Jackie Peterson, B&W Staff
Robots have been around for years — even, as Metro News reported, in 350BC. More modern versions, though, are becoming more and more prominent in modern society.
This is where my absolute favorite Cards Against Humanity card comes in: “Bees?”
Robot bees could actually help out in a variety of situations, specifically search and rescue. A group at Harvard has been able to create robots with wings that function much like a large houseflys. The RoboBees, as Harvard engineer Robert Wood calls them, are agile and autonomous, making them useful, especially in large quantities. “You know, you can envision a firefighter having a box of a thousand of these things. And so, you know, I release them from a disaster site and they look for survivors,” Wood said to NPR. He also mentioned that the use of small robots like RoboBees could lead to tiny robots in the medical field.
Snakes are inspiring their own new robots, with a group of researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon, Oregon State and Zoo Atlanta creating a slithering robot. Since snakes can move efficiently in a wide variety of settings, scientists have used them as models for a new type of robot. Most notably, they have successfully implemented a sidewinder rattlesnake’s ability to climb dunes. “If a robot gets stuck in the sand, that’s a problem, especially if that sand happens to be on another planet,” said Joe Mendleson of Zoo Atlanta in a statement. As per Mendleson’s statements, these versatile robots can be used in a wide range of settings, including exploring other planets.
Robots could also be roaming the seas in the near future, what with a robot octopus being shown at the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. The robot swims at a rate of seven inches (half of its body length) per second and is extremely efficient. The robot is shown carrying a small ball, swimming and being followed by a small fish. Thus, it could be used to monitor fish populations in a discreet way. My question is, what happens when something eats it? But that’s a question for another day.
Humans are an obvious inspiration in robot tech, with most stereotypical robots being humanoid ones. Toshiba’s latest, though, might be downright creepy. It’s a “communication android” that speaks Japanese sign language. It’s in early stages, but Toshiba hopes to make it into a full-fledged communication robot by 2020. Humanoid robots are popular, but this one looks like it’s covered in a skin-like rubber or silicone material, making it rather creepy looking, like a painted corpse came to life and can only speak in sign language. Toshiba is calling it Aiko Chihira and hopes it will be able to keep the elderly and those with dementia company.
Other robots aren’t even close to humanoid, like the ones that have recently been recruited to help fight Ebola. There are several varieties of robots who have been repurposed to sterilize healthcare facilities. One, named Gigi, uses ultraviolet light to disinfect a room up to 99.9 percent, while workers can only clean a room to an 85-percent level. There are actually two of these robots currently in use the Dallas hospital where the first American Ebola patient was treated before he died. So far, only 250 hospitals in the US use these robots. Hopefully, these will be more common in hospitals around the world.
The health sector will benefit quite a bit in the future from new robot technologies. One such robot is a huge step in the fight against epilepsy, a seizure disorder. Brain surgery is fairly common among those with epilepsy, as many can’t find medications that control their seizures. These new robots enter through the patient’s cheek rather than their skull and take a shorter route to the target area of the hippocampus. This all means a much shorter recovery time. The insertion via the cheek is possible due to an amazing needle that can actually remember its original shape and return to it when heated, meaning it can follow a curved path and doesn’t need to travel through the brain in a straight line. It’s inserted one millimeter at a time, tracked via MRI. However, it’s a long way off — it’s only just starting to be tested on dead bodies.
Hopefully, robots will continue to make our world better rather than trying to take it over and kill us all. Cheers.
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