Word of the Day: degrees of freedom

July 03, 2009 Published by  WhatIs.com Word of the Day Overheard in the Blogosphere: Contact us - editor@whatis.com "Autonomous, intelligent robots are great, but when they look like classic Transformers characters they're even better." Who said it? Issue Sponsored By:   >  SearchDataManagement.com IN THIS ISSUE:   >  Word of the Day: degrees of freedom   >  Learning Center   >  Recent Additions and Updates   ADVERTISEMENT   Visit the SearchDataManagement.com Research Library Stop by the White Paper library for the latest industry white papers, analyst reports, case studies and product information. Every resource in our in-depth library is free, so finding what you need has never been easier. Visit the SearchDataManagement.com Research Library today!   TODAY'S WORD degrees of freedom Degrees of freedom, in the context of mechanics, are specific, defined modes in which a mechanical device or system can move. The number of degrees of freedom is equal to the total number of independent displacements or aspects of motion. A machine may operate in two or three dimensions but have more than three degrees of freedom. The term is widely used to define the motion capabilities of robots. Consider a robot arm built to work like a human arm. Shoulder motion can take place as pitch (up and down) or yaw (left and right). Elbow motion can occur only as pitch. Wrist motion can occur as pitch or yaw. Rotation (roll) may also be possible for wrist and shoulder. Such a robot arm has five to seven degrees of freedom. If a complex robot has two arms, the total number of degrees of freedom is doubled. In an android, additional degrees of freedom exist in the end effectors, the legs and the head. Fully functional androids and multi-legged mobile robots can have more than 20 degrees of freedom. An example is Project Nao, an intelligent android designed for the consumer market. Nao, which looks superficially like a large space-age doll, has 25 degrees of freedom. MORE INFO: > Wikipedia has an entry about degrees of freedom. > Toyota's trumpet-playing robot has 29 degrees of freedom. LEARNING CENTER Tech Trivia Why did a DARPA cyborg project involving wasps fail? Answer (Scroll to the end of the definition.) Secret Word of the Day This term refers to refers to the ability of a robot to interact with people emotionally as well as on a logical level. What's the secret word? Answer Writing for Business Some people fear that robots will get out of hand and suggest that we`ll get our just _______ because we allowed it to happen. a. deserts b. desserts Which is correct? Acronym Challenge GESTALT is a technology used to help mobile robots navigate over irregular landscapes. What does GESTALT stand for? Answer RECENT ADDITIONS AND UPDATES Your Friday Quiz: The Robots are Coming! Sure -- NOW they vacuum and scrub the floor -- but what happens when they wise up? The answers to this quiz could be required information when our artificially intelligent friends take over. We're tweeting! Follow us on Twitter: definitions @whatisdotcom and daily writing/grammar questions @grammar_guru CONTACT US Sales For sales inquiries, please contact us at: bmcgovern@techtarget.com Editorial For feedback about any of our articles or to send us your article ideas, please contact us at: Editor@whatis.com ABOUT THIS E-NEWSLETTER This e-newsletter is published by WhatIs.com, part of the TechTarget network. TechTarget provides IT professionals with the resources they need to perform their jobs: Web sites, newsletters, forums, blogs, white papers, webcasts, events and more. Copyright 2009 TechTarget. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. If you no longer wish to receive Word of the Day from WhatIs.com go to unsubscribe: http://WhatIs.techtarget.com/u?track=NL-34&em=omsscallcentre.1001%40blogger.com&uid=8731207&eid=714072& Unsubscribe requests may take up to 24 hours to process; you may receive additional mailings during that time. A confirmation e-mail will be sent when your request has been successfully processed. Please note, this will not affect any other subscriptions you have signed up for. Contact Us: WhatIs.com Member Services 117 Kendrick Street, Suite 800 Needham, MA 02494 Contact: Webmaster@techtarget.com When you access content from this newsletter, your information may be shared with the sponsors or future sponsors of that content as described in our Privacy Policy: PRIV LINK