Manipulator for surgical tools

Month: May 2016

Healthy Robotics

The project proposes a novel compact robotic manipulator with a special configuration that supports a remote center-of-motion attribute, so it has the ability to accurately and conveniently manipulate and re-orient in two degrees of freedom, and to firmly ‘lock’ in place, special purpose surgical tools necessary for minimally invasive therapy.

The new features include a sophisticated joint-link structure and configuration that comprises two accurate links that enable comfortable maneuverability of the end effector or the tool about a pivot point, typically the port of entry of the tool to the patient’s body, while preventing the enlargement of the key hole, in the constrained and limited workspace of surgical environments, hence allowing to perform minimally invasive surgical procedures.

The configuration of the joints also provides an open structure that keeps the robot’s main parts out of the surgeon’s field of view and out of the work area, providing sufficient space in the vicinity of the operative field, or the entry port of the tool to the patient’s internal organs.

The manipulator can be used in manual, autonomous or remote-control modes.

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Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has made a New Year’s resolution to build an AI robot that controls his house.

In previous years, he has shared his resolutions on Facebook, from the every day: ‘read two books a month’ to the challenging: ‘learn Mandarin’.

For 2016, he said he plans to build “a simple AI to run my home and help me with my work. You can think of it kind of like Jarvis in Iron Man.”

According to a report on the BBC, Zuckerberg plans to share his progress over the course of the year and said he would teach his robot to understand his voice and control everything in his home from music and lights to temperature.

His early objectives are to automatically recognise house guests and to monitor his newborn daughter when he is not with her.

“This should be a fun intellectual challenge to code this for myself,” he said. Perhaps he may even develop something that could be entered into the UAE AI & Robotics Award for Good?

Working may become really ‘remote’ if applications powered by artificial intelligence fulfill more workplace roles

Could the new hires of the future resemble something more electronic and binary than fresh-faced graduates? Businesses are increasingly looking at virtual solutions for the next generation of recruits and it could be the case that your next ‘colleague’ is simply an email address.

These virtual colleagues of the future are emerging out of a resurging interest in the power of artificial intelligence. The current focus seeks to relieve people of drudgery while powering through mundane jobs. Whether it’s analysing masses of data to find a market trend, or just reducing your email Ping-Pong, virtual assistants could soon be freeing the humans up for work that needs creative and critical thinking.

While current technology is far from perfect – just ask Siri – ‘Amy’ is already a working beta developed by X.ai, a company whose software is focused on just one office task: scheduling meetings. Users just copy ‘Amy’ into the first email to the person they are lining up a meeting with and the web-based application – no apps, no downloads – picks up the thread. In theory, it takes care of putting down the meeting time and location options then sends out invites to all parties.

 

It’s a model that may point to the immediate future of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace – a narrow focus but deep capability. While such applications may gradually encroach on enterprise software – the big stuff that company’s run on – they’re just as likely to be start-up offers like that from X.ai, adopted directly by users and spread virally.

The first to crack the code – literally – could find themselves in big business. ‘Slackbot’, a kind of programmable assistant and multi-tasker born out of an in-house internet messaging application, has been developed by start-up Slack.

According to media reports, investors have valued the company at $2.8bn thanks to its potential in the workplace. If the funding keeps coming and the advances keep happening, you could find yourself talking to a virtual robot sooner than you think.

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