I am always fascinated by the level of intelligence amongst us in technological gadgets that we use everyday. During my study I learned about the array of various robotic inventions that are being used throughout the many industries globally. So when a local newspaper captured my attention with a report of the usage of a Bomb Disposal Robot, with high velocity water jets and the strength in its arm to rip a car bonnet off. It lead me to more research on this technology that once seemed so futuristic to most of us, bringing visions of "The Jetsons" to mind. Their house cleaner was a robot, laugh as you must BUT recently I discovered on one of my technology jaunts (yes I'm a geek) one of my favorite inventions to date .. the Roomba Vacuum cleaner which was originally introduced in 2002 with several releases available since. This little gadget vacuums your whole house while your at work, does a fabulous job and quietly. It seems that these robots are aimed at the woman of the house but I did see that in the pipeline is the Robomower for the discerning man that hates to mow lawns (I know one of these). The Roomba is a beautifully rounded piece of robot with the ability to do it's job unsupervised.
My next fascination...was robots used in major warehouses throughout the states and stretching to other major cities in the world, these little beauties scan and calculate each item contained in boxes. These little intelligent creatures move around the huge floors counting and stock taking, saving not only money but also saving employees the tedious time it would take to do this monotonous job.
Although the list is long in regards to robots, no robotic blog would be complete without the rescue robots perhaps one of the most important inventions in my view, as they may save lives and help prevent future disasters created by man. I recently read about Dr. Robin Murphy, she directs, CRASAR, the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue. Featured for her work at the world trade centre, for sending in her robots, the larger ones being too large for any rescue work but the smaller of her intelligent mini machines manoeuvring amongst the devastating rubble of this tragedy. They identified five victims and taking pictures of what lay beneath. So Robotic Technology is amongst us and has been for generations, some unbeknown to our knowledge but helping to ease our busy lives, saving us money, time and more importantly in the future saving human lives as well. Cheers Robotics !
