Safety

Some computer applications have safety as a top priority. For example, an air-traffic control system. The computer system needs to be completely reliable and dependable and the development of safety-critical systems is a highly specialised field.

Industrial, Technical and Scientific uses.

Computers are often used to manipulate large sets of numbers very quickly. This type of computer use is often referred to as 'number crunching'.

Weather forecasting.

Large amounts of data (temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction etc) are received from all over the world, and weather maps are produced from which forecasts are made..

CAD(Computer Aided Design)

The use of computers for producing designs of anything from a small electronic component to a large building.
Hardware required may consist of a graphics tablet for input, and a graph plotter for output.
Powerful editing features change any part of drawing replicate any section use of libraries of components instructions for repetitive tasks (macros) zooming in for fine detail Other facilities may include - mathematical operations eg calculate volume of object interface to a machine which actually makes a 3D model

A screen display from a CAD/CAM package:

CAM (Computer Aided Manufacture)

Computers used in all stages of a production process. It is done using

eg lathes , milling machines, drilling machines and robots.

CAD/CAM Example : Manufacture of PCBs

• designers given specifications for an electronic process.
• designer designs the circuit.
• Circuit Analysis program used to test if the circuit works.
• CAD used to design the Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
• PCB design is plotted out and used to produce the physical boards.
• Driller drills appropriate holes for components.
• a robot places the components on the board and the board is then soldered
• computer then used to test the PCB

Animation

Computers are used to produce graphics or animation for computer games, TV or film use. Graphics packages are used to create moving pictures one frame at a time. The frames are then put together to form an animated  sequence.

Complex 3-D Graphics need to be rendered so that they can be effectively displayed. This is basically a number-crunching process and can be done on render farms - a number of different computers sharing the workload (Example of distributed processing).

Industrial Robots

Robots have

• sensors which capture information.
• microprocessors to process the information.
• actuators which produce movement or switch on/off machinery

Robots are basically microprocessor-based computer control systems.

eg in a car manufacturing process robots might

• manufacturing components
• assembling / welding parts
• 'fetching and carrying' parts.
• paint-spraying

Sensors which a robot may have include

• touch : strain gauges which detect pressure / touch
• sight : using video cameras; however analysis of images is complex
• sound : speech recognition
• smell : chemical analysis techniques; used for detection of gas leaks.
• taste : biosensors currently under development to detect sweet / sour / salty
• sensors to detect light; heat; magnetism; radiation; etc

Why use robots?

• they can work in environments hazardous to humans
• they can tirelessly perform repetitive and monotonous tasks
• labour costs can be reduced
• quality of work is consistent
• robots can work 24 hours a day so - increased productivity

Nano-technology

No section on robots would be complete without a mention of nano-technology - derives its name from a nano-meter (1 x 10^-9 m). Unbelievable though it might sound, small devices including motors and gears, have been designed and developed at this very small scale. This opens up possibilities for sending robots inside restricted areas such as the human body, - imagine a robot which is able to move along inside your veins and cut away all the cholesterol!)