Robots have been known to have some remarkable skills. They can have discussions with us, help us move heavy loads, and more recently have even become ethical. But we’ve never really heard of a robot that has a gentle touch, much less one that has a gentle enough touch to give patients a sponge bath. It brings up a certain fear of the robot ‘sponging’ the patients skin clean off. However this fear is unprecedented and totally warrantless when it comes to Cody. A team from the Georgia Institute of Technology, led by Dr. Chih-Hung (Aaron) King, has designed the robot to help hospitals their bed bath duties. Cody is outfitted with specialized arms to witch one of them has a bath mitt attached. The robot identifies a portion of the patient’s skin that needs cleaning using a built in camera and a laser range finder. After the portion of dirty skin is found the robot proceeds to clean in a gentle wiping motion using equilibrium point control that removes up to 96% of grime in the target area. Cody also has a few safety protocols built in so it doesn’t accidentally cause pain or damage a patient when it’s performing its duties such as a reduction in arm stiffness, a program that is designed to limit Cody’s pressure when cleaning, and even has a stop button in case the robot gets out of control. The initial benefits Cody would have to patients are quite useful, such as privacy and a greater sense of independence. Psychological effects of using a robot on patients are not entirely known as of yet but Dr. King used Cody in a demonstration and at first felt nervous at first but the tension he experienced faded after a short period of time and at no time was he ever afraid. As it stands now the robot needs a human counterpart to help identify and clean potential patients using a remote-control unit, but future versions will be totally autonomous. I can see where having privacy is important especially when sponge baths are usually felt as an embarrassing and demeaning moment, but on the other hand sometimes a human touch is more important and creates a sense of care a robot just can’t provide.
Eavesdropper
