RIBA Can Lift 135 Pounds, Has Cute Ears
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Friday, 28 of August , 2009 at 3:20 am
It looks as though the robotics industry has collectively decided that the best way to make a robot appear both strong and not creepy is to give it a cute pair of bear ears. And why not? As researchers at Japan’s Institute of Physical and Chemical Research point out, the best way to make RIBA, their Robot for Interactive Body Assistance, not freak people out is to not try to make it look human at all. Good call, guys.
RIBA is designed specifically for the task of transferring patients in and out of bed, which is one of the most physically demanding and potentially dangerous nursing tasks. RIBA’s body is made of foam, and its arms and body are touch sensitive, allowing direct and intuitive motion control. RIBA can detect faces and respond to spoken commands, and although it has a limited amount of autonomy (they’re working on this), it’s designed to work along side human assistants, taking care of the heavy lifting.
RIBA’s 135 pound weight limit may be practical in Japan, but it certainly wouldn’t be nearly as useful here in the US, where 135 pounds is about the weight of the average post-brunch pre-lunch snack. What would it take to enable RIBA to lift significantly more weight? Probably something like a giant hydraulic backpack. A previous version of RIBA from 2006 could lift only 40 pounds, so it’s not going to take long before smaller and more powerful motors enable RIBA and BEAR to lift heavy loads without straining their “I’m just a cute little bear” metaphor too far.
[ RIBA (Translated) ] VIA [ Pink Tentacle ] and [ Robot Watch (Translated) ]
Comments (4)
Category: Medical
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Comment by Joe Dunfee
Made Friday, 28 of August , 2009 at 6:09 am
The demonstration video does NOT show the robot approaching the patient in a bed and positioning itself to lift the patient. Nor does the patient look like she is being securely held. As it is now, the robot looks much less capable than existing non-robotic lifting devices.
Comment by Evan Ackerman
Made Friday, 28 of August , 2009 at 10:35 am
I think the idea is that it’s going to be easier to use and more versatile, and ideally just as capable, with the potential for being controllable by the patient themselves. I do agree that it doesn’t look especially safe, though… Seems like it would be easy for someone to slip right through those arms.
Comment by Del
Made Friday, 28 of August , 2009 at 6:13 pm
I’m looking forward to the day we actually have things like this. As long as they can lift the average fata** American, that is.
One capable of lifting 300+ pounds could have prevented my wife (a nurse) from having an… obese patient dropped on her and (literally) blowing out a disc in her lower back (the wife’s back, the patient was friggin fine)(yeah, a little bitter).
Comment by Bill
Made Wednesday, 16 of September , 2009 at 1:04 pm
Hrm, looks kinda like pedobear.
