In this edition, we are introducing a new corner to the Journal – Armenology (Հայագիտություն). The purpose of this corner is to ground the engineering practice into the particularity of Armenia. The thought here is that this should create a counterweight to engineering, which is a universal practice. Let’s give it a try.

I am happy to inform you that as a part of Smart Manufacturing Advanced Research Lab we just received the first robot, which is an Industrial Transport robot for autonomous delivery on manufacturing floors. You can see below high-level introduction.

Overview

ATEAGO ROBOTIKS S6P ROS AI Robot Carrier 300 KG Payload AGV Logistics Robot Chassis Industrial Transport Robot Base Mobile Delivery Robot Porter Warehouse Dispatching Robot AMR is a one-way backpack handling robot, 300KG large load capacity, equipped with ATEAGO self-research SLAM 2.0 autonomous positioning and navigation system, high precision navigation and positioning, open SDK platform, support secondary development or customization services to meet different robot development needs.

My Observations so far

We received a robot relatively quickly after placing an order to the Chinese manufacture. Robot was delivered in a single box, and I was able to quickly get familiar with the main functionality using the documentation provided by the support team. I was able to bring it up and use it right out of the box, overall had a good experience considering the advanced capabilities which robot has.

Robot’s operation system is based on Linux ROS and it comes with the out of the box capabilities need to cover several scenarios that are most common on smart manufacturing type applications.

1. Shelf handling up to 300Kg with the jacking mode, basically it can navigate under the shelf and jack it up (100mm jacking) and move the loaded jack to the specified location on the real time map. This use case is perfect to move heavy packages across facility. Her is the video. I was already able to test this with the demo bench.

2. Route mode. It can also follow the pre-defined route and handle loads as needed on designated locations on the map that is created using the 3 LIDARs that it has on board.

3. QR code-based handling, robot has a QR code reader on board which is used to navigate autonomously in the floor and wait until it’s loaded to transport the stuff accordingly.

The scenarios listed above are out of the box and they cover a lot of warehouse handling scenarios. However, robot came with open SDK which has API available for developing custom scenarios.

One of the sophisticated scenarios that future ARC team can research is to use this robot in conjunction with collaborative robotic arms. Basically, cobot can be placed on this robot and it can move it on the manufacturing floor in autonomous manner and let the cobot do its actions, like parts handling. Example video here.

Other robots to be received soon.

We have several other robots on the way to EC to be received by the end of this year. Two cobots are from Dobot brand with gripers, stands etc. and Unitree g1 Edu humanoid robot.

Armenology (Հայագիտություն) is the science that studies the history, language, culture, and struggles of the Armenians and the structural forces shaping their continuity across millennia.

We, as engineers, are engaged in universal sciences – physics, technology, mathematics, programming. These sciences are universal in the sense that physics is physics everywhere and so are technologies, mathematics, and programming.

However different nations go about approaching, practicing, and internalizing these universal sciences differently.

The stories of nations are the stories of how each nation solves their challenges of survival and progress in their particular way. Each nation faces the world differently and find solutions that are unique to their environment, surrounding, challenges.

There are no universal solutions here. The problems may be universal, yet each nation has to solve their problems it the the particularity of their conditions.

Each nation does it their way, so do the Armenians do it their way. And as such, every nation enriches the palette of the human experience.

Armenology is the science that studies the story of the Armenians in how they solve their challenges of survival and progress in this wild and hostile world. On the palette of nations, we have our solid place.

Introducing Armenology to the engineering community should provide a counterweight to the engineering sciences, which are universal in nature. It should ground the community into history, give a sense of belonging, and provide a historical purpose – a purpose of continuity, a purpose of contribution, a purpose of ownership.

History is there for the taking. It will be owned by those who claim it.

The Armenian language is really beautiful, rich, and flexible. Its structure is such that makes creating new words easily possible – something that few languages posses.

Below are some examples that show how new Armenian words get created and how descriptive they are.

For example, take the word “եզրաքար”, which in Russian is “бордюр”, and in English is “Curb”. But see how descriptive the Armenian word is and how it is a simple combination of two other words եզրա-քար.

Or, take the Russian word “Анкета”. In Armenian it easily becomes հարցա-թերթիկ.

In the Ananya Shirakatsi school, there is an initiative of promoting the right Armenian words among students.

Below is an excerpt of an email that was circulated internally. I wanted to share it with you.

“Լեզվի բառապաշարը համեմատաբար հարափոփոխ բաց համակարգ է․

մեր օրերում գիտության տարբեր ոլորտների զարգացումը, մշակութային փոփոխությունները, տեղեկատվական և նորարարական տեխնոլոգիաների ձեռքբերումները իրենց անմիջական անդրադարձն են գտնում բառապաշարում։

Այս զարգացումներով պայմանավորված՝ բառամթերքը շարունակաբար համալրվում է տարբեր լեզուներից փոխառված օտար բառերով։

Հայոց լեզուն՝ ի տարբերություն, օրինակ, անգլերենի և ռուսերենի, հետևողական պայքար է մղում ինքնամաքրման՝ փորձելով յուրաքանչյուր օտար բառի դիմաց ստեղծել դրա համարժեք հայերեն տարբերակները։

Մեր նամակներում հիմնականում առանձնացնելու ենք այն բառերը, որոնք հաստատաված են Լեզվի պետական կոմիտեի և Երևանի պետական համալսարանի ժամանակակից հայոց լեզվի ամբիոնի կողմից։”

Անի Մակինյան Հայոց լեզվի և գրականության ամբիոնի ղեկավար «Շիրակացու ճեմարան»

I will start sharing the below tables as they become available.

All this makes Armenia a living language capable of creating new words and of expressing the most modern sophisticated concepts.