A robot that controls humans

No, the title does not have any typo on it – where the future might see a robot that is full well capable of controlling your limbs, instead of having you control its limbs. This idea might take some getting used to, but we’re talking about robots that were specially created to “power” humans with boosted capabilities. Researchers have successfully developed a prototype robot which is capable of controlling a human partner’s arm, using said arm according to its algorithm to complete tasks. This is made possible courtesy of electrodes which have been strapped to the human’s arm, and with a technique known as functional electrical stimulation (FES), said robot is capable of sending signals to the arm, causing it to move the hand and even opening and closing it.

The human will feel as though these movements are entirely involuntary, and from the robot’s point of view, it is but controlling a second serial robot. Hopefully the person writing the algorithms are well aware of the limitations of the human arm, and will not push the robot to move the arm beyond what it is naturally capable of, lest the patient’s arm is overstretched, or his/her nerves and tendons snap.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Robots
Tags: Robotics, Robots