We have a tendency to think about robots as distinct, self-contained entities. The android-style robots of science fiction appear virtually like artificial animals. In actual life, industrial robots work in factories away from human personnel, like delinquent misfits, whereas the vacuum robots in our properties go about their enterprise whereas doing their greatest to evade our discover — although they normally fail at that. However what if a robotic have been extra like a benevolent symbiotic parasite? That may sound scary at first, however this paper presents a situation wherein on-body robots may assist older people stay richer lives.
“On-body robots” are distinctive robots designed to be worn by the consumer. As an alternative of present individually from the people they serve, like these industrial robots and Roomba vacuums, they stay on people. From an engineering standpoint, this idea has some huge benefits. Why give a humanoid robotic an costly and power-hungry set of legs when you possibly can simply have the human consumer carry the robotic round? In the appropriate conditions, that may very well be very sensible.
These conditions, as this group envisions, are fairly different and so they developed concepts via a design probe carried out with the help of older adults, ages 66 to 84. In that probe, they used Calico as an indication. Calico is a on-body robotic, developed beforehand by a few of the authors of this paper, that travels across the physique on versatile tracks.
One situation they got here up with includes an individual who must carry out bodily remedy, however is reluctant — all of us wrestle to construct up the motivation to train, in spite of everything. In that situation, the consumer faucets their wearable robotic to begin a session and the robotic detects their reluctance. To offer encouragement, the robotic then reveals pleasure via lighting results and bodily motion. Due to that ethical assist, the consumer begins their train and the on-body robotic provides steering via haptic suggestions and visible cues. On the identical time, it displays the consumer’s efficiency, detecting fatigue and suggesting relaxation when obligatory.
To be clear, the robotic imagined in that situation doesn’t exist. Nevertheless it may. This analysis is just one of many first steps in figuring out if anybody really desires an on-body robotic and what duties such robots is perhaps suited to.
If nothing else, this paper reveals that the 13 contributors within the design probe have been a minimum of considerably open to the thought of an on-body robotic.
