engineering

Anybots

Anybots is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Anybots rather than just read about it. In short: Anybots Inc. is an American robotics company based in Santa Clara, California. It was founded in 2001 by Trevor Blackwell.

Key takeaways

Anybots belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Anybots to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Anybots from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Anybots Inc. is an American robotics company based in Santa Clara, California. It was founded in 2001 by Trevor Blackwell.

History The company was incorporated as Anybots Inc. by Trevor Blackwell in 2001. David Rogan later became CEO in July 2012.

Robotics products

Q(X)

Q(X) (also known as the QX) was a 2013 virtual presence robot from Anybots. It could support a 21-inch display or 2x 15.6-inch screens. It provided HD video, a 64x zoom camera, and audio capabilities. It was the first product from Anybots that did not feature its laser pointer as a standard.

However, its modular design allowed for customer-specified payloads and alternate conferencing systems to be included.

QB was a two-wheeled, gyroscopically stabilized remote telepresence unit driven via a web browser. The user was able to select from a range of bots located around the world, and drive it from the website. The end user was required to have power, Wi-Fi or 3G/4G. This product featured a touchscreen display, speaker and microphone and a laser pointer. Intended applications included marketing, and various telepresence tasks, such as for remote experts, remote lobby receptionists, museum guides, education, translation services, remote property tours by real estate agents, exhibition attendants and security patrols, as well as the more general business meeting presence. It could also have become useful for the handicapped, severely disabled, and sick children, according to marketing material. Anybots could be purchased in the United States, Japan, and Europe.

QA QA, which debuted at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, was the first of Anybots' two telepresence Robots. 5-foot-tall (1.5 m), 35-pound (16 kg) It balanced on two wheels, like a Segway, had 5-megapixel cameras, two-way audio and a laser pointer for gesturing. The user could connect to QA via Wi-Fi. The robot was never produced commercially.

Dexter Dexter was a dynamically balancing bipedal humanoid robot research project. It was made to learn walking and jumping, with its feet clearing the ground for a third of a second. Because it uses pneumatics as actuators, its joints were compliant and provided a springy restoring force, much like a human's tendons, allowing it much greater capability to deal with obstacles.

Monty

Monty was a telemanipulation prototype. It could pick things up with an 18 degree of freedom hand and was operated remotely through the use of a suit that included a special glove.

References

External links

Media related to Anybots at Wikimedia Commons Official website What is an Anybot? (video) Jeri Ellsworth trying a demo of Dexter operating over immersive telepresence on YouTube

Illustrations

Anybots: Anybots QX Prototype 4 — Anybots QX Prototype 4

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Anybots

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Anybots claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Anybots before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Anybots ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Anybots

In research: Anybots appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Anybots in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Anybots is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Companies based in Mountain View, California, Electronics companies of the United States, Robotics companies of the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Anybots outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Anybots in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Anybots means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Anybots out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Anybots in simple terms?

Anybots Inc. is an American robotics company based in Santa Clara, California. It was founded in 2001 by Trevor Blackwell.

Why does Anybots matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Anybots?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Anybots.