What better way to grab and hold school students’ interest in technology than through robotics? And now, when so many exciting developments are taking place, could not be a more propitious time to seize the attention of tomorrow’s young engineers and computer designers.
Service robots have historically excited the widest interest among a human population devoted, let’s face it, to all things labor-saving. It is in keeping, therefore, in the original Czech, the word stands for ‘forced labor’. On cue, enter Robosoft’s appealingly humanoid, speech-sensitive robot Kompai. This marvel of French engineering performs tasks for grateful owners hindered by age or disability from accomplishing everyday chores.
The ‘Long Arm’ of Robotics
But vacuuming and table-clearing are the least of the uses to which robots are put. He may not be a whole robot in the classic sense, but Dextre, essentially a pair of arms, has graced the International Space Station with a very useful presence. Dextre’s hoped-for super-precise skills make him effectively the world’s first space removal man. ‘He’ takes on tasks that might otherwise require a risky spacewalk by unloading and positioning equipment.
Surgery beyond Human Powers
Possibly the most vital of the uses to which robots nowadays are put is in diagnosing and treating illness. Here, the superior precision of which robots are capable is deployed. One such device has been developed at the University of Lyon in France where a robot assists with tumor surgery by precisely positioning a treatment probe in the body.
It’s a Robotic Future
From unmanned space exploration to thought-guided replacement limbs and artificial bodily organs, the capacity for robotics to go one better than human experience is cause for celebration. High schools compete against one another in robot design at regional and national level with NASA funding. A game of soccer or other sport played by robots offers endless fascination; however, with fears that humans are taking less and less exercise, sports performed on our behalf may be just one step too far.