Blog 3: Robots, the New Guardians

Sounds kind of cool to think about, robots as like our new guardians in the 21st century. But what do I exactly mean by that? Well, robots benefit us by providing care, assistance or even to some, company.

Hospitals are a complicated and hectic place. People during with a myriad of diseases, ranging from a cough to life threatening situations. Usually for life threatening cases, robotic surgery is especially high in demand. According to Dr. Patrick Ross, Chairman of Surgery at ​Main Line Health (MLH) in Philadelphia, “Robotic surgery is currently in high demand with many types of patients because it is representative of the newest, most innovative technique, no one wants to consider receiving last year’s best option when there are more advanced, and possibly more effective, alternatives available.”

Robots are helpful outside surgical rooms, comforting kids and families before they go through a surgery or a check up. Due to the painful environment in hospitals, kids in particular are scared of the procedures needed to be done for their health. Robots kind of are like the hospital’s guardian angels to help them feel a little less scared.

According to Dodge, A. Ozobot (2017), a robotic platform blog that focuses on coding and STEAM, “A team at RxRobots developed MEDi, or Medicine and Engineering Designing Intelligence. MEDi is a humanoid robot that works in the pediatric ward to make doctor’s visits less painful. The robot hangs out with kids in the waiting room and travels with them to various procedures. MEDi has one job: making the hospital experience less painful.”

Kids have reported that 50% of the pain has been decreased, as they are so concentrated on playing with the MEDi.

MEDi is not the only robot that was invented to help cope with patient’s pain. The MIT Personal Robotics Group recently developed Huggable, a talking robotic teddy bear with more than 1,500 sensors, video cameras, microphones, and speakers.

Robots have also helped with the administrative side of hospitals, such as nursing, scheduling appointments and rooms usage, and also with janitorial duties. “The Xenex LightStrike Germ-Zapping Robot fights tiny aliens in the form of viruses and other microbial bugs with the help of ultraviolet light. The robot looks like any other cleaning tool, with four wheels and a handle, but it follows the cleaning crew and eliminates any bacteria that traditional methods are unable to reach.” Dodge, A. (2017).

Robots are not only essential to hospital aid, but also to other fields around the world.

The military services need robots in order to protect their soldiers’ lives. Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) robots are capable of examining suspicious packages and surrounding areas to find and even deactivate improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and mines.  The military also uses aerial machinery to scope for enemy movements or find hidden explosives, in order to protect their lives and also fight for their country in the most efficient way possible.

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Car production also relies heavily on robots in the automobile industry. Robots are more beneficial and help lower costs for employees for assembly line positions, due to the repetitiveness of the job. The cost of error is lowered and also saves time and energy for the company and employees. They also replace the risk of humans being harmed, as robots can take on dangerous tasks during the manufacturing process.

Personally, the most amazing use of robots is when they were into space. Honestly, without robots, we wouldn’t know much about space or knew how massive it was! The Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) were used in various space missions, in order to find out the details about several planets in outer space.

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Their capture of information and visual data gives us humans the opportunity to see what is beyond our little earth.

Fascinating.

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