RP-7 Robot Introduces Newborn To Soldier
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 21 of April , 2008 at 2:52 am
An RP-7 robot, normally used to allow physicians to interact remotely with patients, allowed Army Staff Sgt. Erik Lloyd (stationed in Iraq) to interact (sort of) with his family and 7 day old son at a hospital in Texas. Lloyd had full control of the robot’s movements and cameras, and was able to communicate through a live video uplink with his family and meet his son (albeit virtually) for the very first time.
“It was an awesome experience. I am far from the first father in this conflict who has missed the birth of their child. : However, with this technology I was in a small way allowed to feel more like I was part of a family than I had been : since he was born.”
It’s really promising to see the military using robots in ways like this, since it implies that robots are being allowed out of their box a little bit, and hopefully they’ll start to become more useful to soldiers on an everyday, not necessarily combat basis.
Telepresence is in no way limited to the military or commercial sectors. It’s exactly the sort of niche that the iRobot ConnectR is designed to fill, albeit in a slightly less complicated manner. The Rovio should do more or less the same thing. So far, neither of these are available commercially, I imagine because telepresence is not something that people think they need yet, even in a niche market. Will people need it, and will people be comfortable with the idea? I’m not sure what to think, but we should find out in the second half of this year.
[ DefenseLink ] VIA [ AUVSI ]
Leave a comment
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Digg
No comments yet.