Components of robotic systems

This figure depicts the components that are part of all robotic systems. The purpose of this Section is to describe the semantics of the terminology used to classify the chapters in the WEBook: “sensing”, “planning”, “modelling”, “control”, etc.

The real robot is some mechanical device (“mechanism”) that moves around in the environment, and, in doing so, physically interacts with this environment. This interaction involves the exchange of physical energy, in some form or another. Both the robot mechanism and the environment can be the “cause” of the physical interaction through “Actuation”, or experience the “effect” of the interaction, which can be measured through “Sensing”.