Monday, January 07, 2008

New Laboratory Robot Can Lift The Burden Of Boring Work

We have been hearing and reading for a long time about assistant robots that silently and carefully zip around humans to liberate them from burdensome work. Nevertheless, a truly convincing high-tech assistant with a gripper arm is not yet commercially available. LISA – short for life science assistant – is intended to change that.
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LISA is equipped with a sensing gripper arm designed to hold plastic dishes but not injure human beings. Its “artificial skin” consists of conductive foam and textiles and intelligent signal processing electronics. This skin immediately senses and cushions inadvertent jostling. A thermographic camera additionally registers body heat and indicates for instance if a human colleague’s hand is in the way.
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