Games Gadgets n Technology

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Gentlebot: A robot that knows when it’s hurting you

The DLR Light Weight Robot III knows when it’s hit a human, and backs off accordingly

Hamburg: In his famed science-fiction novel ‘I, Robot’, author Isaac Asimov states three rules for robots, the first of which is that no robot may ever harm a human being.

Now, in a project that would have brought a smile to Asimov’s face, a robot in Germany has undergone conditioned programming to ensure it will not accidentally injure humans.

High-speed industrial robots at factories are still too dumb to know whether they may have injured a human co-worker who inadvertently gets in its way.

“Accidents happen,” said robot engineer Sami Haddadin from the German Aerospace Centre Space Agency in Oberpfaffenhofen.

“We have to accept that when people start to work more closely with robots, they will sometimes hit people,” he told New Scientist magazine.

To tackle this problem, Haddadin built the DLR Light Weight Robot (LWR) III. Like a child told to be gentle with small animals, the robot knows when it’s hit a human, and backs off accordingly.

To achieve this, Haddadin’s team placed sensors in the six joints of a robot arm, which was programmed to stop moving if it felt unexpected changes.

Fitted with a large pad – the robot version of a boxing glove – the arm was then put to the test.

Haddadin actually allowed the LWR III to punch him in the stomach, chest, head and arm, forehead and arm at speeds of up to 2.5 metres per second.

It performed as expected, stopping at soon as contact was made.

However, Haddadin admits he was “definitely concerned” when the blows began.

Once the arm pulls a punch, its motors and torque sensors allow it to “freeze”, supporting its own weight. The arm can then simply be pushed aside.

“You give it a push and it just floats away,” Haddadin said. “It feels like it weighs only a few grams.”

More sophisticated responses are also possible. The robot arm can, for instance, tell the difference between a big hit and a soft collision.

It responds to the latter with a gentle nudge that signals “get out of my way” to its human co-worker.

Robot manufacturer Kuka of Augsburg, Germany, will launch a commercial version of the arm next year.

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2:29 AM  

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