Robotics
| McGill robotics professor Gregory Dudek briefed Canadian Members of Parliament and Senators recently on the latest advances in robot technology. He wants the government to recognize and be aware that robotics technology is rapidly advancing and will soon impact all of our lives. |
Gregory Dudek has a research chair in robotics at McGill University. Recently he was addressing Canadian Members of Parliament and senators at a meeting hosted by the Partnership Group in Science and Engineering.
He also met with staff at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.
Dudek recounted a story of a professor who said years ago that one day, everyone would read books on little electronic devices. His computer students had a good laugh at him.
Now, Dudek has a prediction of his own: Sooner than many believe, robots will do things we can barely imagine today.
“It’s getting a little science-fiction-y,” he told the Ottawa Citizen in an interview.
They’ll cook our meals, drive our cars, take care of the elderly, and keep watch on our coastlines, he says. They will explore the deep oceans and travel the skies.
“We’re going to see huge changes in the next few years. The field has started to move fast,” he said. “There was a 10-, 20-, 30-year buildup where people were hopeful and nothing really worked very well.”
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Self-driving cars
“The step that’s already happening today at Google in California is cars that drive themselves all the way down the road ... You have to take over if there’s construction on the road. But for a simple two-hour drive, it’s going to drive all the way except for where there’s construction.”Exoskeletons
Robots that fit around a disabled person in an exoskeleton, a mechanical body suit enabling that person to walk.Domestic Robots
Robots that prepare food and clean a house. “In the next five years we may see something where you put the food in and it does a lot of stuff,” like mixing and cooking. “But there’s no fundamental reason why it can’t open the fridge and get the stuff out.”Elderly Care
Robots that take care of the elderly. “So getting them out of bed, making sure they take their meds, helping them move around.”Exploration
Exploring our world where humans can’t easily go. To a country with a huge Arctic region and long coastline he sees advantages to robots that would watch our borders and explore under the sea. This work is very much a part of Dudek's repertoire, as he also heads up Independent Robotics. The company specializes in the design and manufacture of autonomous amphibious vehicles and related technologies.According to Dudek, "We’ll see systems that go from being a person controlling something — your microwave oven or washing machine or car or even your Mars lander — to a system that becomes completely autonomous.”
SOURCE Ottawa Citizen Top Image: NAO from Aldebaran Robotics
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