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| Cody Tenderly Removes Blue Candy From the Test Subject's Arm |
Perhaps in the past we’ve held back from having robots administer sponge baths for fear that they would just be too forceful. Now there’s Cody – a robotic nurse proven to be gentle enough to bathe humans.
Presented by researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Cody can be operated by a human, telling it where on the body to clean. It uses a camera and laser range finder to gather data before removing debris. Cody’s arm joints are slightly stiff, lessening the force of impact, and it is programmed to never exceed a specific threshold of pressure.
Cody was tested on lead researcher Chih Hung King, who had bits of blue candy stuck to his arms and legs. With a gentle caress of its washcloth-clad hand, the robot successfully cleaned the test subject’s various limbs. King’s reaction to the experiment was generally positive:
“In the beginning I felt a bit tense, but never scared. As the experiment progressed, my trust in the robot grew and my tension waned. Throughout the experiment, I suffered little to no discomfort.”
Bizarre though it may seem, the wiping of the blue candy (seen below) represents a pretty useful development in healthcare robotics. With a serious nursing shortage facing the country, any innovation that helps relieve nurses’ heavy workload will likely result in better patient care. And for bedridden patients, a robot helper could make maintaining personal hygiene less uncomfortable than receiving a sponge bath from a human.
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