as warehouses, hospitals, container ports and alike. They function in such areas with the help of wires or lasers, by sensing the environment in which they operate.

An advanced version of AGV is known as Self Guided Vehicle . Such robots are PatrolBot, Speci-Minder, Golfer, Tug, and so on. These robots can be taught navigation separately in a particular environment. Moreover, such robots also have competency to conduct non-sequential tasks in complex environments. Because of this, they are also referred to as intelligent robots. Mobile robots are also used in industry, military and security environments. They also appear as consumer products, for entertainment or to perform certain tasks like vacuum cleaning. Mobile robots are the focus of a great deal of current research and almost every major university has one or more labs that focus on mobile robot research.

Space robots:

The robots that are sent in space for research, environmental state of other planets, etc. For this, type would include robots used on the International Space Station, Canadarm that was used in Shuttles, as well as Mars rovers and other robots used in space.

Industrial robots:

Industrial robots are robots used in an industrial manufacturing environment. Usually these are articulated arms specifically developed for such applications as welding, material handling, painting and others. If we judge purely by application this type could also include some automated guided vehicles and other robots.As industrial tasks require accuracy, speed, reliability as well as endurance, industrial robots have potentially replaced humans in performing those tasks.

Military robots:
The robots that are used in military/defense sector. This type of robots includes bomb disposal robots, different transportation robots, reconnaissance drones. Often robots initially created for military purposes can be used in law enforcement, search and rescue and other related fields. Military robots include the SWORDS robot which is currently used in ground-based combat. 
Unmanned combat air vehicles, which are an upgraded form of UAVs, can do a wide variety of missions, including combat. UCAVs are being designed such that they would have the ability to fly themselves, to pick their own course and target, and to make most decisions on their own.

Telerobots:

The robot which are used to such areas where there is dangerous and unable to do for humans. Such types robot placed at a certain distance from the telerobot commands it with the aid of space shuttle. Laparoscopic surgery is one such thing that is performed with telerobots.
Some of the applications of these robots are for construction of spaceships, maintenance of satellites, development of space station and alike and also used for exploration of space. These robots have also found their application in military and defense sector.

Domestic or household robots:

Robots used at home. This type of robots includes many quite different devices such as robotic vacuum cleaners, robotic pool cleaners, sweepers, gutter cleaners and other robots that can do different chores. Also, some surveillance and telepresence robots could be regarded as household robots if used in that environment.

 
Medical robots:

Robots used in pharmaceuticals, hospitals, medicine and medical institutions. First and foremost – surgery robots. Also, some automated guided vehicles and maybe lifting aides.

Service robots:

Robots that don’t fall into other types by usage. These could be different data gathering robots, robots made to show off technologies, robots used for research, etc.

Entertainment robots:

These are robots used for entertainment. This is a very broad category. It starts with toy robots such as robosapien or the running alarm clock and ends with real heavyweights such as articulated robot arms used as motion simulators.

Hobby and competition robots:

Robots that you made just for fun and competition purpose like Line followers, sumo-bots, and etc.

Robots in agriculture:
There are many robots that are still in an experimental stage and have been used in agricultural field like as to gather harvest, plant seeds and transplant seedlings, pick apples, etc and More

Modular robot:

Modular robots is a new species of robots that are designed to increase the utilization of the robots by modularizing the robots.

Research robots:
While the most robots today are installed in industries or domestics, performing labour or life saving jobs, many new types of robot are being developed in laboratories researches around the world. Most of the research in robotics focuses not on specific industrial tasks, but on investigations into new types of robot, alternative ways to think about or design robots, and new ways to manufacture them. It is expected that these new types of robot will be able to solve real world problems when they are finally realized.

Soft Robots:

Robots with silicone bodies and flexible actuators, controlled using fuzzy logic and neural networks, look and feel different from robots with rigid skeletons, and can have different behaviors.

Swarm robots:

The robot having behavior of swarms(a group of bees/ants) of thousands of tiny robots which together perform a useful task, such as cleaning, finding something hidden, or spying. Each robot is quite simple, but the emergent behavior of the swarm is more complex. The whole set of robots can be considered as one single distributed system, in the same way an ant colony can be considered a superorganism, exhibiting swarm intelligence. The largest swarms so far created include the iRobot swarm, the SRI/Mobile Robots Centibots project and the Open-source Micro-robotic Project swarm, which are being used to research collective behaviors.

Nanorobots:

The robot which are in nano(10−9 meters) size. They are also known as “nanobots” or “nanites”, Nanorobotics is the emerging technology field of creating machines or robots whose components are at or close to the microscopic scale of a nanometer(10−9 meters). They would be constructed from molecular machines. So far, researchers have mostly produced only parts of these complex systems, such as bearings, sensors, and synthetic molecular motors, but functioning robots have also been made such as the entrants to the Nanobot Robocup contest. Researchers also hope to be able to create entire robots as small as viruses or bacteria, which could perform tasks on a tiny scale. By this, the possible applications include micro surgery (on the level of individual cells), utility fog,manufacturing, weaponry and cleaning.