Bots in Society

PTR Robots is a Danish service robot company introducing a robot that can both mobilize and transfer patients—while simultaneously boosting the working environment. The invention has been developed in close collaboration with healthcare professionals at a university hospital and a nursing home. The user-friendly robot frees up time for care and nursing in a busy sector as it enables caregivers to better handle transfers and gait training of residents without having to depend on other colleagues.

An advanced robotic arm is more than just beautiful technology. Use of such a prosthesis is not just about confirming, as a conversation with Arie Rommers shows. He has been using a bionic arm, the Bebionic, for some time now. “You can get a really nice bionic arm, but your brain has to control it, so you have to feel good about yourself”

In a playful way, children learn to work better together by programming robots. Not only school children, but also employees of companies can almost literally brush up their skills in a fun way using robots. Rocking Robots spoke with the initiator of this concept, Tamar Neter from RobotWise.

Respect and responsibility, that’s what developing AI is all about, says Kathy Baxter, Architect, Ethical AI Practice at Salesforce.  “In fact, developing AI is like raising a child. As a developer of AI, you are actually a parent.” According to Baxter, we must therefore always show sufficient respect and responsibility.

The ZeroAbuse.AI AI tool is being developed to detect child abuse. Joelle Casteix, who works for the non-profit organization Zero Abuse Project, explains how it works.

How can criminals use AI? And how can the police use AI to track down criminals? The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) is conducting research into this under the direction of Irakli Beridze.

Volansi, vendor of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), middle-mile drone delivery services, has begun a commercial healthcare drone delivery project in North Carolina. In collaboration with Merck Volansi is piloting the delivery of cold chain medicines from Merck’s Wilson, N.C. manufacturing site to Vidant Healthplex-Wilson, a Vidant Health clinic, as the first of three phases in a project to learn about drone technology’s role and ability to improve access to healthcare.

The pandemic has seen the country pulling together, with organisations across the space sector stepping forward to help. Apian, part of the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme, aims to establish a network of secure air corridors for electric drones to navigate via satellite-enabled GPS. Each drone will be able to carry COVID-19 samples, test-kits and PPE. This will avoid courier call-out waiting times, free-up NHS staff, reduce unnecessary physical contact and minimise the risk of secondary transmission of the virus.

The latest Canalys forecast expects the global smart speaker market, including smart displays, to reach 163 million units in 2021, a growth of 21%.

Motional and Lyft today announce the resumption of their self-driving mobility service in Las Vegas. The publicly-available autonomous fleet — the world’s longest-standing, which has provided more than 100,000 paid rides — consists of Motional robotaxis, operating on the Lyft network.