World''s first intubation robot operated by remote control introduced. Washington, Apr 16: The world''s first intubation robot operated by remote control has been introduced. Dr. Thomas M. Hemmerling, McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) specialist and McGill University Professor of Anesthesia and his team developed the robotic system named Kepler Intubation System (KIS). It may facilitate the intubation procedure and reduce some complications associated with airway management. Hemmerling performed the world''s first robotic intubation in a patient at the Montreal General Hospital earlier this month. "The KIS allows us to operate a robotically mounted video-laryngoscope using a joystick from a remote workstation," Hemmerling, who is also a neuroscience researcher at the Research Institute of the MUHC, said.
"This robotic system enables the anaesthesiologist to insert an endotracheal tube safely into the patient''s trachea with precision," he said. "These influences may be greatly reduced when the KIS is used," he revealed. RIBA II Healthcare Robot Gets Bigger Muscles, Cuter Ears. We first met RIBA (or, RIBA-I as we should start calling it) back in 2009, although the assistive robot has been around since 2004. Developed in a partnership between RIKEN (a natural sciences research institute in Japan) and Tokai Rubber Industries, RIBA's job is to lift people when asked nicely.
Seems trivial, yes, but if you don't have a robot bear around to help you out, you either need to use an awkward and uncomfortable piece of machinery or have a person do it, and if you haven't noticed, we humans are hefty and getting heftier. This is especially problematic for healthcare workers who have to lift patients frequently, and often get injured doing so. RIBA is snuggly soft to make lifting comfortable and fun, and the pronounced bearishness is there to help patients relax. This new and improved robot (RIBA-II) features springs to help it lift more weight, and it responds to both touch and voice commands: [ Press Release ] via [ Reuters ]
RIBA Can Lift 135 Pounds, Has Cute Ears. Riken & Tokai Rubber Industries "RIBA-II" 1/2. Using Robots to Train the Surgeons of Tomorrow. This article is the first of a series that will explore recent advances in surgical and medical robotics and their potential impact on society. More articles, videos, and slideshows will appear throughout the year. Da Vinci surgical system.
Photo: Kelleher Guerin How can the skill of a surgeon be measured? A patient's body has no buzzer that alerts the surgeon when mistakes occur during an operation. There is no Yelp-like website that ranks a surgeon based on user reviews. According to a study from the U.S. To what extent training is responsible for those errors is unknown. In the past few years, several research groups, including our team at Johns Hopkins University, have been working to analyze and automate the training process using modern robotic surgical tools.
Surgical skill can be broken down into theoretical skill (consisting of factual and decision-making knowledge) and practical skill (the ability to carry out manual tasks such as dissection and suturing). Language of surgery. Awesomely Bad Ideas: Teaching a Robot to Sword Fight. In a paper presented this week at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), in Shanghai, Georgia Tech researcher Tobias Kunz starts thusly: "In order to deploy safe and flexible robots for service and automation, robots must act safely in close contact with humans. " Accompanying this innocuous first sentence is this picture: You're probably wondering, at this point, just what the heck a robot with a sword has to do with safety of all things.
And why do people keep giving swords to robots anyway? There was Hubo II dancing with one last year, and just three days ago we saw two industrial manipulators dueling with lightsabers. As it turns out, Kunz says that one good way to get a robot to be dynamically safe around humans is to just program it to think of humans as adversaries. On a fundamental level, a lot of what sword fighting is about is predicting the intentions of a human and then deciding how to respond. Plus, come on, it's just awesome. Teaching a Robot to Sword Fight. Researchers Smash Super-Tough Robot Arm With Baseball Bat.
Why is this man about to smash his robot with a bat? Don't worry. It's just another day at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), where researchers have built what's probably the most advanced -- and tough -- robotic arm ever. And they aren't afraid of testing its limits. It's called the DLR Hand Arm System [photo, below]. It has an anthropomorphic design and packs 52 motors, ultra-miniaturized control electronics, a supercapacitor-based power supply, and a web of synthetic tendons stronger than Kevlar. Which brings us to their latest test with the aforementioned wooden bat. This time, they wanted to assess the robustness of the upper arm and shoulder. Did you notice how, after getting struck, the arm gently touches the yellow ball, exactly as it had done before?
The researchers, members of DLR's Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, described the overall system in detail for the first time today at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), in Shanghai. Robot Arm Smashed With Baseball Bat. Robot Arm Using a Hammer. Da Vinci Surgical Bot Folds, Throws Tiny Paper Airplane. Everybody already thinks that robot surgery is way cool, but I suppose there's no harm in taking a few minutes to show off the precision that tiny little robot grippers are capable of. On the other end of these steely claws is an even steelier-eyed surgeon with a questionable amount of aeronautical experience, and in between the two is a da Vinci surgical system.
This particular robot hails from Swedish Hospital in, you guessed it, Seattle. The da Vinci system, if you recall, provides surgeons with an interface that allows them to control little robotic hands with their own (much larger) hands, enabling much finer control in a much tighter space. For patients, this means smaller incisions that heal faster, and for surgeons, it means no more going elbow deep into someone else's guts. [ Intuitive Surgical ] via [ Nerdist ] Seattle Doctor Folds and Throws Paper Airplane Using da Vinci Robot. Autom, the Robot That Helps You Lose Weight. Autom wants to make you healthier. This little robot keeps track of your eating and exercise habits -- and encourages you to stay in shape. Autom speaks with a synthetic female voice, and you interact with it using its touch-screen belly. It won't scold you if you ate two desserts last night; Autom is a very kind robot.
But can it really help you lose weight? We met Autom, and one of its creators, Cory Kidd, co-founder and CEO of Intuitive Automata, at CES early this month. Kidd claims that, yes, Autom can help people lose weight. Kidd started developing Autom a few years ago while a grad student at MIT, and with two colleagues he founded Intuitive Automata, which is based in Hong Kong, to commercialize the robot.
Watch Kidd explaining how Autom works: I think they are onto something here, but I see some limitations in the current robot. Another question is whether consumers want a robotic weight-loss coach in the first place, and how much they're willing to shell out. Tue, January 11, 2011. Autom Weight-Loss Coach Robot. Robot Companions to Befriend Sick Kids. If you've ever spent time with an interactive robot, it's always a novel experience at first -- but over time the thrill will fade.
Each time the robot meets you, it will run through a routine of canned responses that gets old pretty quickly. But what if robots were able to remember who you are and retain information associated with you? It might make them better companions, and a step up from passive toys. The ALIZ-E project is a European Commission-funded venture aimed at producing robots that can forge "longer-term constructive bonds" with people in a hospital setting.
Grouping academic and commercial partners, it kicked off six months ago and will run for four and a half years. It's essentially an artificial intelligence effort. The patients will be learning about diabetes and how to manage it during their hospitalization. "If you use a chatbot, the chatbot really doesn’t understand what you are talking about," says Belpaeme. KASPAR HRI Robot, University of Hertfordshire. KASPAR - il robot pedagogico - tratto dalla BBC. Kaspar the Friendly Robot Helps Autistic Kids. Kaspar the friendly robot helps autistic kids. (AP) -- Eden Sawczenko used to recoil when other little girls held her hand and turned stiff when they hugged her. This year, the 4-year-old autistic girl began playing with a robot that teaches about emotions and physical contact - and now she hugs everyone. "She's a lot more affectionate with her friends now and will even initiate the embrace," said Claire Sawczenko, Eden's mother.
The girl attends a pre-school for autistic children in Stevenage, north of London, where researchers bring in a human-looking, child-sized robot once a week for a supervised session. The children, whose autism ranges from mild to severe, play with the robot for up to 10 minutes alongside a scientist who controls the robot with a remote control. The robot, named Kaspar, is programmed to do things like smile, frown, laugh, blink and wave his arms. There are several versions of Kaspar, including one advanced enough to play Nintendo Wii. But that is enough to keep autistic children enthralled. Healthcare-robotics.com.