Informative Paper

 A quick post to add an introduction to snake-inspired robot designs, just a good paper with lots of relevant information and only published in January of this year. The paper can be found here. Please note the urge of the little boy (below) to touch this robot, I get the feeling that it would be the first thing I would like to do too, it looks very touchable and the design lends itself to technical, shiny snake-like Sci-fi gadgetry? Click the picture for further info. 

A question came to mind here regarding touch – when would a robot be allowed to touch a person, particularly whithout our knowledge or prior agreement? Under what circumstances etc. And would it make a difference if it was humanoid? We could discover that we prefer to be touched by robots in medical circumstances – after all, in surgery, precision is key?

~ by deanmeadows on August 12, 2009.