The 3 Primary Engineering Fields in Robotics
Robotics is a branch of engineering that deals with the conception, design, manufacture, and operation of robots. The goal of the robotics field is to create intelligent machines that can help humans in many ways.
Robotics is considered a new and emerging technology. To build and develop a robotics system, there are three major engineering fields involved:
It is concerned with robots movement and deals with mechanical design and static and dynamic stability.
It acts as a bridge between mechanical linkage and the robot’s computer, which deals with sensors, PCB design, and power supply.
It gives soul to the robot and deals with programming, machine learning, and artificial intelligence implementation for a robot.
Engineering fields in Robotics engineering combines multiple professions. This article will provide you with a broad understanding of the primary engineering fields involved in robotics and their role in the development process.
Mechanical Engineer
Mechanical engineering fields in robotics involves the design of the physical structure of a robot. This includes robot configuration, robot type, connection mechanisms, axes, heat transfer properties, mounting positions, and many other aspects when creating a new robot.
To become a robotics-focused mechanical engineer, most people enroll in a four-year engineering degree and focus, However, designing robotics and mechanical linkage design. Robotics engineers must have a comprehensive understanding of math and science, a drive to solve problems, and an imagination to create.
While most engineering careers have average growth in their job, robotics engineers require multidisciplinary skills and are in high demand. After employment as a robotics engineer, duties in various industries include maintaining or inventing robotic systems. Robotics engineers specializing in working with CAD can gain various job opportunities. For example, they can draft software to design and manufacture specifications for robotic systems’ physical movements.
For people who are willing to pursue a career in the field of robotics engineering, the study in the mechanical engineering course is considered one of the best areas of engineering. Robotics engineering continues to be an invasive industry, with additional manufacturer automation implemented every year.
Electronic Engineer:
Another engineering filed in robotics is electronic engineering. An electronic engineer is typically needed to design the embedded boards that manage the mechanism of a robot’s actuation. In addition, it gathers signals from the sensors and exchanges such info over the bus connecting the distributed system. The electronic engineer’s duty is so principally to touch upon the hardware design of the boards and act with sensors.
Robots use various sensors to collect data from their environment and are able to interact with their surrounding objects or humans. For example, the robot can be trained to understand its location and navigate through it to reach a particular point using Light detecting technology and sensors. In addition, sensors can give a vision of the environment to detect objects and obstacles on their way.
Perception helps to analyze the data from the surrounding. Together they help the robot decide how to react to the object encountered. So, sensation and perception are important to control the accurate movement and function of the robot.
Especially when we consider the robot with wheels, detecting obstacles is mandatory. That’s why we have placed it in the major field of robotics. Furthermore, selecting suitable sensors is necessary to ensure the correct movements of the robot.
Another field of robotics that concerts an electronic engineer is the power supply design. Power distribution design is extremely vital for a robot, especially industrial robots, to perform its task efficiently. One of the roles of electronic engineers in the field of robotics is to configure and design power distribution systems for a robot.
Software Engineer:
When discussing the primary engineering fields in robotics, we can’t ignore software engineering. A software engineer is concerned with programming a robot to communicate with the environment and operate a task. A software engineer must use advanced programming and machine learning techniques to train a robot to perform specific tasks to make a robot intelligent.
Programming allows robots to learn and adapt to changes within the environment which stimulates the achievement of science and engineering.
The software engineer’s task is to work with writing, testing, and modifying programs that control the functions of robotic equipment. As a robot engineer who works as a programmer, your responsibilities include but are not limited to using robotic software such as ROS and MATLAB to create manufacturing or industrial robots. Before programming the robot, you have to analyze drawings, blueprints, and manufacturing or assembly requirements.
Various programming languages are more popular in the field of robotics engineering, such as C/C++ and Python. Python is also popular because of its data analysis and machine learning application strength. Additionally, Python can be used to develop ROS packages for robotic applications.
Conclusion
This article has discussed the major engineering fields in robotics. A mechanical engineer, electronics engineer, and software engineer should have a collaboration to develop a fully functional robot. Some schools are offering a combinational robotics engineering course in all three major engineering fields. If you are living in the Philippines, you may check the TESDA programs and MRSP Facebook page for announcements about the engineering fields in robotics certification and training. Robotics has a bright future, and a vast market makes it the perfect time to jump into it.
You may find some tips for having a successful interview in this article!
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