Drones, Robotics and Automation: Exam Notes

The correct answer is D, automation. Automation is the technology in which mechanical parts, electronics and computer based control are put together so that a process is controlled and operated with little human help, which is exactly the description in the question. Option A is wrong because a PLC, the programmable logic controller, is only one device used in automation, the controller that reads inputs and switches outputs; it is a part and not the technology as a whole. Option B is wrong because a sequential controller is a still narrower idea, a controller that steps through operations in a fixed order. Option C is wrong because microprocessor based systems name the computing hardware, which may be used in automation or in any other electronic product. Remember that the broad term is automation and the devices inside it are the PLC, SCADA and CNC.

The correct answer is B, Karel Capek. The Czech writer Karel Capek used the word in his play R.U.R., or Rossum's Universal Robots, written in 1920, taking it from the Czech word robota, which means forced labour. Option A is wrong, though it is the favourite trap: Isaac Asimov coined the word robotics and framed the three laws of robotics, but not the word robot itself. Option C is wrong because George Devol invented the first industrial robot arm, the Unimate, which went to work in a factory, a matter of engineering and not of naming. Option D is wrong because Alan Turing is remembered for the theory of computing and for the test of machine intelligence. Keep Capek for the word robot and Asimov for robotics and the three laws.

The correct answer is B, Isaac Asimov. Asimov set out the three laws in his science fiction, by which a robot may not harm a human being, must obey the orders given by human beings except where that conflicts with the first law, and must protect itself except where that conflicts with the first two laws; he also coined the word robotics. Option A is wrong because Arthur C. Clarke is remembered for the idea of the geostationary communication satellite and for his own fiction. Option C is wrong because H. G. Wells wrote earlier scientific romances such as The Time Machine. Option D is wrong because Jules Verne wrote of submarines and journeys long before the robot was imagined. The order of the three laws is itself asked, so learn it.

The correct answer is A, up to 250 grams. The rules class drones by all up weight, which includes the battery and the payload, and the nano class is the smallest, up to 250 grams, which is why the lightest toy and camera drones fall in it and are treated most lightly by the law. Option B is wrong because above 250 grams and up to 2 kilograms is the micro class. Option C is wrong because above 2 kilograms and up to 25 kilograms is the small class, which is the usual size for survey and spraying drones. Option D is wrong because above 25 kilograms and up to 150 kilograms is the medium class, and anything heavier is large. Learn the ladder as 250 grams, 2, 25 and 150 kilograms.

The correct answer is A, Digital Sky. Digital Sky is the online platform of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation on which a drone is registered and given its unique identification number, on which the airspace map with its green, yellow and red zones is published, and through which flight permissions are sought. Option B is wrong because Bhuvan is the geoportal of ISRO, which serves satellite imagery and maps. Option C is wrong because DigiLocker is the government service for keeping and sharing personal documents such as mark sheets and licences. Option D is wrong because UMANG is the single mobile application for many government services. Fix Digital Sky with the Drone Rules of 2021 and the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Papers also ask which ministry notified the Drone Rules, and the answer is the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The correct answer is B, unmanned aerial vehicle. A UAV is an aircraft with no pilot on board, flown either by a remote pilot or by its own programme, and when it is counted together with its ground control station and the radio link between them the whole is called an unmanned aircraft system. Option A is wrong because universal air vehicle is not a term used in aviation. Option C is wrong because avionics is the name for the electronic systems of an aircraft, and no vehicle class is named after it. Option D is wrong because upper atmosphere vehicle is not a standard expression either, though high altitude pseudo satellites do fly in the stratosphere. For the exam, pair UAV with drone and UAS with the whole system.

The correct answer is A, a pilotless target aircraft. Lakshya was developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment of the DRDO to be flown as a target so that gun crews and missile units can practise against a realistic moving aircraft, and it is recovered by parachute. Option B is wrong because India's passenger aircraft programmes are of a different line altogether, such as the Saras light transport aircraft. Option C is wrong because the armed helicopters in Indian service are the Rudra and the Light Combat Helicopter, which carry crew. Option D is wrong because the reusable launch vehicle is an ISRO programme for space access. Along with Lakshya, remember Nishant, Netra and TAPAS BH, which was earlier called Rustom II. Note also that the Ghatak is the stealth combat drone of the same organisation, still under development.

The correct answer is B, a half humanoid robot. Vyommitra has a head, a face, arms and a torso but no legs, which is why it is called half humanoid, and it has been built to ride an uncrewed flight of the Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme, operate switches, watch the panels and report conditions as a crew member would. Option A is wrong because the Indian weather satellites are the INSAT series and the Oceansat and Scatsat spacecraft. Option C is wrong because the Indian space observatory is AstroSat, and Aditya L1 studies the Sun. Option D is wrong because the launch pads are at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. Hold Vyommitra with Gaganyaan, and remember that its name joins the words for sky and friend.

The correct answer is B, programmable logic controller. A PLC is a rugged industrial computer that reads the state of switches and sensors as inputs, runs a stored programme of logic, and switches motors, valves and lamps as outputs, so that a machine or a whole line runs by itself. Option A is wrong because power line carrier is a method of sending signals over electric power lines, used in communication, not a controller. Option C is wrong because process level computer is not a standard term in automation. Option D is wrong because programmed linear circuit is not a recognised class of device either. Note that SCADA sits above the PLC, watching and recording a whole plant from a control room, while the PLC does the switching.

The correct answer is A, supervisory control and data acquisition. A SCADA system gathers readings from sensors and controllers spread over a plant, a grid or a water network, shows them on screens in a control room, records them, and lets an operator send commands back, which is why it is described as supervisory control together with data acquisition. Option B is wrong because system control and digital automation is not the expansion of the term, though it sounds plausible. Option C is wrong because sequential control and data analysis describes two different ideas and is not the full form. Option D is wrong because safety control and device assembly is not a term used in this field. Remember the pair, PLC on the machine and SCADA in the control room.

The correct answer is B, surveying inhabited village land for property cards. SVAMITVA, launched in 2020 by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, flies drones over the abadi or inhabited area of villages to make accurate maps, from which residents are given property cards that record their ownership and can be used to raise loans. Option A is wrong because spraying is the work of kisan drones under agriculture programmes, which is a separate use. Option C is wrong because vaccine and medicine delivery was tested under the i-Drone effort and the Medicine from the Sky trials. Option D is wrong because border patrolling is done by the armed forces and the border guarding forces with their own systems. Fix SVAMITVA with the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and property cards.

The correct answer is B, it feeds the measured output back to the controller. In a closed loop system a sensor measures what the process is actually doing, that measurement is compared with the desired value, and the controller acts on the difference, which is what a thermostat, a cruise control or a water level controller does. Option A is wrong because a closed loop system must have a controller; it is the feedback path, not the controller, that distinguishes it. Option C is wrong because the type of electric supply has nothing to do with the loop, and such systems run on direct current and on compressed air as well. Option D is wrong because closed loop systems are very often programmable, a PLC being the usual example. An open loop system, by contrast, never checks its own result.