RIBA, the Robot for Interactive Body Assistance, can now lift people up to 175 pounds (previously only 135), and place them into a wheelchair.
(RIBA Robot for Interactive Body Assistance)
RIBA, which stands for Robot for Interactive Body Assistance, is a nurse robot developed in collaboration of the technologies and researchers from the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (or RIKEN) in Japan and Tokia Rubber Industries Ltd. (TRI). It is engineered to aid nurses in lifting patients from the bed to the wheelchair, and the other way around. RIBA can also assist patients with mobility problems to move to and from the toilet.
RIBA is the second generation of the nursing assistant robot developed under the RIKEN-TRI partnership, following the first model called as RI-MAN, which has low carrying capacity and limited performance functionality. The latest model has been proven and tested to have very strong, human-like arms and novel tactile sensors, which are combined to create an innovative and safe technology for moving patients.
In the Japanese manga film Roujin Z, introduced in 1996, the Ministry of Health orders Takazawa Kijuro, an elderly bed-ridden man seemingly without family, to test a new robot - the Z-0001. A self-contained atomic power reactor gives this unique part bed/part machine robot all the energy it needs. The man is literally wired into the bed. As it turns out, this is quite the military robot.
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