What’s the Difference Between Robotics and Artificial Intelligence?

 It’s Robotics a part of AI? Is AI a part of robotics? What’s the distinction between the 2 phrases? We reply this elementary query.

Robotics and synthetic intelligence (AI) serve very completely different functions. Nonetheless, folks typically get them blended up. 

Lots of people surprise if robotics is a subset of synthetic intelligence. Others surprise if they’re the identical factor.

For the reason that first model of this text, which we revealed again in 2017, the query has gotten much more complicated. The rise in the usage of the phrase “robotic” lately to imply any kind of automation has forged much more doubt on how robotics and AI match collectively (extra on this on the finish of the article).  

It is time to put issues straight as soon as and for all. 

Are robotics and synthetic intelligence the identical factor?

The very first thing to make clear is that robotics and synthetic intelligence aren’t the identical issues in any respect. Actually, the 2 fields are nearly solely separate.

A Venn diagram of the 2 fields would appear to be this:

As you’ll be able to see, there’s one space small the place the 2 fields overlap: Artificially Clever Robots. It’s inside this overlap that individuals typically confuse the 2 ideas. 

To know how these three phrases relate to one another, let us take a look at every of them individually.

What’s robotics?

Robotics is a department of expertise that offers with bodily robots. Robots are programmable machines which are often capable of perform a collection of actions autonomously, or semi-autonomously.

In my view, there are three vital components which represent a robotic:

1. Robots work together with the bodily world through sensors and actuators.
2. Robots are programmable.
3. Robots are often autonomous or semi-autonomous.

I say that robots are “often” autonomous as a result of some robots aren’t. Telerobots, for instance, are solely managed by a human operator however telerobotics continues to be classed as a department of robotics. That is one instance the place the definition of robotics will not be very clear.

It is surprisingly difficult to get specialists to agree on precisely what constitutes a “robotic.” Some folks say {that a} robotic should be capable of “suppose” and make choices. Nonetheless, there isn’t a customary definition of “robotic pondering.” Requiring a robotic to “suppose” means that it has some stage of synthetic intelligence however the many non-intelligent robots that exist present that pondering can’t be a requirement for a robotic. 

Nonetheless you select to outline a robotic, robotics includes designing, constructing and programming bodily robots that are capable of work together with the bodily world. Solely a small a part of robotics includes synthetic intelligence.

Instance of a robotic: Primary cobot

A easy collaborative robotic (cobot) is an ideal instance of a non-intelligent robotic.

For instance, you’ll be able to easily program a cobot to select up an object and place it elsewhere. The cobot will then proceed to select and place objects in precisely the identical approach till you flip it off. That is an autonomous perform as a result of the robotic doesn’t require any human enter after it has been programmed. The duty doesn’t require any intelligence as a result of the cobot won’t ever change what it’s doing. 

Most industrial robots are non-intelligent. 

What’s synthetic intelligence?

Synthetic intelligence (AI) is a department of pc science. It includes growing pc applications to finish duties that might in any other case require human intelligence. AI algorithms can tackle studying, notion, problem-solving, language-understanding and/or logical reasoning.

AI is utilized in some ways throughout the trendy world. For instance, AI algorithms are utilized in Google searches, Amazon’s advice engine, and GPS route finders. Most AI applications aren’t used to manage robots. 

Even when AI is used to manage robots, the AI algorithms are solely a part of the bigger robotic system, which additionally contains sensors, actuators, and non-AI programming. 

Usually — however not all the time — AI includes some stage of machine studying, the place an algorithm is “skilled” to reply to a selected enter in a sure approach by utilizing identified inputs and outputs. We talk about machine studying in our article Robot Vision vs Computer Vision: What’s the Difference?

The important thing facet that differentiates AI from extra standard programming is the phrase “intelligence.” Non-AI applications merely perform an outlined sequence of directions. AI applications mimic some stage of human intelligence. 

Instance of a pure AI: AlphaGo

One of the widespread examples of pure AI may be present in video games. The traditional instance of that is chess, the place the AI Deep Blue beat world champion, Gary Kasparov, in 1997.

A newer instance is AlphaGo, an AI which beat Lee Sedol the world champion Go player, in 2016. There have been no robotic components to AlphaGo. The taking part in items have been moved by a human who watched the robotic’s strikes on a display screen. 

What are Artificially Clever Robots?

Artificially clever robots are the bridge between robotics and AI. These are robots which are managed by AI applications.

Most robots aren’t artificially clever. Up till fairly lately, all industrial robots might solely be programmed to hold out a repetitive collection of actions which, as we have now mentioned, don’t require synthetic intelligence. Nonetheless, non-intelligent robots are fairly restricted of their performance.

AI algorithms are essential while you need to permit the robotic to carry out extra advanced duties.

A warehousing robot would possibly use a path-finding algorithm to navigate across the warehouse. A drone would possibly use autonomous navigation to return residence when it’s about to expire of battery. A self-driving automobile would possibly use a mix of AI algorithms to detect and keep away from potential hazards on the highway. These are all examples of artificially clever robots. 

Instance: Artificially clever cobot

You possibly can prolong the capabilities of a collaborative robotic by utilizing AI.

Think about you wished so as to add a digicam to your cobot. Robotic imaginative and prescient comes underneath the class of “notion” and often requires AI algorithms.

Say that you just wished the cobot to detect the item it was selecting up and place it in a unique location relying on the kind of object. This might contain coaching a specialised imaginative and prescient program to acknowledge the several types of objects. A technique to do that is by utilizing an AI algorithm known as Template Matching, which we talk about in our article How Template Matching Works in Robot Vision.

Generally, most artificially clever robots solely use AI in a single specific facet of their operation. In our instance, AI is barely utilized in object detection. The robotic’s actions aren’t actually managed by AI (although the output of the item detector does affect its actions). 

The place all of it will get complicated…

As you’ll be able to see, robotics and synthetic intelligence are actually two separate issues.

Robotics includes constructing robots bodily whereas AI includes programming intelligence.

Nonetheless, there’s one space the place every thing has acquired somewhat complicated since I first wrote this text: software program robots.

Why software program robots aren’t robots

The time period “software program robotic” refers to a sort of pc program which autonomously operates to finish a digital job. Examples embody:

• Search engine “bots” — aka “net crawlers.” These roam the web, scanning web sites and categorizing them for search. 
• Robotic Course of Automation (RPA) — These have considerably hijacked the phrase “robotic” up to now few years, as I explained in this article. 
• Chatbots — These are the applications that pop up on web sites speak to you with a set of pre-written responses. 

Software program bots aren’t bodily robots they solely exist inside a pc. Due to this fact, they aren’t actual robots. 

Some superior software program robots could even embody AI algorithms. Nonetheless, software program robots aren’t a part of robotics.

Hopefully, this has clarified every thing for you. However, in case you have any questions in any respect please ask them within the feedback.