Robotic arms have been used in medical procedures for a while now, providing surgeons a level of steadiness and precision that few human hands can replicate. Now, however, things are moving forward to a future where these robot arms will be able to perform such operations almost entirely on their own.

At the present we are only talking about biopsies, or dealing with dead patients. A safe way to start, but scientists at the Duke University in North Carolina have already seen these robots achieve a 93% success rate when cutting into prostate tissue. A dead turkey, whose flesh has a similar texture to humans, was used in the experiments. The robotic arms used ultrasound to locate the exact placement of the organs, and then took real-time 3D information which told them what to do next.

The leader of the team, Professor Stephen Smith, explained that the next test they will undertake is to try out the arm on a human mannequin. This dummy will have a “stiff bra cup” with a grape embedded inside, to mimic a cancerous lesion. The robot’s job will be to remove this lesion while following correct medical procedure and saving the person’s life (theoretically). One of the main problems that will need to be addressed is improving the robots’ speed when it comes to obtaining and processing the data from the ultrasounds, but a more powerful processor and a more effective algorithm can help overcome this challenge.

The professor is hopeful that success in these tests will pave the way for a lot more robots doing surgeries on their own, not just biopsies. This would save patients time and money, which is one of the biggest problems in the healthcare industry today. Hopefully, they’ll be able to offer some type of medical guarantee as well.

A brief video showing a medical robot undergoing trials follows.



[source]

The CMU Robotics Institute, with the help of a seven million dollar DARPA grant, has announced the launch of a four year educational initiative called Fostering Innovation through Robotics Exploration (FIRE). The goal is to use student interest in robotics to encourage computer science education, and to steer students toward science and engineering careers. In addition to embracing existing educational robotics competitions such as FIRST and VEX, CMU will also be creating new competitions.

The initiative will ... create new competitions for autonomous, multi-robot teams and for computer animations that will attract a broader array of students and offer new challenges.

To help, CMU is tapping robot expertise from Dallas, TX, hiring none other than Ed Paradis, current president of the Dallas Personal Robotics Group. When asked about the propsect of leaving one of the nation's top Hobby Robot Groups for CMU, he replied, "although I'm sad to leave the Dallas robotics community, this is a hobby roboticists dream job!".

Anyone who has tried losing weight will tell you having a personal trainer can make all the difference. Besides watching your diet and giving you suggestions, simply having a partner can also help you stay focused on the goals you set for yourself. Apparently, that partner doesn’t even have to be human.

Autom was created by Cory Kidd, who got the idea for a weight-loss robot during his time as a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab. He wanted to make “something that could have a very large benefit”, and this robot may just fit that category. To use Autom, you must first enter your diet plan, which includes how many calories of what you plan on taking, and how much exercise you plan on doing. The robot keeps track of that information and reminds you (with speech) on a daily basis how good or bad you are doing.

What makes this different from just a lifeless computer monitor is that Autom offers encouragement to users, motivating them to work harder and not to give up. Besides being able to talk, Autom can move her little head, blink her eyes and respond to the mood of each user. Work is still being done on the facial-recognition software, which would allow the robot to tell apart different people. All this is a psychological strategy used to influence the user, as people will feel like they are communicating more with a person than a computer. It is easy to say “I quit” and switch off a monitor, but it’s much harder when you know you have a partner that’s concerned for you and wants to talk.

Next year, Autom will be tested out by a major US insurance company, and if things go well, plans are to start using her on a wide-scale basis.

[source]

Are you tired of dieting alone? No need to worry, because soon there is a robot that can help your diet program. A named Autom Oboth can find out how much exercise and diet undertaken by an individual. Even with the touch of his hand on his screen, Autom can know a person’s mood.

Cory Kidd is as owner and chief executive of Intuitive Automata Inc.. Autom which began when the school creates in the Technology Media Lab Massachusetts Institute, United States (U.S.). Kidd also often visit patients at Boston Medical Center Clinic, USA. This is where he got the inspiration to create something that could be useful for many people.

Dieters who want to use Autom can enter details of diet and exercise patterns on the screen. Autom also be programmed to perform some conversations, like “I know talk to me maybe a little weird, but I hope you’ll get used to this,” said Autom. He could write the words “Thank You”, “OK” or “Let go” on the screen that responds to menu choices.

Quoted from Wall Street Journal, Friday (23/07/2010), this robot can blink and see who is talking to him and then end the conversation with the phrase, “I hope we can talk again about your progress,” he said with a tone of women Autom.

Kidd explained that this diet maid robot priced at U.S. $ 500 plus an additional monthly subscription fee that includes software updates.

Intuitive Automata company based in Hong Kong was selected as a finalist in the Asian Innovation Awards, with a target market of the United States to begin to operate the robot in front of her diet. The plan, robots will be tested in a pilot program in one of the leading insurance company in the country. -detikinet-

"There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom", as Richard Feynman famously pointed out during a talk in 1959. And a lot of progress has been made since: The latest episode of the Robots podcast takes a look at nanorobotics and the current state of the art concerning nano robot hardware and control. The first guest is Ari Requicha, who is the founder of the Laboratory for Molecular Robotics (LMR) at the University of Southern California and editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology. The second guest is Grégory Mermoud, who is currently finishing his PhD at the Distributed Intelligent Systems and Algorithms Lab at the EPFL. For more on the state of the art in nano robotics read on or tune in!