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LESS THAN TWO years after she challenged the technology community to find a solution to many of her daily challenges, Joanne O’Riordan will meet her new robot.
Robbie, built by a team of engineers at Trinity College, blinks, smiles and frowns. Designed with all of Joanne’s needs in mind, he can bend over and pick things up.
Well-known across Ireland, the 18-year-old Cork native was born with a rare condition known as Total Amelia which means she has no limbs.
In April 2012, she gave the keynote speech at a United Nations ITU conference in New York on women in technology and used the opportunity to put forward her challenge.
“Technology has opened up a world of possibilities,” she said. “Through which I have excelled in both my education and social environment around me.
I can use my mobile phone, send texts, tweets, update my Facebook, play my PlayStation, Nintendo DS, iPad, iPod, and laptop; without Microsoft, Adobe and Apple in my life I would not be doing and achieving my full potential. In fact I think my life would be quite different to what it is now. Believe it or not I simply use my upper and bottom lip, chin, nose and hand to work most if not all these systems.
“It’s my wish and challenge to you and to others out there to build me a robot,” she told the conference. “The main thing the robot would be doing is picking up the objects I drop such as a pen, knife, fork, and or my phone.”
Bebeto Matthews/AP/Press Association Images
On receipt of €50,000 funding from the ITU, Assistant Professor Kevin Kelly in the School of Engineering in Trinity, took up the job along with a team of young engineering students.
They have built a prototype humanoid robot with a head, arms, torso and single leg which uses two wheels to move around.
Professor Kelly and his team
“Anyone who saw Joanne’s appearance on the Late Late Show in 2011 couldn’t fail to be both impressed and inspired by her, and I was no different,” explained Kelly. “However, it was her appearance at the UN conference that really compelled me to get involved. Firstly, by her presence alone she was inspiring young girls to consider technology or engineering as possible careers – something very dear to my heart, and that I’ve worked to encourage for many years now.
And secondly, the research in autonomous robots and gripping technology that we were engaged in at Trinity seemed an ideal match for what Joanne was asking for. I got in touch with Joanne and her family and we began discussing how we could help.
Secretary General of the United Nations specialised agency for information and communication technologies, Dr Hamadoun I. Touré is in Trinity today to meet Robbie the Robot.
Picking things up
Joanne’s request seemed quite basic – she wanted the ability to pick things up.
“On the face of it, building a robot to pick up dropped items sounds like a straight forward idea – we take it for granted that we can easily do this ourselves,” explained chief engineer Conor McGinn.
However, there are huge challenges when trying to this with a robot in a domestic environment. Primate evolution spanning 65 million years has got us where we are now whereas we had three months to build something!
The robot’s head is made from 3D printed plastic, with an enclosed 8-inch LCD screen which shows its face.
The body consists of aluminium, carbon fibre and plastic, while ‘inside’ are lithium-polymer batteries, computers, motors, gearboxes, sensors and communication hardware that act as the ‘brain’, ‘muscles’ and ‘nervous system’ of the robot.
When Robbie is in his default kneeling position, he can interact easily with Joanne as her head is approximately the same height. This position also allows the robot to bend at the waist to pick up things without falling over.
Robbie can rise into a standing position where he is about the height and width of a 10-year-old child.
Small objects like phones or pencils can be picked up with an extensible arm, on the end of which is a ‘hand’ (a balloon filled with coffee granules – an idea borrowed from researchers in Cornell University).
The balloon can be inflated or deflated and this allows it to conform to and grip a wide range of object shapes, sizes and types.
“There have been late nights and long hours but at the heart of it has been the desire to help Joanne begin to realise her dream of having a robot that can assist her with some of the simple tasks that elude her but that could make the achievement of all the other things she does independently a lot easier for her,” said Masters student Michael Cullinan.
This prototype is only the first step towards Joanne realising her dream of a robot and we hope that Joanne gets the financial support to continue this process and achieve her dream.
Professor Kelly noted that Robbie is just a prototype and there is a lot more work required. The design needs to be more elegant and the functionality more extensive for a start, he says.
See more of Robbie here:
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Apparently two thirds of “child” immigrants turn out to not be children when challenged.
The people who really suffer here are the genuine child immigrants.
@Damocles: A perusal of the Continental newspapers over recent weekd will show that these children have been responsible for some horrific rapes including gang-rapes.
@MackPilon: One can find anything when perusing Brietbart alright.
@Guy Incognito: Normally I ignore trolling but in your case i will make an exception “A perusal of the Continental newspapers over recent weeks” You are aware that they have newspapers on the Continent ?
@MackPilon: ‘A perusal of the Continental newspapers over recent weeks’ is no substitute for a reliable link.
I believe what the report said was two thirds of those who had their age challenged were found not to be children. Not two thirds of all child refugees.
@Brendan O’Brien:Gawd another one, try Google as there are too many links for thejournal to handle
@MackPilon: You claim that children trying to get into Britain have been involved in rapes on the Continent. You need to support that in some way; otherwise it will appear that you are trying to smear child refugees in general.
Damocles. This isn’t anything new. Do a Google on athletics cross country competitions in some African countries and there isn’t a hope some of the lads competing under age are actually underage. They are clearly fully grown adults.
It’s a very minor issue that is being used to fuel a general anti-refugee, anti-immigrant mindset and the agenda of the far right.
A minor issue? Good grief. You can be sure that if you put incorrect information on your landing card in New York or Sydney you’d be pulled up on it immediately. I think the phrase you are looking for is anti illegal immigrant rather than anti immigrant. And fraudulently entering a country by giving incorrect information whether by accident or on purpose is quite serious.
Brendan O Brien: I’m against mass immigration and 100% against refugees coming to europe, but am not far right or even just right lol!
@Ian O Connell: The left are obsessed with the idea that the evil capitalists create racism, and borders, to divide and rule the working class. So anyone paying what they deem to be an inappropriate amount of attention to something like abuses of the asylum system must be on the side of the capitalists – therefore far right. I won’t even begin to pick apart how detached from reality they are.
Far be it for me to praise the Daily Mail but they ran a similar article yesterday with actual photos. Some of these “children” were grown men!
@Martin Flood: I wouldn’t put much trust in the Daily Mail when it comes to this stuff, their record of xenophobia is mind boggling and they peddle this stuff to their followers and have done for generations. Paper never refused ink could have been coined to describe them alone.
Whatever your views of these children, or not children, or whatever, the Daily Mail is the probably the most disgraceful publication on the planet.
Joe Arthur: or probably not.
There’s others that go by the description of “sacred books” that are far more vile than the DM.
@Martin Flood: I occasionally read the Daily Mail and it feels like a cross between a creche, a zoo and a care home. You just need a big bag of salt to take regular pinches from. Good fun though unless you’re on the receiving end of their “journalism”.
@Patrick J. O’Rourke: Ah here lads, youse could have warned me about all the diddys before I went to see what the fuss was about the Mail
@Joe Arthur Hardly any more Joe, especially the Irish edition of the Mail, which on social issues is quite liberal. This issue is also a problem in schools, where some migrant ‘children’ register for a school place to secure children’s allowance. Free for all open border globalism is causing a lot of problems
I have seen some of these child migrants on the BBC, some are clearly in their middle 20′s but claim to be 14 or 15.
Got to hand it to them, they have some balls………….
Sure we all did that in the days of trying to get into Hollywood nights!!!
Well, lie about your age for a chance of living like the luckty ones or go back to hell… Not the bravest decision ever. Sensible more than anything.
The onus of proof should be on the person making an asylum claim, including compliance with testing, whatever the method used to satisfy doubts.
You’re right Greg, but it’s probably racist somehow, isn’t everything racist now?
Ah racism, the curse of the unenlightened.
In Sweden, they call the phenomenon of unaccompanied minors turning out to be fully grown men; Beard Children.
Some of the “children” were approaching pension age.
And they’re all pregnant, even the men.
Is being 35 and claiming you’re 16 inappropriate and unethical?
Depends on why you’re doing it.
I suppose. Doing it to fraudulently enter a country would probably not be wise.
I’m struggling to think of a situation where somebody who’s 35 and claiming to be 16 isn’t inappropriate and unethical. Can you give us examples where it’s not, Neal?
@Beachmaster: If you’re playing Spiderman?
@Beachmaster:
Pretty sure its ok for a 35 year old to claim to be 16 on facebook
The poor little urchins, having to lie about their age to escape the terrible persecution of France.
Look at this guy. Teeth records shouldn’t be needed just common sense. But they’re sorely lacking that in Sweden and also, it would appear in the U.K.http://www.prisonplanet.com/sweden-pediatrician-says-some-refugee-children-are-actually-40-years-old.html
Same problem has existed for a long time in Europe’s asylum system. People with unknown identities, ages,criminal records and origins should not be permitted entry to any sane country. Take the 60 year old Christian woman whipped for selling alcohol in Indonesia instead. That would be both ethical and compatible with self preservation.
Do they get supplied with shavers for free with gel and aftershaves..
Shouldn’t this article read “Politicians unhappy that migrants are abusing the system”?
Or maybe “Liberal luvvies happy that migrants are abusing the system”
Yeah the jihadist’s have started arriving in Britain from calais disguised as kids, fantastic.
I’m in favour of a straight up polygraph test, should find out much more regarding truthfulness in statements made regarding background, origins, affiliations or past criminal activity…
I like the way it’s ‘unethical’ to conduct an age test, but lying on a asylum application is perfectly fine.
Every alleged asylum seeker needs to be processed before they are granted asylum in another country, it has now become a farce.
Medical ethics have a very much made-up-on-the-fly feel to them sometimes. There’s mandatory drawing of blood for all sorts of purposes, and nary a squeak about it. Is a dental X-ray to establish whether a crime is being committed really so different?
You should see some of the U10′s or U12′s or U14′s etc playing schools football each weekend. And it only benefits the oddball manager who is thrilled that his star can score multiple hat tricks against kids 5 years younger. We have been living with this for years now.
Wheres all the innocent little girls? seem to be all blokes.
Would you trust these guys around your daughter, niece, sister, mother, grand-mother, aunt ?
Any libtard that wishes to accuse me of being a racist is welcome to do so.
In Greece, a Syrian 15-year-old boy called Firas is being held in juvenile detention. He was sent on his own by his parents, who are in Turkey, because they didn’t have enough for the whole family to be smuggled in. Because hes’ not Turkish, the Turkish government won’t let him re-enter Turkey. Two activists – an American woman and her husband, who is a Syrian refugee – are hoping to become his legal guardians so that he will be released.
Many Middle-Eastern and Central Asian, e.g. Afghan, parents who originate from areas of conflict are irresponsible – they send the children on their own with people-smugglers. Therefore, it is Firas’s parents’ fault that he is apart from them. Parents who actually love their children would never do that to them.
If as claimed two thirds of the ‘children’ who claim asylum in the UK are in fact adults, then that raises obvious questions as to whether the same happens in this country. We should perform these tests here too
@Rosa Parks: No it’s something more like two thirds of those whose age is tested. The dental tests are not all that reliable anyway and Irish dentists, like the Swedes too, will probably baulk at doing it. France does bone tests I believe – another reason not to apply for asylum in France of course. There is no real getting around the fact that it’s just crazy to allow people to enter your country when you have no idea who they are.
They are fully grown adults not children!!! What the fudge!!??????
@June Rose-Sommer: It’s racist to judge their age from their photos apparently. Their feelings might be hurt over internet waves or something.
Seems logical, though some of the commenters here might not realise that living in extreme poverty does add years to your appearance . . .
Does it increase the facial hair growth?
I had teenage friends from Pakistan and so on, who looked over 20. I think their dark skins and the growth of facial hair increases how old they look
@Liviu Flore: It does happen, of course. But it’s not really about this group and a few photos. There are huge incentives for migrants to claim to be underage throughout Europe – because we quite rightly treat children travelling alone differently to adults. Including in the criminal justice system and when it comes to deportation.
And the phenomenon of migrants lying about their age is very well documented. It”s what many sensible youngish looking people would do if you were in their shoes weighing up the costs and incentives before you. The only debate in France, Sweden etc is about what to do about it. Spoiler alert: they have no idea.
Dental Plan……
Some of them adults are trying to pass as children?
I used to say i was 15 on the bus for child fare. Then say i was 21 to get into nightclubs. We are all guilty of telling these white lies. LOL
The UK is such a police state. Glad we’re nowhere near as bad as that over here
David (josef mengle )Davies. Experiment on refugees!hmm? That sounds familiar
@Gerry Fallon: And the Godwin’s Law prize for the day goes to you.
@Gerry Fallon: Its a ridiculous comparison.
It’s a joke.lighten up
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