GoalName the three technologies of a connected smart system and say what each one does.
New words
Internet of Things (IoT) · everyday devices that send and receive data over the internetartificial intelligence (AI) · a program that learns from many examples, finds patterns in data and suggests or chooses an actionrobotics · machines that carry out physical tasks, such as moving, lifting or cleaningconnected smart system · a system in which IoT, AI and robotics work together
Explanation
You met these three technologies in earlier years. Now see them work as a team. IoT is the sending part: sensors collect facts, such as a temperature or a position, and send them over the internet. AI is the deciding part: it looks at the data, recognises a pattern and suggests or chooses what to do. It has learned from many examples; it does not think like a person, and it can make mistakes. Robotics is the acting part: a machine that moves or does a job. When the three are joined we get a connected smart system, and its work always follows three steps: sense and send, analyse and decide, act. Think of a cleaning robot at home. Its sensors notice a chair leg and the empty battery, its AI chooses a new path or a trip back to the charger, and its wheels carry out the choice.
Part
Its job
Example in a cleaning robot
IoT (sense and send)
collects facts and sends them
sensor sees a chair leg
AI (analyse and decide)
finds a pattern and chooses an action
picks a new path
Robotics (act)
does the physical task
wheels turn and brushes clean
Worked examples
sensor: something in the way→AI: turn left→wheels turn left
Youssef’s cleaning robot reaches a toy on the floor. Its sensor sends a message: “something in the way”. Its AI compares this with many earlier situations and picks the action “turn left”. Its wheels turn it left. Sense and send, analyse and decide, act.
Salma compares the team with a person who crosses a street. The eyes and ears collect facts, the brain decides when it is safe, and the legs carry out the walk. The comparison helps to remember the three jobs, but AI is a program that learned patterns from examples, not a small brain.
Class activity
Draw the three-step flow on paper: sense and send, analyse and decide, act. Then choose a machine at home or school that has all three jobs, or only two, and write which job each part does. Show your flow to a family member.
Practice
1
Which part of a connected smart system decides what to do?
AI, the part that analyses the data and chooses an action.
2
Put the steps in order: act, sense and send, analyse and decide.
Sense and send, analyse and decide, act.
3
A robot in a factory lifts boxes. Which technology is this?
Robotics, because a machine does a physical task.
4
Why can we not say that AI thinks like a person?
It is a program that learned patterns from many examples; it can be wrong.
