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 had been extra like a benevolent symbiotic parasite? That may sound scary at first, however this paper presents a situation wherein on-body robots might assist older of us dwell richer lives.
“On-body robots” are distinctive robots designed to be worn by the consumer. As a substitute of current individually from the people they serve, like these industrial robots and Roomba vacuums, they dwell on people. From an engineering standpoint, this idea has some large benefits. Why give a humanoid robotic an costly and power-hungry set of legs when you can simply have the human consumer carry the robotic round? In the correct conditions, that could possibly be very sensible.
These conditions, as this staff envisions, are fairly various they usually developed concepts by 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 number of the authors of this paper, that travels across the physique on versatile tracks.
One situation they got here up with entails an individual who must carry out bodily remedy, however is reluctant — all of us battle to construct up the motivation to train, in spite of everything. In that situation, the consumer faucets their wearable robotic to start out a session and the robotic detects their reluctance. To offer encouragement, the robotic then exhibits pleasure by lighting results and bodily motion. Due to that ethical assist, the consumer begins their train and the on-body robotic offers steering by haptic suggestions and visible cues. On the similar time, it screens the consumer’s efficiency, detecting fatigue and suggesting relaxation when needed.
To be clear, the robotic imagined in that situation doesn’t exist. But it surely might. 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 exhibits that the 13 members within the design probe had been no less than considerably open to the concept of an on-body robotic.