Robotic Revolutions

Above: The Raven mobile surgical robot (credit: David Clugston)

Scalpel… Scalpel.

Clamps… Clamps.

Forceps… Forceps.

Laser beam… Laser-what!?

That’s right, laser beams. The United Kindom recently published a study titled “Saws and scalpels to lasers and robots: advances in surgery,” which details the way technology is improving the way doctors perform surgery. Today, we will examine two robots getting involved, da Vinci and Raven, and consider what they mean for health care. (more…)

Above: The Aethon Tug Helps “Make-a-Wish”

Here at Robotic Revolutions, we are big fans of robots that make life easier by assuming tedious tasks. Today, we’ll be taking a look at a the Aethon TUG, a little robot with a lot of responsibility. The TUG makes the lives of nurses easier and it is helping the Make-A-Wish Foundation provide hope for sick children. (more…)

Above: MIT’s Huggable Robot Team (credit: PC Mag)

Welcome to Medical Robot Week at Robotic Revolutions, where we’ll be covering some unique and practical applications of robots in hospitals. First up to bat, the Huggable robot from MIT, designed to provide robotic companionship and monitoring for hospitalized children, the elderly and others in need of care. (more…)

Above: Sen. John Kerry visited iRobot in March, 2006

When it comes to military robots, iRobot is the leader of the pack. The Packbot has been deployed to combat situations in Iraq and Afghanistan in a number of different configurations. Today, we’ll be examining the Packbot Scout, the Packbot Explorer and the Packbot EOD. (more…)

Above: The VECNA BEAR is a Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot

In November of 2006, the US Congress set aside $1.1 million for the development of the VECNA BEAR, a powerful addition to any armed force, providing “a man on the streets” without actually risking a man on the streets. Military jobs cannot be outsourced, but they can be assigned to a robot! (more…)

Above: The Fire Scout takes flight over an aircraft carrier

Hello, welcome to military week at Robotic Revolutions, where we will be examining the positive, negative and questionable applications of robotics in the military.

First up: unmanned aerial vehicles, AKA drones. Today we’ll be taking a look a two different drone aircraft, the US Fire Scout and the British Hicam Microdrone. (more…)

Isaac Asimov’s “The Last Question” is not about robots, but it was admittedly his favorite story.

Why is it my favorite? For one thing I got the idea all at once and didn’t have to fiddle with it; and I wrote it in white-heat and scarcely had to change a word. This sort of thing endears any story to any writer. Then, too, it has had the strangest effect on my readers. Frequently someone writes to ask me if I can give them the name of a story, which they think I may have written, and tell them where to find it. They don’t remember the title but when they describe the story it is invariably “The Last Question”. This has reached the point where I recently received a long-distance phone call from a desperate man who began, “Dr. Asimov, there’s a story I think you wrote, whose title I can’t remember—” at which point I interrupted to tell him it was “The Last Question” and when I described the plot it proved to be indeed the story he was after. I left him convinced I could read minds at a distance of a thousand miles.

-Isaac Asimov, 1973

“The Last Question” is a story of a computer with exceptional intelligence, the Multivac, presented with a recurring question through many stages of history, “Can entropy ever be reversed?”

Without spoiling the story, “The Last Question” is a wonderful glimpse into the technological singularity towards which we are accelerating.

Robotic Revolutions firmly believes the singularity is near. Perhaps nearer than most of us realize.

Isaac Asimov believed that we will live in a future with robots, but tempered his opinion by warning of side-effects. “Will there be difficulties?” he asked. “Undoubtedly. Will there be things we don’t like? Undoubtedly.”

His point was not to steer us away from the impending robotic revolution, but rather to have us think about the ways our lives will change, to prepare our world for a radical paradigm shift. Not just a revolution, but an evolution. (more…)