meanderings

“… it’s very important that we develop empathic machines, machines that have compassion, machines that understand what you’re feeling. If these robots do become as intelligent as human beings, we want this infrastructure of compassion and empathy to be in place so the machines are prepared to use their intellectual powers for the good of civilization rather than in ways that undermine the stability of civilization. In a way, we’re planting the seeds for the survival of humanity.”

Hanson Robotics

“If I could go back in time and choose again the field I would get into, it might be a toss-up between engineering and biology.”

~ Professor Robert Wood, Harvard Microbiotics Lab

Paro

“Mental Commitment Robots” are developed to interact with human beings and to make them feel emotional attachment to the robots.

Salamandra Robotica

A.J. Ijspeert, A. Crespi, D. Ryczko, and J.M. Cabelguen. From swimming to walking with a salamander robot driven by a spinal cord model. Science, March 9th, 2007.

Yuki-taro autonomous snowplow robot

2005, Bionic Arm

“Doctors take nerves that used to go to the arm and move those nerves onto chest muscles. The nerves grow into the chest muscles, so when the patient thinks “close hand,” a portion of his chest muscle contracts and electrodes that detect this muscle activity tell the computerized arm when to close the hand.”

Stefan Schaal: “assistive humanoid robotics”