We love watching PR2 fold laundry, play pool, bake cookies, and bring us beer, but robots with the capability to do the same kinds of things that humans can do aren't around just to take over for us when we're feeling lazy. Robots also exist to do things that humans can't do, whether that's making fast and precise movements, defusing bombs, or lending a gripper to a person with a disability.
Henry Evans, the dude in the above video, has been a quadriplegic for the last ten years, having suffered a stroke when he was just 40 years old. He saw a PR2 on TV last year, and thought that a robot might be a handy thing to have around the house to help him live a bit more independently. Georgia Tech's Healthcare Robotics Lab and Willow Garage have been collaborating with Henry since then, and he's been able to use a PR2 to do things like shave himself and scratch itches when he has them, things for which Henry has been dependent on other people for the last decade.
Part of what makes the PR2 ideal for this sort of thing are its high-level autonomous capabilities. Using a head tracker, Henry can give the robot commands to navigate to specific locations or fetch objects, and the PR2's sensors and software handle the rest. Of course, it's not realistic to hope that every disabled person will be able to one day get a PR2 (each costs $400,000). What is realistic (I hope) is that what Willow Garage and Georgia Tech are learning here will help them to design better software and hardware for the next generation of home service and healthcare robots, which will be affordable so more people can have them.
This project is an important reminder that while most of us are hoping that robots will at some point step in and make our lives easier and more convenient, most of us actually don't really need robots. Some people do need them, though, and it's great to see companies and research groups with so much expertise in this area working to make robots available where they have the potential to do the most good.
[ Willow Garage ]
Blog Post: A U.S. senator criticizes the NSF for squandering "millions of dollars on wasteful projects"
Blog Post: Push a single button and have your PR2 bot bake you a fresh batch of cookies
Blog Post: PR2 may not be the fastest at folding towels, but the fact that it can do it entirely autonomously is nuts
Blog Post: After learning how to open doors, plug itself into wall outlets, and fold towels, the robot now can play pool