Effectors

An effector is a part of a robot that can change the state of the world. For example, motors attached to wheels can cause a robot to move to a different location. A gripper can pick things up and move them. A communication signal sent by a robot can provide information to other robots within listening range.

Robots can come equipped with several effectors. These include motors (in varying numbers and types), manipulators (e.g. gripper), and beacons (laser, IR, or light). The basic effectors assumed in most Pyro experiments are motors. Further, we will assume that functionally, each robot is capable of only two kinds of motion:

Translation
Going forward or backward

Rotation
Spinning clockwise or counter-clockwise.
 
Pyro also provides capabilities for blending these movements so that it would be possible for a robot to move forward or backward while turning.

These movement abstractions in Pyro will allow you to write code for many different types of robots by specifying only translation and rotation amounts. Pyro will then interface with the actual robot (either real or simulated) to send the correct commands to the motors on that particular platform.

In the next section, we will show you how to run Pyro and introduce you to the commands for moving a robot in its environment.

Modules

Introduction
Robot Morphology
Effectors
The Pyro Interface*
The Aria Simulator*
The Stage Simulator*
Pioneer Robots*
Khepera Robots*
Sensors*
Services*

Brains *
 
Reactive Control*
 
Behavior-Based*
 
Vision*
 
Planning & Reasoning
 
Learning (Neural Nets)*
Intro. to Neural Nets*
Building NNs in Conx
*
Associative Nets
*
Recurrent Nets
*
Robots and NNs
*
VisConx
*
Advanced NNs
*
Evolutionary Algorithms*
 
Mapping & Localization
 
Multi-Agent Robotics*

Appendices

Learning Python*

Pyro Technics*

Quick Reference*

Development

Beyond Legos Home

Pyro Wiki

Contributors

Get Pyro*

* These are links to contents still under development. These materials are usable as is but are currently in a state of flux as we work to make the software move towards production quality. Once stable, the materials will be frozen, along with a synchronized Pyro release, and posted here.