It may be hard to believe, but robots are a part of everyday life these days. You know those little Lindt Chocolates that you enjoy eating so much? A robotic arm is used to collect the trays of moulded chocolate and dispense them onto a conveyor belt, where they’re wrapped. Robots are also used to cut steel, assemble cars, and even pack pills for the pharmaceutical industry. Most of those robots are big, mechanical looking things that serve just one purpose, but there’s a new breed of robots on the way, ones that cross the “uncanny valley”, and look almost lifelike.

The Uncanny Valley

The “uncanny valley” is a concept that was first put forward by robotics professor Masahiro Mori. The hypothesis stated that as the appearance of a robot became more human like, a human observer’s response to the robot would become more empathic, until a point was reached where the robot was almost, but not quite human. At that point, the positive empathic response would become revulsion. Humans would not respond positively again until the robot’s behaviour became almost indistinguishable to that of a humans.

The idea behind this hypotheseis was that an “almost human” robot would not look cute, it would look strange. A nearly perfect copy of a human, such as the robots produced by Kokoro Company, which have human faces, and can copy many human facial expressions, manages to cross the uncanny valley, and create something that we can feel human attachment to. → Read More

Not more than a few decades ago, science fiction concepts featuring intelligent humanoid “robots” (Battlestar Galactica and Terminator to name a few) seemed simply to be speculative fiction with little grounding in reality. After all, our technology was miles away from anything the authors and scriptwriters thought up at the time.

In the past few decades we have advanced our computer and robotics technology incredibly quickly. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak stated this past June that we are making ourselves increasingly redundant as computers are becoming increasingly intelligent and aware. Not only that but we have made our lives completely dependent on technology. In the future, Wozniak believes we will be little more than pets to robots. The likelihood is that our technology will surpass us in intelligence and function and likely in the near future.

Despite what you may think about the many sci-fi theories and stories which tell of autonomous robots taking over humankind, the facts are piling up to show that in fact autonomous highly intelligent robots are likely to rival humans soon. This will very likely happen. The result of our computers and robots becoming self aware is still to be seen, but it is happening. There’s no point in denying it anymore. → Read More

Everyone wants to be independent. Though we can and should ask others for help when we need it, autonomy is important to a person’s identity. So it goes for the differently abled, including those who use wheelchairs and wheelchair accessible vans in their daily lives. In a world where accessibility options can sometimes seem half-measured, advances in robot technology are making it easier for folks to get around.

Scientific progress has probably only begun to introduce us to all the things that robots can do for us, from assisting in surgery to exploring outer space. One of these advances in robot technology comes from a group of researchers at Lehigh University and Freedom Sciences, folks who have developed a wheelchair that can be controlled by remote control. Though not fully automated yet, updates will surely see the chair driven entirely by robot power in the near future. Currently, a wheelchair accessible van allows the driver access to the vehicle via side door. Once the chair’s owner is safely seated, the wheelchair can be driven to a lift at the back of the van where it is guided by laser beam onto a lift and placed safely inside. Gone is the need to hoist a chair across yourself as you get in and out of a car. No dangerous maneuvering of a chair with the threat of traffic zooming by. No extended exposure to the elements. Safety and comfort, all thanks to a robot and remote. → Read More