Slashdot Mirror
Robot Controls Person's Arm To Manipulate Objects
An anonymous reader writes "French researchers have demonstrated a robot that controls its own arm as well as a person's arm to manipulate objects in a collaborative manner, IEEE reports. Electrodes attached to the person's arm allow the robot to make the elbow and hand move to perform tasks. The tasks are currently simple (dropping a ball through a hoop, as shown in one of their videos), but the researchers say more complex ones are possible. They also say the approach has therapeutic benefits and their goal is to 'develop robotic technologies that can help people suffering from paralysis and other disabilities to regain some of their motor skills.'"
...nah, too easy.
Support the EFF and Creative Commons. The war is coming, and they're supporting you...
... also too easy?
If what I just said sounded like a troll, it was probably just a failed attempt at humor.
there is one repetitive motion that I must do with my hand once in a while that I may wish was done without my direct participation. On the other hand... what if the software fails and the hand goes all the way over my head?
What? What? I hate doing all this calligraphy training.
You can't handle the truth.
In Soviet France robot controls you. In corporate America you control robot!!
develop robotic technologies that can help people suffering from paralysis and other disabilities to regain some of their motor skills.
They're working on the technology for cyborgs?
When this robot needs a hand, it borrows yours.
Oh yeah, that can't possibly go wrong. Nope, can't think how that might be a mistake.
Still, if the idea of a robot commandeering your limbs sounds a bit, uh, scary, you're not alone. The audience at the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), where the researchers presented their results in September, let out a nervous gasp upon seeing the video of the experiment:
Yeah, I think a nervous gasp might be in order here.
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
"Query: Why are you assaulting yourself?"
"So Mr. Smith, and I remind you that you are under oath, you claim the reason you groped 'the lady in red' sitting next to you on the airplane, is that your 'ARM Controller' chip malfunctioned ?"
Sorry, but this is just a yawn, now when they used a computer to make a paralyzed person walk, now that was news. I think that was over a decade ago, but I'm being too lazy this morning to look it up. These guys on the other hand aren't doing anything new, unless you consider adding in a toy robot to play wastebin basketball some kind of advancement.
I for one welcome our new Robotron Arm masters.
Back in the day, my younger brother was a serious contender for Most Obsessed With Playing Robotron: 2084. He suffered a repetitive stress injury from playing it he called "Robotron Arm"
Not the same thing, I know. But did hear bout this on the BBC and thought it was pretty amazing. It's only a matter of time before we turn such a gift into weapons. BattleTech here we come!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
...to the "remote-controlled corpses" from GITS.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
becomes the puppeteer.
Electrodes attached to the person's arm allow the robot to make the elbow and hand move to perform tasks.
Pr0n opportunities for cam-girls, I think.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
This appears to require a person with an arm that works; unless I misunderstand the electrodes are stimulating a developed (i.e. non-atrophied) arm with working nervous system. I would be curious to see this trick work on a limb that was truly disabled.....
very cool none the less.
Unix, an obscure operating system developed by bored researchers in an attempt to get a better game playing experience.
Today they control your arm, tomorrow - your arse.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
No other possible outcome...
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
I wonder if it's possible to get this system to do your workout for you. Like, you program it to do a hundred bench presses and then lift weights for an hour. All the while you could, I dunno, watch TV on LCD goggles or something. Or, even better - suppose you could get this system to work on your arm muscles while you play video games using one of those brain-control interfaces. I would love to have a system like this.
All jokes aside this is fantastic news.
Now when a robot loses an arm in an automobile accident they'll be able to replace it with a human arm.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
... and all they want me to do is control their arms.
Dr. Strangelove is strangely excited about this tecnhology.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
I can see this being EXTREMELY useful for emergency situations that involve inattention or sleep. Say you're on a shuttle to Mars, sleeping away. Suddenly, there's a hull breach! You have seconds to get into your pressure suit before you pass out and die. You might burn half your time just on hearing the alarm, waking up, processing what's going on, and fumbling towards the suit locker.
If you're wearing your Robo Attachments, it can detect the alarm, and immediately start moving you towards the suit locker until you're able to take over manual control. And even when you do, it still might be able to guide you through the process, given your hazy state of mind.
Replace "shuttle to Mars" with "submarine" and you get the same jist.
Not to mention a surgeon wearing one of these-- if they sneeze or slip, the robot can freeze their arm to prevent an accidental nick of the artery.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
Sweet - Robot Dutch rudder!
I'm a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class, especially since I rule.
This is great news for any paraplegic robots.
If what I just said sounded like a troll, it was probably just a failed attempt at humor.
Someday soon we may not have any quadras and paras nor amputees which will be wonderful. But when it becomes commonplace - as silly and trivial as it sounds - competitve sports at nearly every level may become impossible as the augments become faster, stronger, and more accurate than the naturals.
Someday this research will be invaluable in restoring mobility to robots that have suffered serious damage or manufacturing defect, enabling their broken limbs to be replaced by (admittedly inferior) limbs harvested from humans.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Sounds to me like a lonely nerd's dream come true! :o)
The robot revolution will be remembered as starting with "Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!"
Hopefully won't be used like in this episode of Big Bang Theory! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb627xDlqBs
Take Nobody's Word For It.
One step closer to the day we can plug plug ourselves into the Excertron before bed and wake up with rippling biceps...
Or why stop there? As the robotic brain improves, instead of doing pointless exercises we could do useful manual labor and wake up to rippling biceps and a paycheck! Just don't get hacked...
One robot that controls them all
Scientist: "Kroll, attach the electro-slave device to this fool!"
Victim: "No, no, anything but that!"
Kroll: "Yes, Master!"
Scientist: "Now, dance for me my puppet! Dance!"
Victim dances....
=====
Oh, sorry, I was just daydreaming there for a moment....
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
It would also seem like you could have a Dr working in an VR setup relaying his arm/hand control data to a remote human robot. That would allow for a neurosurgeon in NY to have a untrained remote "hand droid" in Antarctica, orbit or the moon do the surgery. It keeps the number of human onsite low.
Subject says it all, I think.