“Father of Robotics” Sees Versatile Caregiving Robots
Joseph Engelberger, often called the father of robotics, at 82 is still working to advance robotics. His work has long been in industrial robotics, but he sees robots moving from factories into homes, where they could be caregivers for the elderly and shut-ins. He and his partner Andrew Silverthorne are seeking funding to develop them through PALS Robotics. The acronym PALS stands for Personal Assistance Living System. Silverthorne says, “Nobody wants to be shipped off to nursing homes. The idea is that robots live at home with you for a buck an hour—that’s our pitch. ...They can’t do a lot of things for which you can call a visiting nurse, but they can help around the house a lot. ...They can do a lot of cleaning, they can operate in the kitchen.” He disagrees that robots should be single purpose machines such as robot vacuum cleaners like the Roomba; instead he is developing a versatile two-armed robot that can understand your voice commands and do household chores like unpack groceries, cook, pour drinks, vacuum, etc.
Read More
(2) Comments
by Readybot, the Kitchen Robot
Readybot Robot Challenge unveiled a preview of a prototype of their new kitchen-cleaning robot. The Readybot Challenge is a non-profit club, composed of senior engineers and designers from the networking, motion control, ergonomics, and software industries. Their mission is to build a robot that can clean a kitchen. “People ask what will be the breakthrough application for consumer robotics,” comments Tom Benson, team leader, “we think people want a robot that can clean the kitchen.” Yes, he’s right about that! We hear that request more than anything.
Read MoreCostumes for your Friends, the Roomba and Scooba
Yesterday we published the article, The Robot Form Factor Debate, which brought up the question of the robot form factor: humanoid or robotic, what do people want? I posted the question on the Yahoo iRobot stock message board and poster thatsmyredbag in the following post reminded me of a company named MyRoomBud, that makes costumes for your irobot Rommba and Scooba; while not exactly making your robot vacuum more more human-like, it’s definitely more “cuddly.” I suspect thatsmyredbag must be an extrovert (read our previous article). 
Litter-Robot Does the Kitty Litter Dirty Work
Pet care and cleanup is another dirty job that we humans would like to hand off to robots. One of the biggies would be taking care of the kitty litter. Litter-Robot from Automated Pet Care Products won’t actually walk the used litter to your trash can, but it will free you from the worst part: the chore of litter box scooping. Cleaning the litter now becomes as easy as simply changing a kitchen bag every few days.
Read MoreBeginnings of the Kitchen Robot
Not exactly ready for Prime Time, but I have to admit incredibly impressive, this kitchen service robot built by professors at Tokyo University gives us a glimpse of how robots will help us around the house. The guy isn’t very fast, but the humanoid robot has enough delicate dexterity and precision that he can pour tea and wash up after. The robot is the result of four years of hard work using cutting edge technology gathered from more than 40 Robotics and Information Technology professors at the University of Tokyo.
Read MoreBuy Her a Red Roomba for Valentines Day
iRobot has announced a beautiful red Roomba just in time for Valentines Day. We know you should not be giving appliances to your wife for this holiday, but this robot vacuum is something she is sure to appreciate and it will reduce housework.
Read MorePage 1 of 1 pages