Welcome to our new Robot, Nurses. Hanson robotics wants to make robots, but not “Lost in Space”.
Welcome to our new Robot, Nurses. Hanson robotics wants to make robots, but not “Lost in Space”.
Written by Al Williams
Hanson robotics wants to make robots, but not “Lost in Space” [Robby] robots. Think more [Data] from Star Trek robots. They’ve announced [Grace], a lifelike robot made to take on nursing duties for doctors and the elderly.
In conjunction with Singularity Studio, the robot resembles the company’s [Sophia] robot which is made to be as realistic as possible given current technology and, apparently, has Saudi citizenship.
The robot has heat-sensitive cameras and other sensors so it can read data from patients directly. It uses the company’s Frubber for the face. The company says:
[Frubber is] a proprietary nanotech skin that mimics real human musculature and skin. This allows our robots to exhibit high-quality expressions and interactivity, simulating humanlike facial features and expressions.
As you can see in the video, the Frubber technology is pretty good but isn’t going to fool anyone anytime soon. But you could say the robot looks most realistic when standing still. We were amused to see an Arduino Uno in the frame as the narrator talked about artificial intelligence.
[Grace] speaks English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, not surprising since Hanson is based in Hong Kong. Would you be put off by a robotic nurse? Our guess is most Hackaday readers would be fine with it and maybe even curious. The general public, though, might be a different story.
Then again, at least she has hands and not tenacles. She is more realistic looking than some refitted children’s toys.
